AMID rising fuel prices, local export companies are urged to come up with value-added products that target consumers would be willing to pay for.
Sabine Schacknat, conceptual marketing consultant of the Confederation of Philippine Exporters (Philexport)-Cebu, said the strength of Cebu’s design industry is “creativity and value for money.”
“The idea is more on what the exporters sell, which would entail (analyzing) what is the right thing for the market you are selling to. This is not a solution to everything or to (high production costs), but it is something,” said Schacknat, also of the German Development Service.
To find out what the right thing is for the market, exporters have to understand their target consumers, she said.
Understanding target consumers, she stressed, would require investment on market research that could be done personally.
Travel
“If you have the chance, if you could afford to, you travel. The best thing to know about your target market is to go to their place. I know it’s expensive.
But if you can travel, try to talk to people who are there. Get to know them.
If you are a manufacturer and you are attending shows there, try to talk to as many customers and visitors as you can,” she said in an interview last week.
Prior to her Philexport-Cebu assignment, Schacknat worked as marketing and product development consultant of the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation.
At Philexport, she said her job involves challenging exporters to “think out of the box” and to work harder in understanding the behavior of their customers. Apart from asking what the target market thinks of the products, export companies are also urged to get information about potential customers through books, movies and the Internet.
“Do not underestimate the time you have. It takes time to explore and know more about the market,” she said. “Europe, for instance, is a challenging market for exporters concentrating on the US because they do not know about this area. Things that you don’t know are challenging because you assume things that could be wrong. Get very well-informed because we’re talking here about your (exporters’) business and your money,” said Schacknat.
She said residents in the northern part of Europe go for products that are of good quality and are environment-friendly.
One market
She observed that the depreciation of the dollar and the slowing down of the US economy have affected many companies, particularly exporters, in the Philippines. This shows that if a company concentrates only on one market, it will have a problem when things go wrong in this area, she said.
“It’s always good to have two legs to stand on. The idea of export diversification is a good one, as well as thinking of eventualities. It would be more clever to anticipate what would happen even when you are already in a good position,” Schacknat said.
Through Philexport, she said she hopes to increase the network of the creative industry in Cebu, help local exporters grasp the importance of market research, and help strengthen the organization’s development, among others. (NRC)
