Power and responsibility

By Marylou Andrew

When Uncle Ben admonished Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) with the maxim ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, he may as well have been talking to the Pakistani news media. Since its liberalisation eight years ago, the media has been vested with a great deal of power but responsibility has not necessarily followed. This has brought the issue of media ethics to the forefront.

What are media ethics?
According to Wikipedia, media ethics is a branch of applied ethics pertaining to areas such as journalism (hard core news) and entertainment.

Journalism ethics refers to principles of ethics and good practice and are laid down in ‘codes of ethics’. These codes are either drafted by professional journalists’ associations or by individual print, electronic, broadcast or online news organisations, to help reporters, editors and journalists deal with a variety of situations which may arise in the course of reporting and analysing the news. Most codes share common elements including, truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability. Many codes also include a ‘harm limitation’ principle, which involves withholding certain information such as the names of minor children who are victims of crime, rape victims, or any other information not material to the story and which may cause harm to someone’s reputation. Other aspects that fall within the purview of journalism ethics include slander and libel considerations, sensitivity in the portrayal of women and the use of gender neutral language.

Why is media ethics an issue in  Pakistan?
The Pakistani news media is in a unique position given that the bulk of its content pertains to one crisis or another. It is forced to oscillate between reporting on frequent terror attacks and their consequences, and the ongoing political and legal crises in the country. Then to make matters worse, there are the natural disasters to deal with.

Of course the media thrives on this. As Azhar Abbas, Director News, Geo TV comments: “News channels survive on a crisis and bad news is where you get the maximum eyeballs.”

However, these thorny situations have served to bring out the worst qualities in a large cross section of the media, so much so that news consumers and media watchdogs are increasingly forced to level accusations of insensitivity and sensationalism against newspapers and TV channels; accusations that are particularly concerned with the coverage of crisis and grief situations.

Beyond crisis reporting, there are problems with the way women are covered. Tasneem Ahmar, Director, Uks Research (a media monitoring group that works towards sensitising the media on women’s issues) says that the media tends to objectify women, overplays the negative in terms of the lack of women’s empowerment, and uses insensitive and politically incorrect language to describe them.

There have been other lapses including inaccurate and biased news reports, cases of slander and divulging names and information that should have been withheld. Zohra Yusuf and Hajrah Mumtaz discuss these issues and their implications in detail on pages 6 and 8 respectively.

There are at least five major causes for lapses in ethical standards in Pakistan.

1. Virtually untrained media professionals
The Pakistani media has exploded over the last decade, creating plenty of job opportunities. In a country which has only one dedicated journalism degree (offered by the University of Karachi), the media’s demand for HR has largely been met by hiring people who have no background in the field. These unschooled (and often very young) reporters and journalists are expected to tackle situations which are daunting for even the most experienced professionals; situations which require a high level of tact, diplomacy, sensitivity and layering, all of which come from years of training and experience. Today’s media professionals are expected to hit the ground running and therefore it is only natural that their sense of judgment with regard to ethical matters remains underdeveloped.
As Ahmar puts it, “Not all media professionals are insensitive, most of them are just ignorant”; they don’t in fact even realise that some of their actions could be considered unethical. The fault lies with media organisations which have been so busy focusing on revenue, content generation and the competition that the question of ethics has been left on the back burner.

2. Monetary considerations
News media has become a highly competitive field in Pakistan by virtue of the fact that there are so many news organisations, many of them believing that the best way to compete is to offer sensationalised stories as this will either sell more newspapers or help them achieve higher audience viewing ratings.

In the case of TV, the Peoplemeters rating method makes this a rather complex issue. Some background is needed to understand the issue. The advertising rates of TV channels are (ostensibly) set based upon the Peoplemeters ratings (which measures what TV audiences are watching at any given time), so that the higher the ratings, the more they may charge per advertising minute. The Peoplemeters scale has shown that the more gory and sensationalised the coverage of a news event, the higher the audience and the ensuing ratings (some media observers are of the view that the current ratings system is a flawed way of gauging audience interest – but that is a separate debate altogether) will encourage stories that are high on shock value, but figure low on the responsibility scale. Thus the news and its reportage are treated as leverage to gain more revenue rather than as a public trust. It is not hard to imagine how horribly wrong things can go in terms of ethical standards when this kind of thinking leads the way.

3. Unethical and biased media organisations
Another reason for the lapse in ethical standards is that some sections of the news media are in fact unethical. Several TV channels and publications (found mainly among the Urdu press) are known for their unabashed reliance on sensationalised news and images to create a splash. These organisations pander to the sentiments of their audience by either publishing or airing stories that are biased, derogatory and defamatory. Many of these organisations are staffed by journalists who are out to further their own agenda and have no regard about upholding ethical standards.

4. No standard code of ethics
According to Wikipedia, “Codes of ethics are designed as guides through numerous difficulties such as conflicts of interest, to assist journalists with ethical dilemmas. They provide journalists with a framework of self monitoring and correction.”

Unfortunately Pakistan has no industry accepted code of ethics. Some attempts have been made: In 2008, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) drafted a code of ethics but it has yet to be accepted as an industry standard. Uks Research developed ‘A Gender Sensitive Code of Ethics for the Print Media in Pakistan’ in 2005 but that too has become outdated because it does not include issues pertaining to the electronic media. In 2009, representatives from several TV channels came together in an effort do draw up a code of conduct, however this is also limited because it only deals with the coverage of acts of terrorism. The net result is that while these attempts have made a slight difference – several English language newspapers now use gender sensitive terminology and the bigger news channels are actively trying to make their coverage of terrorism less gruesome – the larger problem remains.

Many news organisations claim that they do have a ‘reporter’s handbook’ or a list of guidelines but working journalists say they have never seen anything of the sort. An executive news producer at a news channel says, “We only give our reporters guidelines on how to protect themselves in a crisis situation but I have never seen an ethical code.”

In the absence of a written and industry accepted code of ethics, journalists continue to falter; additionally, those who have an agenda to further are able to do it with greater ease as there are no rules to regulate conduct.

5. No press council
Every country with a free and independent media needs a press council, also referred to as a press complaints commission. A press council is a voluntary body with representatives from all the media, and is responsible for maintaining high standards of ethics in journalism. A press council protects the interests of the general public by furthering any complaints made against newspapers and TV channels, carrying out detailed investigations and passing a verdict. The council also acts as self regulator for the media, thereby barring any attempt at government regulation.

