Manila, Philippines - While sales reflect the extent of a brand’s patronage, consumers’ opinion confirms satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, of a product or service. One of the most credible large-scale gauge of people’s trust and confidence on a particular brand is the annual Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Surveys. Millions of readers of the popular family and consumer magazine around the world rate different brands from 1 to 5 in terms of their trustworthiness and credibility, quality, value, understanding of customer needs, innovation, and corporate social responsibility. With their sheer number, their judgment could never go wrong and their voice serves as a true seal of approval for any kind of product.
Owners of brands that score high in country-specific surveys receive the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Award as a symbolic recognition of being the top choice of consumers and readers. In this year’s Philippines survey, DMCI Homes was one of four awardees in the property category. Reader’s Digest Asia commercial director Yvonne Tey handed the Trusted Brand Award to DMCI Homes President Alfredo R. Austria and DMCI Homes treasurer Edwina A. Consunji-Laperal in a ceremony for the occasion held at the Resorts World Manila in Parañaque City on May 31.
“This recognition is not only an honor to us; it is like a seal that reinforces our reputation as represented by the views of consumers. It does not only give us a name we need to live up to when it comes to the way we do things; this strengthens and further reinforces our brand claims, which could translate to benefits that may reflect in our brand equity and future sales,” says DMCI Homes marketing manager Jan Venturanza.
Venturanza attributes the strong belief to the brand to the resort themed mid-rise communities that DMCI Homes pioneered in 1999, when it first forayed into housing construction. The resort effect is made possible through the company’s innovative and proprietary designs; one of these is a design technology called Lumiventt for the DMCI Homes’ high-rise developments. This architectural configuration facilitates cross-ventilation or the natural flow of light and ventilation throughout a building structure, from the corridors, common areas, and even to the residential units.
Explains Venturanza, “We developed the concept of incorporating large openings into the building façade to serve as channels through which the air can move. The Sky Patios or three-storey openings on the back and front of the building fulfill this purpose of allowing fresh air to flow in while displacing or sucking out stale or hot air.”
He adds, “Natural light is allowed to illuminate the indoors, through the Sky Patios and the Sky Garden, which includes landscaped atriums incorporated in every five floors of the building.”
Enhancing the effect of Lumiventt is having windows both at the side of the unit facing the hallways and the side of the unit facing the exterior of the building. This end-to-end air ventilation is uncommon in today’s high-rise condos, according to Venturanza.
The Lumiventt advantage is a premier feature found in DMCI Homes’ projects like Tivoli Garden Residences, La Verti Residences in Pasay, Royal Palm Residences in Taguig, FlairTowers in Mandaluyong.
To maintain consumers’ trust on its brand, DMCI continues to fulfill its commitment of meeting the needs of homebuyers by building more homes in key, strategic areas within Metro Manila. The projects will be a mix of mid- and high-rise vertical community developments. These include Zinnia Towers, located in a prime property along North EDSA, Quezon City; One Castilla Place in Valencia, Quezon City; and Serissa Residences, a medium-rise community alongAlabang-Zapote Road in Las Piñas, Aside from these, six other similar projects in pipeline will be launched late in the year.
DMCI Homes has been incorporating the use of natural energy in its design since 2006, but wants to emphasize its lead in the field of green architecture. The company recently joined the Philippine Green Building Council (PhilGBC) and had one of its architect-managers certified under the group’s Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) Program so it can learn more about smart and sustainable design for the benefit of customers and, ultimately, the general public. The BERDE is a measurement of how much “above and beyond” existing environmental regulations and standards a building is performing.
Lastly, Venturanza says DMCI Homes aims to bring more design innovations in the future – designs that will not just change the landscape of the real estate industry, but the way urbanites view their home as well.