What do you mean it's not about the $!!!!!!

Mr. International Product Manager was most perplexed, and quite honestly so were the rest of us! He was part of my class on Branding Strategies and had the most unusual issues - his company was cash rich, BUT the expenditure was not allocated towards making profits. You know what? in fact, what stumped all of us was that he has actually been tasked with providing support to small companies that were competing for the same markets he's in! Can you believe that, hmmmmm??? The directions from his principal office were crystal clear - no compromising on his deliverables! He was in a fog, and so was I :(

But aha! As the class progressed and we went deeper into discussing market postitioning, I was able to analyze his responses and translate them into what the principal office was really after. You see, their product/service was research (so the Product Manager said) and that is what he had been promoting all along. BUT what had not been so clear was that the research being done on local herbal products was not an end in itself. And that's why his task was not to focus on bringing in the profits, but on profitability - NOT the same thing. Actually, his role was to use his marketing budget to enhance the Brand Credibility (profitability) of the smaller companies so that they could focus on leveraging on his support to plan their Sales i.e. profit campaigns for distributing the herbal products. His role is to influence their customers as opposed to bringing in customers for them.

Why? Because his job was to represent a global name, whose market position is to help others to be profitable, that's why he was 'selling' his company's research. Well, once we had honed in on the essence of his Brand, we could derive action plans for him to meet his sales targets. You see, Marketing (profitability) is about resulting in sustainable sales (profits) that bring in repeat business; NOT just the quick $ transactions. Mr. Product Manager left the class a very happy man :)

Are you positioning your Brand towards profits (quick sales) or profitability (repeat business)? I'd be glad to offer some suggestions on how you can leverage on your strengths to bring in repeat business, and so gain you more time for doing other things you'd like to. Just call 6-03-21697704 and we'll get started :)

BRING ME THE BRAND, I'LL INCREASE ITS PROFITS!