In Pakistan the absence of a press council in essence means that there is no one to hold the media accountable for its actions. Aggrieved citizens or other entities with a genuine complaint against a newspaper or TV channel have nowhere to go except to court or to the news organisation in question. The organisation may or may not choose to hear their complaint, depending on its internal ethics policy, and since most people are unlikely to sue (considering that court cases take decades to be resolved), the media gets off scot-free. This lack of accountability is one of the major reasons for the lapse in ethical standards.

What is the solution?
There is a dire need to tend to the media ethics situation in Pakistan; measures are needed at both the industry and the organisational level in order to tackle the problem.

1. A code of ethics
An industry accepted code of ethics is needed in order to level the playing field and to ensure that all media organisations are playing by the same rules. Although drafts have been made and circulated, these have not amounted to much because many editors and managers do not have the political will to see it through. However, the media as a whole must come together and agree to follow certain guidelines.

2. A press council
According to a senior newspaper editor in Pakistan, “Just having a code of ethics cannot solve the problem. You need to have a complaint commission where people can go if they have a problem.” Thus, having a properly functioning press council to which newspapers and TV channels are accountable, is an essential part of correcting the problem.

3. Ombudsman and internal ethics committee
It is not enough to have an external complaints commission, news organisations also need to have an ombudsman or ethics committee which constantly monitors the news and provides feedback to editors and reporters. This self-regulation will be useful for organisations that are not keen on outside regulation. Credit must be given to The Express Tribune which is the first newspaper in Pakistan to appoint an ombudsman.

4. Regular training for journalists
Not only should all journalists be furnished with a copy of the code of conduct, they also need regular training to deal with issues pertaining to ethics. It isn’t enough just to know the rules, journalists need help in how to apply them in a variety of areas.

Many news organisations may not have the political will to commit to change but this is only because they are either unable or unwilling to see the bigger picture. A code of ethics and press council are essential not only to protect news consumers but also to prove to them that the Pakistani media is a responsible entity capable of delivering on the trust reposed in it. If matters continue as they are, the media is leaving itself open to government interference, censorship and regulation. When this happens, media persons will cry foul and rant about the freedom of the press but surely a free press has to be a responsible and regulated press and that regulation works best when it comes from within.

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.

Lethargy and responsibility

By refusing to seriously address issues of accountability and responsibility, news media organisations are in danger of losing the public’s goodwill, writes Zohra Yusuf.

Every time some reporting in the media attacks the sensitivities of the public, there is an outcry and demand for greater media responsibility. However, soon it is business as usual. Some months back, five private television channels agreed not to broadcast gory images of suicide bombings and killings. But with no monitoring system in place, there is really no way of confirming adherence to this self-imposed code. In August 2008, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) had also drawn up a 21-point code of ethics in an attempt to ensure fair reporting. The proposed PFUJ code, apart from placing certain restrictions on coverage of terrorism, also broadened the scope to cover issues of reporting about women, children, survivors of violence, etc. For example, one of the clauses stipulated that:

‘A journalist shall not identify or photograph minor children, infants who are the offspring of sexual abuse, forcible marriage or illicit sexual union, or where they are victims of trafficking or forcible drafting into conflict.’

It is regrettable that neither the PFUJ or the professional bodies and newspaper editors it circulated the document to for comments contributed to the debate meaningfully or took it forward. This initiative provided the only serious and viable attempt at enforcing a code that would be overseen by media professionals themselves through a Media Complaints Commission, rather than any government appointed regulatory body. It proposed:
‘…credible and effective peer accountability through self-regulation by journalists and media professionals that will promote editorial independence and high standards of accuracy, reliability and quality in media.’

Accountability was not even an issue when the media did not enjoy the kind of freedom it does today. Created and controlled by a succession of dictatorships, the electronic media, in particular, was not exactly known for credibility. Great hopes were, therefore, pinned on it when the media was freed and private channels began to mushroom. No longer shackled to a single channel system, Pakistanis were overwhelmed by the content of the news broadcast and critical views expressed on the fast multiplying private channels. The honeymoon between audiences and the media, however, proved to be short lived.

As the country plunged from one crisis to another, the ugly face of competition and ratings took precedence over responsible reporting. This was, perhaps, first demonstrated during the army siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad. While the battle raged between the soldiers and the armed militants holed up inside the mosque, the tenor of the non-stop live reporting left many wondering where the news anchors sympathies lay. Since then the position of most channels vis-à-vis religious militancy has become increasingly blurred.

In the recent past, there have been several prominent instances where a section of the media has shown gross irresponsibility. In October 2010, an unsubstantiated report was put out by a couple of channels claiming that the government was going to withdraw the order restoring the superior judiciary. The consequences, as expected, were alarming, leading to a crisis-like situation in the Federal Capital. The judges of the Supreme Court went into a late night sitting to assess the situation and ordered an inquiry into the origin of the ‘news’. A committee of media representatives set up to investigate the issue concluded that the news was unverified and speculative.

The latest scandal to rock a section of the media was the fake version of WikiLeaks. Apparently, ‘planted’ online by some dubious sources, the so-called leaks were picked up and printed by several major newspapers and became ‘breaking news’ for quite a few television channels. None of the editors or senior journalists associated with the publications or channels took the trouble of checking the authenticity of the leaks that were primarily aimed at defaming the Indian army. A simple search of the websites of the newspapers, such as The Guardian and The New York Times, which had access to the US diplomatic cables would have done the job of verification.

The fact that a significant section of the media succumbed to the lure of this plant also indicates a deeper problem with online sources of news. With the web becoming somewhat of a news factory, it is all the more important for editors to verify and cross check facts before putting them out as news. A similar situation arises with the newly introduced concept of ‘citizen journalist’. While it may democratise the media by making anyone with an observant eye and a camera a journalist, the ultimate responsibility must lie with the newspaper publishing the news item or the television channel broadcasting it.

The rush to print or to broadcast has turned the idea of ‘breaking news’ into a bit of a farce. When almost every news item is presented as such, viewers know that little effort has been made to verify facts. The rapid growth of the media, including print, has brought into the profession many people with inadequate training (even on-the-job mentoring seems to be absent) and lacking depth of knowledge about issues they frequently present on the media. The freedom of the media was welcomed by Pakistanis as a breath of fresh air. However, the unprofessional and haphazard development is losing the media the goodwill of many. Judging by opinions expressed in newspaper columns and online, the demand for media accountability is growing.

