JWT-Sri Lanka Blog

The battle to merge a fractured territory of land which was fought for over 30 years was brought to a final close on the 18th of May 2009. The dramatic and resounding victory for Sri Lanka is going to be the topic for discussion and will be studied for many years to come. Whilst the deep and complex divide of the ethnic conflict that held us in its firm grip is another whole can of worms, the momentous victory of the war offers some lessons which can be successfully applied to our routine   professional lives. Correlate this bitter ethnic war with a different kind of war we fight everyday- the marketing war.
 
It all began in the early 70’s when a little known brand, an outfit called the Tigers began a mission to carve out a separate state. They were to in a short space of time, fashion themselves as the most efficient, albeit   ruthless terror outfit in the world.  So effective were their tactics that they beat the world’s fourth largest conventional army back to India. At the time the Tigers would not have possessed a fraction of the technology of the IPKF but they were consistent with their mission and were determined to see victory. As years rolled on they expanded their force by winning battles and spreading their hold on land, running a parallel unofficial administration that brought them revenues and global recognition. Their brand was “Terrorism”

Sri Lanka was defending the onslaught of the Tigers under the brand of “Democracy” adopting various strategies, politically and militarily only to see the Tigers expand their brand to gain market share in world opinion. This steadily increased Tiger funding and saw them acquiring more and more territory geographically. Psychologically they wielded a greater demarcation that virtually touched the boarders of the south affecting tourism and foreign investment which stunted the growth of the country for many years. Apart from the military arsenal they possessed they effectively used the world media to garner a growing wave of sympathy from the west.

What then, caused the sudden and rapid disintegration of this once invincible brand? In retrospect when you analyse the dramatic collapse of the Tigers you will realise that the weak points in the brand’s lifecycle were left unattended, and laid bare to a series of events that were taking place in the global market, exposing the vulnerability of the brand.  The Tigers can only blame themselves, for the short sightedness and complacency of their brand managers who trusted too much, and basked too long in their brand superiority. They failed to realise that their run of success was coming to an end as a result of a series of global events compounded with stunning attacks to the heart of the military and political establishments. Their brand “terrorism” had three compelling warning signals that went unheeded just before the final death blow was delivered. 1. The loss of consumer loyalty 2. The faltering distribution channel and 3. The erosion of brand value.

The first alarm rang immediately after 9/11 when consumers in the West woke-up to the bitter truth that  the brand they had hitherto called  “liberation struggle”   was merely that which is otherwise called,   “terrorism” marketed under a different and more  appealing brand name.   Having been at the receiving end of Terrorism,   the western world was fast in denouncing the brand they had once been partial towards.  .  Although the brand continued to command loyalty from the Diaspora, global sentiments from opinion leading politicians and the media began to wane.  This resulted in the Tigers steadily losing market share in world opinion.

The second alarm rang when Sri Lanka seized the moment, post 9/11 and swung into action to strangle the Tiger distribution channels to raise funds. This limited the buy-in of the brand as Western nations began banning the Tigers. This was Prabakaran’s second big but unheeded warning that Terrorism was going out of vogue and was not going to be easily accepted even under the banner of a liberation struggle. Interest in the brand limited its influence to a relatively small but monetarily powerful Diaspora.

Thirdly a significant part of the Tiger brand value that was carefully nurtured and built over two-and-a-half decades fell apart with the Eastern Command of the LTTE breaking away in 2004. The Eastern command joining the government akin to a marketing manager joining a competing brand armed with a treasury of intelligence on the brand. This was the third and final warning to Prabakaran that his brand was under serious threat. This too, went unheeded.

The arrival of the Rajapakse regime in 2005 began setting a new agenda in motion to win the war when the Tiger outfit was still living in a world of complacency. The manner in which the President went about drawing his plan, in business terms was like an astute CEO drawing a business frame work to re- launch the brand Democracy by using a combination of PR and innovative military strategy. There will be inevitable questions of what was ethical or not in the strategy but that is certainly not the scope or objective of this article, neither am I competent to answer them. However, from a marketing perspective, one thing can be clearly assessed, that is the “Single mindedness” of the County’s CEO. Like in the brand world where brands are buffeted and challenged by things within and outside the control of brand managers the President was challenged by world leaders, opposition from political parties, the media, funding agencies, threats of sanctions, calls for war crime charges, rising expenditure, and what have you in response to his aggressive battle plans. All of this was also turning –up unfavourable economic indicators and adding to the woes of the brand Democracy. But the strength of his single minded ambition, impeccable consistency and unwavering conviction, eventually prevailed and the brand of Democracy was restored.

