Reaching Curacao 2010 - Why do we do it?

MarkStra Caribbean is not an advertising or media placing agency. We do not make advertisements. We do research, advise on competitive strategy, new products, prices, distribution channels, innovation, etc. But, once in a while we have to make media recommendations to clients, or assess in which medium good or bad publicity has the most impact, and thus warrants action.

I can never give a firm recommendation, and the advertising or media-buying agency we are working with cannot either. Our work is more complicated because of the extreme media proliferation in Curacao: 20something radio stations and almost 10 daily newspapers? When I had my first media job, in 1983, the landscape was quite different.

Yes, my colleague Disrael Orphelin did media surveys many years ago, mostly as a hobby. And yes, there is a media survey sold quite exclusively to a number of large advertisers. But the rest of our clients?

No matter how you turn it, in 2010, with so many highly educated marketing and advertising professionals working in Curacao this is simply not possible. It is also not possible because foreign companies do have the information, putting our local companies at a competitive disadvantage.

So why are we where we are with regards to media, while we do have lots of ongoing research with regards to other products and services?

I don't know the answer. Do you?

Meanwhile, learn more about Reaching Curacao 2010

Reaching Curacao 2010 - What is it?

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Register for Reaching Curacao 2010 the Event May 18th at Hyatt Regency Curacao

MarkStra Caribbean - 15 years!

Hey, it's our 15th anniversary year!

And we are celebrating:

• and adapted name
• a new style
• a new focus
• Reaching Curacao 2010

Reaching Curacao 2010 - What is it?

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Register for Reaching Curacao 2010 the Event May 18th at Hyatt Regency Curacao

Reaching Curacao 2010 - Media Survey Methodology and FAQ

Methodology and frequently asked questions before the event.

Methodology

• March 2010 was the 2nd time we conducted a survey about media usage as part of a Caribbean wide effort. The first was time was February 2009.
• The same survey has been done in at least 10 Caribbean countries at the same time.
• It's a telephone survey, among 320 respondents, representative of Curacao. We have made sure that each age group, sex and educational status is represented in roughly the same proportion as in Curacao. In addition, we have tried to make each group large enough so that we can base some realistic conclusion on the findings. If you only have the responses of 10 males between the age of 18-24, you cannot base much of a conclusion on that.
• Respondents were selected from our database (panel) and from random telephone listings. Why not just telephone listings? Because increasingly people do not want to answer questions from 'strangers'. Increasingly, around the world, market researchers are moving towards 'panels'.

What did we ask?

• newspapers most read the past month
• radio and tv stations listened to/watched each time of day
• ownership of several items, including computers, internet, cellphones, BlackBerry/Iphone
• use of internet
• use of Facebook and frequency
• most visited local website and frequency
• roads most travelled (2009)
• mode of transportation (2009)
• geographic areas most shopped (2009)
• demographics: age, sex, education, economic status (working, retired, student, etc.), profession, size of household

What can we report?

• all of the issues above by age group, sex and education. We have developed a system to determine Social-Economic-Class (SEC) based on some of the demographics above. We report that, instead of education.

How exact is the data?

• At a sample size of 320, the margin of error is around 5%. That means, if we find that 35% of all respondents reads newspaper Z, you can be 95% certain that the exact number is between 30% and 40%. Not exact enough? Consider what you are basing your media placement decisions on now...

Why didn't we use a larger sample size to provide more exact numbers?

• Cost. After Reaching Curacao 2010 The Event and The Report, we will see what the appetite is for this type of studies. If it is big, we will do larger surveys. We certainly hope it will be!
• ROI. When a research agency puts 1000 radio&tv monitoring boxes in households in Holland, advertisers stand to gain 100x more from the exact data these produce, than they would in Curacao. Why? Because the Dutch market is 100x larger and conducting a survey in Curacao is not 100x cheaper than in Holland. We can let ourselves be demotivated by the limitations of a small market or we can try to make the best out of it.
• For more information on this subject: Survey sample sizes in small markets

Reaching Curacao 2010 - what is it?

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Register for Reaching Curacao 2010 the Event May 18th at Hyatt Regency Curacao

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Probably the first event on Curacao for Strategy and Marketing professionals, accessible to all business owners, CEO's, CMO's, other strategy, marketing and advertising professionals

And probably the first seminar most of us will attend at the brand new Hyatt Regency Curacao.

Yes, I am excited that this will be in partial celebration of MarkStra Caribbean's 15th anniversary!

Save the date!

