What You Need To Know About The Filipino Market

Market behavior differs in every country. Understanding your surroundings, the people, specifically your target customers, is a must if you want to improve your business.

Take a look at rice, for example— some countries treat rice as a necessary part of their meals, while some consider it a humble sidedish. If you look at the coffee culture in different countries, there are countries wherein coffee shops need not be spacious because people are always on the go. They only visit the store to get coffee and leave. In other countries, however, people tend to stay in coffee shops to socialize and relax.

If you want to capture the local market, here are some of the notable Pinoy consumer traits you must take note of:

Filipinos base their decisions on visible and tangible things. Let’s face it. Most of us consumers tend to base our perception of the product based on the things we see, and not with what we read in their packaging. We say that milk is nutritious if the color is clear. We say that the product is of high quality because the box that it was in has a black and gold design. We say a shirt is of high quality because the fabric is soft. We have to see before we believe, which is both a good and bad thing—good because we try to scrutinize the product before we make judgments, and bad because sometimes our judgment might not be spot on. However, for marketers, we cannot say that we can disregard this behavior just by offering quality products. We have to understand that for us to show that we provide quality products, everything around it must look the part.

Filipinos often believe that local brands are inferior. This colonial mentality is something we can overcome. In fact, in the case I just stated, the local brand dominates the market. The key here is to focus on qualities that Filipinos desire, but which the foreign brand would find hard or costly to imitate. Local companies would also be far quicker to adapt their strategies and tactics as the foreign firm would need to get approval from their mother companies if they want to make major changes in their operations.

Filipinos are loyal to their brands. This trait is both positive and negative— positive if, of course, the consumers are already loyal to your product, and negative if you are trying to convince the market to shift from their favorite product to yours. We Filipinos are not really the type to experiment habitually. We tend to be loyal with products that have already impressed us before, and do not bother trying out other competing products. Take a look at your body soap. How many years have you been using the same brand? Some may even say they have been using it ever since they can remember. How about your toothpaste? Probably the same. It would take a lot of effort for the marketers of new products to convince their target audience to try theirs. I’m not saying it’s impossible. It is possible, but it is hard. You need to be able to offer something more significant than what the leading and trusted brand offers in order to gain market share.

Besides its peculiarities, the Filipino market is in rapid transition and the challenge for every company is to be consistent with their efforts in trying to understand the behavior of their particular market and to continue to learn changes in trends and behavior. As a business owner or marketer, keep yourself updated with the daily news, check out social networking sites, observe and ask. Never assume that what worked in another country will also be a hit here.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. C-6, Sunday, April 26, 2015. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.