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Key learning: The Philippines' status as the top consumer of Marlboro worldwide underlines our organization's need to push our competitive advantage even further. Our immense share of market can be maintained and even enhanced through the achievement of various KPIs.

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KEY LEARNING: There are several ways to evaluate the performance of a VSM or BBE through the KPIs mentioned in the module. Some examples include Call Efficiency which measures how much of planned PSO visits were actually accomplished, and Strike Rate which measures how many among the visited PSOs purchased stocks of our products.

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KEY LEARNING: My key learnings from this module was that the Philippines plays a huge role on the sales of marlboro, and that tobacco has different types that are used for different variants PMFTC offers to its consumers. Also, Proper product handling and understanding our products helps us deliver the products to our consumers at the highest quality to meet their demands and gain their loyalty towards the brands we offer.

Questions:
For the production codes, what is the numerical symbol for cigarettes manufactured beyond 2020? would it reset to 0 since cigarette's shelf life is only 12 months?

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Key Learnings: With the merger of PMI and FTC, the market that PMIFTC caters to would be all social classes in the Philippines, further solidifying PMI as a worldwide brand that is adaptable and growing with the times. The way that PMI shows how to maintain premium quality products shows how they are able to continue being the world's best tobacco company.

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KEY LEARNINGS: Marlboro is is the number 1 brand in the Philippines. I also learned that there are these different types of Tobacco that has a spicy mouth response or even a tobacco with high aroma and sweet flavor. It also very important to take note of the proper product handling to be able to make sure that the product is at its best quality when sold. Sales KPI and Brand KPI were also discussed because as it says in the module "What gets measured, gets done".

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Key Learnings:
PMI is the 4th largest global brand and the Philippines is the number 1 consumer of Marlboro,PMI's number one brand. This means that the performance of the brand here in the Philippines largely affects the company as whole. Hence ensuring contniued brand equity and growth here in the Philippines is of paramount importance. It was also interesting to learn about 3 different tobacco strains and that the word cigarette comes from the french word for small cigar.

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KEY LEARNINGS: Quality and Efficiency is everything. To maintain premium quality the products must be handled correctly so that consumers will be satisfied. It is also vital that KPI's are met so that our retail partners are served and our products reach them in a timely manner.

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KEY LEARNINGS: PMI is a world leading company with Marlboro being its Best Known Brand worldwide. PMFTC ensures brand and product excellence by knowing their consumers more (Segmenting Products by Price), by imposing excellent customer servicing (Measurable KPIs for Sales and Brand), and by strictly practicing proper handling.

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Our company values quality very highly. That is why we ensure that our product and its components are of high quality. Components like the tobacco that we use are checked and regulated, just like the others. When we ensure that each component is made up of high quality material, we have a high probability of creating a high quality product. A high quality product has the potential to create a brand that lasts for centuries.

However, quality does not end with the product. For a high quality product handled poorly will reach the customer as a low quality product. That is why our company values handling very highly. An effective product handling is when a product being consumed by our customers is almost the same product as when it was conceived by our factories. To ensure this, the company also created a KPI system to hold ourselves accountable.

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Certificate of Completion Business Building Bootcamp

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KEY LEARNINGS: PMI continues to hold a strong market share and position worldwide. In fact, Marlboro is the leading cigarette brand while having Philippines as its top market. In the Philippines, PM and FTC have merged with their own respective brands to cater to all markets segments.  Both Sales and Brand KPIs have contributed to PMI's success as they provide a way to promote growth and optimization for efficiency.

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Key learnings:
- Nowadays consumers trust peer recommendations more than they do mass promotions or advertisments by big companies. Hence this tell us that in order to stay competitive businsses must adapt a consumer centric approach. It is important to understand everything about the consumer from spending habits to personal preferences in order for products to feel more personal to feel like the product was made for them. This is what will get consumers to buy our products as opposed to the traditional sense of selling.

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Key Learning: Data is important. Having a quantitative assessment of our products, consumers, and competitors allows us to isolate pain points and implement data-driven solutions. Territory managers must pull their weight and solve problems that they encounter on the field to ensure that our analytics and marketing team can devise correct solutions.

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KEY LEARNING: Although competitor products may offer the exact same product technology and physical characteristics (such as with Dunhill Switch and Marlboro Blue Ice both being "a menthol cigarette with a liquid-filled flavor capsule in the filter"), brand marketing greatly affects how these competitors are accepted by the consumers.

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KEY LEARNINGS:
Determining the consumers' needs and demands through data and insights plays an important role in understanding how to establish a brand's identity to ensure the success of a product. Insights along with market data helps the company determine the most effective way to communicate with their target consumers and make sure a product launch would be a success and would reach its intended market.