The debacle of the Tigers was clearly a combination of advanced military strategy and renewed courage of the Sri Lankan forces. Renewed, by a single minded vision set in motion by the Commander-in-chief himself.  In a marketing sense Prabakaran succumbed to his own strategy based on “insights” when he actually should have been focussed on “outsights”. The topic of “outsights” however, is a whole new discussion.  My article on this topic has been addressed at length in an article I wrote for Business Today in August 2008. Alternatively visit the JWT blog by following this link http://blog.jwt.lk/?p=81  to get more information on the frailty of insights in the new brand world. At the very least the Tiger brand should have realised that a portfolio of terror, wrapped in a product called terrorism and packaged as a liberation struggle was losing appeal steadily in the west  and the brand had no purpose with consumers who once believed in it. The Tiger supremo ignored changes in the geopolitical environment and to evolve with the times and he became outdated in his communication to the world. As a colleague put it “his strategy was like operating a gramophone in the era of the ipod”. Prabakaran did not understand that the world went through a massive “opinion overhaul” at 8.46am on the 11th Of September 2001. He missed two other subsequent alarms which eventually led to his and the demise of thousands of his cadre.

 The lesson we can learn is to be single minded with a brand’s vision and not waver under pressure. Many brands that operate in Sri Lanka disseminate multiple messages and stand for many things thereby lacking uniqueness and relevance to the consumer. Consumers at most are capable of processing a single message at a time. In the case of restoring the brand Democracy the simplicity of a “single minded” focus was understood by the brand’s stakeholders the armed forces and public. Their commitment and opinion mattered and the CEO of Sri Lanka won overwhelming approval to win a 30 year battle which the country almost lost. Regaining Sri Lanka will perhaps be one of the sensational comeback stories that will be related for years to come. The lesson for the marketer is to be consistent in adopting a single minded proposition for their brand. It must be one with simplicity and relevance that will make the brand steadfast in the face of economic adversity or even in boom times.

To achieve this, firstly break free from the shackles that prevent us from evolving. The brand’s evolutionary process is inclusive of changes in consumer behaviour and the category it operates in. Something the Tiger brand ignored post 9/11. In circumstances such as an economic slow down a brand has little choice but to find its true relevance with the consumer and the category as a matter of priority. The analogy here is the Rajapakse regime rode on the call for the “Global war on terror”. The timing of the thrust was perfect. There was little resistance and more approval from the West until the latter months of the war.  Secondly enjoy past success but remember to leave it in the past for complacency is all around where success is. Past success does not necessarily mean it’s the strategy for the future. The analogy here is that the brand of Democracy actually had little success it could harp on from this 30 year war until it recommenced in 2007. This was quickly recognised and a new strategy was mapped out on a clean slate. The failure of the marketer in most instances is that they are trapped with old success modules to conquer a new world of changes that impact brands. This is where intellectual innovation is most required. Thirdly and most importantly is to be single minded and consistent with the vision once it’s determined. There is no greater power than to have an unwavering vision for a brand through its journey towards its objective. The analogy here is that the army and public rallied around the vision to liberate the country and believed in the vision set by the Rajapakse regime, despite set backs the government had to deal with in world opinion.

In summary, your own army-the sales force and your own public-the consumer will get behind your brand and will respect you if you hold the course firmly. Wilting under pressure to change your vision now and then in a recession or even in boom times to suit varying market challenges send wrong and confusing  signals to your internal and external customers.  The army that restored the brand of Democracy used a combination of sophisticated air, sea and land weaponry to achieve the end. But I believe that it was a single weapon far less sophisticated than the ones that were used that eventually won the war. A weapon, which hit the once invincible Tiger brand to oblivion. It was the weapon of “single mindedness” that drew the war to a conclusion on the morning of the 18th May 2009.  

If you are following the events of the World Economic Forum in Davos you will realise that recovery from the slump is going to take some time … at least going by what world leaders and business leaders are predicting. As the strain on economies mount I can see the signs of social unrest that is getting better of the situation all over the world. This will be another catastrophe the world will need to deal with if we don’t act now and get businesses on the rails. But the crime of the downturn is knowing the action that is needed and not acting on it.

There is an overabundance of articles, training programs and TV interviews with corporate icons who are professing formulas for survival in bad times. Whilst the preaching is appreciated and the sowing of positivism is a good start, it is not good enough to get businesses moving. There is very little left to risk in bad times. In today’s bad times the emergence of intellectual positivism is outweighing the need for real and measurable action. The inaction from the teachings are more worrying than the “crisis” itself as companies try to defy bad times rather than try to overcome it. Text book CEO’s like to use words such as “cautious optimism”. I agree it is politically correct and a safe line to tow in the absence of a solution in turbulent times. The need of the hour is “Prudent Dynamism” than Cautious Optimism because business sentiments are currently, intellectually positive but in reality very negative.

Companies place a lot of emphasis in funding staff to attend forums and workshops on how to overcome turbulent times. Once the learning is got, fully pumped-up staff turn-up at their offices to find that the systems within the company are obstacles. There is conviction but little action from senior management to step out of convention and make the environment feasible for business .This is unfortunate.

