Ace Durano's dim sum marketing strategy a success

CEBU, Philippines - How does the Philippines, with its lean advertising budget, reach out to such a diversified tourist market?  

This question was thrown at me by no less the first lady of tourism, Ms Hulya Aslantas, the World President of Skal International when she visited the Philippines a few weeks ago.

Ms Aslantas is head of Skal International, the world’s largest travel organization with 20,000 members in over 80 countries with 550 clubs worldwide. Its members are executives from hotels, airlines, travel agents, cruise lines, theme parks, airports, academe from hospitality and hotel schools, car rental companies, tourism organizations, congress organizers, travel publications and spas.

Aptly we were hosting her over a Dim Sum lunch in a Makati hotel and spread before us on the table, for a delectable gastronomic feast, were a kaleidoscope of answers.

The unique culinary art of dim sum is my favourite Chinese food fare. I have loved this dining culture ever since I was a little boy and at my present age, its wide range of dishes present me an excellent array of healthy diet.

Dim Sum (literally means “a bit of heart”). All its dishes come in small portions and include meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruits. They are served in small steamer baskets or on small plates.

Wikipedia (my reliable online companion) goes on to explain “that Dim Sum is usually linked with the older Chinese tradition of Yum Cha (drinking tea), which has its roots in travellers on the ancient Silk Road needing a place to rest. Thus teahouses were established along the road.”

Dim Sum favourites amongst Filipinos are siu mai (pork dumpling), spring roll, har gau (shrimp dumpling), chicken feet, char siu baau (asado sio pao), stuffed tofu, stuffed taro, steamed meat balls, spare ribs and steamed chicken.

The more popular Dim Sum teahouses or restaurants serve a wider variety of dim sum which includes congee (rice porridge), lou mai gai (lotus leaves rice similar to machang but not quite), ham sui gok (salty pastry with seasoned pork) and the must-try radish/turnip cake, tofu skin roll and cheong fun (rice noodle rolls filled with beef, barbecued pork or shrimp, steamed and often topped with sweet soy sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Desserts range from egg tart to buchi; from mango sago pudding to pandan buko jelly; from red bean soup to almond paste for the more discerning. 

Ordering Dim Sum is a simple task. In authentic Dim Sum restaurants, severs with push carts go around the dining hall. You just point to what you want and you get it instantly served on your table.

With reference to the Department of Tourism’s overseas marketing campaign, I find this great affinity between Secretary Ace Durano’s approach and the art of a fine Dim Sum feast.

As against a normal Chinese lauriat where a meal could run up to ten to twelve courses with lots of wastage and sinful over-ordering, the art of Dim Sum dining represents a very practical approach.

Around my table of ten were five guests from four different nations (Turkey, Austria, Japan and India) and the remaining were Filipinos – couple of Tsinoys, Mestizos and Morenas.

As the lunch progressed, I found a cheerful and delectable way of connecting the $64 million question to the food we were eating.

Ace Durano has launched several campaigns in several countries with different approaches. In highly successful programs in Korea to tap its 12 million outbound market, the DOT has four priority segments. These are the students, the holiday seekers, honeymooners, and special interest groups such as golfers, scuba divers and other sports buffs.

Serving as the communication stance of the campaign is the creative handle “7107 Philippines: More Than You Can Imagine” which visually stresses the multi dimensional characteristics of the Philippine tourism brand. Naturally, the Korean translation of the slogan sounds more exciting and meaningful, and has created quite an impact in stimulating the Korean market.

Similarly, in Japan there are no less than three different campaigns targeting a very vibrant market of young independent ladies, sports enthusiasts and senior travellers and long stayers all under the umbrella creative theme of “Premium Resorts Islands.”

The collateral carries the slogan kokoro somaru which roughly translates to “color my heart.” The dominant colors used are red (depicting excitement and active), yellow (for fruits and tropical) and blue (for ocean and relaxation), each representing the different kinds of travel experience in the Philippines.

As the lunch progressed, I had to re-order more cheong fun, wu gok, cheun gyun, ham sui gok, har gau and spring rolls as my guests were obviously enjoying these dishes more than the others. As a staple dish, beef ho fan (rice noodles) and yang chow fried rice were included.

In this Dim Sum marketing philosophy, I wish to awe you with its simplicity.

Point #1. My luncheon guests from various countries, possessing different taste buds and cultures, represent our diverse markets.

Point #2: The delicious Dim Sum dishes are the marketing approaches the DOT engages in to attract. We order and serve only the popular dishes upon the requests of the guests (market), thus establishing its cost effectiveness.

Point #3: The Dim Sum menu is by no means restricted. There are so many choices and these serve as the various marketing channels available to reach the different market segments.

By the time we reach our dessert, my guests were completely satisfied with my answers, let alone the lunch. It made a lot of sense to them and I was glad it was a Dim Sum restaurant we decided to dine in. Had it been a posh fine dining restaurant, I would be completely lost for an answer.

The DOT advertising and promotional budget may be meagre compared to the other national tourist organizations in our region but with careful planning and execution, Ace Durano has made sure that every centavo counts.  

Charles Lim is an independent tourism marketing consultant based in Cebu. He has initiated various travel and tourism projects such as sports tourism programs, travel shows and destination marketing campaigns for local governments as well as private establishments.

Lim served in various capacities in promoting tourism in Cebu as city tourism commissioner as well as regional tourism council member in the 80s and 90s.

He now runs Selrahco Leisure and his clients include leading domestic airline, Cebu Pacific, a number of hotels and resorts, tourism councils and the Philippines’ main theme park, Enchanted Kingdom.

He is currently president of Skal International Cebu and serves in the world body as International Councilor.