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Key Learnings: We must be CONSUMER CENTRIC which leads to Smart Consumer Segmentation. To further better a BAM adoption rate, we must take into consideration and act upon the different factors in the Market through excellent Brand Activation.

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KEY LEARNINGS: Knowing what you brand wants to be and who your market is are very essential. You have to know and communicate with your consumers to know their needs and wants.

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I learned that when assessing a touchpoint there a few "gets" or objectives you have to fulfill or assess. You have to assess that retailers performance, traffic, location and passive communication. You should also ensure that handling, availability, visibility and trade engagement between retailer snd consumer are achieved. In return you should give out non monetary propositions that will not only achieve your objectives but that of the retailers as well. These "gives" can range from differentiation, performance tools and staff. It should be noted that whatever combination of gives you choose, such gives should help the retailer increase and grow his business alongside ours.

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KEY LEARNING: Being consumer centric doesn't just mean grouping people into categories. It is finding their main reason and drive for usage. Consumers also expect a level of premium from brands which drives them towards certain brands over others. It is also vital to get to the root cause behind the pains of consumers on why they are using certain brands over the other so that we can address their needs through product innovation. Through data driven activities product launches may be successful.

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KEY LEARNINGS: For Brand and Consumers, we as a company need to be consumer-centric. Meaning we always start with what our customer needs. This means we observe our customer, get feedback, and collect this data. We analyze this data to create actionable insights, then we create a brand based on those insights.

But first, a problem of scale, we have millions of consumers, how do we observe them all? That is where consumer segmentation comes in. We segment our customers, we then observe the behavior of the segment, then create a brand around it.

So how do we create a brand? First let's use a brand framework as our guideline. We need to know the segment we are targeting, what is our promise to them, and what character do we want to convey to them, and others listed in the brand framework.

Next is we activate the brand. Here, we use fundamental principles of consumer engagement to efficiently activate our product. This is where our field employees play a very large part, because they are the one engaging with our retail stores and our customers. It is important that these field agents practice two-way communication, explain our brand properly to the customers, conduct appropriate switch sampling, implement effective brand promotions, among others.

Then we measure our performance, again the field agents play a very important role here, because these agents collect the data that they pass to the marketing agents. That is why it is essential that field agents make sure to always submit accurate data with as less bias as possible.

Some ways to measure data is through using the BAM. This shows how effective our POSM programs are, how fast our customers are being activated, and if we are gaining more customers that previously use competitor brands. Aside from quantitative data, it is also important to collect qualitative data, this is to determine if our customers see our brand image in a way that we want them to (according to the Brand Framework).

If we find out that our customers are not seeing our brand as how we want them to see it, then we use BP/BOWATTS. Wherein we use a root cause analysis to really determine the underlying problem of the symptoms we are observing. We also use the image grid as a guide to better convey the image that we want our brand to have.

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KEY Learnings: Branding is a very important factor for consumers. Despite having the same product and identical features, Marlboro still lost to Dunhill due to the "brand". Establishing a brand is of utmost importance as one is able to provide value towards the consumers through their own perspective of fulfilling needs.

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Key learning: Profiling gives us a better understanding of what consumers want. Knowing our stakeholders better allows us to offer value-heavy deals - agreements that provide bigger impact for a lower cost.

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KEY LEARNING: Retailers can be categorized depending on their level of understanding or knowledge of tobacco products and on their level of interest in communication. It is crucial to understand where in that spectrum a retailer lies so that a VSM/BBE can adjust their communication styles with them, whether the retailer is as indifferent as a "Low Interest" retailer or as hyper as a "Well-Versed Sales Person".

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BACE - Touchpoint Understanding Certificate

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KEY LEARNINGS: Knowing your consumers & stores allows you to determine what variants to sell, where to place these variants, and what consumer engagements would be best for them. Meanwhile knowing the potential of the store area and also the interest the retail partner has in terms of growing their business and learning more about PMTC's products would allow us to determine the potential the store has for our products and the willingness of the retail partner to learn so that support through recommendations and programs can be provided.

Question: What are the limitations we have when giving non-monetary value propositions? Is there a limit to what or how much we can provide a retailer?

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Key Learnings: It is imperative that we build rapport with our customers/retailers because they are our most important key to selling our products. When profiling a customer, we need to look at the different advantages & characteristics their businesses have (location, foot traffic, LAS customer demography, staff's sales experience/knowledge), and also identify what needs improvement to work on to further enhance their sales.

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KEY LEARNINGS: Knowing your consumer and customers means knowing what language to use with them. It is important to build connections and make your customers understand what benefits they will get with your programs and proposals.

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KEY LEARNING: It is critical that we know our customers and the potential they have in terms of being a touchpoint. Many factors are considered such as store performance, location, traffic, and communication ability. We have to see if the touchpoint is a good place of investment and check the market that frequents the place to align what products are offered. Retailers should also be educated on product offers and stock management to ensure that OOS does not happen. At the same time, we have to provide tools to help retailers grow their business.

