Interning at a prestigious FMCG really is an eye-opener and made me understand more about the marketing obligations and activities of marketing in Singapore.
(I'm actually referring more to those who are working for huge MNCs with the headquarters situated in a country with 4 seasons).
"Obligations" is the word used because marketers in Singapore... well... don't really have a lot of say in the marketing mix. For non-marketers, marketing mix means the 4Ps which equate to Product, Price, Promotion and Place. We are mostly told what to do... in a way.. I'll explain.
Product
I've learned, that when working with a large MNC, there are regulations and guidelines which have to be (strictly?) adhered to. Let's talk about the first P - Product. The headquarters (let's just assume that this is the US for convenience sake) sends you the product that they have come up with - the product is not fully developed yet, of course. Excellent, you get to try it out and give your feedback, after which they revise the product and start producing it for sale. When the product is out, the sales people start selling it, and you, the marketer starts... well... marketing it.
Let's say the product is not as favoured by the local market as expected. Then what do you do? In the line of Internet/software, there's still the possibility of product revision by the adding of patches, or the product manager reprogramming the product. On the other hand, in the line of FMCG and tangible goods, when the product is produced, it's produced. If the market doesn't favour your product, even if you know the problem and the solutions to it, it's impossible to tell US to change the product to cater to your local market. Especially when it's tiny sunny SG. So in my opinion, as marketers in Singapore, we kind of have no choice but to market the product whether we like it or not.
Price
In large MNCs, most practise global pricing. It's all according to the price tagged in the US. Period.
Promotion
You probably think this is the most flexible part of the marketing mix that marketers can be involved in. I do agree that there's lots of stuff to work with here such as events, media placement (this definitely has to be localised), advertising mediums etc. But let's just look at the very basic or the very initial step - the ad itself.
Well, the ads are definitely not shot locally. They are actually sent in from the US and marketers are required to use those images in their ads relating to that certain product. Flip Her World, Female or Cleo, and you can see those ads in the first few pages of the magazines. They are not shot or created in Singapore (apart from locally endorsed products, but anyway I'm talking about large MNCs here). They are guidelines set and given by the US. But the fact that Singapore is so very much globalized now makes it insignificant to localised those ads. Singaporeans prefer looking at foreign models anyway (explains why those MNCs are profitable locally).
But what I'm trying to say here is, the marketers in this line do not create their own ads. They just edit a little, add in the name of the department store where the promotion is held and there they have it - the ad that will be splashed across in print. Unlike in the Internet industry where I've had experience in, we create our own ads. There are guidelines to follow, but they are really just guidelines which can be bent once in a while.
Place
This factor in the marketing mix is all local. I can't think of a reason why it's not haha. But place, which usually refers to distribution, is handled by sales. But anyhow, it can't be determined by the headquarters, so yea, place is definitely localised.
So as you can see, what we learn in marketing classes are not necessary applicable in real life. The marketing texts give us the framework, and the projects that we work on do not have restrictions (I mean, teachers have been trying to get us to think out of the box since forever right?). What we thought could be applicable, would probably be shot down in a large MNC.
However, I do not believe that we should be governed by the rules. Regulations have to be bent once in a while, and someone needs to have the guts to bend the system. This, I hope to do when the time comes :)
A marketer HAS to think out the box. If he/she follows the system blindly, then he/she is not fit to be a marketer.
The author is an undergraduate with only 5 months of marketing experience in her two internships.
(I'm actually referring more to those who are working for huge MNCs with the headquarters situated in a country with 4 seasons).
"Obligations" is the word used because marketers in Singapore... well... don't really have a lot of say in the marketing mix. For non-marketers, marketing mix means the 4Ps which equate to Product, Price, Promotion and Place. We are mostly told what to do... in a way.. I'll explain.
Product
I've learned, that when working with a large MNC, there are regulations and guidelines which have to be (strictly?) adhered to. Let's talk about the first P - Product. The headquarters (let's just assume that this is the US for convenience sake) sends you the product that they have come up with - the product is not fully developed yet, of course. Excellent, you get to try it out and give your feedback, after which they revise the product and start producing it for sale. When the product is out, the sales people start selling it, and you, the marketer starts... well... marketing it.Let's say the product is not as favoured by the local market as expected. Then what do you do? In the line of Internet/software, there's still the possibility of product revision by the adding of patches, or the product manager reprogramming the product. On the other hand, in the line of FMCG and tangible goods, when the product is produced, it's produced. If the market doesn't favour your product, even if you know the problem and the solutions to it, it's impossible to tell US to change the product to cater to your local market. Especially when it's tiny sunny SG. So in my opinion, as marketers in Singapore, we kind of have no choice but to market the product whether we like it or not.
Price
In large MNCs, most practise global pricing. It's all according to the price tagged in the US. Period.
Promotion
You probably think this is the most flexible part of the marketing mix that marketers can be involved in. I do agree that there's lots of stuff to work with here such as events, media placement (this definitely has to be localised), advertising mediums etc. But let's just look at the very basic or the very initial step - the ad itself.Well, the ads are definitely not shot locally. They are actually sent in from the US and marketers are required to use those images in their ads relating to that certain product. Flip Her World, Female or Cleo, and you can see those ads in the first few pages of the magazines. They are not shot or created in Singapore (apart from locally endorsed products, but anyway I'm talking about large MNCs here). They are guidelines set and given by the US. But the fact that Singapore is so very much globalized now makes it insignificant to localised those ads. Singaporeans prefer looking at foreign models anyway (explains why those MNCs are profitable locally).
But what I'm trying to say here is, the marketers in this line do not create their own ads. They just edit a little, add in the name of the department store where the promotion is held and there they have it - the ad that will be splashed across in print. Unlike in the Internet industry where I've had experience in, we create our own ads. There are guidelines to follow, but they are really just guidelines which can be bent once in a while.
Place
This factor in the marketing mix is all local. I can't think of a reason why it's not haha. But place, which usually refers to distribution, is handled by sales. But anyhow, it can't be determined by the headquarters, so yea, place is definitely localised.---
So as you can see, what we learn in marketing classes are not necessary applicable in real life. The marketing texts give us the framework, and the projects that we work on do not have restrictions (I mean, teachers have been trying to get us to think out of the box since forever right?). What we thought could be applicable, would probably be shot down in a large MNC.
However, I do not believe that we should be governed by the rules. Regulations have to be bent once in a while, and someone needs to have the guts to bend the system. This, I hope to do when the time comes :)
A marketer HAS to think out the box. If he/she follows the system blindly, then he/she is not fit to be a marketer.
The author is an undergraduate with only 5 months of marketing experience in her two internships.
Comments
would like to introduce Seth Godin's blog to you. and i think that you would find the blog post below especially interesting, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/07/the-statesman-t.html
I do believe that like Seth says, the current image of marketers are that of the lawyers, having to market a product no matter what. Will marketers ever become the statesman they should be?