Tuesday May 18th,

4pm-5:30pm, followed by networking

Hyatt Regency Curacao Arrawak Ballroom

Fee: ANG 95 or USD55

Register at Register Reaching Curacao 2010 The Event

Some people asked if there is an international speaker.

No! This will be the first time we will be discussing primarily Curacao strategy and marketing hard data, all together. Gezellig!

I promise it will be a unique and fun presentation, by myself, in English. But above all the data will be useful! Heads up for the preview

Please help us: if you are coming please try to register by May 10th.

We must indicate the number of attendants wayyyyy in advance.

Reaching Curacao 2010 - What is it?

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Register for Reaching Curacao 2010 the Event May 18th at Hyatt Regency Curacao

Reaching Curacao 2010 - An introduction

A frequent cry: “There is no data on Curacao”. Often followed by the realization of the acute need for hard data for good strategic and marketing decisions

At MarkStra Caribbean we would like to bring a difference by collecting market related data for Curacao (doing surveys) and offering this for sale in a report or via presentations.

Our first one is Reaching Curacao 2010. It provides:

• A compilation of the important demographics in Curacao, including the size of different market segments, to help you or your client determine how attractive a consumer segment really is
• Our combined spending on some important product categories
• Our use of radio, television and newspaper and new media in Curacao by age, gender and social-economic class
• Where we shop and roads most travelled. Ever wonder where the best places are to put billboards, without having to revert to "you-say-I-say"?
• Global trends regarding media attitudes and generations! Yes, the generations are different.

Reaching Curacao 2010 - What is it?

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Register for Reaching Curacao 2010 The Event May 18th at Hyatt Regency Curacao

Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations. What's the difference Part II

This is the second of a three part series. The previous post dealt with Public Relations. The next will deal with Marketing.

As competition increases, the focus on marketing also increases. When I started working in marketing in the Caribbean 20 years ago, very few companies had marketing staff. Today, that's the exception rather than the rule. Unfortunately though, it is not always clear to non-marketers and some marketers alike what the function encompasses. Terms such as public relations, advertising and marketing are sometimes used interchangeably. When we do so, we omit to consider all the tools available to attract good customers.

This is an effort to provide some clarification.


Advertising

When competition increased, companies started to try to explicitly convince buyers to buy their product. Up to quite recently accountants and lawyers in Curacao did not do so. Now they have started putting up advertising, telling us what they are good at. Soap manufacturers went down this path many decades ago. Banks started some 20 years ago and now are at it in full force.

Advertising is "any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor" (Armstrong, Kotler). It involves designing advertisements and campaigns and placing these on radio, TV, billboard, Internet, in the paper or magazines, etc. Some companies, "advertising agencies", are able to do everything following a well-thought out strategy. Others do part of the process. Graphic designers in principle just design an advertisement following the specific instruction of the advertiser/client. Copywriters just write a text following instructions of others. Independent photographers, video producers, etc. in principle also follow instructions of others. Their creative juices should be flowing within boundaries set by the client or determined by a strategy.

Marketing communication
Advertising and public relations are now often referred to as marketing communication.

(Sales) Promotion
The term "promotion" may cause confusion. It is conveniently used in the four marketing P's to denote everything that has to do with communicating with the client: advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales, customer service, and sales promotion.

However, if you want to use the terms correctly then (Sales) Promotion is "short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or the sale of a product or service" (Armstrong, Kotler). Think of sweepstakes, raffles, buy-one-get-one-free, give-aways, coupons, programs in which you save and get something later, etc. In Curacao we often call them "kampana" or "speshal".
Why are they used? Everybody already has a toothpaste. If you are introducing a new toothpaste you must convince the customer to leave his old toothpaste and buy yours. An incentive in the form of a gift, lower price, a free trial, etc. may do so. A good sales promotion always induces the customer to "ACT NOW" or its gone.

Read about Marketing in the next post.

Marketing, advertising, public relations. What's the difference part III

Marketing and MarkStra

This is the third of a series on the difference between marketing, advertising and public relations. People often use the terms as synonyms, or are not sure what the difference is. By doing so companies like yours fail to notice and make full use of the tools available to convince the customer to buy from you.

At one point companies realize that public relations, advertising and promotion alone will not convince customers to buy or remain loyal. While many companies arrive at "marketing" at a later stage in life, it is a function that is performed before (in time and planning) "advertising and public relations". Advertising and public relations are quite explicitly just a part of marketing.

Marketing theory has it that there are more aspects that influence buyers to buy and which companies can be unique in. Conveniently, we use four (or six) p's, as follows.

