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The quest for marketing brilliance has once again unearthed outstanding performers of the year to the centerstage.
The Philippine Marketing Association’s 30th Agora Awards, the beacon of Filipino marketing excellence that spotlight admirable qualities of versatility, innovativeness and ingenuity, has brought another fresh batch of corporate and individual winners who have made a difference and a huge contribution to the country’s economic machine through excellent marketing strategies. Despite the threats of financial instability and global recession, along with natural disasters that took a huge toll on some businesses, these entities have shown remarkable resilience that have successfully helped them weather the storms.
Moreover, this year’s awards also highlight how corporate profitability can transcend to businesses acting on a bigger role in providing greater attention and positioning better intention to social impact and socio-economic development in their plans and activities.
FISHING THE WORLD OVER
Alliance Tuna International Inc., a publicly listed company and one of the leading canned tuna manufacturers in the Philippines, has the world’s attention as their high-quality tuna and salmon products are currently exported to over forty countries. Even though they are not exactly a household name here in the Philippines, the global clamor for their products is too loud not to hear. In fact, despite the lack of larger-than-life advertising campaigns, they remain one of the most profitable corporations and is the 2009 Agora Awardee for Export Marketing.
“We don’t have aggressive TV and radio campaigns. Our biggest marketing strategy, through the leadership of our president and CEO Jonathan Dee, is to ensure that we have first-rate quality products,” said Teresita Ladanga, SVP and COO of Alliance Tuna. “We participate in international food shows to showcase these products, along with some of the best food companies in Paris, Boston, Japan, China, the Middle East, Indonesia and Thailand. And because we offer good factory, good products, and good practices, we get accredited and the rest of the world took notice. This is basically how we market ourselves.”
FILIPINO STAMP IN INNOVATION
Procter and Gamble is one of the globally recognized corporations in the world. And it is definitely a feat that the highest-ranking and only Asian Female General Manager in P&G’s Global Cincinnati Headquarters is a Filipina. Ms. Fama Francisco leads upstream innovation for Pampers – P&G’s biggest brand that touches the lives of 35 million babies in over 100 countries around the world every day. Her outstanding leadership that has exquisitely displayed Filipino talent among her foreign colleagues has earned her this year’s Agora Awardee for Overseas Marketing Excellence.
For Francisco, what sets Filipino marketers abroad is their innate strength and inquiry-based leadership. “We are very analytical, very creative and very resilient. Filipinos are also known to be one of the most collaborative people in the world, which is very effective when you work in a multinational corporation,” Francisco shared. As technology and digital marketing have up the ante of marketing stakes, Francisco also believed that developing a very great relationship with the consumers and understanding consumer insights are key to successful marketing plans. “You have to create personal one-on-on relationships. TV campaigns can only reach a certain part of your market. And you have to have brand purpose. A very clear purpose that can impact on nation-building and touch the lives of your consumers,” she said.
PIONEERING INDUSTRIES
The 2009 Agora Award for Entrepreneurship (Medium Scale) is given to Sari Yap, Founder, President and CEO of Mega Publishing Group. Her company has revolutionized fashion and photography in the printing and color separation industries by producing high quality, world-class fashion and lifestyle publications. Now with eleven titles that have changed the business of publishing, Yap is now more inspired than ever to go beyond the norms once again, like how she bravely faced the challenges of the industry before.
“I believe that the most important marketing strategy is cause-oriented,” Yap said. “Profit is secondary. What everyone should do is influence the lifestyle of the society in a positive way. The Agora recognition is more than a validation of our contribution to the industry but has definitely made us rethink our perspectives and philosophies to assume a bigger role in the society,” she said.
INSPIRED MARKETING
As the Agora Awardee for Advocacy Marketing this year, ABS CBN Foundation has all the more embraced its Save the La Mesa Watershed project, the E-media Education Television, and the Bayan Foundation or Bayan microfinance – all of which have existed for more than three years and still running.
Said Ana Junio, EIC Officer of Bantay Kalikasan, ABS CBN Foundation said: “Winning in the Agora Awards is an indicator that we are reaching our target market. For our message to be sent and for it to be received by the people, we need certain measurements – we need to know if our messages are effective, if it is successfully distributed to the desired audience.”Through the continued leadership and passion of its Managing Director Gina Lopez, ABS CBN Foundation will continue with all of its projects well into the future.
