Page 23 - UDYAMA FINAL final for web

As an individual who comm- way to contribute to the society, • Customers who come to the
enced the career at the bottom of country or to the world. It is also a hardware stores asking for
the corporate ladder and prog- fact that people who acquire S-Lon were taking away other
ressed to the pinnacle at a resilient knowledge and skill on research, brands. But they were under
level, I wish to state that the key have good analytical and commu- the impression that what they
element to my successful strate- nication skills and are better bought was S-Lon.
gies in the cooperate world was intellectuals. When driving
based on the imperative tool brands to market leadership • All brands of PVC looked
which is “research” both formal & research findings have immense- alike and all PVC pipes in the
informal. During my career ly helped me. Among them, market did not have a specific
journey of 4 decades, I became a following are some examples: brand identification logo print-
strong believer of the need of ed on the PVC pipes, hence no
research data for decision making. Example -1 one could differentiate and
identify the brand.
The youth today are the leaders of Way back in 1990, S-Lon the
tomorrow. Whatever the profes- pioneering brand of PVC in Sri • The traders were selling the
sion would be, the knowledge and Lanka was facing a downturn and brand of their choice based
the skills they acquire with res- was about to be sold out due to solely on the profitability.
earch will always be useful for a constant losses. During the ethnic
successful career. Both quantita- riots in 1983 this market leader The decision of printing the name
tive and qualitative research plays brand’s factory was burnt down to S-Lon on the PVC pipe was taken
a predominant role in innovation, ashes and ever since, there were based on this initial research
strategy, brand development and many other brands such as Anton, findings. The series of advertise-
in the process of planning. National and Duro that had taken ments “look for the name S-Lon”
its place. was based in this research.
As a master practitioner of neuro-
linguistics programming, I am I, having requested the manage- Within a span of 3 months we
aware that when one learns the ment for an opportunity to check were able to turn the tables around
techniques of research, the mind on the possibility of driving this and the brand S-Lon became the
gets patterned to seeing things in brand to success was given just 3 market leader in 6 months.
an analytical manner. In this rapid- months. The first step was the
ly changing and complexed research. The initial research Prior to this, the Company, as an
environment, nothing could work findings given bellow were eye attempt to recover the losses, had
on pure assumptions or baseless openings. changed distribution systems,
predictions. In the process of Some Key Findings: distributors and even changed the
developing strategies, products or sales management. All those
service in our journey in to the attempts had been made without
future, research would be the vital • Although there were many really understanding the situation.
factor. Therefore, it would be PVC products that dominated
extremely important that the the market, the consumer Thanks to the formal and informal
young future leaders in every referred to the entire category researches that were conducted,
sector of the community acquire as “ S-Lon”. Which means the we were able to understand
knowledge and skill in research. brand name had become behavioral patterns and market
This will come in handy in every generic. insights which helped us to

Pragmatic Research

The way forward

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