Pinoy brands aim to break into the global arena

MANILA, Philippines - Five years from now, a Filipino brand could truly go global and equal the success of Asian global brands like Samsung and Sony, a marketing expert told hundreds of participants during the 42nd National Marketing Conference organized by the Philippine Marketing Association(PMA) at the Sofitel Grand Ballroom.

Asia Pacific Research Center (ACRE) president Aniceto “Nick” Fontanilla said prospects are good that a Filipino brand could break through the international market scene and become a well-loved brand around the globe.

“In five to 10 years, there will be a lot of global brands coming from Asia including the Philippines. We will see more competition from the Asian region. From a strictly global perspective, we do not have global brands yet, we are not quite there, but we have trail-blazing Filipino brands which are already growing abroad. We are very hopeful that we can field a Filipino brand as a truly global brand. First, we can make it an Asian brand, then a global brand,” Fontanilla told participants at the conference dubbed “True Marketing Stories Exposed: Revealing Secrets for Business Sucess.”

To be able to break into the global arena, Fontanilla underscored the importance of having a dynamic and strong marketing of Filipino brands and how marketing can greatly help these brands to gain worldwide appeal.  

He said the key is to create an atmosphere where the National Government is fully supportive to develop and promote marketing as a science and profession as this is the key to promote and market Filipino brands.

“Filipino companies as well should be aggressive, creative and bullish in marketing their brands and make marketing a strong component of their companies,  said Fontanilla who discussed the topic “Understanding the State of the Philippine Market,” at the conference.

In Asia,  he said there are currently eight brands that have made it globally from South Korea and Japan.

But with changing time, there could be more global brands from Asia in the next five to 10 years, he reiterated.

In the Philippines, there are a lot of potential brands that could go global. In fact, he said companies like Jollibee, Bench, San Miguel have strong presence abroad but they are not yet established as global brands, compared to the brands of Japan and South Korea.

To get there, he reiterated they have to market their products aggressively abroad.

“The Japanese brand Sony was starting to expand in the US and at first, their executives were hesitant in going all out in marketing their product but when the big boss insisted and poured a lot of money to market their brand and went really all out, it did wonders and look at where Sony is now,” Fontanilla said.

In a recent Travel and Tourism Competitiveness survey, the Philippines ranked 94th in marketing the country as a top tourist destination, Fontanilla said.

“The top five come from European countries. Singapore is on the 10th spot, Hong Kong on the 12th, Japan on the 22nd, Korea is on the 32nd, Malaysia on the 35th and we are on the 94th. Our marketing is not sufficient. We must do something about it,” he said.

He also said that in the Philippines, marketing is not being given much priority and the government is also not doing enough to promote and use marketing as a tool to make Filipino brands competitive abroad.  

First, the government and private sector must join efforts to develop the profession of marketing in the country,” he said.

“ We need the support of the government as we have to have a national agenda to develop and promote Marketing as both a science and profession guided principally by the universal principles of corporate citizenship and corporate responsibility. One way is to create schools that will offer more marketing courses,” Fontanilla stressed.

“There has to be a PMA’s Marketing Institute of the Philippines, not to compete with universities but to partner with universities to make to professionalize the course and produce very good Filipino marketers that will help propel our home grown brands into the global sphere,” he added.

Fontanilla also said it’s high time to invest in intangibles, this means the human capital, the talent and skills of people.

“The intangible investments are important for growth. In British and Sweden, they invest in a lot of intangible investments,” he said.

Fontanilla said there are a lot of Filipino companies who blazed trails in their marketing like Cebu Pacific which pioneered in zero and low fares and thus attracted a lot of customers here and abroad to travel all over the country.

He also cited the case of Greenhills Shopping Center which adopted a “sharing of wealth” strategy when it allowed Maranao traders from Mindanao to occupy spaces at Greenhills to trade their wares.

“These are good marketing examples and I know that it’s only a matter of time where we can have Filipino brands up there in the global sphere,” Fontanilla said.

Other topics discussed at the  42nd National Marketing  Conference also touched on:Investigating the State of Marketing;Captivating Today’s Unfaithful Customer;Marketing War for Talents; Pricing Against the Giants; and Sense and Sensibility Challenge: Marketing the experience.

The two-day seminar gave participants the chance to learn marketing styles from the expert and the discussions gave participant a comprehensive identification and understanding of key factors and temptations that influence market behavior and tips on how small companies can compete with the big ones in terms of attracting potential manpower.

A topic that stoked the interest of the participants is the discussion on digital marketing.

According to Donald Lim, managing director of MRM Worldwide Manila, digital marketing is one of the best ways where one can promote their products and services because their audience is already there.

“Thirty percent of Filipinos are already online, and over 90 percent are socially networked,” he said.

“We Filipinos have a very high level of digital maturity, which is why there is depth in how we use the internet,” he added.

But he pointed out that digital marketing is often misused and misunderstood in the country and that is why most digital initiatives fail to meet expectations.

An effective way to address this is for marketers to be involved in information dissemination on the pros and cons of digital marketing.

“Given that the world of marketing is evolving towards digital, it is about time that the marketers play an active role in educating and having the industry appreciate and understand the benefits, powers and risks of digital, Digital has its rewards if done right and backfires and threatens the brand if done wrong,” Lim said.

PMA President Von Hizon- De Torres said this year’s NMC takes one to a deeper and more comprehensive look into the ever-changing landscape of Philippine marketing.

“We took the stories of real people who took a bold step and made an impact in the industry and shared it to others,” she said.