The brand group that I was assigned to was Toilet Soaps. My new boss, Ato Maningat, was probably three years older than I was. He was a product of one of the better-known business schools in the US, the Wharton School of Business. His undergraduate schooling was with the Jesuits and he vaguely remembered one of my brothers in school.  He struck me as being on the serious side and slightly aloof. Despite his credentials he didn’t seem eager to flaunt it and had a rather unassuming quality about him that was reassuring. It was something that I needed because I was beginning to feel that everyone here would be snooty and flaunt their awesome scholastic credentials. There were two other guys in the group; Boy Trillana, a brand supervisor just like me and a newly hired marketing assistant, Joe Montemayor. Another brand supervisor, Tony Marquez, whom I would discover to be a cousin of mine would join us a month later. My cousin was a graduate of Denver University while our marketing assistant graduated from New York University. When Joe left the company Fredrick Dael replaced him. Fred was the loquacious sort and would volunteer an opinion on just about anything if you allowed him to. This earned him the sobriquet “The Dumaguete Lip”. As it turned out he really did have something to say.  He became an executive of Pepsi Cola International as regional head of Asia and of the latest account he headed IslaCom, a telecommunications company.

Boy Trillana, who was there ahead of me, though not from a stateside university, was a product of De Lasalle University. Lifebuoy was his brand. He had his hands full thwarting the relentless offensives of a major entry by P&G. He was the right man for the job. Determined and aggressive he staved off their swamping efforts and gave competition a run for their money. He had a curiosity about advertising and knowing that I have had experience in it he kept asking me about it every time he had the opportunity. After PRC, he and his wife, Sonjie de Ocampo, also a former brand manager in the company, embarked on marketing ventures with Chris Barber-Lomax, erstwhile marketing director who stayed in the Philippines after his retirement from Unilever. Boy and Sonjie had other successful business investments one of which was the ownership of Lintas (post Hemisphere affiliation) one of the largest agencies locally.  A fairly recent venture of theirs, Go nuts Donuts, seems to be off to a good start.

The other product groups were the Detergents group headed by Gus Villanueva, a young, brash and talented marketing man. He was once a representative of the country to the Davis Cup (a prestigious international tennis tournament), The Foods group headed by Butch Unson and the Toilet Preps group under Tony Tolentino. The brand people at that time were Gilbert de los Reyes, Frankie Gonzalez, Vic de la Torre, Ding Camua, Gat Maggay, Boy Feliciano, Willie Ocampo, Meckoy Quiogue, Peter Garrucho, Mon Henson, Ling Cardenas, Sonjie de Ocampo, Tony Carmona, Titus Santiago and a few others whose names I can’t recall now.

One group that the brand people had to work closely with was the Advertising and Promotions Department. With the departure of Hank Nijk the position was left vacant. Manoling de Leon succeeded Hank Nijk with the title of Advertising Manager. He had within his group the Media, marketing intelligence and Advertising Budget sections. Tito Claudio was the Media Manager, Nilo Santos was in charge of marketing intelligence while Mel Lagman was the budget supervisor. Rene Ranjo was in charge of marketing services which at that time was limited to field promotions. Jimmy Pinzon and Bert Laconico were a promotions assistant together with field supervisors Mon Ocampo, Caloy Ferriols and Joe Pleta. Some of the marketing trainees at that time were Bong de Guzman, whose dad was the mayor of Baguio City at that time, Jes Asuncion, Hernan Reyes, whose family owned the popular UFC banana ketchup and Josie Gregorio, one of the few female marketing recruits then.