Philippines – After dedicating two and a half years to the company, John Richard (Chad) Sotelo announced he had been appointed as the inaugural chief marketing officer of Robinsons Land Corporation (RLC). This is concurrent with his role as senior vice president and business unit general manager for RLC Residences.
In a recent exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC, Sotelo unveiled his strategic vision to unlock added value for the business by embracing customer-centricity. He emphasised the importance of delving deeper into understanding their customers’ needs and preferences.
According to Sotelo, understanding customers on a deeper level is a fundamental aspect of marketing, and he is committed to making sure that every marketer in the RLC becomes an expert on it.
Among the things he’s looking forward to prioritising in his new role are maintaining constant and meaningful conversations with customers, handling customer data with the utmost respect for privacy, deriving insights into customer behaviour from consented information, and ensuring that data is treated as actionable insights that flow to the right people at the right time rather than staying as mere statistics.
“There are a lot of untapped opportunities for RLC when we look at things from the customers’ perspective: how they experience each business and how we can improve that by having the different business units work closer together. There’s also tremendous value to be unlocked as we take a step back and look at how RLC can work with the other business units in the Gokongwei Group,” Sotelo told MARKETECH APAC.
Reflections on the leadership journey at RLC
For Sotelo, the last two and a half years have been an eye-opening experience, having to work on and ultimately learn a new industry that is different from his previous ones.
Before joining RLC, Sotelo was working in various industries, including consumer electronics, beauty, and FMCG. Having to transition from these industries to real estate and property development, he considers his journey with RLC to be one that is ‘delightful’ and ‘educational’.
He shared, “A lot of my reflections have been from the point-of-view of an ‘outsider’ to the industry, yet as a ‘veteran’ of using the industry’s product. One thing that really stands out for me is how growth-oriented the industry is, yet the knowledge of the customer is still not as deep as it can be. I’m very excited about how RLC can get even better once it gets to be an expert at knowing its customers, getting insights from this knowledge, and translating those insights into action that brings more value to the customer, hopefully in a unique and differentiated way.”
Navigating the challenges of real estate marketing in the Philippines
Sotelo believes that real estate brands are currently facing the challenge of maintaining their relevance to customers, a trend he sees will continue for the next two to three years from now.
Looking at the current economic climate, inflation remains elevated and is showing no signs of decline yet. High banking interest rates also persist. Furthermore, emerging from a recent pandemic has left many feeling uncertain, impacting confidence levels worldwide. These factors are posing challenges to the real estate industry locally and globally.
According to him, the real estate sectors continue to face distinct hurdles: commercial properties grapple with the shift towards remote work, while hotels, resorts, and malls benefit from a resurgence in tourism. Although residential real estate shows signs of recovery, it has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Nonetheless, Sotelo is determined to face these challenges as he steps into his new role. He underscored the importance of focusing on giving customers options that will serve their current needs, something that RLC will be focusing their attention on with Sotelo now heading their marketing strategies.
“RLC is a well-diversified real estate company, and we will continue to offer customers a broad portfolio of choices that hopefully should cater to their needs. As of YTD (year to date) September 2023, all of our business units were doing extremely well and growing at a fast pace,” Sotelo stated.
In his LinkedIn post, Sotelo also shared, “[I am] proud and honoured to be appointed as the first ever Chief Marketing Officer of Robinsons Land Corporation, concurrent to my current role in leading the RLC Residences division. I get to put back on my marketing geek hat! To say I’m excited is an understatement! Thank you, Sir Lance Gokongwei, for the trust! ”
