Successful entrepreneurs sustainably help Filipino families rise out of poverty

While NGOs and charity groups have mission statements that claim to uplift the lives of impoverished families, often assistance is restricted by donations and charity funds raised from a multitude of soliciting events and challenged by sustainability.

On the contrary, enabling Filipino family businesses and their brands to become successful and ably compete in the local and global business landscape is a decade and generations long sustainable act that enables hundreds, even thousands of employment opportunities. Sustainable and improved livelihood raises the living standards of many families that include both owners and their growing number of employees.

Such is the entrepreneurship and advocacy mindset of Dr. Catherine aka Karen De Asis (MBA, Phd), 2025 ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Awardee representing the Philippines. Dr. Karen De Asis is a founding board member and chief brand strategist of MKS Marketing Consulting.

Along with other AWEN awardees from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, Dr. Karen shall be formally awarded on November 21, 2025 at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeetra in Cambodia, in a culminating event of the Pinnacle Entrepreneurs Forum 2025 that celebrates the achievements of women entrepreneurs across the ASEAN.

As a brand, marketing and media company, MKS Marketing Consulting primary role is to enable Filipino companies and their brands to compete successfully in the marketplace.

“For more than a decade now, we have restricted our services to Filipino family businesses because we believe that Filipino owned family companies with visionary owners are far more flexible and quicker to succeed. When they become successful they create greater positive economic impact countrywide triggered by their successful brands. This automatically leads to business expansion and more employment opportunities thus helping raise the living standards of many more Filipino families sustainably. MKS brand consulting business vision and mission is to help ensure the success of visionary-led and owned Filipino businesses so that many more Filipino families stand to gain not merely as consumers but as recipients of economic livelihood,“ states Dr. Karen.

MKS Marketing Consulting believes that strategic Branding and Marketing when done properly is the catalyst to business success. This means the combination of a smart brand strategy, compelling content, effective communication and media implementation to drive compelling positive results.

At the Awen assessment and deliberation, MKS cited three of its successful family-owned case studies. The first is a retail brand, 30 years in the business with only 47 branches when it became an MKS brand account. After MKS did the brand restructuring from an initial 47 branches, it now has 350 company-owned branches nationwide in 15 years, a market leader in its category while establishing thousands of new job opportunities.

The second case study is a newbie player in the home appliances mature category that started with only an aircondition product line. Today, after 10 years its product line has expanded to other major appliances from aircondition to refrigerators and freezers, television, washing machine, all distributed nationwide in over 1000 dealer outlets fueling employment and more trade opportunities for dealerships.

The third is a drugstore retail brand with meager brand awareness. After four years, it became a strong challenger in the healthcare drugstore retail category offering more affordable options for consumers.

“Leadership and great responsibility is inherent in a successful brand strategist’s work. Innate and creative intelligence is extremely necessary to navigate a successful brand. To build and manage successful brands by Filipino owned companies not only create market leaders and strong challengers and highly loyal consumers but the social impact and advocacy is far greater when more and more successful Filipino family businesses begin to expand and create sustained livelihood for many Filipino families through decades and generations to come. Such is the social impact and advocacy that our MKS brand consulting would like to establish,” further states Dr. Karen.

MKS Marketing Consulting has extensive experience in brand management and marketing across all retail, food, healthcare manufacturing, consumer durables, telecommunications, travel and trade, retail, fashion, personal care and property development industries. Numerous brand campaigns combining strategy, innovation and creativity have been spearheaded and directed by Dr. De Asis, the latest of which used for the first time in Philippine advertising and media, an AI artificial intelligence generated image in its brand campaign shown through TVC, online and social media and print.

Dr. Catherine Villanueva-De Asis graduated Doctor of Education major in education leadership and corporate social responsibility with highest distinction/honors at the De La Salle University, College of Education, Taft Avenue, Manila. She completed her Master in Business Administration, also with distinction at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. Following her doctoral degree are post-doctoral executive education fellowships in strategic marketing and leadership at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Silicon Valley, USA in 2014, Strategic Leadership Executive Education Program of the Said Graduate School of Business in Oxford University in London, United Kingdom in May 2015 and Strategic Marketing Executive Education program of the Said Graduate School of Business, Oxford University the following year.

Three major recognitions mark the entrepreneurial and leadership journey of the founder, Dr. Catherine V. De Asis: 2003 Agora Awardee for Excellence in Marketing Education. 2008 Outstanding Faculty Awardee, De La Salle University, and the 2018 Philippines Women Leadership Excellence recognition presented by the World Women Leadership Congress.

She has taught in the Philippines’ finest graduate schools of businesses that included De La Salle Graduate School of Business, Asian Institute of Management and in the MBA Health program of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. She has spoken and taught locally and overseas and at one time has joined marketing guru, Al Ries, author of Positioning, in the Philippine leg of the Asian Brand Strategy Conference held in Manila. She has also authored the first ever local Philippine rule book on Brand Management titled COLOR FOLDERS IN THE MIND: A BRANDING STORY.