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SOCIAL MARKETING AND FILIPINO
BUYING ATTITUDES ON PAIN
AND SEX
INTRODUCTION
Tomas Lim, Special Assistant to the Minister of Health, was preparing
his assessment and possible recommendations for his superior on expanding
the use of Filipino small retail stores to distribute and sell health-related
products. These stores were often less than 20 square meters—sari-sari in
the vernacular meaning “assorted everything.” Sari-sari stores served the
rural areas—including small remote towns and small communities and they
were a familiar fixture of daily village life.
Both Lim and his superior were enthusiastic about expanding the reach
of health goods and possibly even services by using the large and extensive
base of private stores. They chose two different over-the-counter (nonprescriptive) products—(a) stomach pain relief specifically oral hydration
anti-diarrhea tablets and formulas and (b) contraceptives specifically
condoms and “pilot tested” their usage in sari-sari stores in one province.
The anti-diarrhea segment of the pain relief category was ultimately intended
to reduce infant illness and even deaths due to diarrhea and dehydration. On
the other hand, the contraceptive product was clearly aimed at the male
adult user.
Lim thought that the initial test appeared encouraging although issues
still had to be addressed before a much larger “roll-out” to more stores in
more provinces could be developed.
____________________________________________________________________________________
This case as written by Prof. Francisco L. Roman DBA is in its final draft form. The case is disguised and it
is a composite of two actual situations, and it is designed solely for the purpose of class discussion and it
is not intended to illustrate either correct or incorrect approaches to issues. The case will be revised and
finalized after the course. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino—a nephew of the late Senator Aquino and whose
son is now President of the Philippines, runs Micro-Ventures Inc. and supplies goods and services to an
expanding network of sari-sari stores run by nanays—mothers.
Copyright 2010, between Prof. Francisco L. Roman DBA and Asian Institute of Management, Makati City,
Philippines, http://www.aim.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, used in a report or spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the consent of the Asian Institute of
Management. To order copies, interested parties must secure a Site License Agreement from the
Knowledge Resource Center - Library Casebank, AIM, 123 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City 1260, Philippines,
Tel. No. (632) 892-4011 local 164/214/212; Telefax: (632) 817-2663 or e-mail krc@aim.edu.
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SARI-SARI STORES
Small stores were ubiquitous in both the urban and rural landscape but
perhaps more so in the latter. There are “mom-and-pop” stores in America
and kiranas in India—actually more like “father-and-son” stores. In the
Philippines, sari-sari stores were more likely to be run by the “mother-andchildren.” Many of these small stores were seasonal and barely eked out a
profit, and frequently “declared bankruptcy”—informally and unofficially and
then reopened over the lifetime of the store. However, anecdotal evidence
suggests that sari-sari stores run by women (wives) showed a better success
rate than similar stores run by men or husbands. The latter might till the
field or work as farm laborer to provide daily income while the former might
run the small business in order to generate a surplus over the family’s
subsistence income.
According to “Bam” Aquino:
I would say that the nanays are the most important end of this whole
program because without their cooperation and inputs, then this (MVI)
would not work.
May kanya kanyang concern si nanay dyan: (the nanay now has
various concerns): where is she getting the money for the tricycle or
the jeep, how is her store merchandised, what assortment will she have
on the shelf, what are her sources of supply from the distributor?
If she becomes a distributor and you are able to reach more people,
you are really able to build a community. You already have a lot of
friends, contacts. Your family has to become part of the business
because you can no longer do it alone. As your income grows as a
distributor, you have to hire people -- helpers, drivers. As a result, your
mindset will really change and we have seen it, from being just being
worried about yourself, to being more worried about family and your
extended family and sukis (returning customers).
Our goal is for the nanay to really start affecting the community in a
more positive way.