Savings come from investment cut backs rather than expenditure cutbacks. Business managers want the same perks but are investing less on their brands. There is little logic to this action. The 80/20 rule is the biggest lie you will discover in bad times as inefficiency in many areas loom before you. In the bad times I have come to believe in the 95/05 rule as you will discover only 5% of your organisation makes a significant contribution to your revenues.

R&D, Innovation and advertising are placed on-hold for better times when the best time to invest is when companies are shying away in the bad times, so that when the times get better you have a head-start. I got a very interesting quote from a colleague yesterday which said- “To stop spending money on advertising to save money, is a bit like stopping your clock to try to save some time”. We all want this time to pass and hope that governments will make the right changes to get businesses moving. But before we ask for change and hope it would happen let’s be the architects of change and make it happen.

Thayalan Bartlett

JWT pulled off an amazing on air radio stunt lasting 3 days for their client Reborn t-shirts, one of Sri Lanka’s most fashionable men’s casual wear brands.

In order to launch the brand idea of ‘Get stolen’ in an innovative manner, JWT designed and executed the stunt while Mindshare negotiated with three of Sri Lanka’s top radio stations: Hiru FM, Sooriyan FM and TNL to stage a kidnap of their top male morning and evening show hosts. DJ Ara who hosts the highly rated Breakfast Drive on Hiru FM, Nava of the much loved ‘Endrendrum Punnagai’ Evening Show on Sooriyan FM and Jeff of the TNL Big Show fame did not turn up for their respective shows on Monday. All three shows were carefully picked because they were co-hosted by female DJs. The three different audiences were told that each respective DJ had gone out the previous day to buy a t-shirt and had not been seen since. Then a great search operation for the missing DJs was orchestrated on radio through calls, SMS and the Internet. Listeners were given clues as time progressed urging them to call in with information. Calls were staged to the DJs’ homes, friends and the owner of the shop which they last visited. Clues such as the colour of the t-shirt and a mysterious ‘yellow van’ were cleverly given out through on air ‘eye witness’ calls to the station. The female co-hosts who urged the listeners to look for the DJs also received ‘threatening calls’ from an anonymous ‘gang of girls’ who claimed that the DJs were safe and enjoying a good time in their custody.

The response was overwhelming. Worried fans from all around the country flooded the station and special hotlines set up by JWT with hundreds of calls. Several listeners claimed to have spotted the DJs in the now famous ‘blue and white striped t-shirt’ in various far off places in the country. Calls and text messages poured in. One concerned listener from Jaffna volunteered to offer Rs. 1,000,000 as a reward for anyone who found DJ Nava of Sooriyan FM. Fans thronged the ABC Radio Networks office at the WTC in a show of solidarity for their favourite DJs.

Phone videos of the infamous ‘yellow van’ involved in the ‘kidnapping’ spotted by two fans were posted on Youtube and Facebook and various theories emerged as listeners actively involved themselves in the search.

DJ Araa being kidnapped!

“This is the first time in Sri Lanka that a brand has attempted a stunt of this nature and magnitude. As a radio station we were excited about this idea which in my opinion is a breakthrough media innovation which actively engaged the listeners” said Mr. Ejaaz of ABC Radio Networks.

DJ Ara and Jeff reappeared halfway through on their respective shows on Wednesday and revealed the story of their ‘kidnap’ while Nava had to be brought back on air the very next day due to overwhelming demands from frenzied listeners.

What Marketers Can Learn From Obama’s Campaign
Change — and Positioning — You Can Believe in
By Al Ries
Published: November 05, 2008
Nov. 4, 2008, will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing.

Take a relatively unknown man. Younger than all of his opponents. Black. With a bad-sounding name. Consider his first opponent: the best-known woman in America, connected to one of the most successful politicians in history. Then consider his second opponent: a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator.

Obama owns the ‘change’ idea in voters’ minds.
Photo Credit: AP

It didn’t matter. Barack Obama had a better marketing strategy than either of them. “Change.”

Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was the master of the “big lie.” According to Goebbels, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

The opposite of that strategy is the “big truth.” If you tell the truth often enough and keep repeating it, the truth gets bigger and bigger, creating an aura of legitimacy and authenticity.

Clinton’s ‘solutions’ fizzle
What word did Hillary Clinton own? First she tried “experience.” When she saw the progress Mr. Obama was making, she shifted to “Countdown to change.” Then when the critics pointed out her me-too approach, she shifted to “Solutions for America.”

What word is associated with Ms. Clinton today? I don’t know, do you?

Then there’s John McCain. An Oct. 26 cover story in The New York Times Magazine was titled “The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate.” The visual listed some of the labels the candidate was associated with: “Conservative. Maverick. Hero. Straight talker. Commander. Bipartisan conciliator. Experienced leader. Patriot.” Subhead: “When a Campaign Can’t Settle on a Central Narrative, Does It Imperil Its Protagonist?”

