Yesterday, I was talking to my cousin, and then out of nowhere, she said,
“Ay wait lang. Andyan na si Edgar.”
She grabbed her wallet and rushed outside like a kid chasing mamang taho.
See, Edgar is our butcher.
A mobile butcher.
He’s one of those who brings the wet market to you— on schedule.
Pretty neat.
I’ve known this dude for as long as I can remember. He’s literally been feeding us for decades.
But the thing is, I don’t really like his meat. They’re just not as meaty and as fresh as I want them to be.
So, when my cousin went back, I said,
“Alam mo, bakit hindi na lang tayo bumili dun sa binibilhan ko? Mas sulit talaga kesa dyan.”
(Context: I get and cook my chicken breast separately for my daily protein.)
She answered me with a statement that didn’t really make sense — but was insightful at the same time.
“Eh syempre ganon eh… suki eh!”
Normally, when somebody answers you with “ganon talaga,” it means there’s no logical reason behind it.
And usually… I hate that kind of answer.
But then I thought about it…
(after a good minute of frowning)
It isn’t about giving the best product. It’s about the relationship you have with the customers.
That’s the backbone of a good business.
And actually, this is the same idea I shared with Aeriel when we were planning our cookie biz strategy.
Like Edgar, we’ll be selling a commodity product.
There are dozens, and maybe hundreds, of cookie sellers in our area.
If you’re gonna listen to so-called marketers who learned their skills from online gurus on TikTok, they’ll tell you that it’s all about the branding, the ads, and the community-building aspect.
In a way, that’s true.
But isn’t that what everybody else is doing right now?
Everyone is all over social media, farming UGCs.
And I don’t think that’s our place.
Aeriel and I both know that we sucked at social media. We don’t know how to operate there.
And most importantly, we don’t enjoy the grind.
Besides, we can’t control anything on socials.
Whatever’s the hottest new thing gets the bacon. One moment, someone enjoys your content, and then the next second, they’re scrolling to another shiny video.
Especially on the cookie market.
It’s a low-barrier biz, so even 12-year-olds are our competitors.
And we don’t wanna try beating kids.
So I told Aeriel that we have to answer a million-dollar question…
How do we position ourselves in this saturated market?
It’s tricky. But it’s also crucial.
See, positioning is all about taking control of how the market sees you.
When you “get it right,” it doesn’t matter if you have the best product… You’ll still absolutely profit.
Just like Edgar, the mobile butcher.
Because really, even in a saturated market, there’s always a hole. There will always be a virgin land that we could tap.
What… do you think, it’ll work if we just create a page and then sell to the sweet-toothed people?
Hell nah.
We have to position the biz in the best way possible.
And that’s where we’ll build our marketing.
Right now, we’re looking at 4 areas where we think there are gaps to attack.
- The people
- The method of selling
- The offer
- The voice
I’m pretty sure there’ll be a lot of adjustments when we go in, but right now, there’s a clear path we’re taking. And it all leads to this:
Building our legion of suki.
That’s the plan. That’s our strategy to thrive in a market that’s already crowded.
And positioning is a crucial part of doing that.
It always is.
For more principles to make your email marketing game more impactful, go here: https://johnrillemanalo.com/campaign-test-drive/