Pilipinas KayGanda: Much Ado About A Logo And Slogan

The thing that really bothers me the most about the uproar generated by Pilipinas Kay Ganda does not lie in the campaign’s weak marketing foundation or its logo that, by the way, is such a design cliché.

I’m bothered that everyone thinks that all a marketing campaign needs to succeed is a slogan and a logo.

A catchy slogan does not build a brand. A powerful logo is not the only reason why consumers would buy into a brand. A brand is more than its tagline and logo.

To believe that all we need is a catchy slogan for tourists to come in droves (or for buyers to wipe items off grocery shelves) is to belittle and disrespect the marketing process. On its own, a logo and tagline cannot succeed without a powerful marketing strategy behind it.

Marketing is more than creating a logo and coming up with a tagline.

We should be evaluating and criticizing Pilipinas Kay Ganda not solely on the merits of its logo and tagline but on the marketing strategy these two things were built on. Before a logo and tagline can happen, there must first be a marketing strategy.

Pilipinas Kay Ganda has a weak tagline and logo because it is founded on a weak marketing strategy. That the strategy does not match the target market or the campaign’s marketing objective is obvious. But, perhaps, the more important question should be: what was the marketing process that the DOT followed to come up with that concept?

With so many marketing and advertising experts on board the Aquino administration, one of them should have found the balls to tell Bernie Lim that, in marketing, one does not test a campaign via a grand marketing roll-out. Because if it should fail (and it did), it will bite you in the ass so badly, you won’t be able to sit down for a year. In addition, you’re also wasting marketing budget.

If their intention was to test the logo and tagline, the DOT should have done it quietly. Or, at least, someone should have told them to. It’s not like the Aquino administration has a dearth of well-meaning friends in the marketing and advertising industry.

A grand party with full media coverage does not a soft launch or preview make. That is the stuff of marketing roll-outs, no matter what the DOT or their marketing consultants say.

Bernie Lim says that the DOT can pull out the logo and tagline should the Korean and American market fail to find it appealing. In theory, you can. In marketing reality, there is no such thing as a second first impression. Perhaps, instead of being so enamored by Simon Anholt alone, the DOT people should have first read Kotler’s basic marketing management as well as Al Ries’ Immutable Laws of Marketing.

That the DOT cannot even properly follow the most basic marketing process of identifying and defining their target market is a cause for concern. Because if you are unable to do this, you will also be unable to go to the next marketing step – conceptualizing a marketing strategy that would help you achieve your marketing objectives.

Of course the DOT does not know their target market. Otherwise, why should there still be a need to determine what appeals to these segments when the marketing campaign is already being launched?

Lim says Pilipinas Kay Ganda is a risky campaign. Because it uses Tagalog? Risky was Ace Durano’s digital marketing campaign that even went as far as creating a virtual island on Second Life (SL). Admittedly, many people (including myself) did not find those animated commercials appealing. Let’s not even go into Apl.De.Ap and his Giling Girl, please. Still, Ace Durano dared to go where no other tourism secretary would. You have to commend the guy for making that ballsy move.

Maybe, Lim meant that his campaign is risky because there’s a slight innuendo behind Pilipinas Kay Ganda. This is not risky; this is sheer stupidity. Unless we are targeting sexual perverts to visit our country and encouraging the prostitution of our women, we should not even be breathing anywhere near a campaign that carries the slightest sexual hint. Among other things, our nation’s brand should stand on our national pride. There is no pride when our own government tries to sell our women and being cute about it.

The DOT couldn’t even be bothered to check the domain name they chose, another basic in internet marketing. Had they done so, they would have seen immediately the possible links to porn sites. Even their website did not follow the basics of web design and management. How can you upload content you have not checked, verified, edited and proofread?

Lim claims that no single centavo was spent on the Pilipinas Kay Ganda logo and tagline. Honey, it’s obvious.

You want brilliant work? Then be prepared to pay and pay seriously. If you don’t want to, then be prepared as well to defend garbage like Pilipinas Kay Ganda. And, FYI. Paying the right professional fees to qualified marketing experts for them to handle our tourism campaign is part of the marketing process.

Dick Gordon had David Guerrero execute his Wow Philippines campaign. 8 years later, Guerrero’s More Than The Usual continues to resonate. It remains our most powerful tourism marketing campaign. Guerrero is one of Asia’s most sought after advertising mind. So unless he did that campaign out of the goodness of his heart, I’m guessing Dick Gordon paid handsomely for Guerrero’s services. And it was worth every single hard-earned centavo of my tax money.

According to Lim, they did not want to use Wow Philippines because “we need to launch a new brand, kasabay ng bagong administrasyon.” Sigh. You do not launch a new brand because there’s a new CEO. You launch one because your strategic marketing plan calls for it. Can we please do things for the right reasons?

Did you and your team even attempt to go through the motions of a strategic marketing planning session, Mr. Lim? And if you did, pray tell, how ever did you do it? Because had you done it right, the disaster that was your marketing launch would never have happened. That disastrous logic would never have been uttered by you because you would have realized beforehand that saying it simply paints the Aquino administration as childish and petty. A rep your boss will not appreciate, I’m sure.

Ultimately, this is not just a case of a logo and a tagline gone awry. This is a case of a failure to understand what marketing is truly about.

Labels: destination marketing, DOT, marketing campaign, tourism

Marketing Confessions of Sunny whispered 9:06 PM
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Comments:

From one marketing lady to another, one word for your blog entry: MISMO! :D

So is the supposedly 'brilliant' ad agency behind the campaign still breathing, or have they decided to disappear from the face of the earth? I sure hope they also weren't the brains behind the lame 'soft launch' excuse, which, IMHO, is such a PR fail attempt at crisis management. Millions of Pinoys can read between-the-lines, even if they don't have an ounce of marketing in their blood.

Of late I've been trying to embrace positivity in my thoughts and comments, but this latest Tourism campaign (if I dare even call it one) fiasco has successfully summoned the nega biatch in me, hahaha.

# posted by  Rezza Custodio : Friday, November 19, 2010

 

Hi Rezza! Thanks for dropping by my blog.

Yoly Ong has admitted that Campaigns and Grey did the logo and theme line. But she said that she warned the DOT not to launch yet because it was just a test logo.

Hay. Alam mo naman ang buhay cliente-ahensiya. *lol*

Come visit again!

# posted by  Sunny : Friday, November 19, 2010

 

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