The answer to instilling responsibility in the media does not lie in any form of government control or oversight. The days of censorship should be firmly behind us. There are many workable and proven structures and systems of media monitoring and complaints commission available. It is the will that is needed and the consensus among media organisations not only to acknowledge the issue of accountability but to work towards setting in place corrective systems. The Express Tribune has done well to announce the appointment of Justice (Retired) Farkruddin G. Ebrahim as an ombudsman for the newspaper. In fact, it published all his contact details as well, encouraging readers to send their complaints to him. However, a solo effort by a small newspaper will have little impact unless major news organisations make a similar joint commitment.

Zohra Yusuf is Creative Director, Spectrum Y&R


First published in the Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Aurora.

For the love of books

Mohsin Siddiqui on the shifting landscape of Pakistan’s reading culture.

It is easy to look at most Pakistanis today and immediately jump to the conclusion that reading as a hobby is on the verge of becoming extinct. iPods and smartphones have largely replaced actual books; text messaging is poised to take over from the novel as the single largest repository of the written word and the idea of picking up a book for anything other than an examination is largely incomprehensible. There are multiple reasons for this. With the rapidly depreciating rupee, booksellers have to pay more to import books; there is a serious shortage of local publishers who are willing to print anything beyond academic or non-fiction work, and frankly, most people seem to prefer video to text.

As the number of books sold decreases, so does the range and variety; many local booksellers prefer to focus either on bestsellers or academic texts (wherein they have a certain level of guaranteed sales upon which to rely). This is not to say that exceptions are not present: The Last Word in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad (which operates in a guerilla-esque manner out of branches of the Hot Spot ice-cream parlour), or the bookshelf section at Karachi’s The Second Flood (T2F), both of which manage to stock a selection of titles beyond The New York Times bestseller list, are two that come to mind immediately. With a stock of differentiated titles, including graphic novels and experimental literature (not to mention ‘home-grown’ short story collections), these two particular vendors have done their best to push the boundaries of traditional bookstores in Pakistan (full disclosure: I am on the Advisory Committee for T2F and have worked with the team from The Last Word on some literary endeavours).

This is not to ignore existing institutions. There are dozens of stores and market spaces in Pakistan that sell books in Urdu, as well as a slew of second-hand bookstores across the country (some of which have occasional treasures hidden away in their dusty stacks), but for the most part, these stores are starting to slowly vanish. Most booksellers are quick to point their fingers at any number of culprits: the internet, DVDs of TV shows, obsession with Bollywood and poor educational standards – to name but a few – but what needs to be acknowledged is the fact that times, as Bob Dylan put it, “are a-changing”. Many avid readers are transitioning from paper to screen; this does not necessarily mean that reading habits are dwindling, but rather that for reasons of practicality, convenience and diversity, printed material is beginning to take a backseat to downloadable e-books, the Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iPad (to name but a few). Frankly, even for people committed to the feel and texture of paper in their hands, the fact that it is possible to electronically purchase new releases on the date of their publication, or that there is no need to continuously expand storage space – well, these can be very compelling rationales.

While the traditional bookstore is certainly starting to take a beating in terms of convenience and practicality, it certainly is not down and out for the count. If anything, many proprietors are starting to think in terms of increasing engagement with reader audiences; there are live author signings, Q&A sessions, events where writers discuss and explain their work.

Some booksellers, such as Aysha Raja of The Last Word, are launching or participating in initiatives such as the Life’s Too Short short story competition and literary review, encouraging new talent to submit their work for peer review; establishments such as Kuch Khaas in Islamabad are attempting to set up lending libraries and spaces where books can become communal, public experiences, rather than individualistic ones. These are all initiatives rooted in the concept that sharing the experience of reading – and that of writing – are pathways to expanding the influence of bookshops and reading, all at the same time.

The trick however, is in the fine balancing act that is perpetually underway. Booksellers cannot, for a variety of reasons, afford to cater to a particularly wide range of tastes, which is where the paucity of actual stores comes across as a real concern; for the most part, if books aren’t well-publicised or appropriately hyped in the greater public eye, they are difficult to find. Add to this the complication of a rapidly depreciating rupee, hyper inflation that skews spending budgets towards essentials rather than luxury items and logistical difficulties in managing imports, and it’s not difficult to feel some twinges of sympathy for booksellers.

The same factors affect consumers – for many book lovers and purchasers, the choice comes down to groceries versus novels, or the choice between reading for pleasure or reading for development (the one section of bookstores that never seems to be lacking in browsers is the self-help/business studies shelf). At the same time, those readers – that core audience, for whom reading is as much a need as it is a luxury, and who can afford to treat it as such – are slowly changing their own consumption landscape: with e-readers and e-book downloads available, they are increasing their reliance on non-traditional forms of reading. While the truly committed go online and order physical books from Amazon or buy them in bulk from Kinokuniya and Borders on their trips abroad, the slightly more impatient – and flexible – go to FictionWise or eBooks to get their hands on titles that are either months away from being available locally, or simply are not going to crack the Pakistani market (think niche).

The real problem in marketing themselves lies with those small used book vendors who rely on cheap photocopies of popular books or heavily discounted second-hand publications to survive. With internet access making it easier to buy (or pirate) books without paying for them, and lacking the promotional budgets of the larger venues, these independent sellers are feeling the squeeze. Larger sellers, or those who have additional businesses to subsidise their book sales (or lack thereof), are using their presence – (and frankly, their greater smarts) to not only increase the interactivity between audiences and writers by holding open readings, launch parties and signings, but also going online to use email and Facebook as cheap but effective marketing tools.

That doesn’t really leave bookshop culture anywhere in particular in Pakistan, but what it does demonstrate is that in order to remain sustainable, booksellers cannot continue with their traditional walk-in sales model. Engagement and tie-ins are key to sustaining their businesses, and perhaps what is also needed is some serious governmental lobbying, or the establishment of public libraries (as a corporate social responsibility initiative maybe?) in order to expand the availability of books and reading to more than just a ‘core’ or privileged audience. The ‘culture’ of books in Pakistan isn’t ending, but its landscape is shifting, and without demonstrating a certain level of adaptability, booksellers won’t necessarily be able to keep up.

Mohsin Siddiqui lives in Karachi, and doesn’t get to read nearly as much as he’d like to.

First published in the November-December 2010 issue of Aurora.

Freedom and consequences

News organisations are putting their credibility on the line, writes Hajrah Mumtaz.

As Pakistan’s news media enjoy a period of relative freedom, there are indications that some fundamental rules of journalism are in danger of being left by the wayside.

