Harnessing innovation:

As consumers we are a source of innovations

What do the: (a) universal remote, (b) iPod and (c) Kindle have in common? They all serve the needs desired by consumers! As consumers, given the manner we use products around us and the habits we develop in the process, we acquire a new need – how these products can become more user-friendly. Marketers are dying to hear from us because of such contemporary needs – to help them develop the next-generation products. (Efforts of the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion are laudable, but merely peddling Philippine products without the manufacturers ensuring market competitiveness will fall short. The export market is tough, very tough; and absent competitiveness, it’s a non-starter – the Divisoria model is not it!)

Let’s set aside unfettered consumerism or American greed for a moment. And think of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs instead. The three-product examples are all reflective of Maslow’s. This may be boring to marketers but it’s important to understand why in the 21st century, we still have, for example, the jeepneys – they are the antithesis of Maslow’s?

Human needs move from the basic or physiological to security to social to self-actualization or ego satisfaction – or what marketers may define as our lifestyle needs. Whenever we talk of the excesses of the West our knee-jerk is “they’re spoiled consumers or greedy bankers”. They probably are! But to be human is not all bad – the lesson of the manger or Eden? Or why the West ought to know we don’t live in trees!

How do we then move from: (a) simply being entrepreneurs and conglomerates to (b) globally competitive entrepreneurs and conglomerates? We need to move up from our basic, security and social needs to self-actualization or ego satisfaction? Given that we’re not regionally or globally competitive, we need to draw on our egos to make us desire to be regionally or globally competitive – a noble purpose to lift a third of our people out of poverty; but more directly, meet their basic, physiological needs?

We may not be ready to be competitive – up against the universal remote or the iPod or the Kindle. But we need to move up from the jeepney, from mainstream garment exports, from semi-conductors, from low value-added BPOs, etc. – to higher value-added and thus globally competitive industries!

And as consumers we know what we desire – beyond riding a jeepney, beyond working for garment exporters or call centers. That’s why marketers talk and seek to understand consumers – and gain consumer insights!

It is the same model that the Asian tigers, China and more recently Eastern Europeans had to learn – to become regionally and/or globally competitive. They had to overcome issues of confidence and defeatism! What about us? Our GDP or revenue shortfall, of say, $100 billion, is miniscule, a drop in the bucket – given the size of the global economy! The debate over export-led growth doesn’t apply to Juan de la Cruz: we must come down to earth, be focused like a laser and dogged in expanding our economic pie!

We are more far-advanced in our knowledge of marketing and of most disciplines – but we need a mindset that “takes no prisoners”, doesn’t inhibit us from being inquisitive and innovative and thus competitive?