The 2nd Mansmith YMMA Awardees 2007 – The Mansmith Young Market Masters Awards

Jane Basas, Bing Tecson, Candice Alabanza-Iyog, Dondi Gomez, Aurora Mangubat-Suarez, Monette Aldovino-De Joya, Carla Chavez

Meet the Awardees

	JANE BASAS Senior Marketing Manager, Smart Communications, Inc. Mansmith YMMA Awardee For International MarketingAs a Senior Marketing Manager in charge of International Services Business, Jane´s job at Smart is both simple and challenging – simple, because her target market is clearly identified, and challenging because that market is a highly unpredictable and diverse one called the OFW market, with market bases in the Gulf Region, Saudi Arabia, Japan, USA, and practically where Filipinos are all over the world!But once Jane had her sights locked into her target, she simply knew what to do next. With painstaking attention to the communication needs of overseas Filipinos, Jane launched new products and services that would cover the untapped needs of her market like more affordable and innovative international texting services, simplified roaming service and cheaper “voice” text as an alternative to regular IDD. To build customer loyalty and protect Smart´s core services of IDD, International Text and International Roaming, Jane launched and sustained successful consumer promotions like Free Text per IDD minute, Miles Program with PAL, Budget Text (from P15 per text to just P.055) and other loyalty programs. Smart not only nurtured its relationship with the OFW service-users, it also strengthened its affinity with the families of the overseas workers through the Smart Pinoy OFW Brand which became the umbrella program for all products and services that Smart offers for OFW families here and abroad. Smart Pinoy also offers other benefits such as entrepreneurial seminars, scholarship programs and soon, an innovative remittance service that will be more cost-effective, offer superior convenience and give the OFW more control over his or her hard-earned salary. Also, Smart Pinoy offers social services, such as the recent Smart Pinoy´s Libreng Tawag program which allowed OFWs to make free calls to their families here at home during critical moments like the recent crisis in Lebanon. To date, Smart owns roughly 60% of the OFW market and Jane´s business unit is growing 8% annually over the past two years in spite of the cutthroat competition in the telecom industry. Jane´s unwavering dedication in serving her customers, wherever they may be, made her this year´s YMMA Awardee for International Marketing.
	CARLA CHAVEZ Senior Brand Manager, Alaska Milk Corporation Mansmith YMMA Awardee for Brand ManagementFaced with a serious threat from a low-cost competitor, Alaska´s Senior Brand Manager Carla Chavez must make a crucial decision: Keep its current position at the premium segment or meet the low-cost competitor head on. Carla rejected the “Tyranny of the OR” and chose the “Genius of the AND”. By choosing to do both, Alaska managed to compete successfully in both premium AND low-priced segments.In order to accomplish this, Carla and the Alaska team defined sub-brands to distinguish their products: Alaska Evaporated and Sweetened Condensed Filled Milk for the premium segment; Alaska Evaporada and Condensada for the low-price segment. Label design soon followed with the classic “Alaska Boy” appearing on the premium line to convey Alaska´s long-standing tradition of quality products. On the other hand, tempting pictures of halo-halo and fruit salad grace the labels of the low-priced line to appeal to the budget-conscious housewife or the penny-pinching “sa malamig” vendor. By utilizing this simple yet effective re-segmentation and re-positioning strategy, Alaska maintained its market leadership while effectively neutralizing their low-priced competitor, with its own low-priced line growing by an impressive 77% over the previous year. True enough to its slogan: “Wala pa ring tatalo sa Alaska!“
	MONETTE ALDOVINO-DE JOYA Advisory Account Manager, Innove Communications Mansmith YMMA Awardee For Account Management (Business-To-Business Marketing)A certified “road warrior”, Monette is this year’s YMMA awardee for Account Management (Business-To-Business Marketing). Monette’s numbers will speak for itself. Total revenue she generated for 2005 was P107.5 Million, exceeding her budget by 12%, with a big chunk of it coming from new businesses.Inspite of of the very tough market climate where she is in, Monette was able to sign up very large and important clients in the fast paced Call Center industry. Key to Monette’s success was to identify a need and relevantly position the voice as a main product in her assigned area. By concentrating on the often-neglected Voice segment, she was able to switch prospects away from the dominant carrier. This she did while her competitors were all busy running after a common requirement. Dramatic results soon followed. From almost 0% share in the Voice segment two years ago in her industry, her market share in this department now enjoys an estimated 60% subscription (with usage). In the Data segment, Monette was able to gain a respectable revenue share of the market both coming from new and base accounts. Her company did not fail to notice this, as Monette was recognized as Innove’s Account Manager of the Year for 2004 and 2005. Monette is a living testament to the characters of a true Young Market Master: hard work, persistence, and genuine concern to customer needs.