Actually, Mr. McCain did settle on a slogan, “Country first,” but it was way too late in the campaign and it was a slogan that had little relevance to the average voter.

Tactically, both Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain focused their messages on “I can do change better than my opponent can do change.”

“Better” never works in marketing. The only thing that works in marketing is “different.” When you’re different, you can pre-empt the concept in consumers’ minds so your competitors can never take it away from you.

The ultimate slogan
Look at what “driving” has done for BMW. Are there vehicles that are more fun to drive than BMWs? Probably, but it doesn’t matter. BMW has pre-empted the “driving” position in the mind.

The sad fact is that there are only a few dozen brands that own a word in the mind and most of them don’t even use their words as slogans. Mercedes-Benz owns “prestige,” but doesn’t use the word as a slogan. Toyota owns “reliability,” but doesn’t use the word as a slogan. Coca-Cola owns “the real thing,” but doesn’t use the words as a slogan. Pepsi-Cola owns “Pepsi generation,” but doesn’t use the words as a slogan.

As a matter of fact, most brands follow the Pepsi pattern. Every time they get a new CMO or a new advertising agency, they change the slogan. Since 1975, BMW has used one slogan: “The ultimate driving machine.” Since 1975, Pepsi-Cola has used these advertising slogans:
1975: “For those who think young.”
1978: “Have a Pepsi day.”
1980: “Catch that Pepsi spirit.”
1982: “Pepsi’s got your taste for life.”
1983: “Pepsi now.”
1984: “The choice of a new generation.”
1989: “A generation ahead.”
1990: “Pepsi: The choice of a new generation.”
1992: “Gotta have it.”
1993: “Be young. Have fun. Drink Pepsi.”
1995: “Nothing else is a Pepsi.”
2002: “Generation next.”
2003: “Think young. Drink young.”
2004: “It’s the cola.”
Thirty-three years ago when the “Ultimate driving machine” campaign started, BMW was the 11th-largest-selling European imported vehicle in the U.S. market. Today it’s No. 1.

Thirty-three years ago, Pepsi-Cola was the No. 2-selling cola in the U.S. market. Today, many advertising slogans later, it’s still No. 2.

The average Pepsi-Cola advertising slogan lasts just two years and two months. The average chief marketing officer lasts just two years and two months. The average corporate advertising campaign in BusinessWeek lasts just two years and six months.

The Obama campaign has a lot to teach the advertising community.

1. Simplicity. About 70% of the population thinks the country is going in the wrong direction, hence Obama’s focus on the word “change.” Why didn’t talented politicians like Ms. Clinton and John Edwards consider using this concept?

Based on my experience, in the boardrooms of corporate America “change” is an idea that is too simple to sell. Corporate executives are looking for advertising concepts that are “clever.” For all the money being spent, corporate executives want something they couldn’t have thought of themselves. Hopefully, something exceedingly clever.

Here is a sampling of slogans from a recent issue of BusinessWeek:
Chicago Graduate School of Business: “Triumph in your moment of truth.”
Darden School of Business: “High touch. High tone. High energy.”
Salesforce.com: “Your future is looking up.”
Zurich: “Because change happenz.”
CDW: “The right technology. Right away.”
Hitachi: “Inspire the next.”
NEC: “Empowered by innovation.”
Deutsche Bank: “A passion to perform.”
SKF: “The power of knowledge engineering.”
Some of these slogans might be clever, some might be inspiring and some might be descriptive of the company’s product line, but none will ever drive the company’s business in the way that “change” drove the Obama campaign. They’re not simple enough.

2. Consistency. What’s wrong with 90% of all advertising? Companies try to “communicate” when they should be trying to “position.”

Mr. Obama’s objective was not to communicate the fact that he was an agent of change. In today’s environment, every politician running for the country’s highest office was presenting him or herself as an agent of change. What Mr. Obama actually did was to repeat the “change” message over and over again, so that potential voters identified Mr. Obama with the concept. In other words, he owns the “change” idea in voters’ minds.

In today’s overcommunicated society, it takes endless repetition to achieve this effect. For a typical consumer brand, that might mean years and years of advertising and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most companies don’t have the money, don’t have the patience and don’t have the vision to achieve what Mr. Obama did. They jerk from one message to another, hoping for a magic bullet that will energize their brands. That doesn’t work today. That is especially ineffective for a politician because it creates an aura of vacillation and indecisiveness, fatal qualities for someone looking to move up the political ladder.

The only thing that works today is the BMW approach. Consistency, consistency, consistency — over decades, if not longer.

But not with a dull slogan. Hitachi has been “inspiring the next” for as long as I can remember, but with little success.

Effective slogans needs to be simple and grounded in reality. What next has Hitachi ever inspired? Red ink, maybe. In the past 10 years, Hitachi has had sales of $786.9 billion and managed to lose $5.1 billion. When you put your corporate name on everything, as Hitachi does, it’s difficult to make money because it’s difficult to make the brand stand for anything.