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KEY LEARNINGS:

Touchpoint understanding is all about our retailers and wholesalers. It is guide that shows us how to engage with the stores. Before everything, it is important to know that engaging with stores are important because these store are directly communicating with our customers. Regardless of how good we work as a company, but if our partners do not do well, our brand image and profit will not be sustainable.

Rules of engagement, first determine if investing in a store has potential for high return or if it would be a wasted investment of resources. To determine this, first observe if the target consumers frequent the store. We can be more specific by identifying the particular consumer segments that enter the store so that we can determine the proper SKUs and programs to implement in the store.

Next, implement the first step for the retail stores within the territory or vicinity. Group these stores as whether they have potential for good return or not by, again determining if the LAS segments enter the store and other factors included in "Gets". Use the retail segmentation grid as a guide.

After determining which stores to invest in, it is important to first build a good relationship with the retail stores so that they could be more receptive of the suggestions that we give them. To build a relationship with the owners/partners, first get to know who they are. Use the retailer value curve as a guide.

And as a final push, if the store needs a little bit more from us to fully commit to pushing the products, then we can incentivize the store with non-monetary incentives. The best incentive that we can give is something that costs little to the company and is worth so much for the store.

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PMFTC Touchpoint Understanding Last Slide

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KEY LEARNINGS: By properly understanding the different profiles, such as the business profile and smoker profile, we can properly adapt and become more efficient in our efforts. When we properly allot our resources towards places where there is most potential for growth, time is not wasted. Thus, resulting in optimizations which lead to further growth.

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Key learning: It is important to recognize the needs of the retailers (or consumers) before we sell them an idea. Proposals are two-way ventures and we must ensure that the circumstances are correct and that everyone involved will be receptive to the proposition.

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KEY LEARNING: A meeting with a retailer can go in all different directions, and even favorable responses can vary. However, it is important that we meet as many goals as possible from fully getting to know the situation and concerns of the retailer to explaining how the proposed strategy can be executed in terms of logistics and sales.

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KEY LEARNINGS: When proposing or suggesting programs, show empathy towards the partners to show them that we understand where they are coming from and we want to help them grow by identifying the root cause of their problems, listening to their side, & understanding their goals for their store or themselves before giving them suggestions or revealing the big idea. Make sure that the  proposals are short and concise but has all the details they need to maintain their interest. Also, be ready to handle questions and objections from the customers.

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Key Learnings: Considering that each customer has their individual wants for their business, we must have an open mind in dealing with them, and finding different ways to revamp/sell our products towards their (All customer's) common goal which is profit and making it also hit their business wants is something I learned in this program. Listening is crucial when it comes to dealing with customers because coming up with that "One Big Idea" will make or break a sale.

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KEY LEARNINGS: Always start on a positive note and always be sensitive of your customers' feelings and needs before proposing a new program or product. It is important to verify what they really need to fully help them with their business.

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I learned that putting the customers needs above your own will really expedite the selling process. Helpinf the xustomer understand that what I want in the end, is what he wants will go a long way in forging lasting and profitable relationships with the POSs.

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KEY LEARNING: There is no direct script/way on how to get retailers to promote our product or even advocate it to their consumers which is why it is necessary to take the time to hear their goals and concerns of their business. We might think what we are saying is what they want to hear but it may go in different directions so relationship building with our retail partners is a must. Being consumer centric, all their pains and suggestions should be taken into consideration when pitching ideas so both sides needs/goals are met.

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To sell a product to a customer, the most important part is to listen to the customer. When a customer says that he/she has a problem, it should be taken as an opportunity to communicate with the customer and learn their needs. Of course most problems of retail stores are about profit, but it is important to learn what the store plans to boost its profit. That is why it is important to listen closely to the customer's story and breakdown what the customer truly needs.

After determining the underlying needs of the customer, proceed to create a link between solving the need of the customer and selling your proposal. When the link is formed, introduce it to the customer in a simple way. Talk about the proposal and highlight the benefit it will give to the customer, make sure to include quantitative benefits that the customer can easily relate to. Make sure that the benefits solve the underlying needs of the customer.

Then explain to the customer the logistics of the idea. Be detailed in the explanation and make sure to tell the customer what he/she needs to do to implement the plan successfully. Anticipate questions from the customer, this is a good sign because this can mean that the customer is truly engaged. Answer the questions clearly and patiently.

Lastly, wait for a great response from the customer, this indicates a high chance that the customer follows through on the plan.

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KEY Learnings: Customers all have different problems and challenges, and by being consumer centric we are able to provide more value towards alleviating their concerns. By truly understanding from their own point of view what challenges we need to address, we are able to provide a much personalized approach to promote growth for their business as well as ours.