Strategic branding insights
WHEN IT comes to brands, Filipino consumers are known to go for the familiar options, despite the availability of lowcost alternatives. In a nationwide survey of 3,000 households by the market research firm Kantar Worldpanel, 84% said they buy well-known and trusted brands.
“Based on the results of the study, it is clear that Filipino consumers choose products that offer the best value for their hard- earned money,” said Luz Barra, commercial director at Kantar Worldpanel. She added that more than price, the important factors that figure in the purchasing decisions of the consumers are convenience, quality, brand name and other perceived benefits.
The need to make a brand name as familiar and as reputable as possible cannot be overemphasized. Nielsen, a global information company, published in 2013 a survey of 29,000 Internet respondents in 58 countries. It found that 60% of global consumers with access to Internet would prefer to buy new products from a brand they are familiar with than to switch to a new one.
“Innovating on established brands that are already trusted by consumers can be a powerful strategy,” said Rob Wengel, senior vice-president at Nielsen Innovation Analytics.
“Companies spend millions of dollars on new product innovation, yet two out of every three new products will not be on the market within three years. Marketers and retailers can deliver successful new products by ensuring they uncover unmet consumer needs, communicate with clarity, deliver distinct product innovations, and execute an optimal marketing strategy.”
In the survey, 77% of the respondents said that word- of- mouth advice from family and friends is the most persuasive source of new product information, followed by active Internet searching and traditional television advertising.
It is still possible to convert some Filipino consumers only if the brand has great quality. In another Nielsen survey that was released in 2013 and cited in Marketing Magazine Web site, around half of the Filipino respondents said they would switch to an alternative brand, service or retailer if it had better quality.
“Filipino consumers placed the highest premium on quality while the rest of the consumers in Southeast Asia also gave importance to quality — higher than the global average,” said Stuart Jamieson, managing director of Nielsen Philippines. “This emphasizes the shifting focus of consumers as incomes increase and their purchase drivers move away from price alone.”
The survey also discovered that Filipino consumers are most loyal to mobile phone brands and mobile service providers, as well as to health and medicinal products and personal computer brands. By contrast, their loyalty to alcoholic beverages and online retailers is weak.
Since a sizeable proportion of the Philippine population is now on social media and is increasingly spending more time on it, it is not surprising that Philippine marketing people, according to a study by the global consultant Taylor Nelson Sofres, are using social media monitoring to guide planning processes and measure the performance of brand campaigns.
“As people become more connected via digital channels, brands are focusing on how they can communicate with their customers in the online spaces where they are already spending time -- social,” the consultant said, which surveyed 2,250 marketers in Asia Pacific, 200 of whom were Filipinos, and published its findings last year.
It also found that Filipino marketers utilize social media to gain insights into the development of a product and that their top three platforms are Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.
Marketers should be aware that some Filipino consumers using social media are not only not noticing their contents, but deliberately shunning them. Kantar Taylor Nelson Sofres, a market research firm, discovered in a study made available in 2016 that 23% of Filipino users with access to Internet “actively ignore” contents from brands.
“With so many tools available for their use, brands must be strategic in developing campaigns that cater to the needs and wants of their consumers. Their marketing campaigns don’t necessarily need to be viral all the time. What they always need to be is memorable,” Kantar Global Chief Executive Officer for media and digital effectiveness Gonzalo Fuentes said.
“With so many tools available for their use, brands must be strategic in developing campaigns that cater to the needs and wants of their consumers. Their marketing campaigns don’t necessarily need to be viral all the time. What they always need to be is memorable.”