Have you found your Blue Ocean yet? Part I

Before everyone gets paranoia, I just want to clarify that everyone and every business can have their own marketing plan or strategy without relating it to their own BaZi. This post is for the small businesses, sole-proprietors and freelancers who have little or no budget to run a mega marketing plan with money to splash in advertisement, branding or packaging their products and services. Big corporation and business have the capacity to employ the experts to do the research and planning to ensure that their products and services capture the right market as well as the distribution of the products runs smoothly. Yes, marketing and distribution of a business's products and services run hand in hand. In fact it is part of the whole business strategy of a company.

Usually smaller businesses, sole-proprietorships and freelancers offer their speciality on products and services that are unique. It is very hard for them to draw the fine line to separate their business from themselves. Their existence is very important for the business to go on. If you fit into this category you may want to refer to your BaZi as a guide to where you should concentrate your limited resources for your marketing strategy.

There are few methods which I feel can be used in the study of five elements and Ten Gods in BaZi that can guide the small business owner on the marketing strategy that they can undertake. Marketing and distribution strategy open up opportunities, i.e. new market, increase in market shares and good name, for your products and services. Where opportunity is concern, it can relate to the one's Useful God. Another method is to find the element in your children palace. The children palace also represents your output palace and, hence, it is also your products and services. You also can use your Day Master as a referencing point in determining your marketing strategy too.

Once you know the elements of the above components (Useful God, Output Palace and Day Master) you can choose either one for your marketing plan. Of course, the Useful God is our first choice. If you can use all the three components together it would be even better.

The following are the elements in relation to the marketing counterpart. Besides the elements, the Ten Gods can also be used in interpreting the marketing strategy that you can carry out.

The wood element is about networking especially for Yi Wood. There are a lot of small businesses depends on word of mouths to market their products and services. Even big corporations adopt this strategy by employing agents to do their sales like insurance, unit trust and multi-level-marketing agents. This enables the services to meet the people in a more personal level. It is very useful if your products and services relates or touch people life in a personal way like insurance for health purpose, unit trust for retirement and multi-level marketing where products are a daily necessity i.e. foods and toiletry. The Companion Stars, Rob Wealth and Friend Stars, can relates to this strategy as well because Companion Stars are about people matter.

While Jia Wood is also about networking, it is slightly different from Yi Wood. Jia Wood is about branching out. It associates with distribution of the products and services to reach their customers at the ground level. It gives a feeling of public and business like term. For example the banks have many branches across the country as well as in the world. Or like McDonald and KFC have their franchises all over the world.

The Fire element is always related to media advertising like the radio and TV commercial that's always run at the peak hour (where its irritates everyone because commercial period is too long). All these are big budget marketing, smaller businesses hardly have the kind of money to run that kind of promotion. This type of marketing has the Bing Fire feature. Although in some of the advertisement, the ideas and stories line may contain some other elements in it. For example, the Digi's Yellow Man with the line "I will FOLLOW you" and the 7-Up's Frizzy Hair Boy called Fido Dido created a wave for their product image. Everyone loves the advertisement. Guess what! It has the water element features. Advertisement like the PETRONAS shown during the festive seasons usually run the ideas of patriotism has the Geng Metal element.

Bing Fire like Sun shines on to every part of the world. This relates very much to the Sun newspaper where they offer their newspaper to the people for free. You can find the newspaper at every corner or at three foot way on the street. This is the Sun quality, easily available and it is free too.

Besides the Bing Fire, running a marketing strategy, with the Ding Fire element is more economical. Ding Fire features are about showing people the way, guiding them and also educating them. Hence, giving information is part of the Ding Fire natures. Likewise, the Gui Water and Ji Earth can also adopt this strategy. These two elements is about nurturing others, being resourceful and creative. Blogging is part of this elements as marketing strategy which is quite popular nowadays. If you have read the article written by Joey Yap "Braving the new world" you will know the Jia Zi for blogging is Gui Wei which contains exactly the three elements of Gui Water, Ji Earth and Ding Fire with an additional of Yi Wood, which is networking at personal level.

Besides blogging, distributing flyers that give information of your products and services, and advertisement in the newspaper which has a short article of your products and services also fall into these three elements.

Likewise, contributing articles to the newspaper or giving talk on the radio station like what Joey Yap has done and now follow David Koh about Chinese Metaphysics is also part of the marketing strategy that falls under giving information which is related to the Gui Water, Ding Fire, Ji Earth and Yi Wood. Information, research and education relates to your Resource Star.

