The United States has Apple, Google and Coca-Cola. Japan has Toyota. Even South Korea has Samsung. Does the Philippines have a brand that can define the image of the country in the world stage?
This is the question Kendrick Co, CEO and Brand Divergence director, asked when he formed Antidote, a Filipino company behind brands such as all-day breakfast restaurant Early Bird Breakfast Club and beach blanket Lagu, among others.
Formed in 2008 after Co left his job at communications agency Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, Antidote aims to break the traditional thinking of local entrepreneurs of merely copying the status quo.
The goal: create all-Filipino brands that can be taken to foreign shores to represent the best of what the Philippines can offer.
“The idea is to be able to create brands that can go to and be sold in other countries. Obviously, the goal is to have something a Filipino brand that is universally known,” Co said. The Philippines, he said, is known for manufacturing products for brands from other countries. The country has a few local brands that can be identified to the country, like Jollibee and San Miguel, the same way McDonald’s is immediately recognizable as an American brand or Hyundai as a South Korean brand. But certainly, Philippine entrepreneurs can do more. Co noted that even Austria has brands like Swarovski and Red Bull.
“Automatically, a good brand gives you a positive image of a country even if you don’t know a lot about it,” he said.
How can this be done? By creating brands that are different from what is currently being offered.
“We should be thinking of how we can start something here that’s unique to the world, something we can send to other countries. As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get stuck in thinking of what would appeal to the masa market. It’s easy to just create a product that is already being sold by bigger companies, but sell it at a lower price,” Co explained. “But those products would not have appeal outside our shores.”
That is the logic behind Lagu, which Antidote launched in January 2012. Co knew Lagu, a beach blanket marketed as environment-friendly and allergen-free, would have a very niche market.
But he also said there was no product like it in the market when they first launched Lagu. “We’re not just looking at Lagu from the point of view of beach lovers in the Philippines. We are targeting beach lovers in the world,” he said.
Hence, Lagu has gained clients and is currently being sold in countries outside the Philippines precisely because it is a niche product. “In fact, until today, we haven’t really actively gone out to other countries to sell the brand. It has been the opposite. From the month we launched, all our overseas clients and all our distributors from other countries, they’ve all been the ones to approach us because they use it or a friend went to the Philippines and gave it to them,” Co explained.
The same idea was behind Early Bird Breakfast Club. “There wasn’t really a place that served breakfast all day in Metro Manila at the time. You had to go all the way to Tagaytay to eat at an all-day breakfast restaurant,” he said.
Co and his wife Ellen had no background in food when they entered the restaurant business “We don’t even know how to cook,” he said.
But thanks to a solid concept, an ever-evolving menu, and talented chefs in the kitchen—namely executive head chef Matthew Homsby-Bates and sous chef Matthew Lim—Early Bird Breakfast Club has become the top all-day breakfast restaurant in the Metro by committing to their original idea of offering breakfast served beautifully in an ambience that makes you feel like you’re not in the city.
It currently has branches at The Fort Strip in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Century City Mall in Makati City, Eastwood Mall in Quezon City, and Nuvali Solenad 3 in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
Antidote is also behind two other all-Filipino brands: Spud Buds Potato Company, which produces handcrafted potato snacks using locally grown potatoes varieties from Benguet; and A-Game, a sports recovery product made for athletes who want an efficient cool down regimen.
Achieving the goal of creating a universally known brand from the Philippines is tough. But it can be done, Co said.
“As a country, we take pride in sending out our professionals. But we should not be sending out our best people. We should be sending out brands that our best people have created. I think that’s more sustainable for the economy and for the country,” he said.
“Even if we’re niche, we can still expand our market. Brands have the power to touch lives. This is why we believe that a brand that travels and reaches foreign shores can represent the best of what the originating country has to offer.”
“That should be our approach when we create a brand. It’s not so much what is popular or cheaper. There’s value to that, but long-term, for the benefit of the country, we have to create something uniquely Filipino for worldwide market,” Co said.