• product itself (design, innovation, features, color, taste, etc.)
• price
• place. Meaning the way a product is distributed (in person, via mail, Internet, phone, etc.) and where it can be obtained. If it is a store, if the store is conducive to buying, or if products are well displayed
• promotion. Meaning public relations, advertising as well as sales promotion.

I usually add two p's. Technically, they belong under "product" and/or "promotion". But their existence and usefulness may get lost when talking about product or promotion. And how useful and relevant they are in our times!

• people. Meaning the customer care and sales potential of employees. Companies that provide a service are increasingly important. In addition, the level of service (customer care) can be an important distinguishing feature.


• partnerships. Meaning alliances your company has with others to provide a product. Think about American Airlines with Visa, several hotel chains, car rentals, etc.

At MarkStra Marketing is what we do for a living. We assist the client with determining the right product content, price, distribution channels, promotional tools, people and partnerships.

We may work with other companies to create and execute advertising campaigns, but we ourselves are not equipped to design or write copy for them. The campaigns we may create together with our partner companies are better than the average, because we have considered thoroughly ALL the other aspects that influence a buyer.

In the next post more detail about the marketing process.

Marketing, advertising, public relations. What's the difference Part I

There is still a lot of confusion among non-marketers and some "marketers" alike about what the difference is between marketing, advertising and public relations. It is the marketer's own fault because we assume everyone knows. Even as I set out to write this post, I am wondering if it is useful. This is most definitely not a post for marketing professionals. But it may be helpful for their non-marketing colleagues.

Of special concern is the fact that marketing and advertising are used as synonyms, interchangeably. By doing so clients and their providers omit to consider some important aspects that influence buyer behavior and hence their bottom line.

Next the first of a three part series which overview in what I think may be the order in which an established company that is seeking to increase its marketing performance may arrive at each stage.



Public Relations

Public Relations is "building good relationships with the company's various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate image and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories and events" (Armstrong,Kotler).

There was a time when "public relations" was the only tool companies used to connect with their clients. Think of issues such as cutting ribbons and making donations, followed by press releases. This, primarily because competition was much less than it is today. Just appearing in the paper was enough for people to consider your product. In addition, often every company in the category provided almost the same good (a commodity). Banks are a good example. Prior to the US deregulation of banks in the mid 1980's, all banks had the same product, same interest, same branches, etc. They were only promoting their "corporate image", but not specific products. In addition, this "image" was just "a picture". It was not a "picture-with-a-meaning", which is what a "brand" is.

The public relations functions has changed through the years. In good hands, it is now being used more explicitly and more effectively to gain customers. This year Cura-Peska held workshops and appeared on talk shows to provide information about fishing in Curacao. While these activities can be classified as "public relations", they were most definitely meant to attract customers.

Read the next post for Advertising.

Wanted: A parachute for Marketing Advertising Communication Service Providers

Some time has passed since about 40 Marketing, Advertising and Communication (MAC) Service Providers, representing 20 companies in Curacao got together for a happy hour. It was our first time and how fun it was.

Since I was the one to send the invitations, many people have asked what my expectations were and are. Really, I wanted to meet and chat informally with colleagues I already knew and meet those I did not know. My ultimate goal, however, is to find optimal ways to cooperate so we can offer our services internationally. It is more efficient and effective for us to do so together than alone, as I have been doing in the past 12 years.

I happen to believe that international service is cut out for us. We speak (or at the very least understand) all the languages of the Caribbean region (and the hemisphere): English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Papiamentu (and even Portuguese). Many of us can easily trace our ancestry (and customs) to one ore more of the 40-plus countries our parents or grandparents came and keep coming from. Most of us have studied abroad and adopted parts of the cultures of our host country. So, we also understand the "blends" that the world is increasingly made up off "naturally". Unfortunately, when something is so "natural" to you, you don't realize its value and you don't sell it.

Cooperation also enables us to provide a better product to the client, because every one can then market their true specialty and still get or keep the client (or at least a commission). The perils of selling something one cannot deliver are well-known: you risk losing all of it.

I believe in the efficiency of free markets (so I don't believe in setting prices), and in a Code of Ethics, similar general conditions and business improvement workshops for the sector. These strengthen our businesses and prepare us to meet greater challenges. A bit of publicity is not bad either. That's our business.

In addition, if we do all of the above, chances are local clients will realize our true potential and feel (even) more comfortable recommending us to their principals or brand owners for assignments that encompass the region. Because there is nothing better than word-of-mouth. So, since most readers of this blog are local clients, I may ask: "Will you be some one's parachute into another market?"