3. Relevance. “If you’re losing the battle, shift the battlefield” is an old military axiom that applies equally as well to marketing. By his relentless focus on change, Mr. Obama shifted the political battlefield. He forced his opponents to devote much of their campaign time discussing changes they proposed for the country. And how their changes would differ from the changes that he proposed.

All the talk about “change” distracted both Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain from talking about their strengths: their track records, their experience and their relationships with world leaders.

As you probably know, Mr. Obama was selected as Advertising Age’s Marketer of the Year by the executives attending the Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference in Orlando last month. But one wonders if these CMOs are getting the message.

As one marketing executive said: “I look at it as something that we can all learn from as marketers. To see what he’s done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it’s created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It’s very easy for people to participate.”

The future relevance of insights in a rapidly changing world is in question. Not being dependent on Insights goes against the grain of traditional thinking in marketing and advertising but this is exactly the change that is needed to engage a highly evolved and informed consumer in the new age.  

Read the full article on the topic here http://www.jwt.lk/upload/outsight.pdf

Super Bowl is next week, and we’re hosting it here in Glendale, Arizona. The $455 million stadium has a ‘roll out’ field and a retractable roof.

Speaking of which, if you like to see a roll out of some of the Super Bowl spots, there’s at a site called Firebrand. It’s like a regular online TV channel, except that it features advertising commercials! It’s got Web exclusives, AdWeek’s “Best of” spots, even downloadable wmv files –or m4v files, if you really like watching them on a tiny iPod screen.

Enjoy the game. I mean the million dollar breaks!

To follow on Thayalan’s post, I thought it might be fitting to throw in a different perspective of turbulence in another arena of creativity, where a line is being drawn in the sand.

I refer to the writers’ strike dragging on the the U.S., that may seem to be a Hollywood affair, but does have a global ramifications. In a nutshell, it’s about the film and TV studios being oblivious to the demands of the Writers Guild of America. They demand to be paid for “creative” output that’s inevitably distributed beyond the old media channels (cinemas and TV stations.) We’re talking of movies, sitcoms even the Jay-Leno type comedies that are are time shifted and watched via streaming videos, pay-per-view, and all manner of social media. It’s a David Vs Goliath story: Writers standing up to six powerful media conglomerates (Disney, GE, Time-Warner, Viacom, CBS and News Corp.)

The turbulence is being felt everywhere. The cancellation of the Golden Globes could very well be followed by a blow to the Oscars. Because there is very little new content being produced right now, TV viewers are fleeing in droves. And guess where they are fleeing to? Online, of course. As the eyeballs disappear, advertisers, who were anyway looking at more interactive media, are following suit.

What I find more interesting is how the little guys are using powerful tools. They have taken their creative to the new media, if only to demo the fact that this is the direction content is heading, whether the studio moguls accept it or not. They not only showcase their work online, but use new media to voice their protest. The WGA has a YouTube site (not a video, but an entire part of the site) where they chronicle everything they are fighting about, most of which is about being paid for content distributed online.

They are even ‘hosting’ an annual short film contest -basically soliciting user generated content (think of the irony here: professional writers asking lay people to come up with creative!) on themes such as “why sharing is nice,” and “show the moguls why the internet has value.” The contest ends Feb 20th.

I see that 97 videos have been submitted, including one mocking Rupert Murdock -here.

The outcome of this drama/standoff will shape the way all other media, advertising and marketing industries behave in the digital economy where demand and supply, content creation and consumption, remuneration and profitability is never going to be the same.

(Presentation made by Thayalan at the LBR-LBO Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) forum on the 13th December 2007)

Marketing in the age of turbulence sounds a very provoking thought….leave aside the realism of it as I attempt to deal with the subject. I would like to caution you not to expect startling discoveries at the conclusion of my presentation. But what I hope it will achieve is to shed light on obvious elements that miss our attention in turbulent times.

The very mention of turbulent times tricks us to believe that the magnitude of terrorism is wreaking havoc across our marketing plans. While terrorism is likely to be a cause in most countries, it is not the only formidable force that we are dealing with. The collapse of global debt markets, to the rising threat of climate change to the extreme sensitivities related to sweatshops and child abuse singularly and sometimes collectively unleash its force on marketing plans around the globe making the business environment hostile.

In a Sri Lankan context it is not wrong to assume that terrorism is the basis of the rough times we are facing as an economy. But this is only to be assumed if we define our business realm within the confines of Sri Lanka. But it has been years since we as a country acknowledged our presence within the realm of globalization and opened our economy to facilitate this transformation. So we need to think beyond terrorism as we deal with the term “Turbulent times”

My undertaking for this presentation is not to dwell on the causes of turbulence in markets but how brands need to communicate in times of turbulence. I was recently asked if the 100 year old marketing module was outdated to deal with turbulent times and my answer was NO! I think the marketing module is fundamentally robust to deal with it. Where it usually goes wrong is how we interpret and apply it when markets come under pressure.

