To survive global competition, Phl needs strong national brand

CEBU, Philippines - For the Philippines to be more competitive in the global market and attract more foreign investments, it should do well in creating a stronger national brand recall, a top company official said. 

People are used to hear corporate and product brands but not so often do they hear the term "country branding." So, what advantages does a country's brand bring to the Philippines in particular? Does it matter at all?

Junie del Mundo, Events Organizing Network chief executive officer, said it can do a lot and help the nation level up its overall image amid the ASEAN economic integration that has gradually taken place in recent years. EON is a stakeholder relations firm.

Del Mundo, also the governor of Management Association of the Philippines, emphasized that the "DNA" of the Philippine brand is really the Filipinos—its people.

However, he pointed out that what the government particularly the Department of Tourism is doing is tourism branding only, not a holistic approach to brand the country in general.

Although DOT's "It's More Fun in the Philippines" campaign has become popular among locals and foreign people, the CEO said there is still lack of good infrastructure like a world-class airport—in the capital—that would support the tagline.

"We just created the tagline but we don't actually create a program," Del Mundo told participants of the Cebu Business Month's Entrepreneurship Forum on Tuesday. "Country branding is not only about tourism branding and having a catchy tagline."

He said that the campaign should also reflect not only the tourism sector but also the products, investments, the people, policies, among others, saying that all society stakeholders should be involved in it.

He particularly lauded the business process outsourcing industry for being able to establish a good "brand" as the country has been known as a top choice when it comes to this certain sector although, he said, it has not been receiving so much support from the government.

The MAP governor cited the benefits of a strong and credible nation brand that includes business growth, increased value of local products, high investors' confidence,improved credibility and enhanced nation building.

For instance, South Korea has one of the most successful "branding initiatives" such as the proliferation of "Koreanovelas" and the increased value of Korean products which were generally overlooked before in terms of quality, he shared.

He though mentioned Cebu as one of the provinces in the country that has done well in branding its province and branding its products because of successful branding activities.

Del Mundo expressed confidence that Philippines can also achieve much more what South Korea has attained now, citing good 4C traits of the Filipinos: collaborative as being seen in the booming knowledge industry; the innate caring attitude of Pinoy caregivers; their being colorful and having youthful energy; and the natural creativity in them.  

Country brand for ASEAN

Will the country brand play an important role in the integrated ASEAN? For the EON official, "definitely yes" because the country will become more open to foreign direct investments, exchange of knowledge and workforce, and so forth.

The nation can become the "window" of foreign investors to the 600-million ASEAN market but Del Mundo asked these questions: "Will they choose us instead of other Asian neighbors? Why us while they can also come to Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore?"

He noted that the ultimate key is a strong country brand which he defined as basically something that people think about the country as a whole.

Not only the 10 ASEAN member countries are involved in Free Trade Agreements because dialogue partnership has now been extended as well to China, India, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

"We're no longer a market of 100 million in the Philippines and with the additional six dialogue partners we're talking of a market of more than 3 billion. That's really a lot of opportunities for us."

Moreover, financial integrated can soon be materialized as the Philippine Stock Exchange will join the stock exchanges in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Now, if the Philippines wants to achieve all these, Del Mundo simply put that good branding efforts are what it takes. (FREEMAN)