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Re-branding of ‘Ceylon Tea’ risky International specialist agrees with Sunday Times FT report
An international marketing specialist last week agreed with The Sunday Times FT story on the negative aspect of changing the Ceylon Tea brand to Sri Lankan Tea, saying re-branding Ceylon Tea was a risky factor. During a presentation for top corporate executives, Paul Gostick, International Chairman of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) referred to the week-ago newspaper article which focused on government plans to re-brand the country’s main commodity export. “Ceylon Tea is still the same and Bank of Ceylon is still the same. We (seem to be) considering a name change nearly three decades after the country changed the name. A lot of research needs to be done before changing this strong brand name,” he told The Sunday Times FT on the sidelines of a presentation on branding. “The issue is will people appreciate Sri Lankan Tea as opposed to Ceylon Tea – it is like changing coca cola to some other name,” he said, adding that knowledge on customer awareness and preference on such a strong brand as Ceylon Tea is important. Addressing the corporate sector, Gostick said Sri Lanka should take a cue from Singapore on branding the country. “They have made a virtue out of being small. It is an easy transit point. It has ease of access, the immigration is literally fool proof and the infrastructure is great,” he said. “Sri Lanka has a lot of different things to offer, unlike Singapore, but the foreigners are not aware of these things. Recently I was looking for information on the country for holidaying and there were not many brochures, whereas other countries had about 40-odd pamphlets,” he said. He said the country has to be clear about what it is offering. “To get premium customers, the country has to offer a lot of value because the customers always have a lot of choice,” Gostick added. |
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