Men's Magazine Faux Pas

A Philippine Men's Magazine drew flak for a supposedly "racist" cover.

In many Asian countries, fair skin is a prized characteristic for women. Whitening products are a million dollar industry. As a consequence women with darker skin tones tend to be discriminated upon.

The cover featured a fair lady basking in the spotlight while dark skinned women are relegated to the background.  A caption "Stepping out of the Shadows" appears at the bottom purporting that being dark skinned does not warrant a woman to be a star in her own right. The uproar and indignation caused by this controversy has forced the magazine to pull its cover from circulation.

Marketing Luck

Prosperity symbols and lucky charms seem to be big in Singapore. It gets even more pronounced during Chinese New Year festivities. Getting the favor of the universe is never a bad thing when ushering in the new year.

McDonalds Singapore knows very well the psychological power of this and proceeded to come up with a fitting product: the Prosperity Burger. I personally tried it and did not feel the least bit prosperous. I felt the peppery sauce was too strong and salty. The sauce was so gooey that the whole thing was just one hot mess.  

The business of utilizing symbols of luck to market products is not a new thing. Though it seems to be more pronounced in Chinese communities.

I remember my boss telling me about this story. It was a time when the Singapore economy was experiencing much drawbacks and hardships. The government, worried about the country's state of affairs, decided to consult a Feng Shui expert to assess the situation and recommend possible solutions. The expert, after applying Feng Shui principles, concluded that because of the railway project being constructed at that time, it disturbed the "mythical dragon" residing underground. The said project has actually injured the dragon's spine. To counter the bad luck brought about this, the advise was to have as many pakwa/bakwa (the octagonal shape which symbolizes luck) in every household. How to convince the diverse racial groups in Singapore can pose a challenge. The solution, reach in your pocket for a one SGD dollar coin and look at the edges carefully. See the shape just inside the round border? That is the pakwa/bakwa. Legend has it that Singapore's economy grew to leaps and bounds after that and the rest was history.

I'm not sure if I got the details of the story right. But that was the gist of it.

Interesting, isn't it? So when marketing to a specific group or community, it would be beneficial to know their long held beliefs and symbols that represent happiness and prosperity then start from there.

Changi Millionaire

Changi Airport has always been my favorite airport. Not only because I'm based in Singapore, but really, it is simply the best in terms of facilities and services.


So I was at the Tampines train station a few weeks ago when I saw a couple of sales people giving out an orange paper bag to commuters. Not knowing what it was, I was handed one and I curiously accepted. Upon opening the bag, I found a flyer promoting the Changi Millionaire contest. At that point, I had no idea what it was. The flyer was inviting people to vote for the contestants vying to win a million Singapore dollars. It also stated that the winners will be announced at the Changi T3 airport and a special "gift" awaited the first 300 attendees.

Since I am a marketing executive, I am always curious to see marketing events and gimmicks. I trekked to the airport that Sunday to find out what it was all about.


The queue still wasn't long when I got there but it quickly grew to a couple of meters. Once we reached the registration desk, we were given an egg-like plastic toy which had the voting coupon inside. The voter is supposed to write down their info as well as their contestant of choice.

We then had to drop the egg with our ballot in the corresponding box. While we were doing this, waiters were walking around offering drinks - a cute pink concoction (which I thought was Sprite with some coloring).

The program began with a dance number from a couple of students. The hosts then welcomed the guests and invited the contestants on stage.

There were seven contestants vying for the grand price. They were to best each other in three challenges. I would not detail the challenges anymore in this post. But they were really fun and managed to capture the attention of the audiences.


The hosts were pretty engaging too. I don't think I caught their names. I just moved to Singapore so I'm still trying to get to know local celebrities. The guy was hilarious. They were both great.

The second challenge where contestants have to guess the number corresponding to the
Visa or  Changi logos behind it.

Oodles of cashhhhhh!!!

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Finally the winner is announced. Jessica Down from Perth Australia. So lucky and seems like a sweet girl too. She said she will be throwing a big party for family and friends and probably buying a new apartment. Sweeeetttt!

One girl who voted for her also won S$1,000. Unfortunately, I voted for someone else. Dang!

After the event, we were given our special gift (I was one of the first 300 people who lined up). It was a cute Angry Birds stuff toy. 

Buffet was then served to the guests. It was really yummy too not some cheap ass caterer. Nothing but the best from Changi, of course! 

The event was so much fun. Kudos to the event organizers. I will surely join the next round. Better start shopping. The contest starts in May. 

Are You a Sell Out?

I've never been comfortable seeing myself as a sales person. I'd rather be labelled as a marketing professional creating sophisticated marketing strategies to win over customers.

Sales for me pulls up images of those annoying credit card salespeople shoving application forms in your face. Or those infuriating telemarketers who call you in the most inopportune time, never let you put a word in and just run through their product spiel while you get billed for every second of their nonsense. I wasn't raised to be rude or anything but in this case, I won't hesitate to hang up.

Being in sales would be like a death sentence. A death sentence to my dignity that is. I have to swallow heaps of my pride and open myself to rejection, ire or outright ridicule. And to close that sale you have to keep smiling like a simpleton and nodding your head to whatever crap is thrown at you. 

That to me is my impression of the sales profession. Yeah, you get to enjoy a windfall of huge commissions when you successfully seal a deal. But not after having your ego crushed by unapologetic jerks who either play you or just want you out of their faces. Obviously, sales is not for the sensitive types. The balance of power is not likely to be in your favor.

This long held view seemed to be challenged by an article I read on Success Magazine. It was a letter from the editorial director Darren Hardy. 

Hardy suggests that sales is actually not a bad word. It is something all of us engage in every single day. Whether we want to recommend a good movie to a friend or convince your husband to try a new restaurant we saw online, it is simply the art of influencing people. Whether or not you stand to gain directly from the persuasion, life will be so much easier if you have the life skill of convincing people to do what you want.

Like today, I was telling a friend about this small company printing photos on wood and frames them. They come our real nice and artsy. She got interested and asked me for their contact number. I didn't realize it but I was actually pitching this company without them knowing about it and me handsomely compensated for it. I guess for me when money is involved in recommending stuff, the credibility goes down a little bit. More so if you are pitching to strangers and you become nothing more than the company's mouthpiece to be dealt with with caution and a healthy dose of skepticism. 

Hardy disagrees and goes on to say that we must change our perspective on the word "sell," and think of it as giving "help" or "advice" to a person who needs it. Instead of pitching a memorized spiel, why not consider the person's dreams, aspirations or problems that need solutions and take it from there.

It got me thinking that indeed this is a great paradigm shift in philosophy. It goes on to quote Zig Ziglar's teachings "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want." This the power of reciprocity. I thought yeah, makes sense.  

So rather than looking as salespeople as bottom of the barrel scumbags willing to lie, cheat and steal to close a sale, there are a few diamonds in the rough genuinely willing to help. 

But I do think the timing and conditions are equally important to prime the potential buyer to listen to what you have to say. Unfortunately, lousy telemarketers and aggressive credit card salespeople are just clueless. 

While I haven't completely fallen in love with the sales profession, I think I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Marketing, however, is still my first love.