Friday, May 3, 2013

The Digital Marketing Revolution. Is Sri Lanka Ready?


Hi everyone!!!

“The Digital Marketing Revolution. Is Sri Lanka Ready?”

That was the question I asked in the very first post. Got lot of answers. (Actually 6 comments: p)Some said YES, some said NO. But on my point of view the answer is YES and NO both.

Before going to deep down of the topic it’s better to get  basic idea about digital marketing , as per  Wikipedia Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smart phones, cell phones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing. And marketing process which leads to the development of any organization or brand by using a variety of digital channels such as email, social networks etc.
Now to get some idea about Sri Lanka and digital media we can look at following digital media fact sheet which issued by neo@ogilvy.


According to that fact sheet Sri Lanka has 15% of internet penetration rate. But digital media specialists are forecast within next 2 years Sri Lanka’s internet penetration rate will go around 40%. That means more than today, in the future Sri Lankan customers will be more active in internet and more concern about digital marketing. To that revolution Sri Lanka should have to be ready.
Currently in Sri Lanka almost all main brands has come online, they are maintain their web sites, facebook pages. Some business runs entirely online as for examples we can see anything.lk, wow.lk, tickets.lk, kapruka.lk. They do online operations and digital marketing things. Currently they are making profits and still growing.
Some of business such as Kellyfelder, kottuwilla do their promotions only through social media networks ( facebook & twitter).Most of  public events such as parties & DJ festivals have chosen websites and social medias as their main marketing tool(sunburn Colombo, electro peacock festival)  . So It’s proven Sri lanka is ready for digital marketing revaluation.


But those anything.lk, wow.lk, tickets.lk, kapruka.lk, ikman.lk mainly functions in Colombo and substations areas. Because most of Sri Lankans might not aware & facilities for access them. On other hand even though people have facilities such as smart phones, internet access they may not conferrable with online purchases. When looking at following chart we can understand that we are in bottom level of both Asia & world’s average internet penetration levels.




 Finally just look at following image and you can understand whether Sri Lanka ready for Digital Marketing Revaluation or not.

cheers...

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  3. IMHO, I think that your answer "Yes" and "No" both is just a political answer. of course, what you say is true. There are reasons for both parties.. But isn't it for anything.. ? for an example.. Is Sri Lanka is progressing as a country today? Half of the country says yes (SLFP and government allies)... and other half of the country says No (UNP, JVP and other parties).. If you listen to them unbiased, they both have valid arguments. And for another argument, is the Global warming is a crisis? That's an easy question.. Hell Yeh.. But most of us don't know that some of scientists are not agreeing.. (Bump.. :-O) Watch this if you don't believe me.. (http://intelligencesquaredus.org/iq2-tv/item/656-global-warming-is-not-a-crisis). Their argument is also rock solid.. :-S
    Anyway.. Back to your question.. IMO, I don't think we as Sri Lanka is ready for any kind of digital era.. Not only a marketing.. Yeh yeh ... millions of sri Lankans are on facebook.. And ikman.lk , everything.lk, ticketslk.com , wow.lk are doing good.. We all have high speed internet connectivity (3G and LTE all over the country. :D )
    But did we ever think about the real scenario..?
    Yes.. I know Sri Lanka’s Internet penetration has gone to 12%..or more.. We all know this is due to cheap cost for high-speed internet... So it's good..
    But directly concluding from that, “now sri lanka has a digital culture” is pure wrong... It’s the same mistake that we did on the Literacy. We all know Sri Lanka has one of the highest Literacy in whole world, But that doesn’t really meant that Sri Lanka is one of the knowledge hubs for the world. (We can be.. But that's a whole different scenario. :) )
    Let’s put this in to test..From all the people you know.. find the persons that are internet/technology users.. (You will find a lot from your uni.. but don’t neglect all your family, neighbors etc.. ). Now count the persons that who are actually using internet in daily basis... from that, find the number of persons that are actually doing anything other than facebook.. (Now it’s getting really small. nah..? :) ). Now comes the nail in the coffin. :) Find the number of persons who are using internet to buy stuff. Pay online.. :) That number should be really small. Anyway as you are near capital, still that number is larger.. if you go out of city.. that will even reduce drastically..

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  4. Anyway.. IMO, I don't think Sri Lanka is still ready for a digital era.. What actually happened was, we skipped an evolution.. (So at the end, then it's not evolution). When GPRS was introduced in western, it was a revolution.. and when they use that intensively to browse WAP sites (Most of us have not even used a WAP site.. :) ) .. and made their lifestyle around it, they needed more speed to do their newly found lifestyle.. so they came to EDGE so that they can use full fledge site.. But that took time.. Then came social networking sites. (Remember Hi5?) And when they are using EDGE heavily they needed more.. so they invented 3G.. so that Entertainment can be digitally enjoyed.. they were ready to pay for that.. so companies started to invest on them..Netfilx..Youtube.. Always remember..that they already had broadband internet at homes at the time of Edge. 3G was required so that they could enjoy the same courtesies on the way.. Because they were so much used to work mobile.. Then they started cloud and everything needed to be in them. So they transited to LTE.. not because ISP deployed.. Because they were willing to pay to gain the freedom of mobility.. Now can we categorize Sri Lankan social in to same groups as western society? Do we go through this evolution? No ! right..? We just came straight from GPRS to 3G.. our requirements were not changed .. Our social behavior was not changed.. we just started to use 3G because they were very cheap and ISPs were deploying it. We just use mobile broad band in home.. As a fixed line. (We all know we use dongles at home.. ) We are just a group of people who are lost in a era that we do not understand. And We are playing with our new toys.. but we are not committed to use them .. just playing.. Remember .. in order to have a proper digital marketing revolution, we need to have a proper e-culture.. an e-economy..Companies should starting to get some profit out of online services.. so that marketing and Advertisement culture can penetrate it.. We just don’t have it yet.. I’m not saying we will never do.. Yes we will achieve .. but not Now .. Not today.. !
    Therefore I Do not think Sri Lanka is ready for a digital era..
    For crying out loud.. tell me, can you see a person with laptop or a tablet and doing something in a car or bus or a train.. (Except Facebook on mobile. :D ) . If they ever see a one, all other people will say either he’s crazy or he is showing off.  Aren’t we?

    At the end.. this is only my opinion.

    (Sorry that the comment was too long.. )

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    Replies
    1. thank you big brother!! :) awesome comment... I'm gonna publish this as my next post!!! :)

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