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Airtel and Nokia in exclusive tie-up

Airtel offers free outgoing calls, SMSs and data usage with Nokia handsets:

Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. had entered into an exclusive agreement with Nokia, wherein customers who purchase Nokia handsets will receive a value rich Airtel handset bundle offer.

The bundle offer combines free outgoing calls and free SMSs to Airtel and all other networks, in addition to free Data Usage offers. Free Airtel Welcome Tunes for the first 30 days will also be among the list. The exclusive deal is obtainable through Softlogic and its dealers and registered retailers islandwide, in addition to all Airtel Stores and Airtel dealers, totalling well over 3000 outlets across the country.

“Optimising value to constantly deliver customer delight will remain a constant focus at Airtel. Our partnership with Nokia is a pioneering effort in that regard.

Providing greater value at all relevant customer touchpoints has now been enhanced through the collective expertise of both Airtel and Nokia in one bundle,” Bharti Airtel CEO Amali Nanayakkara said.

“Consumers are at the forefront of everything we do at Nokia and we always welcome opportunities to work with relevant stakeholders to offer irresistible solution to consumers. We are delighted to launch this joint promotion with Airtel which would benefit Sri Lankan consumers and help them to be connected to what’s important to them”, Nokia Emerging Asia, General Manager, Prem Chand said.

Ceylinco Life opens residential training centre

Ceylinco Life has become the first company in its sector in Sri Lanka to invest in a fully-equipped residential training centre for company personnel.

Built on the beachfront at Uswetakeiyawa, the 55,000 square foot facility on 4.79 acres of land has three conference halls, 42 fully furnished bedrooms, a dining area, a recreation area, swimming pool and an up-to-date library.

Originally intended to be a retirement resort, the centre, ‘La Serena’ will be used extensively to train Ceylinco Life’s sales staff and managers, the company said.

Ceylinco Life Director Devaan Cooray said, “Regular training and continuous improvement programs are of paramount importance in the financial services sector, and a facility of this nature will be a valuable asset to the company.”

Ceylinco Life currently has a sales force of nearly 5,000 working out of 175 branches islandwide. The company recently outlined plans to recruit up to another 1,700 people to its sales team by the end of 2009.

The opening of the Residential Training Centre was supported with the introduction of a comprehensive code of ethics and a grooming video for company staff and sales personnel, Cooray said.

Ceylinco Life was the first to produce qualifiers for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), the world’s top forum for elite life insurance salespeople, the first to produce an MDRT Life Member, and the first to produce an MDRT ‘Top-of-table’ qualifier. To date Ceylinco Life has the largest number of MDRT qualifiers among life insurance companies in Sri Lanka.

Ceylinco Life recorded a growth of 20.6 percent in the year ending December 31, 2008, 6.7 percentage points higher than the industry average and increased its market share to nearly 35 percent.

For employee training:

Printcare teams up with Toastmasters

The Printcare Group recently formed the ‘Printcare Toastmasters’ club. In an innovative move, the company is using the principles of an independent body as a training tool. ‘Toastmasters’ is an international organization, with its headquarters in the USA.

The objective and the mission of Toastmasters is to make effective oral communication a worldwide reality by helping people to learn the art of speaking, listening and thinking, which are vital skills that promote self actualization, enhance leadership qualities and foster human understanding, which contributes to the betterment of mankind.

Printcare Toastmasters was formed with 28 Charter members within Printcare’s management team. Educational programs have already commenced. Several senior Toastmasters from the experienced Colombo Toastmasters Club and other clubs have extended their support in all educational programs.

These educational programs help Printcare Toastmasters develop their unique talents and capabilities while helping strengthen the some of the Group’s required core management competencies including leadership, communication and teamwork.

Multilac water proofing sealer launched

Macksons, manufacturers of Multilac Paints, recently introduced a product developed to deal with damp walls permanently. This powerful and effective product can be applied on any damp wall and the dampness would be gone for good, said General Manager of Macksons Ramesh Perera.

Perera said that home builders often do not waterproof areas such as bathrooms - and the dampness sets in slowly but surely until something must be done. “Multilac Water Proofing Sealer is a versatile product that deals with any dampness anywhere in the house, swiftly and permanently,” he said.