The ethics of the profession appear, in particular, to be under threat of being forgotten.

First, there is the matter of verifying sources. To take the most recent scandal first, there was the embarrassment a number of media houses faced over the purported WikiLeaks story concerning Indian involvement in anti-state activities in FATA and other parts of Pakistan, as well as other information.

Just a day after some major organisations carried this as front page/headline news, The Guardian newspaper, which has access to all the cables leaked on this instance by WikiLeaks, indicated that it could find nothing in the cables to support this news item. In the event it turned out that the news item was not true, with the probability that it had been planted by some or any of the country’s various shadowy agencies that are believed to run a massive, behind-the-scenes propaganda machine. The story itself was credited to the Islamabad news agency Online, which is believed to have links with the intelligence agencies. Regardless of who exactly was at fault in either creating the news story or letting it through, the fact was that get printed/broadcast it did, and the organisations that carried it published corrections and retractions admitting that the veracity of the story had not been duly ascertained.

There are a couple of lessons the Pakistani media must learn from this experience. First, of course, there is the fact that stories must be checked. But beyond that, questions must be asked whether this story got through the filters so easily because it’s content was such that it reaffirmed the ideologies many in Pakistan have held for a long time about India and its designs on the country’s integrity – ideologies that have, not by coincidence, been popularised through means both fair and foul by the propaganda machine.

The truly worrying trend that is increasingly becoming evident in Pakistan’s news media, echoed by the fake WikiLeaks cable affair, is that some journalists and their organisations are forgetting media ethics to the extent of allowing personal ideologies and opinions to colour news reporting. On TV in particular, it has become quite normal to hear conjecture being passed off as fact, and sweeping sentences being pronounced as self-evident truths without any evidence – or only selective evidence – being presented.

The dangers in this ought to be obvious. It can lead to serious embarrassment for the news organisations, with questions raised about their credibility and standards of professionalism. Credibility is of crucial importance, for without it journalism is nothing more than a farce.

Yet even more dangerous is the fact that it misleads news consumers and fosters the creation of a society that is predisposed to listen to certain sorts of arguments and ideologies, and reject others out of hand. For example, continuous reiteration over decades, in the media and otherwise, that India is out to destroy Pakistan has given us a nation that is willing to believe just about anything bad about that country, and forget within a day gestures such as offers of aid it made for the victims of the recent floods. This, of course, is exactly what the propagandists desire – this is their entire reason for existence.

One would have thought that in a media landscape known to be infiltrated by propagandists and vested-interest parties, organisations and their news teams would be more wary of unverified material, or that from shadowy sources. That they are not is evident in the cited incident. Since it is not credible that any media organisation would put through a story that it knew to be false (if that is even a possibility then Pakistan’s media cannot claim any adherence to the ethics of the field at all), the only conclusion to be drawn is that the fake story struck so many chords – it said something everybody ‘wanted’ or already believed to be true – that it was never seriously examined at all.

That ethics ought to become an urgent and focal point of concern with Pakistan’s news media is evident in other instances as well. Earlier during the year, there was a case where a recording of a phone conversation surfaced on the internet concerning former ISI operative Khalid Khawaja, then in the custody of a group called the Asian Tigers. One of the persons whose voice was on the tape was a member of the Pakistani Taliban; the other, it was alleged, was a senior and influential journalist. The implications of this were far reaching, for the person gave the Taliban member information that amounted to Khawaja’s death warrant and he was, in fact, subsequently killed.

If it actually was the journalist in question, the matter of how deeply certain right-wing ideologies have infiltrated and become entrenched in Pakistan’s media must be examined. Bad reporting can go through not just because of an error, but sometimes because the person putting it through has an axe to grind, an agenda to sell. And that, needless to say, runs contrary to practically every concern about the ethics of the field.

In terms of journalistic ethics, some media organisations have also shown a regrettable tendency to forget the rules to which they adhered earlier. Take the rape that occurred in Karachi’s Defence area just before Christmas. For many years Pakistan’s media has followed the unwritten but important rule of never naming rape victims in order to protect their privacy. In this case, for inexplicable reasons, some newspapers not only gave the name of the victim but also published what amounted to reporters’ and policemen’s speculations about the ‘character’ of the victim, with many and serious aspersions being cast. This was entirely beyond the pale. While the newspaper that gave the most damaging specifics printed an apology, it cannot have done much to assuage the trauma of a wantonly maligned person.

Pakistan’s self-proclaimed defenders of the truth, the media, are making unacceptable errors and lapses of judgement. It is time to introspect and put our own house in order.

In November last year, major TV networks agreed upon a code of conduct to standardise professional guidelines, accommodate viewer concerns about excessive and gratuitous violence and counter state criticisms. Although these have yielded some fruit in terms of the coverage of scenes of violence and terrorism, problems are making themselves evident in numerous other areas. In my opinion, the greatest among these is the right-wing ideological slant increasingly taken by journalists and tolerated, even promoted, by their organisations. Beyond that, there are the questionable influences imposed by the rush for the highest ratings, the most advertisements and the largest viewership/readership.

But matters cannot sustain themselves in this manner. News organisations need credibility, and audiences are not stupid. The murmurs of discontent about the free-for-all that is Pakistan’s media landscape currently could grow into a raucous chorus, destroying the reputations and professional credibility of many a journalist or news outlet. News is not a commodity to be peddled but a matter of public trust. And freedom is meaningless without the freedom to face the consequences.

Hajrah Mumtaz is Features Editor, Dawn. hajrahmumtaz@gmail.com

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.

The power is still in the SMS

In our last issue, Tariq Ziad Khan argued that marketers have killed the SMS as a medium of promotion. Yasmin Malik thinks otherwise.

When the short message service (SMS) was born about 15 years ago, few could have predicted that this 160-character based message exchange mechanism would become so popular. Popular, and more significantly, ‘profitable’.

Juniper Research (a UK-based research company focusing on the telecom sector), in a report published on SMS marketing in 2009, highlighted the fact that SMS generates more revenue for mobile network operators (MNOs) than all other data services combined on a global basis.

The report predicts that P2P SMS message volume is forecast to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 13.6% from 2009-2014, further strengthening the case of this medium as an excellent marketing tool.

Arguably, the local view on the benefits of SMS marketing is more contentious as presented in this publication by my fellow contributor, Mr Tariq Ziad Khan (Nov-Dec 2010). Mr Khan is absolutely correct to bemoan the “failure of SMS marketing as an effective marketing tool” when it comes to many local initiatives.

