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REGIONAL
fashion awardee Gil Z.C. Carungay, chief executive
officer of Avatar Accessories Inc., strongly recommended
to fellow exporters and those eyeing the world market to
study their target market well, analyze their specific
market trends, and keep studying consumer behavior
without the bias of the behavior they know about the
local market.
“At the
end of the day, it all boils down to efficiency,
infrastructure and the supply chain,” Carungay said in
his talk in Cebu last week after receiving the Gold
award in the prestigious Asian Fashion Jewelry and
Accessories Design Competition in Hong Kong.
The
award confirms “there’s a lot of potential for Filipinos
to break out in the world market. However, we need to
understand the changing consumer behavior,” said
Carungay, a finance marketing graduate of Wharton
University.
Consumer
behavior, he said, cannot be assumed, saying some would
buy a $2,000-bag but would patronize budget stores for
other products. He added this is just one factor in the
exports market that leaves companies like Avatar
squeezed in between the high-end brands and those at the
mass-market level.
In the
fashion jewelry and accessories industry, the low end is
dominated by the Chinese, and Filipino exporters like
Avatar capture less than 1 percent of the $1.3-billion
worldwide market with exports of $61 million last year.
China, he added, accounts for $900 million.
“So, how
can we compete with
China,
with its dedicated cheaper labor and steady supply of
raw materials? There’s got to be a holistic approach by
the government in terms of support to Filipino
exporters,” he said. “The band-aid, piecemeal method
that we have now doesn’t work.”
Avatar
also invests heavily in research and development, paying
as much as $25,000 for a market study on the global
fashion jewelry industry.
According to Carungay, he sets aside 8 percent of annual
profits for R&D as well as P14 million to participate in
international trade shows.
For
Rowena Cruse, owner of furniture exporter Superior
Export and Import Products, tapping new markets helped
mitigate the negative impact of a strong peso and a
softening demand in the United States, but added the US
still accounts for a large share of furniture exports
with 30 percent.
“Countries in the Middle East, especially
Dubai, offer choices for us in these times,” said Cruse. |
