Consumers now prefer local brands

By Rory Visco

Correspondent

Many years ago Philippine-made brands, or lokal in the vernacular, were ignored by Filipinos due to poor craftsmanship and overall product quality. Now, all that has changed. More local products are now competitive and at par with some of the foreign brands. In fact, many Filipinos prefer to have them than their foreign counterparts. The latest Philippine results of the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands survey point to this development. Now in its 9th edition, results of the survey will be announced today at the Dusit Hotel Nikko in Makati City. In some of the categories like banking, Filipinos trust local banks such as Metrobank, Philippine National Bank and Bank of the Philippine Islands. Crown Asia, Ayala Land and Sta. Lucia Realty, on the other hand, were chosen as trusted property developers. Other local firms trusted more by Filipinos include Philamlife for insurance. Other familiar brands include San Miguel Beer, Boysen Paints, Panda, Emperador, Philippine Airlines, Enervon, Wilkins, Carrier, Condura and Miladay Jewels. Brands that excelled in the survey’s new categories include St. Luke’s Medical Center, Makati Medical Center and Philippine General Hospital. Internet service provider PLDT MyDSL, processed food maker Purefoods and tire maker Goodyear also garnered excellent results in the survey. A total of 41 local brands were included in the latest survey. But because the economy is also cosmopolitan and open, Philippine consumers still trust familiar foreign brands like Rolex, Toyota, Honda, Petron, Coca-Cola, Canon, Pilot, Sony, Nokia, General Electric, Lenovo, HP, DHL and  Samsung, which were again voted this year. Hospital and university categories were added this year. Reader’s Digest feels that the level of trust in these areas is very important, according to Simon Cholmeley, regional advertising director for  Reader’s Digest Asia, in a statement Thursday . “We are constantly refreshing the survey to include information that will be useful to consumers and also to encourage brands to strive harder, be it to upgrade their products, update their image or improve their service levels to meet consumers’ expectations,” the statement said, quoting Cholmeley. The Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands survey was done in coordination with Nielsen Media Research, whose expertise is in international media research and analysis. A total of 7,000 respondents in seven countries, including the Philippines, were sampled, with more than 300,000 questionnaires mailed by Reader’s Digest last October. Also, 3,500 participants were interviewed by telephone from October to November 2006. Consumers were asked to name the brand they trust most in 43 categories of services and products, and rate them based on six factors: trustworthiness, credible image, quality, value, understanding of customer needs and innovation. The results of the survey will be published in the May 2007 issue of Reader's Digest Asia editions and the Philippine results will be available on the Web site www.rdasiatrustedbrands.com, including previous survey results. The Reader’s Digest Association Inc. is a global publisher and direct marketer of books, magazines and home entertainment products. The company publishes 77 magazines, including its flagship Reader’s Digest.

 

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/0427&282007/companies04.html