In the course of marketing my products and services, one friendly feedback I often get is how come I don't claim to be #1 in any specific area even if other parties sometimes introduce me as such. My answer, "it is unethical and even illegal to do so."
1. Particular care must be exercised in the use of superlative claims. General
superiority claims like ‘the best,’ and ‘No.1’ may not be used unless factually substantiated.
2. The substantiation claim shall cover at least the immediately preceding 12
month period and should be supported by data from independent sources. In
the absence of data pertaining to the last 12 month period, the substantiation
may be based on the latest available reliable and bona fide figures.
The Consumer Act of the Philippines as well has provisions against "special claims" where I believe asserting #1 status falls under.
ARTICLE 115. Special Claims - Any advertisement which makes special claims shall; a) substantiate such claims; and b) properly use research results, scientific term, statistics or quotations.
Of course, I may be wrong. However, I do understand the benefit of claiming #1 status as there are people who are truly attracted to being trained by the best.
Although even traditional media is cautious and warned on publishing superlative claims unless an entity who is the source of information is mentioned.
Perhaps it is time for a body to look into ranking professionals that can release reports on who are indeed the top players. Maybe that will be good. Maybe it is time.
"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (Mark 9:35)
I think our experiences in life has a lot of effect on the kind of mindset we have. It is driven by our realities and experiences. Sometimes you have to try something new in order to get a new perspective. If lucky, you will meet the right person who can influence your mindset in a big way.
For me, in 2012, that person would be Coach Jim Saret whose teachings - through what I see in him, rather than what he says, made me sharpen the saw in the area of physical intelligence.
I believe that keeping our mind and heart open to other people can pave the way for new learnings. Some are good. Some are bad. Some may even hurt us in the process. But in the end, they all have the capacity of changing our mindset in life.
With that, I definitely look forward attending The Power of Mindset. An upcoming event this November 14, 2012 at Victory Center, 4th Level V-Mall, Greenhills San Juan with Chinkee Tan as the motivational speaker.
I first heard of Chinkee Tan in an event when I was still head of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society. PICS had one e-commerce learning session activity then done in partnership with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He was talking about business opportunities in e-commerce.
With Chinkee's experience in various business, personal hardship, rising above various challenges, and now as a motivational speaker, I think it will be interesting to learn more from him and his take on developing one's mindset.
As a bonus, I also look forward hearing what Francis Kong has to say. Heard him once in an entrepreneur event a long time ago and the man really knows how to hold everyone's attention without using any presentation material.
I am sure the learnings from both Chinkee and Francis will be very beneficial to anyone interested to learn more about improving one's mindset.
So if you are also interested in coming, you can register online and pay through 7/11 or MLhuillier.
It may also interest you to follow Chinkee Tan via Twitter and get some positive idea tweets once in awhile.
Recently, I gave a talk at an internal pharmaceutical event sharing my perspective on how medicines are being promoted through television and online. In addition, explore ways on how e-commerce can be tapped as an alternative channel.
1. Consumers awareness now stronger online. It also made a lot of wary of accepting claims easily.
One thing that makes social media interesting is that consumers can now voice their thoughts actively and share what they think.
Take the case of the DOH earlier initiative where they want to re-phrase labels to state "no approved therapeutic claims" to "Mahalagang Paalala: Ang (name of product) Ay Hindi Gamot At Hindi Dapat Gamiting Panggamot sa Anumang Uri ng Sakit”.
There was public support then for such clamor but sooner or later got drowned out by other issues. Today, the said initiative seems to have died as that change in labeling was not put into practice.
Although this doesn't mean that the war is lost. It has made consumers conscious on what to realistically expect with these type of products.
2. Loyalty gimmicks might click but it is the community that counts.
Orlistat is one pill that I have been taking for awhile whenever I tend to overeat. One brand, Xenical, created a loyalty site where consumers can enter a code to rack up points and be able to get stuff in the process.
Admittedly, it has encouraged me to keep the boxes and input them when I have time. But when I started receiving calls scheduling me for consultation, it wasn't that welcoming for me.
First, I don't know who I am talking to over the phone and whether I would feel comfortable in sharing my personal information and diet habits.
This in contrast when I got the chance to join the Immuvit MetaFit Challenge and eventually joined the FITFIL community. Becoming part of a movement made me realize that becoming stronger is more important.
If Xenical customer care program have reached out to its consumers much earlier, perhaps it would have been different. Definitely, I still buy the product but reluctant in responding to their customer outreach efforts. But their efforts are much better than traditional social media initiatives that relies on contest and the likes.
3. Consumers reacting to how brands are positioned and promoted.
Awhile back, I wrote about the politics of cough medicine. This is the ongoing war between synthetic and herbal medicine as to which one is better. It is a concern especially if you are loyal to a brand that appears to be antagonistic to its challengers that offers an alternative approach.
Of course, they have to deal with that in their commercial ways but brands have to be sensitive on how it affects their consumer choices.
The same can now be said on pain relievers. Biogesic released a commercial amplifying that it is safe.
This is a concern to me. It opened a question but it didn't answer the question - but simply referring to its brand.
For pain relief due to sports activities and other illness, I usually take either Ponstan, Advil, Alaxan, Biogesic, and others depending on the condition am in and which brand a doctor recommends. Am not certain which one is safe and not.
Then lately, while preparing for my talk, I researched on write-ups on various medicine brands promotion. I saw a few bloggers raving about an advertisement released by Saridon as it touches on Pinoy humor.
The ad is actually eye-catching but what I don't like about it is the violence especially if kids will get to watch it. There was even a Cebuano version of the ad online. Another version of the ad is a man "stamping" on the main character's head.
Saridon, two years back, was a controversial medicine brand due to its product history and was written about by several columnist in the past. My understanding then and now is that it is still a popular brand in the Visayas and Mindanao region. I am not sure if ads of this nature appeal to its target audience there.
Based on its Wikipedia entry, Saridon is tested to be competitive in comparison to its counterparts although safety issues were also indicated.
But definitely, in my opinion, violence in medicine ads should not be encouraged as it can have varying effect on Filipino audiences especially to children who would like to mimic "interesting" and "funny" ads.
Moving forward
I still believe that the Department of Health should set clear guidelines on how medicine brands are being promoted online and offline. They should also be required to have a website that can handle all product inquiries and disclose issues that will affect the public greatly.
Until then, we can only take what medicine brands say about themselves as pure promotion where we all still have to be "buyer beware".
