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Our Share of Significance in the Sea of Sameness

In a world where standing out means everything, the 15th Philippine SME Business Expo brought together thousands of dreamers and doers, proving that entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Illustration courtesy of Freepik.

Why Branding Is The Shorthand of An Entrepreneur’s Story

On Friday, 22nd of November 2024, the entire SMX Convention Center Manila was filled with an estimated 120 exhibitors, 180 business solutions, and attendees reaching more than 17,000 within a 2-day event. Thirty keynote speakers shared their experience, passion, and most of all, hard-earned wisdom in running their own businesses. ‘Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart,’ my great friend and colleague Ric Gindap opens the series of talks with an audience who understood in the bosom of their existence what daily bravery means to one who has decided to run a business, and decides for that entity every day, come what may.

My father, called Ave by the whole town and people who loved him dearly, was a serial entrepreneur in the food business (despite later being beleaguered by serious illnesses). Going into business was a primal reaction to losing a job at the factory when my siblings and I were in high school.

Primal reaction is what’s elicited when humans are tested for survival. The word ‘serial’ gets a bad rep in modern times, but for an entrepreneur, ‘serial’ amounts to an incredible amount of courage to start right from the beginning, often with nothing, and to surmount desperations (but also celebrate wins) that words fall short for.

On stage heralding the entire 15ᵗʰ Philippine SME Business Expo is a lady named Trixie Esguerra-Abrenilla, whose beloved husband David Abrenilla, PhilSME’s former CEO and biggest advocate, had passed on in 2023. Trixie ‘inherited’ what now goes beyond an advocacy and has become a singular lifeblood for SMEs. What amount of bravery would Trixie have to summon, not just during events like these, but in daily life, I wondered. Entrepreneurship consists of constant restarts.

Illustration Courtesy of Freepik.

Once in 2022, for World Entrepreneurship Day, I penned lines which Ric had then asked Homonym (another entrepreneurial company who works with the science of music) to weave some melody into. Each line in that poetry was a vignette of the seasonality of emotions that accompany an entrepreneur’s life. ‘You’re the first in the office, because you never left,’ was enough reminder from Ric on the dire hole entrepreneurs have excavated for ourselves – from which we manage to come up for an air of fulfillment every now and then. And everyone can use a whole lot of help, starting with being seen and heard, as an entrepreneur and as a brand.

Creativity gives us hope. One of the many tools of the entrepreneur is branding, and an indispensable one at that.

The genesis of branding dates to 2700 BC among ancient Egyptians when livestock were branded because there was no way of identifying them should one landlord’s sheep or cattle cross the land of another. Branding was about ownership, identity, and even a magic spell that protected animals from harm.

Then and now, in a thousand-year span, branding still does its magic. It’s still an owner’s most prominent asset which holds his intentions, his vision, his hopes and dreams, and his potential to be valuable.

Illustration Courtesy of Freepik.

At Design For Tomorrow, branding is the ultimate shorthand of your story. And one, that at all costs, entrepreneurs must be proud of. We must commit our own stories to memory.

‘Branding pervades almost everything these days,’ Ric says, extending from popularly known global enterprises present in our daily consumption to business startups in all industries to countries to politics to superheroes to individual celebrities and influencers, human and non-human.

Think for a moment about the sea of brands: who or what actually gets your share of significance? A few might. But also, many won’t.

Illustration Courtesy of Freepik.

Two bags, same size, same shape, same type of material. One is US$18 and the other is US$18 million. While there are intrinsic differences in quality and provenance, the value perception is as large as the Pacific Ocean. And the pride in ownership, as vast.

One bread, one story. The humble pan de coco is one of the most loved local breads in the Philippines. It’s my favorite. When travelling out of town, it’s one of those treats I joyfully look for, because when it’s made good, it is good. It’s flour-full, coconut meat-loaded, and sugar-drenched.

Filipinos love it because it’s delicious, filling, affordable, and easy to find in hometown panaderias.

Slide for the Before and After.

The owner of COCOPAN approached Ric one day, and said, ‘We know that you’re doing premium branding, but think of a call center, a single mother, somebody who will rush in the morning and plow through the day with nothing but a single pan de coco as their fuel.’

At that very moment, the humble pan de coco was a piece of bread no more, it was fuel for humans who need to go through the lengths of everyday work, with nothing much in their pockets and stomachs. COCOPAN, the courage to continue. It is one among numerous unique stories we love to tell.

There’s a semi-question that Ric has forever etched in my mind: ‘Imagine what we can do, if we were less afraid?’ And we both ponder on it endlessly. Every entrepreneurial and every worthy human story is a narrative of being less afraid. DFT has become a keeper of stories, and a shaper of identities. We differentiate, elevate, captivate. A huge amount of technicality goes with the work, yet the real human work belongs to an entrepreneur.

Illustration Courtesy of Freepik.

Our little team spent a bit of time at the DFT booth especially designed to welcome visitor inquiries and for them to drop entries to win a DFT branding service package (or for the introverts, allow one to grab a brochure unnoticed). It was the quintessential un-booth. No official facades, multiple entrances, Swiss-Japanese inspired open seating, real breathing plants, and only a big signage of a thought to take home: ‘Welcome to a partnership where your dream takes center stage.’ And on that day, there were nearly 20,000 dreamers and 20,000 storytellers, discovering their share of significance.

Pris Santos is Director of Strategy and Head of Copy for Design For Tomorrow, working closely with CEO & Founder Ric Gindap and the team in developing communication strategies and crafting brand narratives.

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