Contributed by:
Tony M. Maghirang
A new book, Small Store Marketing para sa mga sari-sari store, grocery, bakery, market stall, atbp.by Chiqui Escareal-Go is on the best-sellers list of National Bookstore for the past two months.
Written in a mix of conversational English and Taglish, the book builds its case on seven principles in managing a sari-sari store for growth and success.
These principles are:
- Stand out and be different!
- Grow without cannibalizing existing sales
- Increase transaction size.
- Add service to product.
- Convert from functional to emotional.
- Have the discipline to expand.
- Dream!
Author Chiqui Go then explains these concepts in easily comprehensible language that should appeal to its target audience: sari-sari store owners. In discussing Principle No. 2, also defined as Grow!, she starts with a question, “What can you that will not cannibalize your existing sales but would make you grow? She offers an answer: “Planning your offerings through customer understanding.”
Chiqui Go then goes on to explain in the simple terms how to understand customer behavior in four basic queries: what they (the store customers) buy, who buys, when (what time) they buy and why they buy.
From the examples of responses a sari-sari storeowner may have on the four queries on customer behavior, the author makes a quick summary. She concludes: “Knowing these facts then, what can storeowners do? Di kaya mas maganda na mas maraming klase ng produkto kaysa mas maraming brands ng iilang produkto? Sigudaruhin nga lang na ang mga klase ng produkto ay yung hinahanap ng mga customer.
Ms. Chiqui Escareal-Go is the president and CEO of Mansfield and Fielders Inc. group of training companies. She is also the vice chair and executive director of Waters Philippines, the exclusive distributor of Waters Bio Mineral Pot. She has been awarded one of the Outstanding Filipina Entrepreneurs of 2011 as Trailblazer Entrepreneur.
We exchanged email messages with Ms. Chiqui Escareal-Go on the why and wherefores of her pioneering book on marketing management for the sari-sari store. Following are excerpts from the online Q & A?
SERDEF (S): Why small-store? We have heard people write off small stores as merely livelihood and that the room for innovation in these types of ventures are nil.
Chiqui Escareal-Go (CEG): There are over 700,000 sari-sari stores in the Philippines and these stores remain to be the most frequented sales channel for fast moving consumer goods in the country. While consumers may buy from supermarkets during payday, they subsequently still have to make some purchases from neighborhood stores because what they bought at the supermarkets were not enough. This is the “window” of opportunity that sari-sari stores have in their business.