The Philippines as a brand

The writer remembers attending the awarding ceremony (in an Eastern European city) where the business community honored the Best Brand Managers of the Year. There was a similar buzz when a Western marketing guru – who wrote the marketing 101 textbook – came to town to preach marketing. In the ‘take-away sessions’ with friends, the writer saw a bunch of happy, confident people – ‘they confirmed why we’re beating the hell out of competition’! (Disclosure: the writer trains them periodically; among them a PhD candidate who tapped the writer as mentor – ‘Brand Loyalty’ was her dissertation topic.)

Tourism ads are plentiful in Europe; and among the campaigns that come close to what the CEO of Pepsi or Colgate would call 360-degree or integrated marketing is the one from Macedonia. Beyond TV spots, a Western financial channel had an entire program devoted to the investment opportunities they offered – which was aired several times, TV programs being normally rebroadcast. While India says that their ad campaign worked. Bottom line: campaigns generally work especially in a globalized world because people are curios what other countries can offer? But they also generate negative word-of-mouth. Two friends separately related to the writer how they were ‘fleeced’ (like him, but the raw oysters were to die for!) in this one country (also airing an ad) that has gained global attraction recently.

The Philippines is lovely indeed – that tourists must seek! And we can mirror a 360-degree campaign even if it’s not to the extent global brands do. For example: Is the campaign simple, focused and congruent? ‘Nice’ is not the acid test! Starting with the product: In tourism the product is ‘the experience’ – which attractions will generate the greatest number of experience seekers? And Pareto’s 80-20 is the rule of thumb – to achieve cost-effectiveness not every conceivable destination should make ‘the experience’ yardstick. In one word, focus! This is where influence peddling or our bias for inclusion could again undermine our efforts? The first words from Steve Jobs after rejoining Apple that had acquired his venture, Next: “What’s wrong with Apple? The product sucks – because you’ve lost focus”!

The Philippine experience is to die for! That can be an apt platform (not yet a slogan; the thought process has to proceed and identify our strongest differentiating facet, e.g., ‘beauty ‘plus’ what?’) upon which to build a 360-degree communication campaign. But even the best destinations can’t stand alone – a banana peel may not really cover its blemishes, i.e., deficient airports, interisland transport and logistics and even unkempt restrooms can spoil ‘the experience’? And Secretary Lim himself has made the point. (Disclosure: the Lims are family friends.) ‘Beauty ‘plus’ what?’ As a ‘differentiating positioning’ it must capture ‘the ultimate experience’; and thus we must strive to live out the image. We don’t want corruption and trade barriers like closed skies to undermine the message and the campaign?

The pricing: We are still lower-cost than many. But the challenge is how to segment the market: which ones are 5-star and which ones are not and who are the target groups – what is that experience they seek that we can offer? Pricing is not low-pricing per se. Pricing is value – the value we offer must be consistent with the quality of the destination and responsive to the respective target groups.

The promotion: Not just who but what are they, our target groups? Because we have to design a 360-degree campaign around them and thus the media to utilize – i.e., ‘intrusively capture’ their senses – that indeed ‘the Philippine experience’ is to die for – and employ the media that will best, optimally, reach them.

Marketing goes beyond branding; it is about: (a) the bottom line – ‘show me the money’; and (b) leadership – to inspire bottom-line delivery. Have we set realistic revenue goals so we could ascertain the investment levels to pour into tourism? What is our competitive advantage in product, pricing and promotion that will raise probability of meeting these goals? There is no certainty in business but the key is to keep raising . . . raising . . . raising success probability! (Or why we’re economic laggards – i.e., we keep rationalizing our missteps instead of being dialed up and no-nonsense?)

And if tourism is a strategic industry because of revenue size, then the leadership, from President Aquino down the line, must indeed live up to the message, ‘take ownership’ and commit to delivering the bottom line? Marketing may sound challenging, but we can always find refuge and comfort in: ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’! [Da Vinci]