Hermawan, the marketing guru

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There is never a dull moment in listening to Hermawan Kartajaya talk about marketing. His original jokes, easy to understand explanations and poise blend with his high-spirited gestures to make him part teacher, and part entertainer.

The uniqueness of his character has made Hermawan stand out among Indonesian marketing experts and has earned him his own fanatic fans -- not only among professional marketers, but also laymen -- who seek out the Indonesian marketing guru for even the smallest of marketing tips.

"Marketing is so exciting; it's like planning a battle, because one has to develop a strategy to win," Hermawan said.

Hermawan may not have revolutionized marketing strategy, but he has certainly opened people's minds to the idea that marketing is more than selling -- it is a business strategy that every single person in an organization should be able to apply.

"Marketing is too important to be restricted to a marketing department. Everyone in a company should be a marketer.

"It's about winning market shares, consumers' minds and hearts by choosing our market, targeting and positioning our company above others. Without these concepts, a company could not be said to have a marketing strategy," Hermawan explained.

It was these concepts that prompted renowned global marketing guru Philip Kotler to work with Hermawan to write Rethinking Marketing: Sustainable Marketing Enterprise in Asia, which has become a regional bestseller.

"Hermawan Kartajaya is a world-class marketing modeler, who has blended the latest marketing trend with a conceptual foundation. He shows the other side of marketing in this interactive world. The reading is easy, fun and provocative," Kotler commented about Hermawan latest book, Marketing in Venus.

Nowadays, Hermawan said, Information Technology had made consumers more emotional as IT products such as short message services (SMS) and cellular phones provided more room for individual expression.

"Information Technology allows people to express their emotional side. One can send love messages, prayers from the Bible, the Koran," he said.

"So, today's marketing is emotional marketing. How to make customers feel good is more important, as the key to marketing now is winning the consumer's heart."

In Indonesia, Hermawan said that marketing had yet to reach this level as prices, contents and benefits were still the main considerations for consumers.

The life of Hermawan, born in Surabaya on Nov. 18, 1947 as Tan Tjioe Hak, is a classic rags-to-riches tale. In an interview with Matra magazine, he told how his mother had to rent a room in their house to help out his father, a civil servant.

During the interview, Hermawan said it was his father who had pushed him to be more Indonesian, by not allowing him to spend so much time mingling with his Chinese-Indonesian friends.

Because of this upbringing, it is not surprising that Hermawan can be very patriotic at times. Every achievement he has made on the international stage, he deems as a way to honor the country.

"Everywhere you go and everything you do, we must never lose sight of our country, Indonesia".

Humility is one of Hermawan's strong traits, even though he has a vast international experience in teaching marketing at home and at various universities in Asia, the U.S. and other countries.

Becoming the first Indonesian to lead the World Marketing Association -- with 300,000 members around the world -- did not make him arrogant. He continues to share his knowledge and does not mind answering even the most menial of questions such as "what is marketing?" and does so with the same enthusiasm and generosity he displays in answering other questions.

Hermawan did not start in marketing, but began his career as a teacher in his hometown for 20 years.

His affair with the marketing world grew during his teaching years, as he pursued economics at Surabaya University and later, as he worked at PT Panggung Electronic Industries and cigarette maker PT HM Sampoerna in the 1980s.

Hermawan decided to set up his own strategy consulting firm MarkPlus & Co. in 1989 in Surabaya when he felt himself to have gained enough experience and skills as an entrepreneur.

Many frowned upon his chosen profession, because business competition was minimal in the late 1980s -- most major companies had grown because of their close ties with then-President Soeharto family and his cronies. Some of those around him had even suggested that he become a tax consultant instead.

"Anybody could be a tax consultant. There's no challenge in that. I'd prefer to be a big fish in a small pond than the other way around," Hermawan recalled, and so he began his business in a very limited market.

After the ups and downs of running a business in an unfavorable business climate, the late-1990s reform era finally opened the door of opportunity for Hermawan. The government was stripping away monopolies in various sectors, thus forcing many companies to deal with competition for the first time, instead of colluding with politicians and other figures of the state apparatus for their business success.

"In an open market where competition exists, one needs a strategy consulting firm," he said, and these words have turned out to be prophetic in hindsight.

His company is now expanding with 140 employees, branch offices in 14 cities throughout the country and a client list stretching into the thousands.

Top executives and upstart executives are both keen and eager to attend his classes to learn marketing.

Despite his success, Hermawan still has many plans in store.

"I'm never satisfied with one obsession. If I manage to realize one, then it will continue on toward an even higher aim and so on. Just keep going," Hermawan laughed.

One of his current goals is to have his recently released book Marketing in the Capital Market published by the prestigious Harvard Business School Press.

"I think I might become the first Indonesian to have a book published by Harvard," he chuckled at the thought.