Jamaican Minister urges creative approaches to marketing

Sunday, January 25, 2004

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Jamaican Industry and Tourism Minister Aloun Ndombet-Assamba has underscored the importance of creative approaches to developing marketing strategies for Jamaican products and services.

The Minister said history was replete with instances of companies offering excellent products but was unable to achieve financial viability due to poor marketing.

"In this age of globalization and more open borders to trade, it is an irrefutable fact that effective, customer-focused marketing strategies have significant implications for the achievement of comparative advantage," she said.

The Minister said the Government, and in particular her Ministry, was doing everything to ensure that the policies and mechanisms were in place to ensure efficiency in facilitating investors in Jamaica to make a reasonable profit.

"We want to do this because profitable enterprises stimulate economic growth that can lead to increased employment and a better standard of living for all our people," she added.

The Minister emphasized that the true test of a strategic marketing programme was not only that it tackled the challenge of achieving a targeted share of the market but that it also addressed the maintenance of customer loyalty.

Outlining several ways in which businesses could improve their comparative advantage, Mrs. Ndombet-Assamba suggested that they changed the way things were done to become more cost effective and thereby use lower price to gain market share. She noted that they could offer more and improved services that added value to the product and also provide incentives that made it worthwhile for customers to choose their product over others.

The Minister praised Sandals, SuperClubs, Grace Kennedy, COK, LASCO and Digicel, as examples of how Jamaican marketing gurus have built strong enterprises based on their commitment to not just customer satisfaction, but customer delight.

"It is in this vein that I see the current 'Buy Jamaica' campaign as taking a qualitative leap ahead of previous campaigns. I would like to see our campaign focusing on 'Buy Quality Jamaica'. I want the campaign to appeal to more than just patriotic commitment, but to customers that are seeking healthier, safer, and first-class products and services," she said.

She spoke also of Jamaica's reputation for premium products such as coffee, rum, music and sports heroes that had captured international admiration. By extension, she said, businesses should focus on the market niches in which they could more than just survive - where they could build and grow a local and international customer base, strengthen customer loyalty and open new linkages among the productive sectors.

Minister Assamba said the recent successes in the tourist industry were as a result of bold steps taken by the Ministry to make the tourism support agencies leaner, more focused and more responsive.

The Minister appealed to Jamaicans to adapt a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and wealth creation. "Let us turn our backs on those traditions and customs that promote dependency and mendicancy so that we can unleash the creative energies of our people," she urged. 

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