Ateneo de Manila University, the country’s leading Jesuit university, was where 1,200 students discovered and developed their personal brands (brands with their name on it) in a “required core curriculum” class called Marketing Management.

Ateneo was where I had the unique opportunity to leverage my full-time marketing profession during the day to enhance my teaching of marketing management at night for 3 years (1994 to 1997) at the Loyola Campus and at the Center for Continuing Education and for 10 years at the Graduate School of Business (1997 to 2007). I was offered this opportunity after successfully completing my own MBA degree at the Ateneo using the older, longer, thesis-based program from 1990 – 1994.

A key message of the marketing management course was that basic marketing principles can and must be applied to improve the brand positioning of the students- in their families, in their careers, now,and in the future. The students, regardless of their background or career plans, were really brand managers of their own personal brands. In order to be leading and profitable brands, they have to be able to position themselves to address the needs, wants and expectations of their primary target markets at home and at work better than competition.

Hopefully some of the students still remember some useful things from being part of the class: making an inspiring 20 year personal brand plan, 7 x 7 power points, personal brand launching and positioning, the i love marketing visual model, the case studies based on popular movies, and perhaps for many students- the many assignments and tests.

I too had a 20 year personal brand marketing plan to implement. The tactical execution of the plan changed when a unique opportunity presented itself that brought me and my family 10,000 miles around the world to the United States in July 2007. One of the most noticeable changes was in the US brand name of  Joseph DeUngria (from the common Filipino name “Bong” which refers to something different in the US context. Also US database systems are unable to record my surname as “De Ungria”, so DeUngria is normally how they reflected in  all my IDs and records.) But my over-all strategy and the guiding vision and mission remained,

After 13 years, 43 classes and 1,200 students- my Ateneo door temporarily closed but a new one has opened – (Bong De Ungria from the Philippines  became better known as R Joseph DeUngria or as Remigio J DeUngria in the United States,  August 2007)