Globally, as well as locally, operator margins for SMS are not growing at the same rate as SMS volumes and are forecast at only a 28% growth rate over the next two years. As Mr Khan has correctly assessed, the combination of increasing competition and subscriber expectations for bundled messaging plans is driving a decline in revenue per SMS in our local market. Even though local operators’ strategy of rolling out bundled and flat rate billing plans in order to maintain a competitive edge has boosted SMS usage, it has also driven down the average revenue per user (ARPU), and the resulting commoditisation is preventing SMS traffic growth from translating into comparable revenue.

It is also true to say that local operators have not notably (or even marginally) capitalised on what is indeed, as Mr Khan puts it, one of their most powerful “marketing commodities” i.e. their subscriber database – an ideal pool of information for generating demographic, pscychographic and geographic know-how to run highly targeted, opt-in-based SMS marketing campaigns.

Despite the above, I must beg to differ from Mr Khan and assert that my view on local SMS marketing campaigns is not as grim and I am not as inclined to pen a premature obituary. In particular, I feel that our local MNOs are making good use of a sub-set of SMS marketing known as ‘in-message’ SMS marketing.

In-message SMS marketing is a widely used form of SMS-based marketing, where the additional space in a standard 160-character text message is utilised to its maximum potential by the operator. Routine service messages such as missed called notifications or call credit recharge notifications, for example, only use up a certain number of available characters in a text message, leaving the remaining portion of the message free for an additional marketing opportunity. It provides both an excellent platform for the MNO to market its ‘own’ services or packages, as well as providing a platform for other brands to reach specific customers on the MNO’s network.

Globally, advertisers see in-message SMS marketing as a “distinctively personalised and relevant communication” (Source: Gartner).

In-message SMS marketing is a case where the operator has the distinct advantage of not only owning subscriber data but also having complete control over the network – unlike virtually every other media from print to cable TV. MNOs hence have the “luxury of choosing which brands and content” they carry (Source: Informa).

With respect to advertising their own content and services via in-message SMS campaigns, none of the local MNOs have missed the boat and Ufone’s engagement in this area is particularly noteworthy.

In my view, the company has undergone a shift in its public image from being a grassroots/ service-for-all network operator, to a highly youth oriented one, before adopting its current more urban, more sophisticated and international approach (while still not losing its definitive focus on the ‘uth’).

Although not unique in its use in the local market, Ufone has particularly complemented its ATL advertising of Ufone services such as international dialling rates/packages, international credit recharge, sports/music video clips on-demand and of course its hugely popular UTunes by appending these promo SMS messages to their regular service alerts.

For example, a typical subscription SMS notice to their SMS bundle package starts with ‘U have subscribed to Fortnightly SMS Package @Rs 25 + tax’ and is appended by an in-message SMS that may highlight the operator’s ongoing UTunes service: ‘UTunes kay liye dial karein 555 aur latest ganey sunain @20 paisas/min + tax’.

Ufone has also been reasonably active in co-branding SMS marketing in the last year, although, unfortunately, the operator has not been forthcoming in sharing any specific measures or metrics of success in this area – making it difficult to give an objective view as to their real strength or performance.

Nevertheless, their Ufone-KFC Mazedar Deal was well executed in tandem with print and other traditional media while delivering an actionable SMS message for a ‘buy 1 and get 1 free’ KFC burger offer run earlier this year.

Co-branding SMS marketing is tentatively being built up as a more viable and more importantly, a more ‘acceptable’ form of viral marketing using the mobile platform in Pakistan, and several other operators are either strategising or running pilot schemes to strengthen this aspect of the mobile marketing eco-system within Pakistan’s boundaries. However, both operators and brand promoters must not lose sight of the fact that the most important stakeholder in this equation remains the consumer.

Operators, as owners of the technology platform on which the mobile message is being delivered, need to seriously heed the cardinal rule of permission-based marketing which Mr Khan so vehemently defends. I couldn’t agree more that SMS marketing should primarily be based on the ‘opt-in’ principle, be carefully targeted and above all, be non-invasive.
Ironically, this last point is as much of a bane to operators as it is to consumers like you and as indicated by Ufone on its homepage:

“Ufone notifies all its valued subscribers against replying to or acting upon any call or SMS received which claims to double your balance, win bumper prizes, cash rewards, discount vouchers or any other surprise gifts. Beware of any SMS which contains a string like ‘03332597334u2u50’ or any call that asks you to give the number on the back of a scratch card as this is fraud and will cause you a loss.”

SMS marketing in Pakistan for the moment remains a serious tussle between those who think it is an opportunity to regale all with unsolicited texts and subject us to what is seen by many – in the words of an exasperated colleague – as a ‘vile menace’, and those responsible brands who believe in the consumer’s definitive right to choose.

Oh, but wait – dear readers, I will have to continue this debate at a later stage as I have just received an SMS and really must do the needful… I think it just may be Mr Khan…(!)

Yasmin Malik is associated with the UK’s Informa Telecoms & Media. yasminmalik1@yahoo.com

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.

The Rite alternative

By Vanessa D’Souza

Salt (sodium chloride) is used in a variety of ways around the house: as a cleaning agent, a preservative and a natural cure for a sore throat; it is found in a number of household products, including shampoo and toothpaste. In cooler climes salt is also used to de-ice driveways and ice patches. However, salt is most commonly used as a seasoning for food and as such it is almost indispensable.

Food without salt is very bland indeed but there is a growing section of the global population – people who suffer from high blood pressure and heart problems – who have two choices: significantly reduce their salt intake, or cut it out of their diet completely, as the high levels of sodium found in common salt can be lethal for them.

Although a number of international no sodium and low-sodium salt brands have been introduced to target this segment, October 2009 saw the launch of the first Pakistani brand of low-sodium salt – Rite Salt.

Rite is a product of Father & Sons, a family-owned business with a pharmaceutical background. This is the same company that launched Sucral (a sucralose-based sweetener) in early 2009. Rite is the company’s second brand and is composed of 40% sodium chloride and 60% potassium chloride; it is targeted at people suffering from hypertension (high blood pressure).

According to Mahmood Khuram, Country Manager, Father & Sons “Almost 50% of Karachi’s population and every third person in Lahore suffers from hypertension.”

A report on Pakistan by World Kidney Day (a joint initiative of the International Society of Nephrology and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations) shows that the problem is much more widespread. It states that one out of three adults over the age of 45 suffers from hypertension in Pakistan.

