Markethink

Words by Mia Gomez

UP JMA Markethink, held last October 9-11, was an insightful three days with speakers that set up the stage for students to learn of marketing in practice. With three different speakers from very different backgrounds, audience members took their marketing knowledge to the next level with topics on Corporate Marketing, Advocacy Marketing, and Personal Branding.

Cholo Perreras, Brand Manager from McDonald’s Philippines, kicked off TMS Week with his talk on Corporate Marketing by briefing us all on the essential elements to becoming a great marketer in the field. He emphasized on the importance of having all the elements of your marketing mix geared towards the brand promise, and the importance of knowing the whole product as the marketing manager. He also spoke of his own personal experiences of success and failure in the fast-paced industry, mentioning how important it is to be an agile marketer, knowing when to quickly capitalize on trends, or accept the failure of a scrapped marketing plan that took months to prepare. Throughout his presentation he entertained the audience with multiple case videos of successful marketing campaigns done by McDonald’s Philippines, such as “Kamusta Ka Na” featuring Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion, “The McDelivery Pin”, and “Lucky Drive 2018”. These tangible examples of marketing in practice excited the audience members, reminding us of why marketing plays such a big role in a product’s success.

The next marketing talk was given by the founder of Gawad Kalinga, Tony Meloto. The talk began with Mr. Meloto’s humble background and how Gawad Kalinga came to be from a strong desire to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor of the Philippines. Pushing for the empowerment of the impoverished, he stressed on how important it is not only to give charitable donations but to impart skills and sustainable practices to those in need. From this, he shared about the success of Human Nature, a Filipino-owned skincare brand owned by his daughters. Human Nature slowly continues to grow as a global brand, with the help of a promise for sustainability and continuous expansion even into different product lines, like food. Tony Meloto’s strong sense of purpose and drive to sustainably alleviate the living conditions of the poor of the country posed a strong point towards how companies have now slowly shifted their activities from “corporate social responsibility” to “corporate social investments”. His insights served as inspiration to us as Iskolar ng Bayan to put our education, marketing skills and privileges to good use for the benefit of society.

To cap it all off, Kim Atienza from Matanglawin and TV Patrol came on day three of TMS week to share with us his career experiences and strategies in building his own personal brand as Kuya Kim. He spoke of his own 2 P’s: Prayer and Passion, why Kuya Kim always wears a hat, the consistency he conveys as a media personality, and the different issues and struggles of having such a recognizable brand character. He also spoke of how he purposely chose that Kuya Kim’s brand character would mirror that of the late Australian “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin. Being who he was and given the strong entertainment value of his initial TV stint, he eventually became the animal-loving trivia and weather man on daily television. Later on in the talk, Kuya Kim shared that brands also need to evolve, just as people’s interests evolve as well. On that note, he revealed his newest venture as Kuya Kim: his teleradyo show for love advice, which he sampled to us by sharing sweet anecdotes about his own true love story.