	DONDI GOMEZ Category Director for Deodorants and Skin Care, Unilever Philippines Mansmith YMMA Awardee For Marketing ManagementChances are you may have seen the hugely popular ads of Rexona First Day High in television, radio, and well, practically everywhere. Now meet the man behind these wildly successful marketing campaigns.Dondi Gomez is Unilever Philippines´ Category Director for Deodorants and Skin Care and is the author of the brand activation program for Rexona, Axe, Dove and Ponds products. His efforts have catapulted Rexona to a 47% market share – the highest in the world. He also authored Unilever´s Deodorant Long-Term Strategic Plan that brought all of its three brands (Rexona, Axe and Dove) to a combined 69% share in July 2005 – the highest share achieved by a Unilever Deodorant Business in the world. Dondi brought back the tried and tested “song and dance” approach but took it to a whole new level. Not content with the traditional 30-sec TV ads, Dondi and his media partners utilized a catchy, radio-friendly tune that filled the airwaves almost non-stop. Furthermore, the song and the concept appealed to movie producers thus paving the way to a blockbuster movie that carried the song title “First Day High”. With its unimaginable success, brand advertising will never be the same again. The Rexona campaign is just one feather in the cap for Dondi. He also led Dove´s Campaign for Real Beauty that generated the highest growth in Southeast Asia at 24%. He has also led Pondthe highests Anti-Aging and Whitening campaigns that strengthened Pond´s leadership in the facial care category. Prior to his current stint, Dondi was Senior Brand Manager of Vaseline wherein he designed the Hugga-Mom Attack campaign and launched Vaseline Photo-Lipid Shampoo. Lastly as Head of Marketing Training, Dondi founded Unilever Marketing 101 Program – the first integrated marketing course in Unilever Philippines. With such a winning track record, Dondi has surely solidified his status as an acknowledged Young Market Master.
	CANDICE ALABANZA-IYOG Vice President for Marketing and Product, Cebu Pacific Air Mansmith YMMA Awardee For Service Marketing At the heart of any marketing strategy is product positioning – and Candice Alabanza- Iyog saw to it that the market recognizes Cebu Pacific as THE low-cost carrier in the Philippines.There was a need for a low cost, high quality airline in the country and Cebu Pacific decided to fill that need. As VP for Marketing and Product, Candice saw the benefits of this proposition not only for the airline but more importantly, for the Filipino traveling public, or as they say in their tagline – for every Juan. Cebu Pacific aggressively expanded its network and provided the market with ‘never before seen’ low fares, bringing down fares in every city they served. Passengers can now enjoy year-round low fares with as much as 68% reduction from regular fares. All they have to do to enjoy such steep discounts is plan and buy their tickets ahead of time. Advance booking is a major boost for any airline, as this allows them to better forecast passenger volume and maximize revenues on a per flight basis. More importantly, Cebu Pacific�s pricing and product strategy was able to capture a good chunk of the alternative sea transportation market, thus further growing their market base. Continuous innovation and adapting to market needs led Candice and company to re-launch www.cebupacificair.com, a real-time online booking engine now contributing 25% of revenues. Cebu Pacific also implemented an aggressive re-fleeting program to further enhance the airline´s high quality and low cost position in the market. The challenge for Candice´s marketing team was to quickly introduce the new and improved service to the market to address consumers´ safety concerns and to fill-up the bigger brand-new planes fast. As expected from this airtight marketing stratagem, Cebu Pacific achieved domestic market leadership for the first time since its inception last October 2006. As of end-December 2006, Cebu Pacific´s market share was at 42.45% vs. 32.71% from 2005. Cebu Pacific´s strategy is simple and focused – offer low fares coupled with a high quality product and continued innovation and make sure to communicate this through all relevant channels. The airline carried 57% more passengers in 2006 vs. 2005, a feat in numbers especially since Cebu Pacific is no longer a start-up airline, and for that Candice is this year´s YMMA Awardee for Service Marketing.
