DTI readies campaign to market PH businesses

Katherine Visconti

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"Your business, our people" may be the new tagline of a campaign to market Philippine businesses to foreign investors

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is cooking up a campaign to advertise local Philippine businesses to investors abroad, disclosed an official of the agency.

“We’re just doing the final tweaking but basically that’s it. We just want to have the trademark. (We’re) dotting our i’s (and crossing our t’s) before we roll it out,” said Felicitas R. Agoncillo-Reyes, the assistant secretary in DTI’s Investments Promotion Group.

The likely slogan of the campaign will be “Your Business, Our People.”

Reyes said DTI Secretary Gregory Domingo thought up the line himself.

Reyes presented the preliminary logo in a breakout session at the 4th International Outsourcing Summit on Tuesday, October 9.

The logo, which is in the process of being trademarked, appears to be a spin-off of the popular Philippine tourism campaign – “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” The font and colors are similar to the ones in the existing campaign. The logo also incorporates a photo of a banig, a handwoven mat traditionally used for sleeping.

Reyes said DTI started brainstorming on the campaign “about 4 or 5 months ago, immediately after the launch of ‘It’s More Fun.'” She added that the logo is already showing up in government PowerPoint presentations, but will be rolled out officially before the end of the year.

Advertising firm BBDO Guerrero Philippines is the one that created the ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ campaign for the Department of Tourism. BBDO is not behind the DTI logo, but the firm’s chief executive Tony Harris said he likes it. 

“‘It’s More Fun’ was acutely aimed at the tourism market, the overseas visitors – they are the bread and butter (of the campaign). That’s what it was always about. What other departments have done is give it their own spin,” he said.

He explained that at the heart of the tourism campaign are 3 core values that can translate to the business sector – “dynamism, humanity and competitiveness.”

“There are obvious links because the values that exist in the campaign are values that are easily transported into business.”

Already controversial?

There were mixed reactions after the logo was presented.

One attendee jumped up to point out it may not be the most appropriate message to broadcast abroad when foreign countries, like the United States, are already concerned about the flight of jobs abroad.

“The tagline of ‘Your Business, Our People’ will again give the impression, give me your jobs, I want your jobs,” said Richard Verma, head of operations for FIS Global, a large worldwide provider of banking and payments technology with outsourcing operations in the Philippines.

He thinks the business community should stick with the ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ logo.

“I understand that it’s a tourism type of tagline but it’s still promoting business. If you want people to come see in and start doing business… make it fun,” said Verma.

Reyes acknowledged that the current campaign is already helping the Philippines make a case to investors about why they should do business in the country. And she says she regularly shows it to potential investors. “CFOs are people too and they like to go on holiday,” she joked.

Still Harris believed there is an inherent issue in marketing business as fun, since it might detract from the professionalism the country should project.

“The only potential sticking point is over the word fun, whether you want to apply that in a business situation or not,” he said.

When flying, for example, he said he wants to know the pilot is focused, instead of having fun.

He stressed that when millions of dollars, pounds or pesos are at stake, people want to know they are operating in a serious business climate.

“I don’t know if [fun is] something you definitely want to reinforce …. The business should be as good, as competitive and as hard-nosed as it is anywhere else in the world,” he said.

Many firms at the outsourcing conference realize the need to effectively market Philippine outsourcing, since the industry relies on revenue from abroad.

Several said they would like to back a rebranding campaign to make outsourcing more acceptable to Americans.

“The issue has always been about how to connect business to this country,” said Harris. The question now is whether or not the government’s new campaign for businesses will send the right message to achieve that goal. – Rappler.com

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