Financial Times

PR campaign needed to promote Sri Lanka as fair manufacturer
By Deepika Gunasekera (A PR consultant)
Companies usually prepare annual plans, long-term plans and strategic plans. The annual plan describes the current marketing situation, company objectives, marketing strategy for the year, action programme, budgets and controls. The top management approves this plan and uses it to coordinate marketing activities with production, finance and other areas of the company.

The long term plan describes the major factors and forces expected to affect the organisation during the next several years. It includes long-term objectives and the major marketing strategies that will be used to attain them.
Both these plans deal with current business and how to sustain it. In contrast, strategic planning involves adapting the firm to take advantage of opportunities in its constantly changing environment (Kotler).

What is the role of marketing in strategic planning? According to Kotler, firstly it provides a guiding philosophy. It revolves around serving the needs of important groups, consumers, customers, public, etc. These same factors guide to arrive at the mission and the objectives. Secondly, marketing provides input to strategic planning to identify attractive market opportunities and assess the potential for taking advantage of them. As a brand manager who has worked in several leading multi-national companies for almost 8 years, I could say that although the above sounds like theory, it is strictly put into practice in the companies that I have worked in.

The overwhelming result is that these companies go from strength to strength each year. Their growth in total revenue and profitability is evidence.
According to Maslow's theory, the basic needs of the people are the physiological needs. Clothing is not only a physiological need anymore, but it has evolved to be a lifestyle with a lot of creativity added to it. Thus, the demand for apparels will never diminish. At the same time, it has created a colossal marketing opportunity for the marketer. There was a time that Sri Lankan labour was comparatively cheap. However, it is not so now as India and China have become more competitive in labour costs. Previously, Sri Lanka had a competitive advantage in low cost manufacture.

With the times, factors such as good governance and compliance to internationally accepted ethical work standards have resulted in the increase of cost of production thereby losing the "unit price war". Even though, there has been a negative impact due to the above, a greater opportunity has arisen to promote our apparel industry as developed countries appreciate good governance and good business practices of their supply chain.

This opens up an opportunity for a well-coordinated Public Relations campaign on an international basis to promote and position Sri Lanka as a fair manufacturer versus China and India.

Furthermore, price is just one element of the marketing mix. It is worthwhile to leverage on other elements of the mix to position the products and look at other incentives we could offer the buyers by following a push strategy.
How do we differentiate? We could promote our apparels as products with a lot of Asian or Sri Lankan flavour, rich by our culture which could be the unique selling proposition.

The products that "Cotton Collection" put out are truly excellent and a good example for the above. The quality of our products can be further improved if we follow the Japanese theory. Japanese management process which is operated by consensus and given a lot of commitment once a decision is made, is a great theory. The Japanese production process with greater worker involvement in decision-making also has vital benefits.

Recently, I read an article which said, in referring to the apparel sector, that Sri Lanka should focus on certain products which are doing well. I wonder whether this is the right strategy for us when we have a range of products giving rise to brand equity. If we have a range of products, we can stop the customer going in search of other suppliers for the balance. As a result, the competitors might take advantage of this situation to acquire the total order. It is imperative that we do a thorough analysis to measure whether the correct marketing mix has been used in promoting the particular product line which has not given the expected results.

Having set marketing objectives and strategies, which explains how to get there plays a pivotal role in successful business. It should be in blueprint, and it should be implemented. Thus, it will be convenient for the next management who takes over to continue than changing the whole strategy. However, innovative thinking could be encouraged.

Sri Lanka should have more and more stores and shopping malls such as Odel, Cotton Collection, etc to invite the leisure traveller in to the country. With the right infrastructure, it will be a major boost to the Sri Lankan economy. If Sri Lanka invests in infrastructure such as transport systems, etc, similar to Singapore it will help the marketer to market his products well and making it convenient in order to entice the leisure traveller to come to Sri Lanka.

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