Branding concept is catching up in Sri Lanka
He began life as an IT professional but later switched to embark on a different career as a full time advertising professional when he was just 20 years old.
Wimukthi Galahitiyawa
Today, Wimukthi Galahitiyawa sits in the board room of Brand Cetrical as one of its director and as a brand strategist to popularise the concept of branding local products to have a competitive edge in the international market. He worked relentlessly for almost a decade or so to thread the needle on the branding concept in Sri Lanka, an idea that gained traction in the country during the past decade.
He was one of those pioneers in the country who did an in-depth study on his own on the branding concept prior to becoming a brand strategist.
He worked for a while at Design Studio promoting advertising materials for TV commercials and so forth for campaigns in 2008 along with his other buddies. Design Studio by then had made a colossal investment to promote TV commercials but its success was short-lived. His other partners at Design Studio aligned themselves with a government-related project that went bust with the change of the government.
Its funding depleted resulted in the closure of Design Studio due to bankruptcy. However those at the helm of Design Studio were eager to continue with their business having so many clients in their pipeline.
When things were at a crossroad, his buddies asked him whether he would like to continue doing business with their remaining clients of the Design Studio.
“At this stage I agreed and decided to become an entrepreneur myself delving into the nittygritty details of a business. The year was 2008 when I had one single client who agreed to retain my services to promote his business. After all I was a newcomer when I ventured into the advertising business and most clients did not know me that time. But I continued to engage myself in a small operation and recruited a few friends to help me out in the daily tasks. But that became a disaster ultimately when I realised that business and friendship do not go hand in hand in the first place,” he said in an interview in Colombo. Having run the small business for two years with his friends he closed it down due to an ocean of mistrust among them, learning a bitter lesson the hard way.
But Wimukthi with his never-say-die sprit continued with his advertising business having again began with five clients together with a partner who was instrumental in the overall production of advertising. But it all happened in 2010 when he and his partner realized the symbolic importance of floating another company named Massnshaft to expand their horizon of business. He said no one in the industry was talking about branding products that time but everybody was on advertising.
Awards won by the young entrepreneur
“I had shallow knowledge of branding that time but read a lot on the subject by studying foreign material. After-all branding was the centerpiece of attracting attention to a particular product. Even the bigwigs in many Sri Lankan conglomerates were bemused with the branding concept that time.”
When asked about the subtle difference between branding and advertising, he said branding is unique to identify a product itself by name whereas advertising implies many things relating to the product itself. Branding is all about creating that perception or image that attracts people. In essence it is a broader subject than advertising itself. Branding a product is not inextricably linked to advertising although a subtle difference exists.
He said a specialised team was needed to create a brand image of a product. Meanwhile a reputed advertising agency in the country wanted he and his partner to set up a new concept called Digital Arm at their office. But they were a bit reluctant to accept the offer leaving behind their clients. However they helped the ad agency to start a beauty pageant contest by using Digital Arm through the social media platform. Having being exposed to adverting continuously for a long period of time Wimukhi met the present partner of Brand Cetrical and they started a branding agency in 2013. “We initially had only two clients, including a big conglomerate in Sri Lanka, which we still retain. We now have 30 employees working for us over the past five years. We meet bigwigs of companies and brief them on branding and today we have 40 clients.”
He cited international brand names like Nike, Apple and so forth as world famous brands. Wimukthi has many accolades to his credit. e was awarded the Entrepreneur of the year in 2016 and in 2017 he won the bronze category for Entrepreneurship Two months ago he was awarded the Young Achiever of the Year award in Jakarta.