BRANDING & THE STRATEGIC INTEGRATION OF APEC MSMES IN THE GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN

20 June 2017

Officials from the IPOPHL and DTI, resource speakers, and APEC participants gather for the Workshop on Best Practices in Brand Development and IP Protection held from June 14 to 16, 2017 at the New World Hotel Makati.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) recently co-organized the “Workshop on Best Practices on Brand Development and Intellectual Property Protection for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),” a three-day event for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies held from 14 to 16 June 2017 at the New World Makati Hotel.

Around 40 delegates from ten APEC member economies attended the workshop, where they discussed the best practices in developing a good branding strategy and securing intellectual property protection. The workshop endorsed branding and intellectual property protection as a strategy for integrating their respective MSME sectors to the global value chain (GVC).

In her keynote address, IPOPHL Director General Josephine Rima-Santiago emphasized the importance of the workshop for the participating APEC economies, where an estimated 95-99% of the total local business entities are MSMEs. However, much like in the Philippines, MSMEs only contribute about a third to their national economy’s gross domestic product. MSME’s latent potential, while enormous, require upscaling and rethinking strategies, and to this end branding and intellectual property protection have emerged as core business strategies. Director General Santiago proposes the crafting of an effective national IP communication plan to communicate to MSMEs why their business strategies should always incorporate branding and intellectual property protection. The communication plan should be in plain and simple language, and accessible to MSME owners. The IPOPHL head also applauded the APEC-Intellectual Property Rights Experts’ Group (IPEG) for joining IPOPHL for this event, which seeks to further strengthen international linkages for an innovation-driven economic growth in the region. IPEG’s participation underscores that APEC member economies recognize how building up the competitive capacity of MSMEs in the region readies them for participation in global trade.

Setting the scene for the three-day discussions, IPOPHL Deputy Director General Allan B. Gepty showed compelling examples of the power of branding in terms of competitiveness and how it can benefit MSMEs. He pointed out that 80% of the value of many of the world’s top companies now are based on their intangible assets, with tangible assets merely topping out at 20%.

Three of IPOPHL’s invited speakers presented sectoral perspectives on branding. DTI Director Senen M. Perlada of the Export Marketing Bureau represented government, emphasizing that MSMEs in APEC economies should participate and be integrated in the global trade through a good branding strategy. From the business and academic sectors, strategic brand advisor Prof. Enrique Soriano III highlighted the need to inspire MSMEs to see branding as a non-negotiable necessity rather than an expense. They must differentiate and create value for their products or services to stand out. Also from the business sector, Mr. Alan Ng Yoon Lee, Lead Consultant for Intangible Assets for Singapore’s ABBA Consulting Pte., spoke about how branding contributes to competitiveness in the global market.

Within the Workshop, discussions were also made on the development of a good brand, and the issues and concerns inherent in the process. Resource persons from KidZania, Nestlé, Jollibee Corporation and Ink-All-You-Can shared concrete case studies of how nourishing their brands and securing intellectual property protection enabled them to successfully bring their companies to the global market. Top eco-sustainable fashion designer Ditta Sandico greatly impressed the participants with her experiences in working with local indigenous communities and with the unique designs she has created out of local fabric. Mr. Ron Layton CEO of Light Years IP shared his experiences working with New Zealand and African countries helping indigenous communities to re-position their products and business to raise financing. Ms. Mary Jade Roxas-Divinagracia, a Deals and Corporate Finance Managing Partner of Isla Lipana & Co. in her talk on "Brand Valuation: Show Me the Money", pointed out how entrenched brands are in modern human life. She emphasized on the three brand valuation approaches, namely: the Cost Approach, the Market Approach, and the Income Approach, a subject which stirred interest in local private sector business organizations.

In a Panel Discussion on the last day of the Workshop, the APEC member economies, i.e. Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam, shared their best practices on brand development by MSMEs, the recommended plan of action for the effective utilization of the IP System by MSMEs and the proposed interventions by governments and trade/business associations to promote brand development. The experts and the leaders from Philippine business associations, provided insights on what MSMEs could do to move forward. IPOPHL Director General Santiago reiterated her remarks on the first day of the workshop by reminding everyone of the purpose of the workshop, to think of ways on how branding and IP could be simplified for a better industry by MSMEs.

The Closing Remarks delivered by IPOPHL Deputy Director General Gepty touched on every salient point discussed during the workshop and how the APEC member economies could move forward in this initiative.

The APEC Workshop on Best Practices on Brand Development and IP Protection for MSMEs is a priority project of the APEC-IPEG, which focuses on developing the intellectual property capacity of the MSMEs.