Devoting my Life's Passion

"I have never known such a disciplined people. From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue" 

A phrase from the movie The Last Samurai, where Tom Cruise narrated his observation of his captors.Strucked by this observation, I realize that indeed life is about perfecting a craft, a skill, a talent, a mission, or to whatever we each so desire to accomplish in our lifetime.

Everyday is a brand new opportunity for each one of us to make a significant difference by continually and persistently honing our abilities and excel towards good to great by daily devoting ourselves to the perfection of whatever we pursue.

I have always applied the same discipline in my line of work, I studied Management Information System back in college but I have always foreseen myself wanting to pursue a career in retailing, be it for supermarket, drugstore, shopping mall boutiques, department store, hypermarket, convenience stores.

I constantly have to learn new merchandising skills, I have to even at times learn proper visual merchandising display, be on the look out for new trends, be sensitive to consumer needs and wants, even their complaints.  I never came to a point of getting myself bored with my work. 

When the time came for internet commerce to slowly revolutionize the way people spend their money, I have to learn it, I even have to propose to my boss that its the right direction to follow but as traditional retailers, they wouldn't take the necessary steps to take and follow the lead of internet commerce.

When I moved on to another company that gives so much importance and focus on customer interaction online, I was quite happy and indeed turn-over of sales more than quadrupled due to customer's interactive relationship with us, thus developing that brand awareness for our company as well as our merchandise.
There will always be room for learning if we apply ourselves to be willing listeners, and keen observers of the changing times.  I personally am happy that I grew up in a generation of upgrades, from analog to digital, from brick and mortar to internet commerce.

I know that be it in education, retailing, merchandising, sales, food, fashion, movies, and many other fascinating part of our lives, we will always have something to improve on.  So we don't stay idle even when we think we already know, there's so much more to still learn from others.

Brand Rescue of Clorox

Some blue-chip companies have adopted a longer view of brand management and are starting to show positive results. For example, Clorox, a leading consumer-packaged-goods firm, is ahead of the curve in its use of long-term metrics to steward its brand. Until the second quarter of 2005, the Clorox bleach product line was in a seemingly endless cycle of discounting. Almost once a month, the price of a 96-ounce bottle of regular Clorox bleach was reduced to $0.99 at retail—even cheaper than most bottled waters. The company had also reduced its advertising spending. From a short-term perspective, the promotions appeared to be quite profitable. Yet consumers learned to lie in wait for these deals, which increased short-term sales but decreased baseline sales.

In the midst of this, Stephen Garry, director of advanced analytics at Clorox, introduced long-term metrics to measure brand performance. The top chart in the exhibit “How Clorox Rescued Its Brand” depicts quarterly baseline sales for the brand and the projected incremental lift arising from promotions. Both measures are expressed as a percentage change from the corresponding quarter of the previous year to control for seasonal fluctuations in sales and to protect the company’s data.

How Clorox Rescued Its Brand

Garry found that before the third quarter of 2005, baseline sales were low (not depicted in the chart) and decreasing. Lift over baseline—which reflects price sensitivity—was extremely high (not depicted in the chart) and increasing. These numbers indicated weakness in the brand from the perspective of both sales and margins. In response, Garry initiated an effort to reverse this trend by reducing discounting and increasing television advertising. The changes, implemented in July 2005, are depicted in the middle chart of the exhibit.

As a result of the policy change, baseline sales increased dramatically and lift over baseline decreased. Consumers were no longer buying from promotion to promotion but were instead purchasing more volume at full price. These changes had a positive long-term effect on the company’s revenues and profits by increasing the brand’s quantity and price premiums.

As shown in the bottom chart of the exhibit, revenue (which was low before the policy change) eventually began to turn around as a result of the reduction in discounting. Clorox further indicated to us that profits, which continued to fall in the short term (the third and fourth quarters of 2005), rebounded sharply in the first and second quarters of 2006.

Note the implication for the analyst who typically focuses on short-term metrics such as quarterly revenue. In the third quarter of 2005, the analyst might have downgraded the brand as a result of revenue and profit decreases. Yet these short-term decreases reflect the time it takes for consumers to acclimate to the price changes and respond to the advertising. Clorox, with the foresight and temerity to monitor the attendant long-term changes in brand health, persevered with its strategy. The ensuing quarters yielded higher revenues and substantially increased gross profits. Without long-term brand-health measures, the analyst may have come to a misleading conclusion about the value of the brand or Clorox may not have realized the fruition of its strategy. Armed with long-term metrics, firms and analysts can assume a longer-term perspective on the brand, leading to improved profitability.

Brand management today is like driving a car by looking only a few feet ahead. The drivers can change direction rapidly, but they’re not necessarily on a path that will take them where they want to go. In the face of an increasingly fragmented media and powerful retailers, brand managers cannot afford to be steering their brands in the wrong direction. Mounting evidence suggests that a short-term orientation erodes a brand’s ability to compete in the marketplace. Accordingly, managers are well advised to refocus their attention on the basic principles that once made their brands ascendant.