Thus there is a huge market for Rite, although the price may be a deterrent for many. The 450 gramme pack is retailed for Rs 99; in comparison, regular and iodised salt brands such as Hub and National are sold at between Rs 17 and 18, a fraction of the price.

Khurram is aware that the price difference is huge, but says it is unavoidable because “the quality of the potassium chloride used in Rite is not available locally. We have to import it”.

As a result of the high prices, Rite is primarily available in retail outlets frequented by the A and B segments. Here, Rite competes not only with regular salt brands but also with several foreign low-sodium brands such as LoSalt, So low, Nu-Salt, Hard Salt and Cardio Salt. And to compete with these brands, Khurram explains, they have adopted a strategy of differentiation.

The first step was the packaging. Unlike other brands which usually sell salt in an ordinary plastic pouch, Rite comes in a pouch that is resistant to environmental factors such as water and heat. It is also available in a 70 gramme plastic table top bottle.

The differentiation strategy has also been applied to the advertising, and in this regard Father & Sons have learnt a few lessons. When Rite was initially launched, the company went ahead with a campaign that emphasised tension and stress (one of the side effects of high blood pressure). However, the communication was vague and consumers didn’t quite understand the underlying message. As a result, the current campaign takes a more focused approach and talks directly about the effects of hypertension, positioning Rite as a product that helps control this problem; the tagline is ‘keep your blood pressure in control’.

Apart from using traditional advertising media, Father & Sons has been using popular TV cooking shows to promote Rite.

“We asked three of the leading chefs to endorse Rite; use it in their food and talk about the benefits,” says Khuram.

The chefs selected were Mehboob and Saadat, both known for promoting healthy eating and Gulzar who is highly popular for his antics in the kitchen.

Father & Sons are also promoting Rite among doctors in the hope that they will recommend it to their patients.

Although to succeed, Rite will have to contend with factors such as price and competition, it has one major factor in its favour: a huge market of potential customers, due to the fact that Rite addresses the needs of people suffering from high blood pressure as well as of those suffering from other conditions where a high sodium diet is contraindicated, such as osteoporosis, stomach cancer, asthma and obesity. In addition nutritionists and doctors are increasingly recommending a low sodium diet, even to healthy people.

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.

A South Asian perspective

By Saad K. Bashir

Some people are born marketers whereas the majority of us need to study the subject. Most marketers in Pakistan enrol for an MBA in order to learn about marketing concepts; however, there is a gaping hole in this method as most of the concepts and their applications found in textbooks are contextualised for the US and European markets. The end result is that Pakistani students are alienated as they cannot relate to the information they are ostensibly being taught. Principles of Marketing (POM) by Philip Kotler is the most commonly used book in Pakistani universities and indeed around the world. The latest edition of the book, Principles of Marketing: A South Asian Perspective attempts to bridge the gap that South Asian students may have felt when reading previous international editions.

The book is written keeping in mind organisations and consumers in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Apart from Kotler and Gary Armstrong, the regular authors of the POM series, the South Asian edition has two guest authors as it were, Professor Prafulla Y. Agnihotri (from India), who is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and Professor Ehsan ul Haque (from Pakistan), a founding member of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and currently Associate Professor of Marketing at the University.

POM is divided into four parts; part one defines marketing and basic marketing processes, part two is about understanding consumers and the marketing environment, part three discusses the elements involved in designing a customer driven marketing strategy including the four Ps; and part four titled ‘extending marketing’ is about creating competitive advantage and the ethics and social responsibility involved. These chapters comprehensively cover all the elementary topics that a marketer should be familiar with.

The above concepts are explained with what the book calls ‘real marketing’ practices from South Asian countries. This essentially involves taking a successful brand from a given company and explaining how it used a particular marketing concept to its advantage, for example, Engro with its brand Olper’s or Mobilink and its brand Club Red. Other companies mentioned include Candyland, Nirala, Tapal, TCS and UBL, etc.

Most marketing textbooks usually highlight marketing principles with ‘case studies’, which give the background of a brand and pose a problem and then ask questions – expecting students to come up with the solutions. Unlike these books, the real marketing practices in POM are not case studies, but success stories.

The idea, says Prof. Haq (in an email interview) was to “correct this imbalance in which the media only presents stories of failures and despondencies from Pakistan, whereas success stories are kept as state secrets.”

While the book has been successful in fulfilling this objective and students will learn from the efforts of the organisations from where the stories have been drawn, it is equally important to involve students in thinking through problems on their own. Should a brand be launched, should it be repositioned, and all the other questions which marketers face in a real world environment, need to be posed. The book falls short on this important aspect and perhaps this is where marketing instructors and teachers need to step up to the plate.

There is a section called ‘marketing by numbers’ at the end of every chapter in which POM takes a very practical approach. The idea is to discuss issues such as ROI, demand forecasting, market sizing and penetration and budget allocation, which take centre stage in every marketer’s work life. According to Haq, the ‘obvious’ reason for including this section is that “you cannot be a marketing professional if you are afraid of numbers.”

“Money is scarce and accountability is in. With the availability of massive amounts of consumption behaviour data, future marketing managers will need to gear up for more sophisticated statistical tools and analytical techniques if they want to compete successfully.” 

The response to the South Asian edition has been somewhat slow in Pakistan mainly due to the fact that Pearson (the publisher of Kotler’s books) has only recently set up a small office in Lahore and is still struggling to find it feet.

In spite of its shortcomings, the book is a must-have for every marketing professional and student in Pakistan because it is full of informative content which helps broaden understanding. Marketing professors and teachers will also find this book useful. However the biggest beneficiaries of this book will be the students as POM adds a uniquely Pakistani flavour to the way marketing is carried out.

Principles of Marketing: A South Asian PerspectiveBy Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Prafulla Y. Agnihotri & Ehsan ul Haque Pearson, Pakistan
620pp. PKR 660.

Saad K. Bashir works for a telecom company in Pakistan. saadkbashir@gmail.com

First published in the November-December 2010 issue of Aurora.

Make mine organic please!

By Vanessa D’Souza

The trend of adopting a healthy lifestyle is catching on quickly in Pakistan, and whereas people once talked about dieting as a means to lose weight, they are now moving towards healthy eating as part of a good overall lifestyle. This is evidenced by the growing number of brands that target the health conscious consumer as well as the skyrocketing popularity of fitness, aerobics and yoga classes.