“In the case of a new wall, all you do is apply two coats of Multilac Water Proofing Sealer before the wall tiles or floor tiles are laid on the surface, the inner and the outer walls, the concrete below or the slab above, and you would not have to deal with damp walls,” said Ramesh.

Fonterra counters campaigns against Anchor

Fonterra today reinforced that its flagship dairy brand, Anchor, is made of high quality New Zealand fresh milk and represents the best in dairy quality.

Fonterra in Sri Lanka Managing Director Achyut Reddy, said ongoing campaigns to smear the brand were designed to undercut the loyalty Sri Lankans have with the country’s most trusted milk brand.

“Fonterra has a reputation globally for producing the best in full cream milk powder from high quality New Zealand standard milk.

“This means Anchor is often the target of false claims by other parties with vested interests.”

“Our consumers can be assured that product quality and safety is the highest priority at Fonterra. Our quality assurance process and food safety standards are based on local, New Zealand and international regulations,” Reddy said.

Sri Lanka - Australia - New Zealand Business Council:

Fourteenth AGM

The 14th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka-Australia-New Zealand Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was held recently at the Cinnamon Grand. The Sri Lanka - Australia Business Council was incorporated in December 1994 as the 17th Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The Council was renamed as the Sri Lanka-Australia-New Zealand Business Council at the Annual General Meeting of the Council held on July 31, 2001. The Business Council has continued to be an important link between Sri Lanka and Australia and Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

High Commissioner for Australia in Sri Lanka Kathy Klugman was the Chief Guest at the AGM. The High Commissioner emphasized the importance of the private sector to cope in difficult times due to the global financial crisis and said that there are glimmers of hope in terms of the global economy and the Australian economy. She said that with the ending of the conflict, the confidence of Australian investors towards Sri Lanka was increasing but yet there was a long way ahead in relation to the matter and called upon the members of the Council to inform the High Commission of possible opportunities that exists for Australian businesses and reiterated that the Australian High Commission is keen to build the trade and investment relationship between Sri Lanka and Australia.

Sumithra

Gunasekara, who has been the President of the Council since 2008 was re-elected as the President of the Council for 2009/2010 and Senaka Silva, Saraa OS Leather, Ramya Perera, Infotechs Ltd, Mark Francis, Malship (Ceylon) Ltd and Lionel D. Silva, Lidechsi (Pvt) Ltd were elected as Vice Presidents of the Council.

Singer adjudged strongest brand

For the fifth consecutive year Singer brand was assessed the strongest brand in the Brand Finance Brand Rating for 2009 with an "AA+".

Singer has been able to top the Brand Rating table since the inception of the Brand Finance league table which was launched five years ago and it is testament to the long term brand building efforts of the company.

The Brand Rating which is annually carried out by Brand Finance is published in the Brands Annual, which is a review of Sri Lanka's top brands. The rating is based on publicly available data across various brand matrix and supported by market research.

A brand rating is like a company credit rating, which provides investors with the future outlook for the brand and indicates the ability of the brand to attract future revenue for the business. An "AA+" brand rating therefore provides assurance to the stakeholders, that the management does indeed fully understand its true potential, leading to finding ways of leveraging it and adding value in the future.

Singer Sri Lanka Chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya said "this tracking study is extremely useful to our management as it is an independent verification of the various initiatives and efforts we have implemented over the year. It enables us to identify gaps and further strengthen ourselves to continue to do better and to reach the elusive AAA rating which no company has yet attained."

"Singer which is one of the oldest brands in Sri Lanka is a classic example of a brand that has continuously re-invented itself in order to keep up with the changing business environment and consumer expectations," said Brand Finance plc. Managing Director David Haigh.

Brand Finance plc was founded in London in 1996.

It is now the world's leading independent brand valuation and value-based marketing consultancy, Brand Finance Lanka is a subsidiary of Brand Finance plc which operates in Sri Lanka.

An exploratory study to re-connect with the North and the East :

Bandham

Ogilvy Action and Nielsen have come together in spearheading a pioneering piece of research to understand the psychographics and demographics of the Tamil and Muslim Sri Lankans living in the North and the East.

