“Sir, have some meryenda first.”

Ma’am Lily, a public school teacher from Concepcion Integrated School in Marikina, never fails to feed both my stomach and soul every week when my students and I go to her. As the teacher-coordinator of Tulong Dunong, the weekly tutorial program of the public school, she coordinates with me, the teacher from the nearby exclusive private school, in terms of scheduling when the weekly tutorials from my high school students will be for her grade school students.

What can a public school teacher like Ma’am Lily possibly teach one about business? What can a public school teacher, armed with a piece of chalk, a bottle of water, and a bayong of handmade visual aids, possibly teach MBA-educated executives in the central business districts? Why, empathy, of course.

B-schools the world over have taught the 4 Ps of Marketing as gospel truth. Ask a business management graduate, a marketing executive, a CEO, or a Senior High Marketing teacher like me what these 4 Ps are and I know most of us can answer that in a heartbeat. And yet, stumbling upon a recent article challenging these 4 Ps have, once again, shaken the foundations of the marketing mix I had taken as God’s revelation.

The article “A customer-focused approach can bring the current marketing mix into the 21^st century” by Dev and Schultz challenges the reader to think about how the 4 Ps have highlighted the side of the producers, and not the consumer. If countless marketing textbooks and professionals say that marketing is all about understanding the needs and wants of the customers and being able to solve their problems through the products or services businesses offer, it seems that the 4Ps have been so obsessed with looking for a solution first before responding to the problem. What happened then was a disconnect between the firm and the consumers. 

This is where public school teachers come in. While I look after my student-teachers teaching Ma’am Lily’s own students, she tells me about each of her students’ lives. As this beloved teacher and I walk around the covered court of the school, she tells me about how a student is doing, their family situation, where they live. She says that because she knows each of her student’s lives, she can tailor-fit her lessons and anecdotes to what is highly relevant to her young pupils. She tells me her lessons are remembered by her former students too because of this.

This astounded me. I asked how Ma’am Lily was able to know so much about her students given that public school teachers were busy doing a lot of things. Compared to private school teachers, public school teachers – on top of their teaching workload and checking papers – also clean the school, run small cooperatives, report to their division head, man the clinic, manage sports teams, handle the wellbeing of hundreds of students, and a whole lot more. 

“We do home visits to check on each student, especially the ones who are having a hard time,” she says.

I also recall her telling me that she devotes weekends to walking around the community and visiting the homes of her students. No wonder she can adjust her lessons, and sometimes even add a motherly touch.

I would say that even before the authors of the SIVA perspective invented this new marketing mix, Ma’am Lily and a lot of teachers in the country have already been practicing and living out the “customer-centered” approach, or rather, the “learner-centric” approach.

Solution: The student asks, “How can I solve my problem?” The teacher then guides the student to solve the problem of the student, but first she has to go “down to the level” of the student 

Information: The student asks, “Where can I learn more about solutions?” The teacher gives out possible solutions to the student through counseling, teaching, or small talk.

Value: The student asks, “What is my total sacrifice to get this solution?” A teacher challenges her student to work hard to be successful in life.

Accessibility: The student asks, “Where can I find the solution?” The teacher, through constant communication and home visits, will guide the student into realizing that the knowledge has been in them all along.

No wonder students always remember certain teachers. In the most vulnerable years of their life, a teacher was there to fully understand their problems by stepping into their shoes. Not only did the teacher understand, but the teacher was able to adjust swiftly and accordingly to the needs and wants of her students. 

Look back to your school days. The teacher you probably remember the most was the one who changed you, because she saw something beautiful in you that you initially never saw. Businesses should also do the same, in that executives and professionals should help consumers find solutions that even customers did not see coming. Only with genuine empathy through seeing the context of the consumer can a business be relevant and connect to its target market. This takes a lot of humility.

I would posit that the main reason for the major disconnect of the 4Ps in the 21^st century is not really because of a flaw in the tooling of the 4Ps, but rather because the approach failed to be human. Business initially was about my profit, my earnings, my sales, or my huge salary. Me, me, me. If businesses learned to understand the needed solutions of its clients, by going down to the level of the consumers, then the brand or business solution may come to be as memorable as your most beloved teacher. – Rappler.com

Romar Richard Chuca is currently taking up his MBA at the Asian Institute of Management. He is a creative individual who loves to educate the youth about life and business. He loves playing the piano, too.