Sri Lanka spends over Rs.100 b on brand building

Sri Lankan organisations spends around rupees 56 billion a year on above the line advertising and together with the below the line spend it can be estimated that Sri Lanka invests over Rs.100 billion on brand building. This is the commitment of corporate Sri Lanka for brand building in the country and the packaging industry must work closer to leverage this, given that great packaging design supports the brand building and in many cases creates the brand. Said Rohantha Athukorala Head of National Portfolio Development for Sri Lanka and Maldives for United Nations Office (UNOPS) at the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging Annual Conference 2012 held at the BMICH.

Athukorala who addressed the gathering on the Importance of Packing to Brand building commended the packaging industry for the great work done in the last two years in Sri Lanka where the economy catapulted to be a 60 billion dollar economy but he pointed out that even though organisations make great products the moment of truth is when a housewife decides to buy a company’s brand at a retail outlet and for this to happen the packaging plays a pivotal role.

This is the importance of the packing Industry for the Sri Lankan economy that many are not aware of us he said.

Now what is required is for the packing industry to position itself just like what Apparel and Tea have done in Sri Lanka. Athukorala who sits on many a private and public sector boards explained how Sri Lanka’s Apparel industry transformed its self from a tailoring image to become the leader is sustainable fashion retailing and global trend setter whilst the Tea Industry has developed from just being a tea producer to become the first ozone friendly Tea marketer worldwide.

The speaker challenged the industry to develop such cutting edge position that will not only give definition to the sector but also help build the country image. Let’s ask what we can do the country than what the country can do for at this decisive moment in history said Athukorala given the global economic fallout with may be Greece moving out of the EU and the fragile economic recovery in the US which are both key markets for Sri Lanka in the Export industry.