Learn about Market Penetration Strategy

The following is an excerpt from The Evangelists: Insights from Leaders of the Nation’s Most Beloved Brands. Written by Monica Padillo, this chapter is titled “On Communicating as Human Beings and Getting to Know Your Audience.” In it, Reyner Villasenor, the VP for Corporate Communications at GCash, is interviewed about how the organization executes its strategy in market penetration.   

Employee Adoption into Mass Adoption

In the last few years, GCash has taken the Philippines by storm, changing how businesses  are carried out as they usher in a digital age of banking. The Philippines is primarily a cash heavy country, with studies showing that less than 10% of the population own a credit  card. GCash strived to change that, promoting the advantages of a cashless lifestyle and  how it is relevant to the world today.  

“What we are selling is not just the product or service, but the lifestyle,” shared Reyner  VIllasenor, VP for Corporate Communications at GCash.  

GCash is the first fintech company in the country, and the first mobile wallet open to all  networks. As a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas-regulated entity, they are partnered with the  Philippine government in their advocacy to digitize 20% of all retail transactions.  

However, before they can properly encourage the public to use their system, Villasenor  believes they should let their employers use their system first. He believes it is part of  company culture to promote love for the brand they endorse. His team works with the  human resources department to promote trust and love in their product among their  employees, introducing them to not only GCash but other Globe products as well from  the moment people join the company. Employees are given Globe postpaid numbers,  and those who work outside the office also get Globe postpaid pocket Wi-Fi units. They  are additionally given GCash Mastercards where their allowances and other bonuses are  credited to.  

Building company love for the brand doesn’t stop at getting the employees to use their  products. Villasenor came up with “GCash Talks,” which are essentially engagement  activities between employees and leaders where they converse about what works and  what else can be improved with GCash. From these discussions, Villasenor and the other  leaders can learn directly from consumers on how they can further improve their product  and communication strategies.  

If the company’s employees themselves have faith in what they try to put out in the  market, it would be easier to communicate their brand to others. “The best way for you  to understand the products is for your employees to be the very first ambassadors to the  outside world,” Villasenor said. 

Part of understanding and building trust in their product is also knowing its history. “The  company’s focus then was talking about how users could actually load their phones using  GCash at a discounted grade,” Villasenor explained. “And then we saw that there’s a big  pain-point in terms of bills payment, so we tried to look into it and how we’re going to  explain it to the public that they could actually do bills payment.” 

From addressing the issue of bills payment, they realized that they can also improve  the overseas Filipino workers’ experience of sending and remitting money. Thus, they introduced the “send money” option, allowing users to send money from one GCash to  another GCash account, as well as transfer money to other kinds of digital wallets and  bank accounts.  

With their three primary transactions, GCash aims to appeal to a broad and diverse  audience. Villasenor thus makes it a point to understand his audiences; for example, he  cited that those who typically avail of the bills payment option are the breadwinning young  professionals, as well as taxi and Grab drivers who use their daily salaries to support their  families.  

Their target audience is also a mix of baby boomers, millennials, and those from generation  Z. The diversity of their audience greatly affects how GCash does their marketing and  communications. “First, we identify who we are talking to, then we identify what our key  messages are,” Villasenor shared. “Because regardless of who we are talking to, the key  messages are actually consistent. What varies is our medium by which we communicate  those key messages.” 

The “key messages” Villasenor aims to promote centers around the convenience of GCash.  GCash intends to address the different “pain points” of consumers and business owners,  and most of those center around convenience. GCash wants to make life easier for all  Filipinos, starting with giving them a better option for their money-related needs, such as  banking, conducting business, and paying bills.  

When appealing to millennials and gen Z youths, Villasenor said they often use the  internet, specifically social media. “With the advent of internet and social media-based  communications, the one thing that they want is information at their fingertips,” he said.  When communicating to them, Villasenor does away with lengthy articles. Instead, he  focuses on using bullet points and bite-sized tidbits of information so they’ll be easier and  faster to understand.  

For the older generation, such as the baby boomers, Villasenor observed they are still more  likely to stick to traditional media, such as radio and print. “They tend to like instructional  videos so there’s still a continuous drive of how-to’s,” he explained. “We do a literal  hand-holding kind of communication where we try to draw them to a certain aspect of a  behavior.” 

Villasenor added that they also research on how to communicate effectively with the  different social classes. When they use Facebook to promote their ads, he targets specific  ads to certain demographics and locations. Meanwhile, when using the radio, they take  care to speak Taglish (a mix of English and Tagalog) and as their target audience for radio  tends to be vehicle drivers, it’s important to make their content brief so it will be more  sustainable and easier to understand. 

“Our approach is tailored to fit our modes of communication in such a way that the  key messages would be absorbed, regardless of the class that the audience belongs to,”  Villasenor said. “If you believe that your service is necessary and needed by the Filipino  people, you go above and beyond to communicate even to those who other marketers  would perceive as insignificant, in terms of business metrics.” 

As a communicator, Villasenor places great emphasis on keeping things genuine and  inclusive. Working in fintech, he has come to understand how valuable trust is as it allows  them to keep operating—without the people’s trust, they wouldn’t be here today.  

In the advent of more automated and electronic means of communication, he called for  people to continue keeping things personal when interacting with others. He wants his  people to talk to one another and their customers the way they would want to be talked  to, and he wants them to be genuine about it.  

“At the end of the day, it’s attributing it to us being Filipinos, as pakikipagkapwa tao  (being one with others),” Villasenor said. “Your communication strategy should always be  grounded on us being human beings and more than selling an idea or selling a concept. It’s  making them understand your purpose, regardless whether you’re talking to employees or  consumers.”

To get more insights from other marketing leaders like Reyner Villasenor, please check out the full book, available for purchase here. 

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