Ogilvy and Nielsen believe that astute observation and insights generated from such a study will help not just the entire advertising industry that rely on consumer insights for effective communication planning and development, but also the marketing fraternity at large that rely on these elusive insights to fine tune their MarCom strategies.

The findings from this research study is expected to give the advertising and marketing fraternity a more complete picture of the situation with regard to the attitudes, practices, perceptions and knowledge levels of the people living in the North and the East as well as which categories and brands they are favourably disposed towards.

The North and the East have, for the most part, been inaccessible to marketeers until now.

For many the North and the East is perceived to hold great potential to bolster sales from the South, a market waiting to be exploited.

This potential however is unchartered, there is little information and data pertaining to the people living in these areas that can help advertisers and marketers arrive at sound decisions.

This subject might have been covered by individual organizations for their own strategic purposes, but it has not been commissioned as a national study for a general, decision making business audience in the past.

Hence this would be a first both for Nielsen and Ogilvy and presents a unique opportunity for interested parties to join to uncover information that will impact decision making now and in the future.

The proposed study also has the potential for continuous updates, building on this initial study, to generate new insights into the future.

The study has been planned as a syndicate in order to give the marketeers the opportunity to subscribe to a first of its kind research study in the most cost effective manner.

The scope and the detailed plan was presented to an interested group of marketers by Ogilvy and Nielsen last week at the Blue Elephant.

The proposed syndicate study has three components: namely the Consumer dynamics, Market dynamics and the Trade dynamics.

The study was branded 'Bandham' as the outcome of it would undoubtedly create a lasting bond for the marketers between the Northern and Southern consumers with the scope attempting to understand these Northern and Eastern consumers better.

The main sectors the study would concentrate on are FMCG, F and B, Telco, Banking and Insurance. Ogilvy and Nielsen plan to have this extensive research study concluded before the end of the year.

Any interested parties who were not privy to the initial presentation can always get in touch with Ogilvy Action or Nielsen for further information on how to subscribe for the study.

LMD's Most Respected list :

Unilever Sri Lanka ranked fifth

Unilever Sri Lanka advanced its rank position in the fifth annual compilation of LMD's Most Respected entities in Sri Lanka, two notches to secure the fifth position in the rankings thereby maintaining Unilever's position as the highest ranked multinational on the list.

The annul survey, conceptualized and commissioned by LMD, covered a sample of 800 senior business executives and is designed to rank the 'Most Respected' entities in Sri Lanka and determine the reasons why they are perceived as such by the business community in Colombo.

The ranking is based on an evaluation of companies' performance on ten criteria - financial performance, quality consciousness, management profile, honesty, innovation, dynamism, work environment, CSR, vision and national mindedness.

The all-star analysis of various key performance indicators used in the survey showed that Unilever Sri Lanka continued to score high on business performance, quality consciousness, work environment, vision, innovation, honesty and dynamism.

Unilever Sri Lanka, Chairman, Amal Cabraal, said this ranking was a reflection of the company's commitment to its core values. "I am delighted that Unilever Sri Lanka has not only improved its ranking on the list, but also maintained its position as the highest ranked multinational once again", he said.

Sampath Bank in Mannar

Sampath Bank opened their new branch in Mannar, bringing innovative, customized banking solutions to the people of the Mannar district.

The new branch being the 119th of the electronically linked Sampath Branch Network, is located at Field Street, Mannar.

A fully-fledged branch, equipped with state-of-the-art banking technology, they are geared to provide easy, reliable and innovative banking solutions, tailor made to suit the individual needs.

The bank has employed a team of personnel, from the neighbouring areas, who are conversant with the language and the culture of the locality. Thus the customers are ensured that language or cultural barriers will not impede their banking experience.

Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the bank Aravinda Perera expressed the bank's keenness to be involved in the development of the agricultural, fisheries and other industries in the area, which had suffered many setbacks during the war time.

He said that the bank has made available unique and flexible personal and business loan schemes as well as deposit schemes with a higher interest rate, benefitting the customer.

The bank will also offer Sampath Randiriya service to the customers who need immediate financial assistance in a time of need.