MANILA, Philippines — Filipino brands must go beyond memory recall and should add relevance and significance if they want to stand out in an increasingly crowded market, according to leading data, insights and consulting firm Kantar.
In its latest 2026 Kantar BrandZ Spotlight report, Kantar said that Philippine brands that are “best positioned” for growth are those that go beyond salience to build “meaningful difference.”
The consulting firm found three realities for brands operating in the Philippines today: salience without relevance is just noise, relevance evolves with meaningful value and relevance without difference stalls growth.
The market report noted that these realities come at a time when Filipino consumers have become more selective about the brands they choose and follow.
“Growth is not just about being present. It’s about making deliberate choices – staying consistent in your positioning, responding to emerging opportunities and focusing resources on what really matters,” Kantar chief client officer Jose Mari Villabroza said.
The brand report analyzed six categories to see how consumers’ preferences are changing in various product mixes.
In banking, for instance, changing expectations and the rise of digital challengers demonstrate how relevance could shift as consumers find new ways to manage their finances, according to Kantar.
Meanwhile, in the communication industry, the risk brands faced is not relevance but diminishing distinction as connectivity becomes an essential infrastructure to Filipinos, the report said.
“The challenge is no longer to provide access, but to establish a uniquely valuable role in helping Filipinos progress,” Kantar said.
In the general retail category, brands with meaningful different characteristics can disrupt established markets, whether they operate online or offline, the report said.
In automotive, being different must be coupled with consumer desire and trust, while the health supplement category shows how relevance, difference and desirability can work together to make brands feel “worth it” to consumers, the report added.
Beer brands must continually earn their place in consumers’ lives today and must not be complacent with just brand familiarity, Kantar said.
“All the learnings that we’ve gotten across those different categories is that relevance is essentially not owned. It is earned, it evolves and it is also distinguished,” said Briggs Bondad, associate director and client partner at Kantar.
The brand report identified BDO, Shopee, Globe, Red Horse, Centrum and Toyota as Kantar BrandZ’s Most Meaningfully Different Brands for 2026 in their respective categories.
The brands were ranked based on demand power, a Kantar BrandZ metric reflecting consumer preference and predicting a brand’s potential market share based on consumer perceptions.
Kantar BrandZ also identified brands demonstrating significant potential for future growth.
Maya, TikTok and GAC were named Breakthrough Brands, based on their future power scores, which estimate their likelihood of growing value share in the future, according to Kantar.
“Being different will get you noticed. Being meaningful will get you chosen,” said Eva San Gabriel-Claravall, CX and brand leader and head of growth at Kantar.
“So be placeable, not interchangeable because the middle is not a safe position. Earn your relevance, evolve it early from a position of strength and own your space completely,” Gabriel-Claravall added.
Kantar BrandZ’s 2026 Philippine study surveyed 400 respondents in each of six categories: banking, general retailer, communication provider, beer, health care supplement and automotive.