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A daily newspaper, The Philippine Star, described one nanay (June 19,
2009):
Raising eight children has not kept Rosa Maloles from becoming more
than the average mother and homemaker. Spunky and smart, this
former security guard is also a successful entrepreneur. Moreover, she
has made her business a family affair, bringing in two of her grownup
children to help run the stores. Rosa would forgo her own merienda
(snack) so she could invest her meager earnings on cigarettes, which
she sold to customers through the window of her home. That was in
1985. “Then, people started asking for other commodities like salt,
sardines, milk, sugar and canned goods.” Eventually, she needed more
space for her growing business. Her husband built a store beside their
house using bamboo and sawali with coconut leaves for the roof. “Then,
I saved enough profit to buy galvanized iron sheets for a more sturdy
roof.” Pretty soon, the bamboo was also replaced with a structure of
cement.
In 2007, Micro-Ventures, Inc. (MVI), a social business enterprise,
selected Rosa’s business to be the Hapinoy Lead Store in her area—
training her to use a PC with Smart Bro Internet access and
computerized inventory management system Her store can tap into new
business opportunities offered by Smart like eLoading, as well as
merchandizing support and enhancing the overall look.
From her earnings, she sets aside a salary for herself so she can
engage in other projects and pours the rest into her stocks to ensure
that business continues to grow. She strictly guards the money for store
capital so her household does not spend it. She carefully monitors her
inventory and notes which products are fast moving using her newly
installed point-of-sale system. Rosa opens as early as 4 a.m. and closes
late to catch the factory workers as they head for work and just before
they go home. She devises creative schemes (e.g., free shampoo for
every PHP500 or PHP1,000 purchase) to make sure that people continue
to buy from her even if times are tough.
“My dream is to have my own grocery store,” says Rosa. And by the
look of things, this Hapinoy mom’s dream may soon become a reality.
Lim believed that the nanays would be willing to carry the anti-diarrhea
medication specially since children would be the beneficiaries. He was not so
sure however, about their willingness to sell condoms.
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PRICING
The Global Development Agency provided funding to the Ministry to
purchase the products from local manufacturers based on internationally
accepted specifications. GDA was willing to absorb the costs and to provide
the products to the stores for free as long as access was extensive. The GDA
concept was to use health products for free not only to increase their use but
also as means for the sari-sari stores to lure more customers or to use as a
“freebie” to increase purchase frequency or amount per purchase. However,
both Lim and his superior did not believe in a “free lunch” and they were also
concerned that the stores would sell at a price in order to generate cash.
Moreover, if the goods were provided for free, prices could vary widely across
sari-sari stores even within a single community. On the other hand, if the
goods were bought at a specific price, that cost would be the base point on
which sari-sari storeowners would add their margin.
THE FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARDS PAIN
Sales per sari-sari store were moving faster than in rural health clinics—
which were often few and far between. Nevertheless, Lim was concerned at
the somewhat slow pace of sales for pain relief medication despite a very low
price and the large—relative to the store size “information-driven” posters
explaining the benefits of the products and their effective usage. Given the
sorry state of potable rural water and the increasingly limited access over the
years due to pollution and drought, Lim though that the product would move
quickly. He was reconsidering the GDA notion of simply “giving the goods
away.”
On the other hand, one of Lim’s mentors was a renowned market
research guru with extensive experience in health-related goods and
services, and he gave the following reflection of Filipino consumer attitudes:
The many past studies I have done on eye troubles, stomach
disorders or upset sore throat and muscle aches all point to the idea of
various stages which precede the Filipino consumer’s decision to finally
take a medicine, relief tablet, or solution for the discomfort…There are
three stages in the process. Take for example, the case of an eye
trouble.
In Stage 1, the suffering consumer merely resorts to “natural”
remedies or sources of relief such as washing with water, rubbing,
closing, and “resting”, or simply waiting the pain out. If the trouble
leaves, then the trouble simply ends. The consumer forgets about it
but feels reinforced about his or her actions, namely using natural
remedies and not resorting to any drug remedy.
