I have a blast on the last Philippine Retailers Association’s Conference and Expo that ended yesterday. For one, a lot of my marketing theories came alive thru the examples of the different speakers. All speakers are practitioners and their stories are case studies, making the encounter with these speakers a wonderful learning moment.

Here are the three lessons that reverberated in my mind in this recent event.

1.  Innovation…Innovation…Innovation

The retails industry is a very competitive arena. All players must innovate continuously or suffer a painful death.

Every speaker in the event exhort, lecture and cite examples how a company neglects to innovate in this retail space suffered a fate worse than death. Indeed, the behavior of the market is very fickle and monitoring even a slight change on the market’s behavior is a paramount objective.

2.       Experience as the new commodity

My mind is pummeled by almost all speakers mentioning that as all products offset in the technology and feature side, winning the competition is how you manage the customer experience. It is how sales would be made by offering an experience that customers would love and remember.

This is the reason why Customer Loyalty Rewards Program is a hot commodity nowadays.  See more of Customer Loyalty.

3.       Philippines  as one of the new emerging economy

Did you know that the average age of the Filipino is 22 years old? This data shocked me. Learning this fact, ideas came surging into my brain circuitry. This is one critical data that led other countries to invest on us and more investments are coming. In fact, our robust economy is an indication that things are looking-up for us.

One speaker even declared that the Philippines, in the very near future, will hit its sweet spot in terms of growth. I can’t wait for that. In fact, I am deep in my preparation,  by seeking opportunities to take advantage before the upswing happens.

There you go; these are 3 Lessons that crystallized in my mind in my two days stint in the event. I hope you also take advantage of this!