PLDT bags Reader’s Digest award

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) bagged recently the Reader’s Digest SuperBrands 2004 Platinum Award for being the most trusted and preferred brand for telecommunications services in the country.

"We are very honored to have this award. This will inspire us to pursue higher levels of excellence and to continue to deliver world class services to our customers," said PLDT president and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno.

The awardees were determined through a survey conducted by Reader’s Digest across 41 different product categories in six key Asian markets, namely, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines.

Simon Cholmeley, Reader’s Digest regional advertising director, said this survey could be a valuable reference tool for consumers and marketers throughout Asia.

"To become a SuperBrand, the brand should have top of mind awareness, that’s always. But there are other criteria that include quality, value, strong image, trustworthiness and understanding of customer needs. The Reader’s Digest SuperBrands survey measures all of these criteria. It is the readers who determine the SuperBrand," he said during the recent awarding ceremonies for the winners in the Philippines.

Raul Alvarez, PLDT Center head for marketing services, said this award would spur PLDT to continue innovating and providing excellent services.

"We’d like to reiterate our commitment to strive harder to give customers the best service. Surveys and awards like this serve as a sign that we are heading towards the right direction in achieving our goal," he said.

The survey was conducted via mailed questionnaires plus telephone survey, handled by Nielsen Media Research. A total of 6,000 valid responses were analyzed, 1,000 for each country.

Respondents were asked to name, unprompted, their most preferred brand for each category, then rate that brand on a scale of 1 to 5 for five key attributes: quality, value, trustworthiness, strong image and understanding of customer needs. A score was then calculated for each mentioned brand to serve as a yardstick for identifying the SuperBrands. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to determine the winners.

Because PLDT achieved a score three times that of the nearest brand and had an average quality rating of more than four on a scale of one to five, it was awarded the Platinum Award.

The PLDT Group also recently obtained six awards from two leading international finance magazines for its achievements in overall management, corporate governance, financial administration and investor relations.

PLDT/Smart was chosen as the Best Managed Company and the Best in Investor Relations in the Philippines by FinanceAsia in its 2004 Asia’s Best Companies Poll where 424 fund managers, portfolio managers, equity investors and research analysts ranked companies in Asia. PLDT/Smart also placed second for Best in Corporate Governance in the country.

PLDT has also been chosen by investors worldwide as the best-managed company in the Philippines in a recent survey by Asiamoney, one of Asia’s most influential financial magazines. Some 201 investors from 180 institutions worldwide participated in Asiamoney’s 2003 survey that ranked Asia’s leading listed companies.