Culture Snippets: The Philippines
‘Culture snippets’ is our way of sharing snippets of insights into different countries. If you want to chat about how you can use these insights to inform your product and business decisions, feel free to get in touch.
The Philippines was colonised by Spain for 333 years, became a territory of the US in 1898, gained independence in 1946. Its history has made it an interesting Asian country.
One of the few Asia countries where most people have a middle name, have more than one surnames and for women to adopt their husband’s surname. It has strong western influences but shares many Asian values - a highly collectivist, hierarchical & family-oriented society.
When I spoke to local taxi drivers, they ended each sentence with ‘ma’am’. Participants in user interviews responded with ‘Yes po’. It's a gesture of politeness & respect, like Japanese’s 'san'.
The ‘Getting the most out of what I’ve paid’ mentality is strong. A local term ‘Ayaw malugi’ means ‘don’t want to feel cheated’. The Tingi culture means you can buy cooking oil by the cup, cigarettes by the stick, shampoo by the sachet, garlic in packs of 4 cloves. Locals only buy what they need. It was seen as affordable solutions. But, with the result of what's available, wealthier consumers now simply buy multiple sachets, a habitual & familiar behaviour.