Indigenous marketing for meaningful brand building in Sri Lanka
View(s):The dream of seeing a global village in a globalized economy that runs on exports and imports is a shattered dream with the prevailing economic conditions. Export-led growth backed by imports-led production has reached its limits due to increasing freight charges, increased product prices due to the spike in exchange rates, and also the increase in world market prices of commodities due to prevailing unrest in the West. These are true signs of a wrecked economy running without direction and policies. Local industries were not secured against imported products and commodities as certain economic experts believed in the fact that comparative advantage and competitive advantage can only run the world economy. The little they knew was that over-dependency on uncontrollable can always pave the way for disastrous outcomes which are right now being experienced by Sri Lankans. The prevailing situation demands local manufacturers return to their workshops and factories to fulfill the unmet demand with vacuums in imports. This in return makes local industries reach out to all local consumers as they are deprived of consumption of certain categories of products or end up paying exorbitant prices for no increase in value.
The fall of unbalanced economic theories
It’s evident that the unbalanced economic theories have failed today and there is no guarantee that the same would deliver different results tomorrow. Increasing local manufacturing is the best alternative for the prevailing economic conditions even though it may not essentially promote exports. If the local manufacturers can reach the level of expected standards which were experienced by the local consumers during the pre-crisis era, there would surely be opportunities to export. The same will lead to long-lasting import substitutions as certain imported items are not necessarily required to be imported. The best example would be canned fish. Being an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, it’s a crime if Sri Lankan consumers end up buying imported canned fish. Salt, sugar, and many other similar food products are imported to Sri Lanka by various importers due to loopholes in policies. Sri Lankan-made canned fish can easily outsell all imported canned fish brands in the market. It will also be a perfect solution for the nutritional requirements which are unmet now. The same can be applied to many other consumer durables such as clothes and interior deco products.
What’s holding us back?
Western marketing strategies applied in raw form in Sri Lanka they are killing the opportunities that are coming out of the prevailing situation. The existing norms and consumption patterns (Most of them are taken for granted) should be replaced with drastic changes in the way they are marketed. Therefore, it’s imperative that the marketer or the brand custodian articulates a novel concept that can shake the existing consumption habits to create a new set of habits. The attitude held by society towards female sanitary napkins is the best example of this. Ladies should be able to freely order the product at any retail counter without fearing any misconception or misinterpretation as it’s a need-based product. The cultural misinterpretation of certain measures of our day-to-day life needs immediate and drastic changes for us to arrest this situation and to be able to market locally-made products if they meet the standards.
What’s the way out?
The time has come for marketers to think out of the box in taking brand messages to local consumers. Copying and pasting marketing creative concepts from other markets will not give any assurance of success at the point of promoting locally made products. It will require extensive research into the lives of rural Sri Lankans and also an attempt to immerse into their lives or in other words walking a mile in their shoes.
The best example of this is the way Sunquick is branded as a gift instead of something that can be consumed at home to quench thirst. However, the prerequisite for the success of a similar effort is to be able to bring local knowledge and local insights to marketing campaigns. How the local rural wisdom of predicting the arrival of a visitor by observing a crow, crows on a branch of a tree in front of one’s house (Which is known as Kaputu Sasthraya in the local wisdom) converted to a meaningful groundbreaking campaign is the best example to cite. Visitors’ arrival relates to a gift and mostly it was cakes and biscuits which used to be chosen as gifts by Sri Lankan mass consumers. This insight was converted to a novel concept called the art of gifting (Thegi dena sasthraya).
This was a mega-hit in that particular year as the product went out of stock for the first time in the history of the company. These are like indigenous medicine which is at times not scientifically proven in delivering results however if applied well, can surely give remedies to many aches and pains. All it takes is a simple thought and a proper creative execution of an idea into something that is palatable to the consumer. However, it’s important to understand, that the strategic thought of creating a new market for Sunquick by positioning it as a gift wouldn’t have worked so well if it was just advertised by saying; Gift a bottle of Sunquick when you next time visit your friends and relatives. The message that was delivered by the campaign carried the same meaning or rather implied the same idea but, in the hindsight, it related to a deep-routed colloquial wisdom that was passing from one generation to another.
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