Last May of this year, we were invited to the 35th wedding anniversary celebration of a dear friend. The celebration was going to be held in Tagaytay City, a popular destination in the Philippines which is about a little over sixty kilometers south of Manila. Known for its cool climate, Tagaytay sits on a ridge above the Taal Volcano island offering an expansive view of the active volcano within a lake. Because of the location and since the celebration was going to be in the evening, my wife and I decided to book a place for ourselves for the night so that we didn’t have to make the sixty plus ..read more

“The brands that will thrive in the coming years are the ones that have a purpose beyond profit.” Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group Ever since the launch of Branding Nerd in April 2021, we’ve featured notable local and international brands who are profitable and have engaged in rather ‘traditional‘ competitive environments. By ‘traditional‘, I mean brands competing against other brands. In a recent business news clip I watched on cable, I saw a feature on Spotify® which mentioned that the brand was created to combat piracy. I found that quite intriguing and was inspired on this Phi ..read more

I remember during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, around the first quarter of 2020, I developed a new appreciation for occasionally drinking ice-cold beer at home, something I hardly (maybe even never) did pre-pandemic. Because of the restrictions then, suddenly we all found ourselves doing things at home which we hardly did before COVID-19 hit all of us around the world. I was definitely not alone. In a May 2020 report by Nielsen IQ, online sales of alcohol in the US increased by 234% in April 2020 compared to April 2019. In fact, alcohol was the fastest-growing e-commerce department ..read more

I was recently asked to do a training and workshop on The Brand Architecture for a company’s HR Department. It was a rather odd ask from the Branding Nerd as I’ve never trained a group of HR professionals since the inception of this blog, and initially, I wasn’t quite sure if the framework of the course would apply to them. Fortunately, the training x workshop turned out very productive for the group and The Brand Architecture framework proved to be very effective in helping the entire HR Department understand their internal customers better, as well as enabled them to zero in on the ‘narrow f ..read more

I was having dinner last August 1, 2022 with a company colleague from Barcelona who was about to fly back home the following day. In the course of our dinner conversations, he mentioned that he bought several bars of 85% Dark Malagos Chocolate® to bring home to his wife back in Spain. He says that it is one of the best chocolates they’ve tried anywhere in the world. They became familiar with the brand during their assignment here in the Philippines for our company and ever since their return to Spain, they’ve been craving to have a fine chocolate treat once again with this brand. I’m familiar ..read more

In the most recent news report that I could find about the mega-successful movie sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘, it’s remarkable to note that this sequel has reached the number 12th spot in all-time worldwide box-office revenues at over US$1.4Billion, which is also the number 8th spot of all-time worldwide sequel box-office. So far in 2022, it also holds the number one spot at the worldwide box office for this year. Top Gun: Maverick, the number one box office hit in 2022 With this latest sequel, the ‘Top Gun®’ brand has entered into the exclusive club of movies which are referred to as ‘movie fra ..read more

When it comes to internet testing, data and analysis anywhere in the world, one brand has emerged a clear global market leader. I’m referring to internet speed testing brand Ookla®, founded in 2006. Badge in Globe Telecom’s Homepage A few days ago, I logged into Globe Telecom‘s website to pay for my July 2022 mobile phone bill. And on the homepage of Globe®, this badge on the left caught my attention. Homepage of Globe Telecom with a prominent feature of the badge that features Ookla® The phrase “Analysis by Ookla® of Speedtest Intelligence® data Q1 2022” intrigued me. I’m familiar with Ookla ..read more

Leni Robredo, the candidate, just lost the 2022 Philippine Presidential elections held last May 9, 2022, and yet despite this loss, ‘Leni Robredo’, the brand, continues to inspire millions of Filipinos, especially the youth. The classical definition of a brand which I teach in the course ‘The Brand Architecture‘ is taken from brand guru Al Ries who states that ‘a brand is a singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of a prospect.’ While ‘Leni Robredo’ is technically not a registered brand name, the name undoubtedly occupies a clear and distinct concept in the minds of over fifteen ..read more

Swatch® and Omega®, sister brands under the giant Swatch Group, recently made headlines in both the horology and marketing worlds due to the global launch of its unprecedented co-branded collection called the Omega x Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch Collection® last March 23, 2022, just over a month ago. The MoonSwatch® is made of bioceramic (a unique mix of two-thirds ceramic and one-third material derived from castor oil) that looks very similar to the famous and iconic Moonwatch® by Omega®.  The 11-series co-branded collection is a tribute to nine planets, plus the moon and the sun and ha ..read more

In our previous blog on Oishi® and Del Monte®, we talked about ‘process‘ as an integral part of Brand Marketing which is the third major pillar that comprises The Brand Architecture. It would be recalled in previous blogs that the correct sequence of building the brand architecture is as follows: First, Brand Strategy, including brand positioning, unique selling proposition and supporting evidence Second, Brand Identity, including brand name, visual hammer, personality and battlecry Third, Brand Marketing, which includes the six Ps of the marketing mix In my 3-part webinar dubbed “The Brand ..read more