Pandora's Other Box: Selling...Argentinean Style...

What was it about the project in Argentina that made it quite unique? It presented a number of challenges: A product to be developed; A “virgin” market for this product, once developed; public skepticism towards any long term investment; no sales force and no marketing structure; no market history; a new company, started literally from “scratch… In other words: from a dream to an idea then, to a plan to be followed by implementation of said plan(with changes along the way) and finally, a reality.

Once the presentation of the product to the press was done, then our work really began. The fact we had been pushed to be ready by November 15^th, a few days prior to the summer/Christmas break instead of at the end of this off-time, turned out to be a boon. We now had almost three months to complete the internal structure of the company (yes, we had a product and a basic administrative structure, but we still had to sell the bloody thing). In Argentina, much like in most other Latin American countries, there were then two well defined markets: The Capital and everywhere else.

Name, when selling a trust based intangible product, is everything in these markets. The “other” companies had names which were recognizable by the potential buyers in Buenos Aires; this was their turf. Our name was not a factor. Our only true assets were the banks which owned the company and their recognition factor, as well as their client base. But they were not locally established Buenos Aires banks. After much planning and checking numbers and possibilities, we had some facts:

1- Basically, around the greater Buenos Aires, no one knew who we were and quite possibly, did not care;

2- We had a puny marketing budget, as compared with some of the other large(r) “local” companies. Most of this would have to be spent simply trying to get people to know our name;

3- Our number of sales points was noticeably smaller, since we only had 4 bank branches (member banks) in Buenos Aires; this, compared to an estimated 150 branches between the first three bank companies.

4- Our product was as good as, if not better structured than, the competition’s.

5- However, to truly get this fact out to the buyers would be a time consuming and budget busting endeavor, since it would take much education in the process. There was really no time for this.

So, what to do? After chewing at the bit and throwing several possibilities around, I simply looked at the team and dropped this little suggestion into their laps: -“Let’s forget Buenos Aires as a viable Market”…. WHAAAAT???!!! Said in unison four of the five board members, and Henry who were, along with me, looking at the overall picture. The only one who did not react in this way was Gabby. He was a trained, experienced marketer and had been extremely successful in launching a number of innovative products and services through his bank’s offices. He just looked at me and smiled, giving me a “thumbs up” sign. Then he launched into a support speech that was right on the money.

-“We are the outsiders in BsAs and will be competing with all these huge banks, who really own the territory” he said, looking at me.

-“It will be a waste of our money, we will be best suited to use our budget as well as our local recognition factor in every other city and region where our banks are the home boys, and these big companies are the ‘nasties’ from BsAs”, I added.

-“That is the best way” he added, right on cue. ”We can leverage our banking name and history in more than 25 mid and major cities and their surrounding territories across the republic”

-“These big boys will then be obliged to fight us in our turf where they are, by virtue of their being from the capital (a fact we will not allow the public to forget), mistrusted by the general buying customer”, I completed the thought.

John, one of the other board members and a friend just looked at us, laughed, and asked “How long did you rehearse this little repartee??” You guys looked and sounded just like an old theater duet. To which I honestly said: “We haven’t, this is just something which came up looking at the overall market picture”.

So out of this brainstorm, was born a marketing campaign which became extremely successful. No, we did not forget the Bs As market. It was just too damn important to at least have a toehold, if not a foothold there. Our 4 (then two more joined in) local branches became the David to the competition’s Goliath. It became a matter of pride to them to sell more than was expected and, in doing their job extremely well we, as a company, came in a strong 5^th in the city. This was great; there were some 14 companies selling in BsAs.

However, out in the “boonies”, as many ‘capitalinos’ (those born and raised in the capital city) were fond of calling anything outside the city limits, we ruled. All our budget went into our different local markets; anything that was printed had an ad; I went into every radio station which could broadcast to anyone, including cows, and talked about the importance of this product, as well as the fact that it was being sold and backed by your local bank (name of bank here) which has served you extremely well for XXX generations.

Actually, it was loads of fun. For a period of six to eight months we could see the baby beginning to hold its head up and to begin taking first steps; then, we saw it begin to, not walk, but run. The company was a success, all should be well…

Yet, a potential failure has no discernible parents; but when there is success, all kinds of political relatives show up. When after the first operational year it was obvious that the company was on its way to being a solid success, those members of the board who had initially shunned us because they could not understand what was being done by this bunch of lunatics, suddenly became a presence to be dealt with at every meeting and, every time they “happened to be in BsAs”, they would drop in, creating a stir, because they “just wanted to make sure all was going well”.

This was a harbinger of things to come but, for now, we were truly enjoying our success.

A Marketing Stamp from Bs As, Argentina, around 1987-88.

Be Well… Be Back!!