By Cristina Liamzon*

Many said it couldn’t be done–that there wouldn’t be much interest among OFWs for yet another training program and that the initiative simply couldn’t be sustained. That OFWs in Italy were only interested in working and earning an income as domestic helpers, nannies or caregivers to elderly Italians, that they didn’t have any time to spare, even on Sundays to attend training programs, especially one which was a year-long, and which focused on the subjects of leadership and social entrepreneurship. After all, the term social entrepreneurship is new and sounds vague for many. What examples could we show of successful social entrepreneurs, or social enterprises that the trainees could use as models to create their own after the training?

Skeptics opined that it would be difficult to find enough trainees who would participate and finish the program and that it could be a waste of time, money and effort. Still, the Associazione Pilipinas OFSPES, a Rome-based NGO hoping to empower overseas Filipinos in Italy, attempted to pursue this dream.

It all began in early 2007. We explored collaborations with the Philippine Embassy to Italy, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and OWWA and the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government to interest them in a project that would enhance the leadership and social entrepreneurship skills of our OFW’s in Rome, and then we did an extensive promotion and fund-raising for the program. Despite the initial tepid interest among Filipino communities and armed with limited human and financial resources but a lot of determination, a clear vision and much enthusiasm, the program was launched last April 6, 2008 with some 30 OFWs as trainees. By the second training module on May 18, this number had increased to more than 50 OFWs and youth who had heard about the first session and who fulfilled the essential requirements for participation.
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Last week, the World Bank released a study called Doing Business 2009. In it, Singapore took the top spot in the rankings on the ease of doing business, New Zealand was 2nd, and the U.S. was 3rd.

Hong Kong was 4th; Japan, 12th; Thailand, 13th; and China 83rd.

The Philippines? 140th.

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By: Willy E. Arcilla*

Nothing is more enduring in the field of advertising and communications than the slogan or tagline. Advertising experts even theorize that slogans are more important than visual executions because what we hear is what we remember most based on psychological studies. Visual executions change to provide freshness to a campaign, but great taglines endure.

Over the years, we have been captivated by many taglines of the most popular brands from cigarettes to colas, soaps to shampoos, from cars to computers, and sports leagues to sports shoes.  Advertisers know too well the tagline represents the essence of the brand message that should influence consumer attitude and motivate purchase behavior.  Memorability will depend on both the strength of the line and the amount of media exposure devoted to promoting it.  However, this is not a chicken-or-egg situation because a good advertiser quickly realizes the power behind a strong slogan that deserves maximum media exposure.

So what makes a good slogan?  Simple and memorable. Relevant to the target and unique to the brand. Consumer language.  In a word, “Brilliant”!  Allow me to pay tribute to the copywriters responsible for creating what I pick as the 101 top taglines (no particular order).
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FOR ROCK CLIMBERS and other outdoor enthusiasts, it was a relief when the comfy Mojo sandals came out in 1991. These rubber sandals with their adjustable nylon straps and Velcro can be relied on for long treks and other activities in the great outdoors. That they were locally made (hurray for Marikina!) meant they were priced at pocket-friendly rates, which made the sandals even hotter.

And, as expected, copycats soon got in on the trend and made their own “Mojos.” Poor copies were sold at bargain prices in the palengke, while the better quality ones were sold at malls under different brands. Some unscrupulous business people even manufactured such sandals under the brand name “Mojo.”

Of course, the real brains behind Mojo, Joey Cuerdo, a surfer and rock climber, was incensed. He personally went after the counterfeiters who tried to pass off their footwear as Mojos.
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IF DOING business online—posting info about your products and services on the web, and taking orders from people you do not see—sounds alien to you, don’t let your fear of the unknown take away a host of opportunities. Many entrepreneurs have seen their businesses grow the moment they have stepped on the threshold of e-commerce.

To make things easy for the Filipino entrepreneur, a group of Filipino businessmen and women joined forces to offer a web platform that can help the entrepreneur reach the global market at a low cost. It’s AgilaGlobal.net, a new vehicle that provides Filipino businesses all over the world with the tools needed to effectively and efficiently operate an online business, while expanding their market by breaking down geographical and financial barriers to operations.

“There are a lot of business-oriented Filipinos, and a considerable number of them already recognize the opportunities of doing business over the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, most of our compatriots have a very limited capacity for business using new technology due to various reasons—most of them do not have any professional online presence which stands in the way of credibility, and a lot of those who have their own sites do not have an e-commerce and logistics infrastructure which will allow them to accept payments and effect deliveries within the system. AgilaGlobal was built for the purpose of enabling our kababayans to operate efficiently without the headache and heavy investment usually associated with operating online,” says Lalaine Chu-Benitez, managing director of Illustrado Marketing & Communications Incorp., the company behind AgilaGlobal.
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