In today’s fast-changing time, every business or organization needs to champion responsible brand building to ensure continued success. This had been the overarching insight in the recently held 7th general membership meeting of the United Print Media Group (UPMG) with the topic, “Building Brands Beyond Media Advertising.”
Leading the discussion about the topic was guest speaker Chito S. Maniago, president of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA), the biggest and oldest non-stock, non-profit organization that unites the users of advertising belonging to every major industry in the country.
In his presentation, Mr. Maniago underscored the importance of brand building to the success of the company or an organization and selecting the most suitable channels to convey stories. He also encouraged more collaboration with UPMG members to deliver stories to the public in an engaging manner.
“Considering the limited resources we have, we have to be very creative and strategic. Right now, when you speak of advertising, you consider digital, videos, Web site portals, handheld devices, apps, and a whole gamut of things. There are a lot of touchpoints we are now considering for us to say [that] we are building our brands,” Mr. Maniago said.
Citing a data from Kantar, Mr. Maniago shared that the Internet and Web sites are the primary sources of consumers these days when it comes to brand information due to their accessibility. This is followed by friends and family, review sites, social media, advertising, company Web sites, print, blogs, and celebrity endorsements.
“The advertising mix we see here is a combination of both traditional and new channels, as well as, let’s say, institutional and personal channels,” Mr. Maniago said, highlighting the significance of customer touchpoints, or the brand’s points of customer contact from start to finish, in this matter.
According to Mr. Maniago, it is important to identify and improve the touchpoints along the way to help get proper feedback from the clients to ensure that the brand is built beyond traditional means.
At present, Mr. Maniago noted that brand building is synonymous to reputation building that encompasses several disciplines.
“At the end of the day, no successful brand will be in a pedestal if the overall reputation of a company, of an organization, or the brand itself, is formidable… This is very important because it ensures our license to operate. When we say license to operate, it is ensuring that there is no business disruption,” Mr. Maniago explained.
In his presentation, Mr. Maniago also identified key strategies to build brands outside traditional media. These include brand building through customer centricity and through sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
He said that being customer centric means thinking about the welfare of the customers first instead of the company. Meanwhile, in terms of brand building through sustainability and CSR, he said that organizations nowadays have to align their operations with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, as well as each of their CSR initiative with their core purpose.
In closing, Mr. Maniago told members of the UPMG to keep on evolving and growing their respective brands, while continuously understanding their market, looking for silver lining, promoting collaboration, and nurturing relationships.
“Print is here to stay,” Mr. Maniago assured. “Let’s collaborate more. Let it be a challenge for all of us to, really, define key messages that will resonate more to our audiences and ensure that we have fruitful and meaningful partnerships along the way.”
The UPMG’s 7th general membership meeting was hosted by Adobo Magazine, Mediawise Comm. (Muse Magazine) and Opinyon. #
Article by: Mark Louis Ferrolino (BusinessWorld)
Photos by: Mohammd Sarajan (adobo Magazine)