Textbooks usually cover specific issues independent of one another. What it does not tell us is how to deal with the compounding effect of a series of events like the mass proliferation of brands within “new age” forces like terrorism, climate change, sub-prime mortgage crisis etc that interfere with business planning. It’s this chaos that creates turbulence and prevents us from making sense with consumers. I believe we unconsciously succumb to turbulence by not following three simple but fundamental practices in turbulent times.

1. The lack of vision in the quest for opportunities.
2. The disregard for continued brand development;
3. The struggle for consumer attention

I will be dealing with these 3 points which I hope will raise consciousness of our roles in marketing and advertising.

The lack of vision in the quest for opportunities: The vision for opportunities gets blurred by the troubles of turbulence. Turbulent times are like nowhere land. Nothing is clear, things deteriorate rapidly and the times are uncertain. We could all empathise with those symptoms.

Marian Salzmann JWT’s chief Marketing Officer and much revered global trend spotter says. “It takes patience, resilience and courage to operate during turbulent times. The landscape is mined with opportunities for those who see beyond the current downturn. She says the dance floor is less crowded, so you can get your groove on, without your competition”

Soon after 9/11 the Indian chapter of Wharton alumni organized a symposium moderated by Anil Ambani the MD of the multibillion dollar Reliance group. The subject was none other than managing in turbulent times. The speakers were Patrick Harker the Dean of Wharton, M.S Banga Chairman Unilever-India, Aroon Poorie- Head of living media group and Sabeer Bhatia –The founder of hotmail.

They summarized the symposium on 4 critical points:
1. You can’t tame turbulence and business leaders have to learn to take advantage of it”.
2. They agreed that companies must focus on their core competences and brand values.
3. “Turbulence is good since it separates the good from the bad,”
4. Innovation and entrepreneurship is critical in turbulence.

Turbulent times affect marketing plans because they affect consumers. But consumers don’t shift to commodities in sacrifice of brands. They still want to buy brands. Marketers must ensure that they deliver on value. It’s not enough to create value in a brand…. and the all important question is how to extract value. The consumer’s feelings during turbulent times can be very emotional. The worst thing a brand can do is to insensitively and irrelevantly communicate with them.

In 2002 Argentina went through a severe economic crisis with the devaluation of the currency. The symptoms of which are similar to what we are facing in Sri Lanka today. Here is an example of Unilever’s Knorr brand doing it right in Argentina.

All premium priced brands were suffering losses and JWT convinced Unilever to go beyond the price war and exploit the emotional bond people have with food. It was a tough ask from the client at a time when Knorr was in deep trouble. I am sure the client had a discount plan and a few giveaways on his mind. But they went with the agency’s recommendation to evolve out of the brand’s equity and ride on people’s emotion. View the example below:

Knorr TV Commercial

The results were astounding.Knorr bullion penetration surged from 47% to 52%, packaged soups penetration grew from 10% to 11%,It secured a value share of 89.5%and a volume growth of 25%, gross margins increased by 5% and it neutralised the growth of competition that adopted a price-off strategy.

Budget airlines are a growing threat to established carriers. Unable to compete on low prices, easy bookings and check-in procedures some established carriers began mimicking budget airlines. Here’s another example from a troubled economy like ours where brand value took precedence over price in turbulent times and stayed clear from imitating the category.

Air Argentina simply brought the emotion back into flying. They did not try to cut price but they added value by differentiating their product from the beautiful airhostesses and appetizing food onboard. They created an earthly and emotionally captivating story for a product that needed to be constantly airborne- Also done in turbulent times.

Air Argentina TV Commercial

The moral of these examples – Consumers are looking for value in difficult times but this should not be decoded that he is looking for a cheaper price. Revisit your brand footprints and look within the brand’s proposition and consumer insights to extract that value like in the case of these two brands.

In turbulent times most MNCs continue to invest in brand communications. The common practice in Sri Lanka is to hold back and play cautiously.

In the case of GSK in Sri Lanka it reaped the rewards against a major competitor that was resting on its laurels. Viva chose to attack the market offering value with the credible proposition “energy on demand”. They differentiated wisely, invested positively and the result: – Viva gained over 25% in growth and is moving consumers from the competition as I speak. This brand is possibly one of the heroes of our turbulent times when most FMCGs are reporting a downturn.

MNC brands will survive and they will continue to grow as they are based on sound international business practices and are more resilient than local brands in such situations. Large local FMCG brands must watch-out as they are the most complacent. Relatively smaller brands are constantly searching for opportunities and are faster, sharper to innovate and differentiate in turbulent times.