Where Wu Earth, Geng Metal and Xin Metal are concerned, branding and creating a good name for your product and services are important. Wu Earth and the metal elements natures are being loyal and trustworthy as well as about doing the right thing. Ensuring your products that are safe to use especially in the foods industry is very important and, hence, the Wu Earth and Geng Metal plays an important role. Wu Earth and Geng Metal is also part of the elements that offer protection and security.

The features mentioned above also relates to the Influence Stars that are the Direct Officer and Seven Killings.

Milo which is one of Nestle products has created a powerful brand image. Even if you go anywhere, you will notice that people from younger to older generation refer to chocolate and cocoa beverages as Milo. The brand loyalty is so strong that it has replaced the name of the ingredient that makes Milo with "Milo" itself.

To site a recent case, Toyota, one of the famous Japanese car manufacturing, has recalled many models of their cars thus making huge losses. There were many controversial in the company regarding the recall but what is important here is to ensure that the company image to manufacture quality and safe cars is intact. The message is "No customer safety will be compromised". Therefore, Wu Earth and Geng Metal qualities win through. Although the current situation may not be favourable to Toyota but rest assures the current recall will fortify and assures their customers that Toyota's cars are of the top qualities.

Many of the big corporation will not hesitate to recall their faulty products if necessary because if they do not do so, the brand they have created will lose out. Recent scare of melamine case had made many diary companies recalled their products as well.

Another good example is the Lee Kam Kee's Oyster Sauce which at one time used to be very famous household products. However in June 2001, Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) singled out various brands of Chinese and SouthEast Asian sauces and Lee Kum Kee products with known carcinogens 3-MCPD and 1,3-DCP contamination at levels hundreds of times higher than those deemed safe by the UK and European Union. In July 2001, FSA issued another statement clearing Lee Kum Kee's name after the company produced laboratory certificates from accredited, reputable laboratories. These certificates shows that Lee Kum Kee products now comply with the proposed EU limit for 3-MCPD but 1,3-DCP has no standard to meet. Although, the company has take the necessary stepped but the scare of contamination had caused a huge dent on Lee Kam Kee's image as well as the brand itself.

Where creating a brand name is concerned, the two important features to create are trust and safety.

There are other products and services that create the brand name by creating the feel good image. It uses a lot of beautiful packaging and stylish imaging. These features relate to Xin Metal. High end fashion, watches and car uses this strategy to market their products. The companies of these products appoint an ambassador to promote their products by showing-off their stylishness. Those ambassadors are usually the famous models and public figures.

Besides engaging a famous ambassador to promote your products, you can also package your products with nice qualities material whereby it give an image of higher value and quality. This is what Xin Metal does, to execute a quality icon.

What can cause a wave? The Ren Water element, the ocean is the wave. Ren Water always associates with mystery, intelligent, innovative and creativeness.

W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne come up with the "Blue Ocean Strategy". Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy that creates new demand in an uncontested market space then by competing head-to-head with other suppliers for known customers in an existing industry. I am not sure how far the "Blue Ocean Strategy" relates to the Ren Water element as I have yet to read the book but the first key concept of the strategy is about value innovation which is also a feature of Ren Water.

There are a few products and services that are causing new waves at the moment. They are the Apple products i.e. iPod, iPhone and iPad, facebook and twitter. These are all innovative products.

The dot.com industry during the year 2000 is also a wave. It is about a spirit of entrepreneurship at that time that made everyone want to be part of it without logical and rational behind the whole scheme.

Imagine! "The surfer dudes who run into the ocean with high waves on their fragile surfing board". Some people may think this is madness but this is the beauty of the mysterious ocean, the Ren Water, that call on to you.

George Lucas, the famous film producer, was able to create this wave with his film, Star Wars (A New Hope in 1977, The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of The Jedi in 1983). Every child then wanted a piece of the Star Wars toys. The Star War wave is so strong that even his latest three episodes of the movie flopped; it does not affect the image of Star War in the people's mind much. Star Wars is still one piece of a great movie.

My brother has a good numbers of the Star Wars toys collection till now. You know what? He does not even let his son touch it. I think he is crazy when it come to Star Wars. I cannot really comprehend with his obsession on the Star Wars' stuff. How about you guys out there?

There are also famous singers who created wave of people to attend their concerts like Michael Jackson, Beetles, Bon Jovi and Elvis Presley. People mindlessly love the performance.

There are also lesser waves where little or no innovation involved. This little wave may have some relation to Gui Water element. McDonald created a few in Malaysia with the "Hello Kitty" and "Snoopy" toys. Do you still remember the amount of people queuing for the "Hello Kitty"? Can you tell me why it is so important to have one of those "Hello Kitty" now? I bet nobody know or remember.

To be continue…