This is precisely why Niloufer Saeed (the woman behind the Copper Kettle and Hobnob ventures) decided to open N’eco’s, a ‘natural store and café’.

N’eco’s is a store, a café and a bakery rolled in one. What makes it different from other establishments is that the products they stock are natural and organic; the items on the café’s menu are low in carbs and sodium, and cooked in olive oil. The bakery selection includes whole wheat and gluten-free bread.

Sourcing organic and natural products in Pakistan is not easy and Saeed takes special care to ensure that her merchandise is trustworthy, often sending products for lab testing if necessary. The store offers organic food, skin, hair and healthcare products, some of which are made in-house (such as the fresh kernel almond oil) while others are sourced from local and international manufacturers.

Saeed is involved with the café and bakery in a very hands-on way, ensuring that the menu offers meals that are low on fat and high in nutrition and that the bread in the bakery is made with brown sugar, free range eggs, whole wheat or gluten-free flour, and organic dried fruit.

While N’eco’s USP is its belief in organic and natural products, Saeed says that the objectives go beyond the merchandise; the idea is to sell the “complete experience” of a healthy lifestyle.

“We open at 8:00 a.m. and I take the last order at 11:00 p.m., because we want people to wake up early and sleep early. Smoking is not allowed either inside the store or the café as I want to keep this place as chemical free as possible.”

Another aspect of the N’eco’s experience is the store’s initiative of projecting a positive image of Pakistan. This is done by stocking as many local brands as possible as well as serving as an outlet for art and handicrafts made by handicapped women and children.

There are, however, two major challenges in running an organic store in Pakistan: price and the local taste buds.

Organic products are usually priced Rs 10-15 higher than regular brands and Saeed says many people are unhappy about this because they don’t understand that specialist products are more expensive. Add to this the fact that organic food has a shorter ‘sell by’ date, making it all the more expensive.

Then, there is the aspect of taste: Pakistani taste buds are not accustomed to the kind of food served at N’eco’s. According to Saeed, “People still want hamburgers and they say the food we serve does not have enough salt; they don’t realise that too much salt is unhealthy.”

Faced with these challenges, creating and building awareness is a key factor. The store only advertises via a Facebook page and a website, which makes sense given that the bulk of the target audience for organic food comes from the upper socio-economic classes.

Saeed acknowledges that while the café is frequented mainly by the elite (it is located on Khayaban-e-Bukhari), the store attracts all kinds of customers, including shopkeepers and restaurant owners who are looking for gluten-free bread and organic, homemade pasta.

While the Facebook page and website contribute towards creating awareness, another initiative in this regard are the regular sessions for schoolchildren, where Saeed talks about healthy eating habits and the importance of organic foods.

Saeed has pioneered the natural foods café and store business in Pakistan and her objective now is to see awareness about the benefits of healthy eating spread.

Her plans include having a small corner in all Hobnob outlets that sell N’eco’s products and also to eventually start a delivery service to make these products more accessible to people across Karachi.

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.

Stopping the rot

Sohaib Alvi on the decline of sport sponsorship.

Many years ago when I was operationally active in sports sponsorship for Lakson Tobacco – which at the time was the largest sports sponsor in the country, supporting, encouraging and bringing to the TV screen some 15 sports or so – I witnessed an incident that epitomised everything that has been wrong in our sports over the last two decades.

We were the official volleyball sponsors and the final of the National Championship was to be held at Fortress Stadium in Lahore, under specially arranged temporary floodlights. We had insisted on the extra expenditure in order to accommodate a large audience and promote the sport among the general public. We also spent huge sums on promoting the event on TV, print, billboards and posters. Invitation cards were sent out and a dinner was arranged. In short, it became a festival and volleyball was the winner. Or was it?

Two days before the event the organisers told us we would have to postpone. The reason: the chief guest, a senior government functionary, would be unavailable as he had to be in Islamabad on the day. Naturally, the promotion went to waste and when he was available again (on short notice at that) we did what we could to build awareness. But the seats were mostly empty and to top it all, it started to rain, dousing the fireworks display. This was one of several incidents that showed the true face of how sports are organised in Pakistan, and it has become worse.

Here are the six most important reasons why sports associations in Pakistan are not attracting long term sponsorship.

1. The associations function in a 1950s management style
Every one is presided by a top government functionary who is never there except for photo opportunities. He is only in the picture as long as he is in favour with the government of the day, or is backed by a powerful lobby. The secretary of the association is the all powerful pathwari, and he reports and dances to the whims, wishes and nepotism of the president or the board members. The rest of the committees are made up of people who are either sincere but powerless or are motivated by self interest. As the country becomes poorer, the trickle down to the actual players has further dried up. Grounds have no water facilities, the equipment is broken and frankly, so is the will of the players. The only people benefiting from the system are the committee members who lap up whatever privileges they get in the name of promoting their ‘occupied’ sport.

2. Funds are spent on the perks and privileges of the top administrators
Government and sponsorship funds are controlled by the people at the top of the associations and are spent in operational costs, official trips to international events, foreign coaches (who either leave frustrated, are incompetent or both) and in building infrastructures that are probably worth half the value spent. 

3. The top man is a pseudo-dictator who pushes through his whims, wishes and visionless vision
If you feel I am exaggerating, look at the sport most covered daily in the media. If Mr Butt cannot be controlled as he rampages through the Pakistan Cricket Board what must be happening in other, less high profile, sports?

4. The players stay at ground zero
The players get nothing to help them improve. The associations will cite winners and give individual prizes but sadly the players’ pockets are empty by the end of the month. If they are lucky, a government department will give them a job that will cover kitchen expenses at most. The unhygienic conditions in which they live sap their energy and that is why they can hardly compete at even the regional level. There are the occasional Naseems and boxing and wrestling medallists; but they have had to make it on their own. Aisam ul Haq is another outstanding example of this state of affairs.

5. The product is third rate
This relates to not just the players’ performance but also the lack of organisation, discipline and presentation. Recently there have been some organisational improvements in the league matches that are telecast, but that is because the TV channels are doing most of the organisational work. Sponsors do not want to associate their brand with disorganised and badly maintained surroundings.

6. Limited TV coverage
Before the T20 series, no domestic cricket tournament was telecast on cable. Even Pakistan Television (PTV) has withdrawn the facilities it used to give in the 1970s to first class cricket. PTV used to show live sports on Friday mornings and afternoons. There is only one dedicated sports channel in the country, and it can only do as much as its limited resources allow without sponsorship.

