Social Media through Facebook is the newest marketing tool among the sales and marketing industry which has gone through many stages like radio, television and the Internet, a marketing specialist said.
“But I am yet to learn Facebook,” smiled Nandana Wickramage, Group Director/Head of Marketing and Sales, Ceylon Biscuits Ltd – a successful marketer with a reputation for resurrecting sinking brands, when he addressed the Sunday Times Business Club monthly meeting held at the Taj Samudra Hotel last week. He spoke on “Understanding Your Consumer to be successful in your Business”.
Nandana Wickramage explains a point. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe |
He said that understanding the consumer in any context in any company is the key thing – consumer is the key, consumer psychology is nothing new and it could be learnt for years and to learn this psychology one does not need to be a professional.
Mr Wickramage spoke at length of many successes he has made in promoting brands and pushing them to the top to become market leaders.
He said that in promoting brands there are very simple things to do, but whatever the tools used everything should be based on understanding the consumer and his needs.
Mr Wickramage said that one way of understanding the consumer is through market research and surveys.
He said that by adopting the criteria of understanding the consumer in some cases their promotions led to achieve a 65% market share for some brands in a matter of few months from very low percentages.
He said that people’s aspirations and loyalty are ever changing and the marketer also should be able to change their concepts and tools accordingly and he should be able to understand the consumer to make these changes and change the age old concepts with new approaches.
Mr Wickramage said that Sri Lanka is a very small market with a population of around 18 to 20 million population when compared to some other countries where huge populations exist. Therefore he said certain products have to be tailor-made.
He said that by adopting the technique of understanding the consumer and adopting new approaches in place of old concepts they were able to turn loss making companies into not only profit making but also to be market leaders in those brands. Quality consistency should be achieved while ensuring the same margin of profits by adopting ways and means to cut down waste.
The Club is hosted by Taj Samudra with Hameedia as a co-sponsor. |
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