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In Stage 2, the victim continues feeling the discomfort beyond
the subjective time limits of Stage 1 and perceives the pain as rising.
What he or she does next is to shift form the “natural” to either some
“native” remedies (as in putting nganga, a chewed mixture of betel
nut, or ikmo leaves and lime on one’s stomach or in mixing gawgaw,
i.e., starch, in a soft drink and then drinking this down for relief of
stomach upset), or some “do-it-yourself” preparation (as in dissolving
a tablespoonful of salt in warm water and then gargling this for the
relief of sore throat). If the discomfort eases, then the customer
closes. While the pain did increase, it did not exceed the "bearability"
threshold of the sufferer.
Stage 3 finds the pain unrelieved by the “natural”, “native”,
and/or adaptive remedies and it then crosses over the limit of what to
the consumer is bearable (puedeng tiisin). It is only then that the
consumer decides that the matte reeds the help of a medicine.
(Roberto, Applied Marketing Research)
Lim was clearly concerned about the prevalence of this attitude since it
also reflected his own response to “minor” ills and pains. On the other hand,
he believed that the Filipino mother/nanay would do anything for her child.
For instance, a survey in urban squatter communities suggested that
mothers would drink tap water themselves but would save money to buy the
more expensive and supposedly healthier bottled water for their children—
incidentally sometimes creating an illicit trade in fake bottled water.
THE FILIPINO ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX
Condom distribution and usage represented an altogether different
issue. Among its neighbors in the ASEAN, the Philippines still experienced a
high but after many decades a slowly diminishing birth rate. With a nominally
dominant Catholic majority and a still strong but slightly eroding power of the
Church and its priests, the natural or rhythm method was still the position
delivered in pulpits by priests to churchgoers despite the efforts of the
Ministry to promote non-abortive reproductive health management—a
current and more politically correct term than population control or birth
control.
Some economists suggested that “lowering the denominator”
(population) even with a stagnant “numerator” (Gross Domestic Product or
GDP) would still increase the per capita income of the population. On the
other hand, at one time, the Catholic Women’s League of the Philippines
waged a “condom war” assailing the evils of the product and received
considerable media attention—forcing the government to take a less
aggressive posture in promoting methods other than rhythm. Indeed, the
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strong Spanish-cultural tradition of the adult female as housewife and mother
prevented the Ministry from very actively promoting female-related RHM
products such as the pill.
Lim’s marketing guru related his results using the FGD (Focused Group
Discussion) process to elicit insights on consumer attitudes and behavior.
Comments and quotes (translated form the vernacular) suggested five
findings, as follows:
1. Consider these two observations. The first from a non-user: “The
cervix of one of my friends was abraded by the condom her partner
used.” The second from a condom user: “The condom we use now is of
thin material unlike the old brand that was thick and painful and poorly
lubricated.” Therefore, product knowledge and awareness quality is
directly attributable to differences in experience. Therefore, one must…
2. Users can be remarkably ignorant. Consider this comment: If the
condom will be used again, it is better to lubricate it with Johnson’s
baby oil. (Oils can have a corrosive action on condom rubber.)
3. It is important to reinforce positive experiences. For example:
a. Condoms don’t have side effects.
b. Unlike the pill, condoms are used during the act and remain
outside the body.
c. Thin condoms fit well, almost like a second skin.
d. Easy to carry around, inconspicuous, handy, cheap, etc.
e. My favorite is red; it really makes it look erect.
Positive experiences are needed to counter negative “nonexperiences”.
4. Negatives can be imagined or reflect prejudices.
a. Condoms are used only with prostitutes.
b. It is not the same as rubbing with real flesh.
c. It is not romantic.
5. The wife still rules.
a. I feel sore afterwards.
b. I can’t feel you. It seems incomplete.
c. I don’t get that warm wet feeling afterwards.
With a long sigh, Tomas Lim prepared for his meeting with his superior.
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Ogilvy & Mather
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