A good example is the retail fashion business ODEL: ODEL has revolutionized the retail fashion business and moved shoppers out of traditional shopping places like Majestic city and Liberty plaza into their stores in turbulent times. In turbulent times people still want to look their best and are seeking brands that will complement or enhance their look and personality and are willing to pay a price for it.

At a different level “House of Fashion” has cleverly moved out shoppers from Pettah and the pavements into their stores- Also achieved in turbulent times.

The growth of “modern trade” spurred by Food City and Keells are moving consumers from the Pola to the environs of super marketing. Polas have been traditionally perceived as fresher and cheaper. I still believe that Polas are fresher and cheaper but these two institutions have managed to touch a “Value” cord to take a share off the Polas. Modern trade accounts for 12% -18% of all retail sales and is growing at 30% year- on-year. – All this is happening in turbulent times.

Take a look at what Abans has just done to the debt market to manage its own electronics business. They are well known to be an electrical super store to which banks brought customers and encouraged them to buy. Today they have cut –out the banks and finance companies and Abans is talking to customers directly about deposits and financial solutions. This example is not about the quality of advertising but their boldness to innovate and differentiate in turbulent times.

Abans examples

In reaction to deposits and cash certificates that are usually given during the festive season Vogue Jewelers got consumers to weigh their gift options between the depreciating rupee as a against the appreciating value of gold. The big boys in finance are certainly under pressure. The smaller enterprises are able to outthink and move faster than major players in turbulent times. This is not an example of a good ad but their boldness to innovate.

Vogue example:

Abans’s LG brand cleverly and consistently differentiated their brand through innovation; they came-up with deodorisers and door cooling for refrigerators and conquered the refrigeration market. When their competition was trying to open a debate on the most efficient air conditioning system they surprised them with art cool and introduced “style” to air-conditioning. I rarely hear of the onetime dominant brands like National, Sony and Sanyo in the same magnitude as LG- All done and achieved through innovation in turbulent times.

Motor insurance was once just a pain-in-the-neck. But today consumers are highly involved in the category which has erupted with innovation particularly in the last 5 years-Times were turbulent then too.

Last year JWT created a campaign to woo Indian tourists. We never said there were cheap holidays in Sri Lanka. We played on the consumer insight that the Indian tourist wanted better value out of their holidays. He wanted many holidays in-one go. We met that need with a compelling proposition.

The brand insight: “that every four hours you experience a new Sri Lanka”. It gave birth to smallislandbigtrip. The campaign ran for only 3 months and recorded a 27% increase in tourist arrivals in turbulent times.

Small Island Big Trip TV Commercial

The environment has become the most important issue in the world’s agenda as it unleashes its force from gale winds, floods, forest fires and has now begun toppling governments.

Smirnoff has its own turbulence in the form of advertising and retailing restrictions but see how Smirnoff turned a topical environmental issue into an opportunity to take advantage of the sensitivity and leverage its brand proposition. This commercial is being discussed on blogs and viewed by millions on youtube. This is a direction that some of our local alcoholic beverages should explore in times of their turbulence and not cry before the law.

Smirnoff TV Commercial

The moral of this story: In bad times look for what the consumer is looking and invest your resources behind it.

I would also like to stress that brands like Abans, Cargills, ODEL are brands with no strings attached. The key thing is that the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship takes over and they move-in faster for the kill. Decision making to action from the source to runner, is faster and less process oriented which is evident in these companies. FMCG companies must recognise this and try to cut themselves free from strings of bureaucracy and corporate obesity to add value and differentiate. Flatter structures, leaner and meaner teams are the steroids for turbulent times. The dividends from flat structures is that the intensity of the innovation is unadulterated helping in the germination of channels to roll it on to the market more efficiently.

The disregard for brand value: The Chernobyl disaster took place 8 months before I joined advertising. As I read articles of the catastrophe little did I realise that these events were teaching me my first and most important lessons in brand development. I am going to summarise a dramatic and complex 1 year story in 3 minutes.

My first month in advertising was directly linked to the turbulent events that took place 8 months before I joined JWT. I was an understudy handling a food brand. A brand which had a healthy market share, a wealth of reputation, solid values and excellent consumer acceptance. The brand was locally manufactured but required a small quantity of the imported variety from Europe to stabilize the fat content in the product.

We received a call from the newspapers informing us that a container, suspected of radioactive substance from Europe had been detected at the port and it belonged to the brand that I was working on. All hell broke loose and a senior colleague and I darted to the newspaper to stop it from hitting the headlines. We succeeded in getting it off the headlines by promising to secure an interview with the chairman of the company. But the company preferred not to comment and also postponed a press conference the agency had organised.

The next day’s headline slammed the company seriously affecting the brand and sales plummeted to an all time low. It was a turbulent time for the company and it responded immediately by launching a consumer promotion to arrest the decline and this took priority over clearing its name. The promotion momentarily controlled the decline and then plummeted further. And this went on for the next 3 years. The need of the hour was assurance to consumers. Offering a lollipop to buy their product just did not meet their needs.

