Sri Lanka Tourism to launch Rs.200 million new brand building strategy
View(s):Sri Lanka Tourism has picked a global communication partner to launch its Rs.200 million new brand building strategy, a media release issued by the Promotions Bureau stated. This was announced at the Global Conference on On-board services conference staged at Hilton Hotel sponsored by Sri Lankan Airlines under the leadership of its new chairman Rakitha Jayawardena which garnered the top 60 delegates from around the world.Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Rohantha Athukorala announced the Marketing Plan to be launched across the key strategic markets globally in partnership with SLAITO and THASL in which, Sri Lanka Tourism will launch a Rs.200 million new brand building strategy by recruiting a top global communication partner after a lapse of six years, it was stated.
Mr. Athukorala stated how successful places focus on delivering emotional and social benefits. They are concerned by how they will make people feel, rather than relying on boring lists, facts and details. “We as destination marketers haven’t been using all the tools available to us in today’s world because we assume that consumers make decisions rationally. While the rationale or ‘thinking’ part of the brain does play a role, it’s most often there to simply validate, or put into words a decision that our subconscious mind has already made for us,” he said.
In order to reach the ‘thinking’ brain, the messages need to first pass the older parts of ‘our’ brain, the parts that are far more primal and emotionally oriented, said Mr. Athukorala. He went on to explain how many places still try to promote themselves by using uninteresting lists of local attractions, businesses and services whilst the new strategy will be more on the heritage and culture of the country that is strongly linked to the people of huge country. “Let’s see how things pan out but we want the new strategy in place within three months that includes production time,” Mr. Athukorala added.
As a case in point he explained how the campaign Brand USA- America’s first global tourism campaign used a rational approach to selling the USA against foreigner cynicism, especially regarding U.S. foreign policy and immigration restrictions. By using a completely non-verbal, emotional approach, the campaign has surpassed target goals. He challenged the community to re-examine their own company’s marketing communications if it was aimed at the “thinking” or the “feeling” parts of your customers’ brains.