Mr. Mike Rios of Microfinance Opportunities livened up the audience at the 2010 RBAP-MABS National Roundtable Conference in Manila on June 3rd with an entertaining and informative presentation on marketing strategies.

“Market like your customer, not like your ‘Mom’” was the first of his three rules of marketing new products. Too often, marketers focus on the benefits that are not tangible to the customer, pretty much like moms lecturing about the benefits of vitamins to their children. Imagining what it is like to be a customer should drive design, branding and marketing decisions. Think of how Flintstones vitamins changed the way vitamins were marketed to children.

Mr. Rios’ second rule is: “Make your product easy to try, buy, and know ‘what’s in it for me’.” A product can have great brand recognition, but if customers do not know what the product does or how it benefits …