Seeing the opportunity a competing brand took over to build its brand by placing specific emphasis on its country of origin and to out-position the troubled brand by distancing itself from Europe. All they simply harped was its country of origin and the clean pastures that were thousands of miles away from Europe. This worked.

It was mismanaged PR that derailed the brand. But the brand’s negative and insincere response to entice consumers by placing toys every quarter to prop sales systematically replaced the core values of the brand. The consumer over a period of time began to recognize the brand for little surprises that were in direct conflict with the brand’s RTB. 20 years later I believe the brand is still struggling from the consequences of wrong decision making in a turbulent time.

The moral of the story – in a turbulent environment one brand lost complete sight of its core values and obligations to the consumer and another saw an opportunity to emphasise on theirs and succeeded convincingly. Building on equity and differentiation are two elements that need attention in turbulence. The objective should not be to out-live turbulence but to conquer it and ride the winds positively.

The struggle for consumer attention: Companies slash budgets to ensure two things 1. Write back their saved advertising spends into the bottom-line.2. To fulfill belief that advertising is a waste in turbulent times.

Hilmy Carder of MTI say “In times of turbulence think business development first and fit advertising into it. If advertising is cut out during turbulent times then a good part of it was wasted during the good times”

There are two things companies must begin to adapt. Consider innovation the biggest motivator in turbulent times. Differentiate, differentiate and differentiate- Because the chance of propositioning your consumer is greater when your competition is cutting down budgets.

Contrary to global belief that ATL is not delivering impact, here in Sri Lanka, ATL still has an edge due to the lack of other choices. But there is a lot of wastage in ATL. Advertising in turbulent times requires precision targeting to manage wastage of media budgets. It will continue to be so, if we as an industry do not drive change. Activation is certainly being adopted but needs to be further exploited. Ambient media is only seen as an award opportunity and is not fully exploited by clients. Digital media is the most engaging with precision targeting capability but Sri Lanka likes to believe that we are not ready for it. Why? Because our industry likes to believe in figures. “I think we need to stop believing in figures and start making figures that we can believe in”

It’s true that the penetration of the internet is as low as 2.5%. Household computer ownership is still a dream in Sri Lanka. The web is largely seen as a one way information source and is not offering value and I am not surprised with these figures. What have we done as an industry to make the digital age a productive and engaging media vehicle? Today 99% of websites in Sri Lanka are information heavy seriously lacking interactive and engagement capability. If consumers want to know about you, they will call for an annual report or a product brochure. Look at the digital area taking shape and we are just not seeing the opportunity.

The Penetration of mobile phones in Sri Lanka is at 7 million and is growing by 100,000 connections a month. SMS is a big communication revolution but is not fully exploited as a media opportunity. Perhaps a quarter of the 7 million are carrying phones that will give them direct access to the internet and we are not seeing this opportunity. Nokia has just concluded a worldwide survey which says that 1/3rd of its users will generate and share their own content by 2011. As a brand communications person I shudder to think we are not ready to meet this.

Here is an example of Wilkinson hitting Gillette with an ATL and digital concoction. Wilkinson wanted to increase share against the market leader Gillette – It broke away from the cliché of the smooth shave and championed individuals with the right to shave exactly as they choose. This insight was also supported by the fact that 30% of men don’t shave every day, especially amongst the brand’s core target: 18-34 year-olds.

Wilkinson Fight For Kisses

Wilkinson Fight For Kisses website
www.fightforkisses.com,

The results:Market share rose to 23% – it’s highest ever, mentions in over 100 blogs, over 1.5 million website votes with multiple creative awards. From Sept 10th to Oct 16th-6 millions visits on the website, 300 000 downloads of the game,more than 2 millions views on Youtube and Dailymotion.

The point I am trying to make here is that –It’s immaterial if the time is right or not. It’s no consequence to anyone if the penetration of computers is going to improve or not….the point is that the web is going to take control of Sri Lanka very soon and the industry is going to be caught with its pants down. The onus is on us to hold consumer attention by driving new media opportunities. If the media is not there, we must create it. If we offer consumer’s value on the web they will log on. If every advertising company commits to making one good interactive site a year for brands we can create a new media choice. The penetration numbers will come. The ownership of computers will happen.

In summary, turbulent times are here to stay. It must be factored in your marketing plan. There is too much negativism in business and that is why we are feeling the times hard. Turbulent times are studded with opportunities and we must have the vision for it. The over dependence on ATL is restricting us from exploring and creating new media opportunities. The world does not need marketers and advertisers who defy change and continue to put brand margins under pressure .We need marketers driving change by creating value for the consumer and for businesses.

If you don’t know how to ride the winds of turbulence positively, you will surely be hit by it. So wake-up! Sri Lanka. Turbulence is a good thing! So long as you know how to deal with it and not allow it to deal with you.