Customers exposed to new standards now

Charumini DE SILVA

A marketeer should be one step ahead of the respective industry that one is operating in and should inform the rest of the organization of the potential opportunities and threats that might be encountered. Union Assurance PLC Marketing and Distribution General Manager Rukman Weeraratne told this column.

Excerpts of the interview.

Q: As a marketeer what is your perception about using CSR as a marketing tool?

A: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was recognized as an initiative to contribute to the society for organizations to communicate with the society for its existence. Therefore, organizations identified CSR as an investment towards becoming a respectable corporate citizen.

However my view is that CSR is still a responsibility of an organization, rather than it being identified for business purposes. We believe that the good being done to the society then will result in a genuine appreciation by society. This helps your brand in the long run and no advertising or communication will replace the appreciation of the society towards the good deeds you have done.

When transactions occur, people do recall what was done on behalf of them and that helps the brand image and loyalty. Although it has been classified as another activity of realizing the corporate goals, it is something much more than that.

This is an exercise which can create a pull rather than a push towards the customer if you are honest about it.

If a company is using CSR, the company has to be genuine and passionate about it. If it is measured against the business objective of generating revenue, then it will be another communication campaign to boost sales relatively than an act of goodwill towards society.

Q: How do you align 4Ps (price, production, place and promotion) to suit global changes?

A: It is how fast you reach the customer and how fast you deliver the expectations. Aligning the four P's is all about the speed and convenience, which we are experiencing in a rapidly changing global environment.

However, the organizations need to sense what is happening around and formulate the respective plans to capitalize on the opportunity, although many consider the global changes as threats.

Global companies have managed to reduce prices by using new technology supported with e-commerce platforms. Technology has broken the barriers of pricing, production, place you market the product and how you promote it.

The global markets have allowed the customer to decide on the price, customer to design his or her own requirement, product to be available at customer's convenience and the product being promoted at a point where the customer never expects to see it.

The global changes have empowered the customer in a controlled environment with the use of technology.

The internet, virtual market and telecommunication technology has accepted all this to happen within a short period of 10 to 15 years. Companies will be far behind if the investments are not made at the correct time on the suitable technologies to address their respective marketing mixes.

Q: What are the mechanisms used to identify the new trends and challenges in the markets both locally and internationally?

A: One should be observant of what is happening around the industry. Marketeers should not be confined to the respective businesses they are operating in. then you will never know till a totally unexpected business entity ventures in to your industry.

What was stated above is common knowledge, but many fail to take initiative to move out, discuss, and build networks. What I have observed is that in most instances these business relationships are confined to business cocktails.

A marketeer should be one step ahead of the respective industry operating in and should inform the rest of the organization of the potential opportunities and threats that might be encountered with. Hence, the knowledge and experiences of others is critical to identify the new trends and changes.

The qualitative and quantitative research conducted on regular basis is also important to ensure that we keep a close tab on what is happening in your own industry and your own customers.

Q: From your point of view, what is the importance if innovation, invention and re-designing in marketing?

A: That means you are constantly engaged, trying to identify new ways of doing what you are already doing, trying to find new methods of satisfying your customers and ways and means of outsmarting your competition.

It creates a sense of moving forward and revitalization. Each time an innovative idea is launched the entire company realign and transform itself to accommodate the newness. Innovation in marketing is vital to move the company forward and leapfrog against the competition.

The most important thing is to get the entire company involved in this apply. Therefore, innovation, invention and re-designing are significant towards having a competitive advantage against the competition for any organization to be ahead.

Q: Extent to which you consider customer orientation and innovation? What do you think is most important in Sri Lanka?

A: Customer orientation and innovation is part of a same cycle. Companies continuously improve their systems with innovations, processes to ensure that the expectation of the customer is met with a profit. But the question is how you benchmark and to what extent a company has attempted to be customer oriented.

That is one of the reasons why a manufacturing system, which has many different items being assembled in the same production line, was innovated as lean manufacturing. Similarly the quality of the products also matters in the transformation towards becoming a customer oriented organization.

The substandard quality results in rejection and first time rejection leads to continuous rejection unless it is being sorted out.

Therefore, it is time for Sri Lankan companies to realize why they are not in a position to compete in a global market. In a global market the high standards of quality are a norm and benchmarks have been set to ensure the companies meet customer expectations.

Sri Lankan companies/industries should seize the new methods of producing whilst maintaining the quality to be more customer oriented as loyal customers tend to be more profitable.

The standards are high in a global market and our customers have been exposed to these new standards very often than before. Hence the demand to meet global standards will be pushed up on us sooner than we think and as marketers we should be ready to accommodate it. And innovation is the answer for it to become more customer oriented.

Q: How far can you be satisfied with the customer accessibility of the product or Service?

A: It has always been a challenge for us in insurance industry. Traditionally we are dependent on taking our product to the customer rather than waiting for a customer to come to us.

Our products are sold by a sales person, than bought by a customer due to the very nature of the product. Hence, we take all measures to ensure that our customers have enough touch points to receive the level of services they are expecting.

Whilst our sales team take the product to the customer and provide the necessary services to customers, we as an organization provide many avenues for a customer to contact us since the relationship is a long-term one rather than a short term experience.

Marketing of FMCGs is different as the service expectations are limited to the sale of the product, but insurance is different. The service aspect matters only after you sell the product. Insurance industry has been engaged in many projects to provide customers a greater accessibility.

Q: What is your view about global branding?

A: The creation of global brands is a phenomenon resulting thanks to international trade. Market penetration has resulted in local companies to move out of their geographical territory engaging in international trade. It had facilitated profit maximization with greater volume which is a result of economies of scale, is the way forward to these global brands.

The brands that had entered into the international arena ensure that the consistency in quality and affordability is maintained. These brands have comprehended the respective local cultures in the world.

The global brands are made due to the involvement of these companies and their willingness to compete against any threat.

The long term goal for us is to build global brands and to build globally competitive distribution channels to market our own products and services. However, to enter into the global market much work need to be done on both these areas for most of the businesses and need to investigate cost effective advertising and promoting ideas for successful global branding.

Q: Where do local marketeers stand in the international market?

A: Marketeers have to drive business and not to be driven by circumstances of one market place. Marketeers are also responsible for the profitability of the business.

In Sri Lanka, we have quality marketeers with proven track records in business and can be considered highly professional in the world. Some marketeers have to develop entrepreneur skills to compete with the international arena.

Q: If you did not select marketing as your career, where would you stand today?

A: May be an honest politician who wants to develop people and country.