Pak People need to change mindset, conference told

[LahoreEstate]

Friday, January 30, 2009
By our correspondent

KARACHI: Managing Director YUM Group of UAE, Irfan Mustafa, has said that in order to change Pakistan’s image across the world, people of the country would have to first change their mindset.

He was speaking on the concluding day of a two-day conference ‘Marcon 2009, Marketing in Challenging Times’ on Thursday.

The conference was organised by the Marketing Association of Pakistan (MAP). He delivered a thought provoking, energetic and encouraging speech, and convinced the audience and the organisers of the conference by concluding an interactive discussion that “we the people of Pakistan hold all those characteristics that a best nation does, then why is our image disfigured across the world? This is a case of perception of our own and we have to correct it in accordance with the established truth.”

Pakistan’s exports have increased remarkably by 44 per cent this fiscal year, it had a bumper crop of wheat, rice and cotton last year, the country holds highly potential and hardworking human and natural resources, foreign investment is increasing continuously, none of the multinational companies has so far wrapped up its business here, he said and urged the audience to market these good qualities and characteristics before the outsider instead of explaining to them that “we are a confused nation, problem-makers, unpredictable and passing through bad times, which we usually do.

“Terrorism is everywhere in the world, not only in Pakistan, and if our country is seen as a safe-haven for terrorists, religious extremists and fundamentalists then it is our fault and not of the outsiders. To remove this negative perception about our homeland we have to correct ourselves first and then market our best qualities across the globe. This will greatly help companies functioning in the country in flourishing their business. But putting Pakistan first should be the top most priority of every individual.” To build Pakistan’s true image across the world, Mustafa’s suggestion of holding roadshows on Pakistan abroad was accepted immediately. He recommended constituting a 50-people delegation consisting of members of MAP, youth representatives, economists, politicians and senior journalists.

He elaborated that MAP should prepare a 50-people delegation every year for the next three consecutive years, which would cost about $0.3 million for the entire three-year period. He announced his company would bear 30 per cent of the cost of the total project every year and presented the first tranche of $30,000 on behalf of the company on the spot.

His motivating lively discussion convinced the participants to pool funds for roadshows and about half of the total cost was collected on the spot.

Syed Farukh Mazhar, President MAP and MD SGS Pakistan announced the formation of a committee to run matters of the three-year project. This committee will be headed by Tariq Ikram, Ex-Chairman of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).

Mustafa concluded his talks on a highly optimistic note and was confident that Pakistan is experiencing a lot of ‘good happenings’ inside, despite it being a prisoner of political confrontation and a victim of terrorism and extremism, while marketers from the platform of MAP would succeed in changing the country’s image to positive, which it so greatly deserves and desires for. While delivering his presentation on ‘How Pakistani Brands Can Go Global’ Abrar Hasan, MD-National Foods questioned why Pakistan has not so far introduced international brands and answered himself saying it was because we do not have a strong culture of marketing our products and instead we prefer to sell commodities instead of branded goods.

Pakistan has one of the largest textile and food exports, and textile sales are declining gradually, because people in this industry did not introduce brands and continued to sell it like a commodity.

He was of the view that to go global, companies strongly require capital and equity and without that, they cannot introduce international brands. He maintained that there are some Pakistani companies whose products are sold in world markets, but people buy those products as a result of their ethnic or traditional connections.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=159835