	AURORA MANGUBAT-SUAREZ Publisher, Summit Media Mansmith YMMA Awardee for Business DevelopmentAurora Mangubat-Suarez and her team at Summit Media may have perhaps written the textbook on how to dominate the industry from virtually nothing.Starting with just one magazine (Preview) in 1995, Summit now boasts of 21 titles that lead all the categories they compete in. Synovate’s Media Atlas Survey also revealed that the top five most-read magazines in the country are all Summit Media’s magazines. Dominating indeed. But how did it all happen? First, it started with launching not just magazines but brands. From Cosmo to Candy, FHM to YES!, each magazine spoke personally to each reader and delivered content that they could relate to and connect with, month after month. Each magazine is also supported by a marketing program that revolves around events, promotions and trade marketing. Buzz-worthy events such as the Cosmopolitan Bachelor Bash, FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women in the World and the Preview Best Dressed Ball ensured media coverage and made the magazine come to life for the readers. Promotions ensured loyalty while trade marketing allowed point-of-contact between the magazine and the readers wherever they were. Another genius of Awie and company is to spot opportunities in (erstwhile) untapped segments like the tweens, men’s and entertainment categories, then saturating those categories with brand extensions. For instance, after successfully penetrating the men’s category with FHM, Summit added T3 for techno aficionados and Men’s Health for the health buffs. Summit Media also ventured into book publishing via brand extensions such as YES! Celebrity Homes, Real Living’s Real Home Ideas, Easy Everyday Meals from Good Housekeeping and Entrepreneur’s Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs. It’s a tall order indeed to get to the top and stay there. But with a healthy dose of determination and customer insight, the marketer will ultimately find herself reaching the summit. Awie did just that and more, accomplishing three important milestones in the last few months: Getting married, being promoted as publisher, and winning the YMMA. Anything is possible.
	BING TECSON Category Manager, Lamoiyan Corporation Mansmith YMMA Awardee For Brand ManagementRelentless. That is the word to describe this year´s YMMA Awardee for Brand Management, Ruby Rose Tecson of Lamoiyan Corporation. In a little over two years, Ruby Rose or “Bing” as she is fondly called, spearheaded the launching of seven new brands featuring 30 new product SKUs under the Oral Care Category. The company was quick to recognize such gigantic feat and recently promoted her from Senior Brand Manager to Category Manager this year.Clearly, Bing is a woman on a mission. Her task: to grow a maturing company. Her method: Brand and Product Extensions. But before one quickly dismisses her endeavors as mindless extensions, market results will show that Bing has pushed the right buttons. For instance, Bing´s innovative introductions into the kid´s toothpaste segment, with brands such as Hapee Kiddie Stand-Up Tubes and Hapee Kiddie Juicy Grapes and Apple Crunch, has enabled Lamoiyan to grab a whopping 70% share in the Kid´s Segment. Hapee Outrageous Blue Chill and Hapee Freshcapades, on the other hand, are designed to cater to the hip and trendy youth segment highly conscious and active youth segment, while the Kutitap line is geared towards the budget-conscious segment. These launches are supported by strong promotional activities like premiums, new packs, effective advertising campaigns by popular personalities such as the recent campaign featuring teen sweetheart, Angel Locsin. But the highlight of her communication programs belong to the “Exodus” TV ad, which portrayed the grim fact that 80% of absenteeism among schoolchildren is caused by dental caries. This campaign received a Silver ARAW valuesawards and was lauded by many dentists nationwide. The bottomline? Hapee´s market share has grown by 36% in 2006 despite the stagnating performance of the toothpaste industry. Whether this figure holds up in the long run remains to be seen, but Bing and her teammates at Hapee surely have taken the right step towards a brighter future.