In a recession year, what a surprise it was last month to see a modest Filipino family hauling a big box containing their new widescreen TV. Before they rushed off to do more shopping, in answer to my query they said the purchase was “thanks to the credit cards—their offers are better this month!” 
Off I went to the appliance store to investigate. What I found is that banks were offering extended payment like never before. Credit cards from Citibank and BDO (Banco de Oro) touted “Buy now, pay in 2010” and “Pay much later” schemes. Surely a big help to the Filipino family with a primary breadwinner still working abroad and perhaps a little late coming home for Christmas. Or families still feeling unstable because a member lost a well-paying job in 2009. And banks know that in December, along with splurging on food for their family, the typical Filipino family loves TV Christmas specials and soap operas, now amplified for some in wide-screen splendor.
Photo Credit: www.bancodeoro.com
During a recent in-home consumer visit, a local orthodontist confessed to us that her secret simple pleasure is discovering new ice cream experiences. To her, this is the best reward after a hard week of fitting dentures for her clients. Her lament is that beyond the usual brands, her discoveries tend to be on the premium side. Häagen-Dazs Cafe, for example, has not added branches in Manila.
Talking to consumers one hot day in a lower-income neighborhood of Manila, we stopped by one of the street stores called “sari-sari” (roughly translated, “we sell all kinds”) for refreshment. Excitedly, the storekeeper offered us the hottest drink among the street toughs—Nutri-C, a do-it-yourself, two-in-one energy drink/vitamin C concoction.
Filipino kids are taught not to be wasteful—our moms always reminded us to finish all the food on our plate, not keep the water running while bathing and turn on lights only when it got dark. And in these trying times, this Filipino value of thrift and resourcefulness is thriving, as we noted when we visited consumers’ homes recently. We met one woman who washed her hair using the small dipper pail (“tabo”) that Filipinos use in the bathroom and caught the rinse water in another pail for cleaning the bathroom floors. Some people invert their bottle of shampoo or lotion halfway through the bottle to ensure that every last drop is used and not left clinging to the side.
In times of difficulty, consumers count their blessings—and count what’s in their closet. Somehow, that old thing can be made new again.
The recession opens up opportunities for brands to identify gaps in the market and create products that provide affordable indulgence. Here’s one good example:
There’s a belief that the Philippines is perpetually in crisis mode, but the first quarter of the year has brought more intense worry as job loss becomes a harsh reality. More than 15,000 workers have been laid off in the past two months. Tina Aquino, a housewife we interviewed last week for an ethnographic study, has been preparing for the eventuality that her husband, an engineer based in Qatar, will be laid off. She’s been hoarding their savings and downsizing to the smallest packs possible of the family’s basic necessities. Take, for example, Kraft Eden Cheese, a favorite of her young son’s. Instead of taking it out of her grocery basket altogether and making do with plain “pandesal” (Filipino bread), she bought the smallest size, the 50 gram “Sulit Pack” (loosely translated as Best Value pack), which will fill two or three sandwich snacks this week.
