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| Sunday, 18 August 2002 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Healthcare marketer strikes gold at CIM Achiever Awards by Carol Aloysius Young Rohantha Athukorala may have notched up an impressive string of awards for his previous achievements as an innovative marketer, but winning Gold at the Marketer of the Year 2002 (medium category) at the recently concluded CIM Achiever Awards has definitely been the high point of his 11-year business career. An all round business professional, this 30-something marketer who currently heads the Health and Personal Care business at Reckitt Benckiser (Lanka) Ltd., says he may have paved the way for the Gold award when he won the Silver award in the same competition last year. "Winning the silver medal last year definitely inspired me to try and reach for the ultimate goal", he told the Sunday Observer. "I was confident of my skills and worked hard in all areas. I had heard someone say winning once can be a fluke, but winning twice means there is consistency. So I took it as the real challenge". So what does he consider as the key skills that an effective marketer should have? "Strong financial management (mainly the cost structure) and a good field sense. These two skills, together with some innovative, out-of-the-ordinary and focused brand marketing, and you have a good marketer". These skills, he says, were honed at the various posts he held in demand management business planning, as Area Sales Manager and as Head of Brand for products such as Dettol and Disprin." The latter gave me the opportunity to test focused brand strategy such as the launch of the first anti-bacterial plaster in Sri Lanka and in the Reckitt Benckiser world. I was also able to pave the way for a tie-up with UNICEF in marketing the health message using our brands like Dettol which is now being used as a role model for other countries". From air fresheners and shoe polish to floor polish and soft drinks, Athukorala says he had gone through practically every brand product his company produced by the time he began heading the Dettol campaign. "I had already honed my skills handling these products, so it was not difficult to deliver the goods in my present job, handling Health and Personal care", he says. He holds an MBA from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, a post-graduate diploma from the same university and a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). He was also awarded the titles 'Chartered Marketer' in 1994, 'Best Student' CIM in three successive years and Chartered Marketer status in 1999. He has a string of other professional achievements as well as extra curricular records mainly in sports (badminton and karate). He also teaches marketing and loves to travel. Personal marketing, incremental marketing involving sales and market or share growth, internal marketing and integrated marketing (involving team work) are the four criteria used in evaluating the overall performance for the award. "On the media side, we get viewership data. But the more reliable method is through "People's Meters" which is costly but more accurate". Commenting on the role of the ordinary trader in brand marketing, he points out: "No amount of advertising a particular brand of goods can compensate for a lack of interest on the part of the trader. Hence, even with strong equity brand strategies on consumer purchasing, the trader or the mudalali plays an important role in our country. So trade marketing is very important. If we do not spend on trade marketing to keep the trader on the side of the brand, at the point of sale, we can lose the product market". |
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