TRY TO KEEP UP! How this company continues to flourish despite constant change in the market [Monday Marketing Marvels]
Finances.
Real Estate.
Telecommunications.
Water Distribution.
…and many more.
These are just some of the many industries that this company has interests in.
AYALA CORPORATION
First established in the Philippines as “Casa Roxas” in 1834, the business began with a bulk of its assets invested in a distillery.
In 1968, Casa Roxas was incorporated, under the name Ayala Corporation, and continued to invest in other industries than just distillery.
The Ayala company we are familiar with now is a holding company that offers real estate, property development, retail, water infrastructure, and financial services.
Add telecommunications, electronics, and business process outsourcing to the list too.
This corporation is quick to evolve!
Through the years, Ayala has depended on consumer trust and corporate reliability as its means to appeal to the market.
The company continues to pair new marketing strategies with consistent banners of quality and trust.
The company is also very vocal about its pursuit of progress and nation building—as mentioned in a lot of marketing efforts.
The choice to adapt: Ayala’s Digitalization and Innovation
- Maximizing what technology has to offer
- Still taking into account consumer trust
- Still staying reliable
Ayala Corporation actively engages with customers to understand their concerns mostly in areas of quality of service, convenience, affordability, and reliability.
Ayala created consumer touch points across their businesses using various platforms like:
- Hotlines
- Social media channels
- Websites
- Marketing events
… to name a few.
To further meet the needs of its clients and customers, the company:
- conducts annual and periodic satisfaction surveys and briefings, including regular visits to existing clients when needed
- has been open to immediately address concerns that arise from its consumers and immediately resolve issues reported
One of the main rules in the marketing industry?
Customer Satisfaction.
Trust and reliability are present.
When the clients and customers are happy, the better it is for business.
In the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting held in April 2019, Ayala announced that it will undergo a massive digital transformation.
Ayala Chairman and CEO, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala emphasized the numerous opportunities digitalization brings to the company’s overall state.
In that same year, it gained a foothold in fintech, e-commerce, logistics, industrial technologies, and health tech, and plans to invest substantially in tech innovations globally to help bring the country at par with the rest of the digital world.
Ayala Land, Inc., the corporation’s real estate division, also highlighted the importance of innovation and digital marketing.
The division created its own digital marketing campaign and developed a website that caters to the needs of possible buyers, investors, and customers.
The website content is focused, relatable, and easy to view—everything their target audience needed.
Ayala listened to the market and the trends! It chose to adapt to the ever-changing business environment—a lot of promotions and businesses are now done online.
Looking for ways to innovate in the digital landscape and other platforms also played a big role in the growth of the business.
Take Ayala’s SPARK 5: “Creativity and Innovation Forum on Thriving in the Age of Disruption” event last June 21, 2018 as an example.
SPARK 5 is an annual event where businesses are encouraged to create new concepts and are given the opportunity to learn from each other.
Information about how to better understand the emerging disruptive forces are given. Discussions on how to thrive in this era of extreme change are conducted.
Our President and CEO, Prof. Joel Litman, was one of the experts invited to speak at the event.
He highlighted the connection between valuation and innovation, and how markets favor companies that are able to capitalize on trends in order to innovate.
He also served as a member of the panelists that shared thoughts on the value of innovation in building and safeguarding businesses.
Multiple experts in different fields are given the opportunity to collaborate with different companies and give their insights about business innovations.
From left to right: Rohan Sakpal – Country Managing Director (India) at IXL Center; Paolo Borromeo – President and CEO at AC Health and Group Head Strategy and Development at Ayala Corporation; Dr. Hitendra Patel – Managing Director at IXL Center and Professor at Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto); Ernest Cu – President and CEO of Globe Telecom; Riza Mantaring – CEO & Country Head at Sun Life Philippines Financial; Cesar Romeo – President and CEO at Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation; Cathy Yang – Managing Editor and Anchor at the ABS-CBN News Channel; Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala – Chairman and CEO at Ayala Corporation; Prof. Joel Litman – Financial Innovation Expert at IXL Center and President and CEO at Valens Research; Vince Tobias – Head of Innovation at Ayala Corporation and Board Director at the Global Innovation Management Institute
Last November 2019, the company reported quarter-over-quarter net income growth of 7% from PHP 7.80 billion to PHP 8.30 billion in the third quarter.
Companies under Ayala Corporation such as Ayala Land Inc. and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) also reported net income improvement, at 11% and 39% higher than the reported Q3 2018 net income, respectively.
It’s evident that they made the right decision to go digital and look for ways to innovate.
Ayala Corporation’s Earning Power: Valens Research vs. As-reported numbers
Ayala Corporation makes for a great case study that we come back to regularly. One great reason?
The company has proven itself to be a phenomenal earning power generator.
So, how well has Ayala Corporation been growing its business in the past years?
The research doesn’t lie—nor do the results. Earning power (the blue bars) continues to show results much higher than what traditional databases show.
The blue bars in the chart above represent Ayala Corporation’s earning power (Uniform Return On Assets). These numbers have been positive, going over 10% fifteen times for the past 16 years.
The global ROA average is just 6%
The orange bars are the company’s as-reported financial information. If you relied on these numbers, you won’t see the 11% Uniform ROA (return on assets, a measure of earning power) for 2019. You’d just see the company report less than that, at 4% as-reported ROA.
That’s what you’ll see in Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, and most other databases.
The company’s stock price also performed better than the rest of the stock market over the decade, which we can see in the blue line in the chart below. Their returns have been well above the market.
The numbers show that they have been doing well and making a profit.
For the past years, Ayala Corporation built an impressive digital online experience and organized a lot of events to help everyone in the industry.
The company is dedicated to improving their business growth without compromising their care for the people and the planet.
Ayala Corporation continues to keep a fresh perspective in addressing the wants and needs of its consumers.
No wonder it’s known as one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Monday Marketing Marvels”
Too often, industry experts and the marketing press sing the praises of some company’s marketing strategy.
…Only for the audience to later find out that their product was a flop, or worse, that the company went bankrupt.
The true ROI in marketing can’t be separated from the business as a whole.
What good is a marketing case study if one can’t prove that the company’s efforts actually paid off?
At the end of the day, either the entire business is successful or it isn’t. And the role of marketing is always paramount to that success.
Every Monday, we publish a case study that highlights the world’s greatest marketing strategies.
However, the difference between our case studies and the numerous ones out there, is that we will always make certain that the firm really did generate and demonstrate earning power worthy of study in the first place (compliments of Valens Research’s finance group).
By looking at the true earnings of a company, we can now rely on those successful businesses to get tips and insights on what they did right.
We’ll also study the greatest marketing fails and analyze what they did wrong, or what they needed to improve on. We all make our mistakes, but better we learn from others’ mistakes—and earlier, rather than later.
Hope you found this week’s marketing marvel interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next week’s Monday Marketing Marvels!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
Powered by Valens Research
www.valens-research.com