GOT ‘HEALTHY’ MILK?
The success of the Alaska Milk Corporation in marketing is evident in how it has stayed as one of the two major players in the Philippine milk industry – competing with an international company but consistently maintaining brand leadership in the liquid canned milk category and gaining ground quickly in powdered milk.
Ma. Belen Fernando, Vice President for Marketing, revealed that being awarded the 2009 Agora Awards for Marketing Management is more than the success of local organization over international companies. Alaska has actually managed to sell milk to a populace that would sooner give up milk for other necessities. “We have a very low consumption of milk per capita here, affordability and low disposable income does not allow a family to buy as much milk as it can,” Fernando said.
However, in Alaska’s initiatives to address the needs of its market and enable more Filipinos able to consume more milk, it is doing more than effectively market its brand and meet it sales quota. “We are actually achieving is selling proper nutrition to many,” Fernando said. With this, Alaska fulfils its role as an aid in nation building.
TOPPINGS OF SUCCESS
Lot’s A Pizza, 2009 Agora Awardee for Entrepreneurship (Small Scale) has proven that it can satisfy the cravings of the Filipino palate while offering more value and savings. Testament to this is its 84 franchised and 45 company-owned outlets, growing at a rate that cannot be matched by any other pizza company in the same market segment.
Said Tess Ngan Tian, President and co-founder of the popular Filipino pizza chain: “(The Agora Award) is going to keep the brand going. It’s adding value to our brand by enhancing it along with our image, which is important.”
The reasons behind the success of Lot’s A Pizza, according to Tian, are an entrepreneurial spirit, commitment in building the brand and incorporating innovations, hands-on commitment, financial stability, and above-all an established credibility and integrity in the business. “I think one of our achievements is that we’re not only able to market our product directly to our consumers, but we are also able to market our own business as a whole to our franchisees, and getting franchisers is an indication that they really trust you.”
GRILLED TO PERFECTION
Another brand that has captured the Filipino palate with a recipe that is uniquely Filipino is Mang Inasal, the fastest-growing barbecue fastfood chain in the Philippines, headed by Ilonggo businessman Edgar Sia II.
Sia started with the desire to open a business that can grow nationwide and it was in the Iloilo street food, particularly its version of grilled chicken known as Inasal, that he could stake his claim. After some research and experiments on the barbecue marinade blend, he was able to come up with a taste that he thought would surely catch the real Pinoy taste of barbecue.
In 2006, the Mang Inasal fastfood chain opened up for franchise and it quickly spread its branches all over the country – from Tuguegarao to Zamboanga City.
“It’s all about vision, hard work, and an aggressive attitude,” Sia said, revealing that his success also relies on the classic formula.
THE UNLIMITED POWER
Watching two giants battling each other neck and neck, a small challenger entered the scene armed only with optimism and courage. This brave neophyte surprisingly made these two giants look, curious and baffled, as he takes the gloves and starts an amazing challenge. In the end, what he did not win in size, and Xs and Os, he won in the respect of its competitors.
This is the story of Sun Cellular, the 2009 Marketing Company of the Year, which took the country by storm with the power of Call and Text Unlimited. The 6-year old company has done remarkable feats, with 10 million loyal subscribers and top-of-the-charts figures in profit.
Sun Cellular’s corporate mission is to uplift the lives of the Filipino people by offering advanced telecommunication services at best value. Thus, introducing value-for-money services helped them revolutionize the telecommunications scene in the country.
“We had a lot to go through. Building a network takes lots of investments. Eventually we had to change the rules of the game. Thus, we introduced the unlimited call and text,” said Ricky Peña, Sun Cellular’s VP for Postpaid Marketing and New Business. “We learned the curve of our competitors. We learned that we have to offer the most cost-effective price. The power of unlimited is really big for Pinoys. And the bigger the community, the stronger the pull,” he said.
With this, the network continues to significantly increase its coverage by investing more than $300 Million every year for additional network infrastructure but still maintaining the best value offerings it gives to consumers. “Sun is a David in the land of Goliath. But we successfully got the giants jumping in the unlimited bandwagon. They saw something that works and they adjust. That’s a validation that we did something right.”
