GROUP 4

MA. JANE SUMAYLO

ELEONA MARIE TABIGUE
RECHELLE CAJES
JESELLE PAJO
SEMEON ARANES
RAFFY JOHN PENARANDA

CASELET
Inquirer is the leading broadsheet in the Philippines. In 2001, it launched Libre, A free tabloid
distributed in the MRT-LRT area. It was an unprecendented move of a major daily giving away
their newspaper on weekdays and reserving cost solely from advertising revenue.
A. What was the underserved and unserved market Inquirer was trying to tap?
ANSWER:
Underserved - used to describe a place, market, etc., where fewer goods and services are
available than there should be.
Unserved there is totally no goods and services available for the people.
The Inquirer created first a market niches that identified the needs or wants of the
target market that were poorly addressed, that are not at all by their competitors. This
niches showed them underserved and unserved market which were composed of the
commuters of the MRT-LTR stations with 500,000 average commuter per day, even greater
than its intended capacity. Its a very diversed public which includes students, office clerks,
professionals, etc. who rode trains everyday in their school, work and their destinations.
This people were always in a hurry and therefore have no time to read the news. Their age
ranges from 18-40 years old.
B. How strategic is this underserved and unserved market to them?
ANSWER:
Inquirer Libre is an example of level 3 market driving strategy, which saw a major
change in value proposition coupled with a major change in business system. As the leading
broadsheet in the Philippines, Inquirer wanted to broaden its readership base to conclude
younger consumers, so on November 2001, it launched Inquirer Libre. It gave the new
tabloid-size newspaper immediate credibility among its train riders. Instead of selling
newspaper, it gave away Libre for free.

Market-driving strategy is defined as embracing the innovative changes in the

logic of industry and business system to grow its profit and industrys demand from
underserved and unserved markets.
The concepts of market-driving strategy is to grow the brand and the business
long-term, hence, their tools are often short-term, brand switching tactics, designed to gain
market shares. If the companys reward system is aligned with desired strategic thinking,
then market penetration, in addition to market shares, would have to be imposed by
management as part of its key result areas. Without a market-driving strategy, a marketing
plan focusing solely on the served market is incomplete as it risks losing the underserved or
unserved markets, many times, even bigger than the current customers.
C. What are the other key activity changes of the libre system vs. traditional inquirer system?
ANSWER:
Many tabloids in the country have been operating for a long time on a formula of
scandalous attention-grabbing headlines and photos of sexy girls on the front page. One
tabloid, Inquirer Libre, decided to take a different route. Using market- driving strategies,
Inquirer Libre presented its product differently while targeting a new market. As explained
by marketing guru Josiah Go of Mansmith and Fielders, Inc., market-driving strategies, the
latest buzzword in market orientation, call for a breaking of the rules and changing the
value proposition or business system or both to grow profit and demand from new and
marginal costumer. Inquirer Libre is a morning tabloid featuring short news and feature
articles that can be read in 15 minutes. However, Go points out that unlike the other
tabloids, it is given for free at MRT stations. There are no photos of naked women; the total
package is wholesome. The target market consists of office people in their 20s and 30s on
their way to work. Instead of tapping the traditional newspaper dealers, Libres new
channel is in the various train stations. This means no dealer trade margin and no sales
returns, says Go. Inquirer Libre also has a classified ads page that runs every Thursday, a
new reason for the target market to read it.