Sri Lanka online search up as much as 25 times : Google

Online search queries in Sri Lanka for all categories, from beauty to automotive to telecom, have gone 12 to 25 times, according to Anand Tilak, Google South East Asia’s Regional Manager for Agency Relations and Sales Development.

Speaking at the LBO LBR Summit on “Building Resilient Brands” in Colombo this week, Mr. Tilak also revealed that local viewing of his company’s YouTube video streaming service has also gone up by four times over the last two years.

Further, he opined that younger viewers could no longer be reached by advertising on TV. While they watched virtually the same content as that which was available through traditional means, they were more accustomed to watching it on smaller screens - for example, on laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

Additionally, Mr. Tilak remarked that May 2013 was the first month in history wherein global smart- phone sales outpaced feature, or basic, models.

Also, he signaled that there was no doubt that real time web interactivity was increasing in significance in consumer lives, with data showing that the top two customer behaviours to coincide with watching TV being eating and going online.

Meanwhile, also speaking at the summit, Ajith Gunawardena, MD/CEO of Ceylinco Insurance (General), stated that, following the collapse of the Ceylinco Group, his company lost 18 per cent market share over the first two years. It was only in the third year that it was recouped, along with 15 per cent more.

At the same time, Malik Fernando, Director/Global Operations Chief for the MJF Group (Dilmah), commented that his father Merrill Fernando had founded Dilmah, after having been in the tea industry for several decades, with the resolve to bring back the ‘Pure Ceylon Tea’ brand, which had been ubiquitous across the former British ‘empire’ markets. And, while every one of Dilmah’s competitors had gone the multi-origin route, Dilmah had stayed true to its roots of ‘ Pure Ceylon Tea’. An example he gave for the company’s eye for quality was that, rather than packing Dilmah in the country of sale, the company preferred to pack the tea in Sri Lanka, even at the cost of paying more in tax in terms of the country to which it shipped. He also added that the company was focusing on backward integration and already owned its own subsidiaries for packaging, trading, etc.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fernando also indicated that there was nothing magic about Dilmah. It has the same ingredients as any other single tea from Sri Lanka, with competitors having the same opportunities to enjoy the successes that Dilmah had enjoyed should they be able to market their brands effectively.

Commenting on the plight of estate workers, he noted that, while the stand- ard of living of these workers had improved immeasurably over the years, it was just the perception of the public that this group was impoverished. He pointed out that this group was privy to wage renegotiations every two years, and often even bought groceries rather than sustenance farming for their home needs.He added that 76 per cent of tea came from small growers in the country’s south utilising the out -grower model, while only 24 per cent was sourced from tea estates.

In the case of Dilmah tea, he revealed that the brand had tapped into the aggressive marketing of ‘Pure Ceylon Tea’ that had been carried out since the 1920s in empire markets, until fairly recently, when it became unavailable.

Mr. Fernando also recommended Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector as having the highest growth potential amongst its industries, citing Cinnamon and Cashews as being the best but, as yet, having not been branded.