'Innovative and creative thinking essential':

Being 'meaningfully different', a key factor

Anuradha KODAGODA

To develop a marketing strategy in an organization, the key point to concentrate on is differentiating the strategy among others in the market. Therefore, to be different in the market you have to be creative and innovative.

Now-a-days we cannot employ conventional thinking. Knowledge and technology keeps changing day by day. Therefore, employing innovative and creative thinking today is essential to sustain in the market. However, this should be 'meaningfully different' as it is also one of the leading factors to sustain in the industry profitably, said Director, Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), Dr. Uditha Liyanage.

Here are his down-to-earth views.

Q. What inspired you to select marketing as your career?

A. I have a preference for words rather than numbers. This led me to select marketing as my profession. Marketing is all about people and the most important thing in marketing is the ability of observing people's behaviour.

Most of the time marketeers are compelled to change their decisions according to the people's behaviour Marketing is being creative and innovative too.

Q. As a frontliner of a company, what are the challenges you see in the field of marketing?

A. I think the main challenge is how you differentiate your products in the market. The other challenge is how to differentiate the product or service not in terms of price but in terms of value. Most of the time, companies compete in the market, only considering price.

That is not a sustainable strategy. It is essential to understand what the customer requires in terms of value and to find methods of adding superior value to the product or service to satisfy the customer's needs.

Most of the time marketeers think that the customer's requirements are based only on functionality of the product or service.

In addition the product or services have a symbolic value too which is beyond the marketing functions in the market. The symbolic value is created by consumers, based on their personal experience by consuming the product or service.

Therefore, the real challenge is not to compete only in price but it is always vital to consider the value of the product or service to sustain in the market.

Q. What is the impact of the current economic crisis on Sri Lankan companies?

A. In many companies material, financing and operational costs have gone up due to the current economic crisis and the disposable income of customers is also falling. In this situation it is essential to practise a denominator management in organizations to overcome this crisis situation.

During a recession in many companies we often see enormous cost reductions. Although cost reductions are vital during a time of recession, the management should understand which areas costs should be reduced without it having an impact on the value of the product.

The management should have a fair knowledge of the impact of the numerator (revenue) of the organization, before finalizing the cost reduction elements. Therefore, the management cannot take ad-hoc decisions when it comes to cost reductions.

Q. In many companies we often see that marketeers are not represented at boardroom meetings. What is your view?

A. Although the trend is now changing, in the good old days in most companies we hardly saw marketeers at boardroom meetings. I believe, the main reason for this is that marketeers and companies have not realized the importance of marketing. The basic meaning of marketing is business. Today marketing is not confined only to advertising. Many people have misinterpreted marketing as advertising and selling.

Marketing is creating the brand image while identifying the market opportunities and bringing business into the organizations. It includes product development and pricing too.

Therefore, people should understand that marketeers in a company handle the whole value chain.

If marketeers begin to perform this key role in organizations, they can convince their superiors of the importance of marketeers being present at board room meetings.

Q. What are the advertising strategies that can be employed in companies?

A. It is very important to align the advertising strategies with the positioning strategies of the company.

There should be clear definitions for product categories and also the difference should be highlighted.

It is always vital to set the positioning strategy according to the advertising strategy. Advertising strategies should always add value and wealth to the organization.

Companies should always employ new advertising strategies without going by traditional advertising methods. To develop a marketing strategy in an organization, the key point to concentrate on is differentiating the strategy among others in the market.

Therefore, to be different in the market, you have to be creative and innovative. Now-a-days we cannot employ conventional thinking. Knowledge and technology keeps on changing day by day.

Therefore, employing innovative and creative thinking today is essential to sustain in the market. However, being 'meaningfully different' is also one of the leading factors to sustain in the industry profitably.

Q. What are the challenges you face when it comes to global branding?

A. Here we have to take a wider decision not as individual companies but as a country. A national strategy should be developed for the brands which we are supplying globally.

To establish brands globally is a high cost. If we could go as a national brand to the world with all the products and services under one umbrella, it would save most of the advertising costs and product launch costs as well. For that I believe we need to have a clear branding strategy for the country.

Q. What do you think about local marketeers?

A. Local marketeers should take research based business decisions with sharp customer focus. Local marketeers should develop their knowledge and study customer behaviour. The local marketeer's special emphasis should be to create a customer-oriented business environment in organizations.