If you feel beleaguered and besieged in the heat of battle, would you call in your octogenarian mother to pitch for you? Thus did fellow presidential candidates Joseph Ejercito Estrada and Richard Gordon assail Manuel Villar earlier this week after the latter’s mother called a press conference at her home. Even Sen. Villar’s sisters got into the act. They said that they should not be questioned on why even their mother got involved in a turbulent political campaign. After all, isn’t Noynoy Aquino continually invoking his parents’ legacy?
The Villars, especially the presidential candidate himself, are missing the point. It’s not about parents and children. It’s about the power of a dominant political brand.
When Time magazine featured the front-running Noynoy Aquino on the cover of its April 26, 2010 issue, what image did that cover evoke? Of course it reminded readers of the Time covers featuring his mother Corazon Aquino when she was hailed as Woman of the Year in 1986, when she was chosen as one of Asia’s 60 most influential persons in 2007 and when she passed away last year and described as the saint and icon of democracy.
Only last month, Pulse Asia affirmed that Noynoy Aquino enjoyed the highest trust rating among the candidates. This came on the heels of a Readers Digest study that showed he is among the five most trusted Filipinos and the highest in trust rating among politicians.
“Getting a politician elected might be the ultimate marketing and branding challenge,” wrote a certain M. B. Moore of Infopop Corporation in 2001. Jennifer Silverberg, political consultant, pointed out that “a brand is built through consistent execution in all forms of behavior and communication, at all levels, and over time.”
The Aquino brand in Philippine politics has been built over many years. It dates back from the meteoric rise of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. from a 17-year old Manila Times cub reporter in the Korean War to being a senatorial topnotcher at the age of 35 and a presidential challenger to Ferdinand Marcos until the latter thwarted his political ambition by jailing him during the martial law regime.
Ninoy Aquino’s brand of wizardry in traditional politics assumed a new dimension when he became a celebrated political prisoner. He became a symbol and a rallying point for the Filipino people’s struggle to regain their freedom and to recover democratic space. Recall how he led the Laban party from his cell in Fort Bonifacio and called on the Filipino people to do what Dylan Thomas wrote in a famous poem, “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
While on medical furlough in Boston, Massachusetts, he declared he was coming home to convince the dictator to start implementing political reforms. When warned that his enemies were out to destroy him, he said, “The Filipino is worth dying for.”
He died from a hail of bullets that cut him down as he stepped on the tarmac of an airport that is now named after him. His widow assumed the leading role in a continuing struggle for freedom. She became President in the aftermath of a People Power revolt that placed the Filipino people on the map trailblazers for peaceful political change. Edsa preceded the breaking down of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR.
For 17 years after gracefully stepping down from power, Cory Aquino consistently fought for the nurturance of freedom and democracy in our land. She never wavered nor hesitated, even when the odds seemed to be too formidable to overcome. At one point, she was written off as a political has-been, unable to draw a sizeable crowd to join protest rallies that she led.
But when she died in August 2009, there was such a massive outpouring of affection that accompanied her to her final resting place. Her funeral procession was a virtual replay of that of her husband’s 26 years earlier.
Hence, we now realize that Noynoy Aquino’s imminent ascendancy to the highest elected office is neither fluke nor accident. As a vaunted marketing-savvy businessman, Mr. Villar should have realized that the Aquino brand (Ninoy’s and Cory’s) was built up over decades through “consistent execution in all forms of behavior and communication, at all levels, and over time.”
It may not have been consciously or consistently done by established organizations (such as political parties or government agencies or image-builders), but its principal carriers who became national heroes and icons of political leadership powerfully projected this brand.
In his interview with Time, Noynoy Aquino acknowledged this when he said that when his father died in 1983 he realized that he and his family had crossed the Rubicon: “it could not be that my father died for nothing.”
But, as another marketing authority wrote: “Brand-building is about letting the consumer know what to expect in a product experience, to know what a product is about, to allow them to make an informed decision on whether a given product meets their needs.” It became the challenge for Noynoy Aquino’s campaign organization to ensure that, as the carrier of the Aquino brand, he is able to convince enough voters to trust that he is a reliable carrier of his parents’ legacy.
When his ratings hit a high of 51% in the last quarter of 2009, an in-depth study was conducted by a reputable market research firm to determine the depth of conviction of those who stated their preference for him. What emerged was that his core constituency stood solid at about 37%. This constituency is made up largely of those who participated and believed in the spirit of Edsa and transmitted it to their children, relatives and friends. This is the constituency that has remained steadfast behind him through the ebbs and flows of a turbulent campaign.
In sharp contrast, the same research firm found out that preference for his opponents was neither solid nor stable, as this was affected by the voters’ level of awareness of who they really were or what they stood for.
Despite scurrilous attacks against him, Noynoy Aquino has proved more than equal to the challenge of measuring up to the people’s expectations. As reported by Time, he has become like a rock star whose mere presence stirs intense passion and affection. As pointed out by former socioeconomic planning Secretary Solita Monsod, even if he is less eloquent than Ninoy Aquino, he projects an aura of sincerity and compassion reminiscent of Cory Aquino who has emerged as the most beloved national leader of our time.
If by God’s grace and the people’s mandate he will become the next President of the Philippines, Noynoy Aquino faces a fresh challenge. This is to demonstrate that the Aquino brand, already known and trusted on the basis of what his parents have done, will be known as a brand of good governance that restored a people’s sense of pride and respect.
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