Commitment on continuous professional development, a key factor :

Today's marketeers are more accountable

Anuradha KODAGODA

Compared with the time, when I started my career in marketing, today there, is a huge improvement in marketing as a profession.

Today there are many talented and capable marketeers in our country. My advice to them is to stick to the basic fundamentals of marketing, said Marketing and Management Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Prasanna Perera.

"Being in touch with the market is vital. Most importantly, any marketing campaigns you do justify that in terms of investment and the return on investment and measure the results. Therefore, you should be more accountable as a marketeer".

The top management of any organization requires responsible marketing. Apart from the professional qualifications in marketing, a working experience is essential since marketing is a very practical discipline. The commitment on continuous professional development is another key factor to be a successful marketeer,"

Here are his down-to-earth views.

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

A. In the early 1980s' with the open economy system, there was a huge demand for sales and marketing. In the early stages of marketing, it was not a disciplined profession but restricted only to sales activities.

I was quite interested in marketing from my school days and when I grew up I identified it as a good potential to develop my professional career. Therefore, when I finished my secondary studies I selected marketing for my higher education.

Q. What are the challenges you see for a frontliner of an organization?

A. The main problem in many organizations is that even though they have talented marketeers within the organization, they fail to identify the capacity and talents of marketeers. Most of the time there are many constraints for marketeers, which restrict their performance.

Today, every industry follows customer-oriented strategies to sustain the business. Therefore, the need for a marketeer is essential for organizational sustainability. A talented marketeer always needs top management support and appreciation to deliver favourable results for the organization. I think this is one of the main problems in our country.

Moreover, the organization's managements should understand that marketing is a specialized discipline like many other professions in an organization. In many organizations marketeers find it difficult to apply marketing strategies due to the lack of understanding of the subject matter.

Therefore, the management and the subordinates of an organization should understand the importance of the role of a marketeer to ensure better results in marketing.

Q. What is the impact of the current economic crisis on organizations?

A. The biggest impact on the current economic crisis is credit contraction.

On one hand to sustain during a recession there is a need to increase the volume of production and on the other hand it is difficult to collect payments from suppliers.

Especially at a time of recession there is much pressure on the company's bottom line results and in many companies the main strategy would be cost reduction.

Therefore, organizations try to reduce their marketing budgets to survive in a time of recession. However, all marketing activities cannot provide short-term results or profits and it is not a judicious approach to reduce marketing budgets in terms of cost reduction.

This is because, the marketing function is essential at a time of recession. It is not a matter of cost reduction but increasing profitable sales.

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

A. I think this is changing gradually. There are many organizations in our country where marketeers are represented at the director board. As I believe marketeers should be represented at boardroom meetings since they are the voice of the consumers.

However, as a profession marketing has not yet gained the credibility among the public in our country. This trend may change during the next five years and marketing professionals could gain the appreciation and benefit of their profession.

Marketeers should earn that position rather than demanding it. Marketeers should not only consider the customer's point of view but should also consider the stake-holders benefits as well.

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

A. Firstly we should believe and have confidence that our local brands can also win in the global market. The other point is that we have to work according to the fundamentals. For example, whatever the market segment that we target to introduce a product, conducting proper market research is essential.

It will help to identify the limitations and the consumer behaviour of the market. Most importantly, brand building requires, particularly, financial resources.

A company should not go into global branding unless it is willing to fund the brand not only in the short term but also in the medium term. Today there are a few Sri Lankan brands, which can be classified as global brands which fulfills all these requirements.

Most of the time we see that organizations have misunderstood the meaning of global branding and exporting. Global branding is not sending enormous volumes of products overseas. Global branding includes a proper market survey, marketing strategy and selecting the correct marketing segments.

Q. What do you think about local marketeers?

A. Compared with the time when I got into marketing; today there is a huge improvement in marketing as a profession. Today there are many talented and capable marketeers in our country. My advice to them is to stick to the basic fundamentals of marketing.

You cannot be a successful marketeer if you are away from the market. Therefore, being in touch with the market is vital. Most importantly, any marketing campaigns you do, justify that in terms of investment and the return on investment and measure the results.

Therefore, you should be more accountable as marketeers. The top management of any organizations requires responsible marketing. Apart from the professional qualification in marketing, work experience is essential since marketing is a very practical discipline.

The commitment on continuous professional development is another key factor for a successful marketeer.