BA 170 Gardenia Reaction Paper

Doria, Sheena DC. BA 170 Reaction Paper on Excellence thru Strategic Innovation: A Talk by Mr. Simplicio “Jun” Umali, Jr. President & General Manager Gardenia Bakeries (Phils.) Inc.

“Masarap kahit walang palaman.” This is the famous emblem of Gardenia Bakeries Philippines that captured the majority of the market shares in the bread and pastries industry. This trademark has put Gardenia into the top bakeries and bread stores not just in the Philippines but all over the world. “Set you own vision for your own career. Plan your action. Set objectives. Work passionately to achieve it.” This is what Mr. Umali told us on how Gardenia has reached its success as their profits boost from 137M in 1998 to 3.4B in 2013. We can see that these suggested steps towards success cannot just be applied to the business but also in real life, as a student. From the very start, I was already dazzled when he told us that he will speak about his successes and also his challenges rather than failures as a Gardenia President and General Manager. I told myself to call all my undertakings and failures as challenges, as inspired by Mr. Umali because it’s the right way of living life, being positive. In our Marketing Classes and especially in our long exam examinations, the concept of value is always stressed and in the talk of Mr. Umali, he also stressed this concept. He told us that salaries don’t matter. What is more important is that you need to aim to bring about great value in the company and most especially to yourself. We can decipher from his speech that he is very passionate about his work and at the same time, he’s happy about it. He taught us that money is not everything. Furthermore, with the ever changing environment especially the marketing environment, every business needs constant innovation to remain in the industry. As emphasized, companies need to have continual improvement to keep pace with the competitors. Everyone, even individuals, needs reminders so that we don’t settle for less and be stagnant in the present if we can have better ones in the future. Additionally, one thing that I especially remembered and will always remember is the fact the advertising is really free. It was proved by Gardenia

especially in their introduction stage of their pastry products wherein they have no capital to invest in promotions. It’s amazing that their promotions are effective even though they are free. The simplest way of advertising like wearing Gardenia shirts will go a long way. I also think that their commercials as shown during the talk is effective especially the Gardenia “Kilig” wherein, eating the bread will make you wiggle and giggle like “kinikilig”. Their commercials make me want to buy the products and I feel like I can already smell the aroma of their bread just from looking at it. The 4Ps of Marketing which is compose of the place, price, product and promotion are very essential towards every objective. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) especially highlights the importance of the 4 th P which is promotion. IMC tells us that we should not be confined to the traditional way of advertising such as TV Commercials since there are better ways of doing so, such as using the social networking sites to take advantage of people’s interest to the advanced technology. Other ways of advertising are through Corporate Social Responsibilities, word of mouth, direct marketing and the newest form is the mobile marketing. It was proven by Gardenia that developing a product was never easy. It needs a rigorous market research to know what the customers really need. It needs to have different trials of the flavors in its breads to know what will hit the market. As Mr. Umali said, “Customers tell us what to do” and so, Gardenia made a way to satisfy customer wants. As we can see nowadays, Gardenia made the people remember their brand name and not just the perception of “Tasty” bread. Gardenia has established its brand name so that people will call every bread or pastries that they see as Gardenia, as in calling all brands of toothpaste, Colgate, or Xerox on all the photocopying machines. Though I was not a fan of Gardenia bread and haven’t noticed it, I appreciated the way the packaging was made. The flowery top which signifies gardenia as a flower amazed me and I hope that customers will realize it, too. Though originated as an American Bread, Gardenia has made it with Pinoy touch not just the taste, the softness and aroma that Filipinos love but is also shown to the packaging of Gardenia with the yellow color in it. The freshness color-coded G-lock is so amazing, too. I realized that telling the public about this G-lock is both advantageous and disadvantageous at the same time. It’s advantageous in the sense that there’s an effort for Gardenia to let us know their standards of freshness of their bread. On the other side, the disadvantage is that people will immediately see if it’s not freshly baked or not and that it can affect Gardenia’s reputation and image. It is also good to note that despite Gardenia’s fast growing success in the industry, it does not forget to give back to the Filipino as their corporate social responsibility. Aside from giving jobs to the unemployed through their Pedicart programs, they also give back through other livelihood projects, scholarship programs, health and environment programs.

What has been emphasized by Mr. Umali is the 4P advantage of Gardenia that outcast its competitors. These are their world class Plant where everybody wants to tour to, Process which includes the administration, their manufacture of breads and other pastries, best quality Products and their People that are passionately executing strategies and programs in the company. What is best about Gardenia and was highlighted many times by Mr. Umali is that they especially credit their success to the people who work for them. If I were an employee of Gardenia, I would be very motivated because our president is very proud and value our contributions to the company. He emphasized that the plant, process, and products are static and so the most important element for the Gardenia is its people, thus making the company, employee or people-centered. This is one characteristic that a company must possess because motivated and determined employees can bring success to the company as we have studied in Organizational Behavior. Do things differently or do things better. This has been the guiding light and guiding principle of Gardenia and in real life of Mr. Umali that will make a difference in our life. Furthermore, “the jar concept” which was introduced during the talk inspired us to do it in stages, don’t rush things and plan everything well. Little by little, through perseverance we can reach the success. Furthermore, it also tells us that if we finished or achieve a goal, we should not stop improving and fill another jar to begin again. A good planning is just the first step in every success. Market penetration objective or the capturing of the market shares will not be achieved in a snap. So, just like the Programmed Geographic Market Penetration, target markets should be slowly and slowly captured through bigger and broader scopes one at a time. I feel so lucky to have heard the talk of Mr. Umali. Even if it’s not required, it’s very worthwhile listening to it. He just shared things that can be applied in real life and not just in Marketing. The whole lecture is very inspiring and at times, I couldn’t help but to clap my hands. He is so humorous that it can catch everyone’s attention. I feel that he really deserves a standing ovation for the whole speech or talk he delivered. I feel so fulfilled going out of Sarmiento Hall. It’s the first time that I attended a lecture that I didn’t feel any sleepiness because the whole speech is so lively. He is just so amazing!