Strategic Brand Building: Build To Be Remembered

Brand marketing is more than just compelling visuals—it’s about identity. It involves founder-led storytelling, positioning strategy, and brand equity in the age of constant noise.

Today’s entrepreneurs know the power brand marketing can have on their business. Beyond its utility as a name for your product, service or company, it has deep implications for a company’s identity, market strategy, and mission. For marketing masters like Unilever and Procter & Gamble, brands make the difference between standing out in a crowded marketplace and being forgotten. Brand marketing can communicate what makes your product special or unique. For the Louis Vuittons of the world, it can elevate a product to luxury status. Or as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Jollibee have proven, it can even foster customer loyalty.

In today’s digital world, brand marketing has taken on a whole new dimension. Branding has become more important than ever when every post can build your image, and every comment speaks to your audience directly. How should entrepreneurs approach brand marketing with the new tools available to them?

The Business Manual spoke to Francis Flores, President and CEO of PICKUP COFFEE, about his insights on building one of the most successful Philippine brands in just a few years—with digital leading the way. Aside from leading PICKUP COFFEE to its phenomenal success, Flores also led the Jollibee brand to worldwide fame in his 15 years with the company where he rose to the rank of Global Chief Marketing Officer. What is his advice to entrepreneurs on building brands?

What Is a Brand?

The origin of what we know today as a brand comes from livestock branding—burning a symbol onto livestock to denote ownership. At its most basic, a brand is precisely that: a symbol of identity. A name. A logo. Simple.

For centuries, brands were important to distinguish a company’s products in marketplaces, and eventually, to promise superior quality or value.

In the 20th century, marketers began to realize that a brand was more than just a name and a logo that helped you to stand out. It was an idea that lived in a consumer’s head. This idea included perceptions about the product, experiences consuming the product, memorable advertising, the tune of a jingle—the list goes on. A brand, in short, was everything. In fact, as the term “brand” was being coined, David Ogilvy described it as “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes.”

If that sounds complicated, nothing could be further from the truth. Humans understand brands without any knowledge of brand marketing. Consumers know, for example, that yes, Jollibee is that yellow and red Filipino fastfood chain with the giant dancing bee. But it is also where you celebrated your kid’s fifth birthday, and it’s where you used to hang out with your barkada when you were a teen. It’s the crunch of Chicken Joy and that langhap sarap smell. A brand is the sum of all these things. And it exists only in people’s minds.

When creating the brand PICKUP COFFEE, Francis Flores focused on the company’s mission and identity. He says, “What excites me most is how true the brand stays to its mission. Every store, every cup, every digital touchpoint aims to uplift. And when you see customers enjoying great coffee without worrying about price, you realize the brand is creating small but meaningful wins in their daily lives. That’s fulfilling.”

Brand Marketing Fundamentals

“PICKUP COFFEE stands out because of clarity of promise,” Francis continues. “We don’t compete on luxury or ambience; we compete on being fast, high-quality, innovative, and exceptional in value. Our marketing reinforces that consistently—making sure people see PICKUP COFFEE as the most reliable everyday choice.”

“People wanted a premium coffee experience, but without the guilt of paying too much. The tension between aspiration and accessibility is what fueled PICKUP COFFEE’s strategy. We positioned ourselves as the ‘everyday coffee upgrade’—premium made possible for all.”

Clearly, this strategy has paid off, with the company launching 15 to 20 stores every month, placing their total number of stores well over 400 in 2025. And yet, how did Francis arrive at this promise that is so central to the PICKUP COFFEE brand?

For marketers, the answer is insight—insight into consumers’ perceptions, and insight about the market.

Finding this insight can be done by defining your brand marketing strategy, a process rooted in marketing fundamentals. This process varies according to the marketing guru du jour, but the fundamentals remain the same. To find the insight that will define your brand identity and drive your business, marketers are encouraged to study consumers, competitors and the market and discover where their brand can make the most difference in this landscape:

Step 1: Find Your Target Audience

Entrepreneurs should ask themselves: Who is most likely to buy your product? What are they like? Where can you find them online and IRL?

More important than demographics, entrepreneurs need to ask why. And how. Why would they buy your product? What problem does it solve for them? How does it make them feel?

Francis Flores tells entrepreneurs, “Don’t stop at what people do, go deeper into why. Build from human truths, then connect those truths to your brand’s mission.”

2. Study Your Competition

What competitor shares a space with your brand? Why are they successful? Why do customers love them? What are your strengths and weaknesses compared to your competitors? What opportunities and threats can you foresee?

“The best insights come from empathy,” Francis explains. “I listen to customers, observe behavior, and ask why they choose one brand over another.At PICKUP COFEE, that meant understanding not just their love for coffee, but their desire for something uplifting and affordable.”

3. Determine Your Brand Positioning

How is your brand different or unique? Why does your company do what it does? What is your mission? What is essential in your brand’s DNA?

For Francis, the company’s mission is at the core of its brand. He says, “At PICKUP COFFEE, growth has always been anchored on our mission: to UPlift everyone with fast, delicious, and surprisingly affordable beverages—one PickUp at a time.”

4. Craft Your Brand Story

What can customers take from your brand? How does it improve their lives?

PICKUP COFFEE’s mission goes beyond the company’s product or its stores. It affects every communication and every aspect of operations. It tells a story.

 “We weren’t just opening stores,” Francis continues, “we were building mindshare by making the brand visible, accessible, and loved. The formula is really about clarity of positioning, consistency of execution, and relentless storytelling. Those three, tied to our mission and vision, allowed us to scale quickly while still being remembered.

Brand Marketing in the Digital Age

Brand marketing has come a long way in today’s digital age. Being able to connect with customers in an interactive and personal way has profoundly changed brands and how companies bring their products to market. Today, brands focus on more than just products; they align with consumer values and social responsibility, creating a comprehensive strategy that encompasses a company’s identity and purpose. 

At the same time, digital tools have given marketers new ways to communicate with customers and learn more about them. Brand marketing in the digital age isn’t just about choosing online platforms and optimizing ad performance. There are data analytics tools to identify your target market better, customer relationship management (CRM) programs to manage your relationship with customers, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance your marketing efforts at every stage.

Francis Flores explains how digital is central to PICKUP COFFEE’s strategy, saying, “Digital has been core to our growth—from the PICKUP COFFEE app that makes ordering seamless, to content that spreads our mission.”

He advises entrepreneurs to go beyond thinking of marketing as a one-way street where brands broadcast their message. He says, “Use digital not just for reach, but for removing friction and building relationships. Ask yourself: does this tool make the customer’s life easier, better, or more uplifting? If yes, then it’s brand-building.”

As parting advice, Francis Flores returns to his brand’s mission. He says, “The most common mistake is brands jumping into tactics without a clear mission and vision. Campaigns may generate noise, but they don’t build equity if they’re not anchored on a system… At PICKUP COFFEE, our mission and vision guide everything, so even as we grow, the message stays clear and repeatable.”

Read More:

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The Power of Insightful Storytelling: Fireside Chat Speakers for BrandCon PH 2025

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