The solution
Stop expenditure on every sport, except for the salaries the players are drawing. Fire the office bearers at all levels, then privatise. Put every sport up for auction in IPL style to private entrepreneurs who will run them professionally by obtaining sponsorships and building up the infrastructure and facilities; entrepreneurs who will hire professional coaches.

Put every player through a fitness drill and a talent test and put those that qualify on a six-month trial period. If they prove their ability, passion and fitness, they should be turned into role models and leased out to sponsors and for merchandising. Those who do not qualify should be told there is no future for them in that sport and then given vocational training in a profession of their choice. 

Talent hunts should be organised for every sport the same way Pepsi and Mobilink do in cricket. Go to the chak’s of Pakistan and bring out the talent; it just needs opportunity. Every sport in Pakistan has potential if handled properly. Take wrestling; it was hardly followed until a couple of decades ago and it is now a multibillion dollar industry branded as WWF.

The first rule of marketing is not to distribute or promote a bad or incomplete product. Every sport brand in Pakistan is in decline. Close them all down for six months. Research, re-evaluate, remake, rebrand and then relaunch.

Sohaib Alvi is a marketing, advertising and media consultant. ceo@sage.org.pk

First published in the November-December 2010 issue of Aurora.

Vaseline comes to Pakistan

By Marylou Andrew

Pakistanis are no strangers to Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, which usually makes an appearance in winter to soothe dry skin and chapped lips. However, most people are unaware that Vaseline has, so far, been imported into Pakistan through the grey channels. In October 2010, Unilever Pakistan (whose parent company is the official owner of the Vaseline brand) decided to bring the Vaseline range of lotions to Pakistan (the Petroleum Jelly still comes in through the grey market).

The lotion range has four variants: Vaseline Total Moisture for 24-hour protection, Vaseline Aloe Cool & Fresh for light moisturising, Vaseline Men Body Lotion and Vaseline Intensive Rescue for very dry skin.

According to Farheen Salman Amir, Brands Director, Home & Personal Care, Unilever Pakistan, the decision to launch Vaseline was based on the fact that in Pakistan “the H&B (hand and body) market has been growing faster than the facial care market in the last few years.”

Research conducted by Datamonitor in Pakistan in 2009 puts the compound annual growth rate of the Pakistani skincare market at 9.6% between 2004 and 2009, with the facial care category leading with a 73% share. Although these research results seem contradictory to Amir’s statement, further research by Euromonitor predicts that by 2013 the H&B care category globally will have grown by 18.6%, and the bulk of this growth will come from emerging markets, and more specifically from the Asia-Pacific region.

Given this context, it made sense for Unilever Pakistan to start making inroads into the H&B category with a brand name that is already trusted in Pakistan. The new Vaseline range is currently available in 13 cities and Unilever plans to make it available nationwide by the end of 2011.

The launch campaign had all the usual elements of TVC (an adaptation from the regional campaign), print, radio, outdoor and digital. The digital element is the most interesting because unlike other brands which either do banner advertising or create fan-based Facebook pages, Vaseline engaged digital agency Creative Chaos, which came up with the idea of developing a Facebook application.

The application, called Vaseline’s Invite & Win, has a simple concept. Facebook users who register for the app are asked to invite their friends and they receive points for every accepted invitation. The person with the most points wins an iPad, while there are smaller prizes for members who achieve fewer points. Since the application’s launch at the end of November 2010, it has managed to accumulate over 60,000 members.

In spite of its popularity, Vaseline faces a key challenge in the in-store environment.

Apart from competing with a host of foreign and Pakistani lotions, of which Nivea is the main competitor, Vaseline has to compete against itself, i.e. the Vaseline lotions that are sourced through the grey channels. The problem occurs in terms of price; the locally marketed Vaseline lotion sells for Rs 225 and there are plenty of local and international brands in this price range. However the foreign variants of Vaseline range from Rs 270-390, which is not only inconsistent but also extremely expensive for the local consumer who can easily choose another product.

Amir says Unilever hopes to make Vaseline the market leader in the H&B category in the next three years, so there is likely to be a great deal more advertising activity. However Vaseline will need to crack the issue of grey channel imports quickly if it hopes to translate its media campaigns into tangible sales results.

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.

The new innovators

To avoid new product failure, companies need to involve their customer from the very start, writes Nasir Riaz.

Although a fast emerging concept in global marketing, in Pakistan user innovation still has a long way to go. In fact, so far there is no model which Pakistani manufacturers and marketers can adopt to reap the benefits of this approach. Yet user innovation is a necessary complement to the manufacturing innovation process; it entails involving end users in the early stages of new product design (the stages of idea generation and concept development). To secure shelf space in a highly competitive market every new product needs to have two crucial elements – design and brand building. The first one is crucial for value perception and the second for identification, visibility and creating consumer loyalty.

Designing the product is usually seen as the responsibility of R&D departments, market consultants and researchers in academia, whereas branding is seen as the responsibility of the marketing departments. Traditionally, whenever a company required a new product they turned to market research to discover ‘un-met latent needs’ among their customers. Once the need was identified, the task of designing a new product to fit the need was handed over to the product development team, and when the prototypes were ready these were handed over to marketing for testing. However, new research has rejected these traditional methods of product design and brand management by demonstrating that the majority of new product failures are the result of ideas dreamed up by manufacturers, academic researchers or inventors in the lab. These ideas, although attractive on the drawing board and in prototype, did not sell in the marketplace.

Today it is a universally accepted fact that it is the consumer who decides the fate of the brand and not the manufacturer. The concept of brand equity (the ultimate level of consumer loyalty) is also a function of consumer perception. It is also an established fact that the value chain, be it an industrial or consumer product, is consumer driven. As a result, the extension of end user dominance to new product development is improving the success rate of new products.

The evolution of the user innovation concept began when manufacturers in the developed countries, after spending millions on R&D, failed to achieve their ROI on new products; the reason being that very few companies were able to come up with truly innovative products and most of their offerings were perceived by consumers as being ‘me too’ products. With the failure of R&D to deliver innovative designs, manufacturers turned to the end users of their products for new ideas. Industrial as well as academic researchers discovered that the end users of many products were more than happy to share their post-consumption experiences with the manufacturer and in the process sometimes generate innovative ideas. When it comes to hi-tech products, it is an empirically tested fact that as much as 80% of new ideas originate through end users, and the most interesting finding was that these users were willing to share their ideas free of cost.

Clearly the focus today should be on involving customers in new product development, rather than simply persuading them to buy products. In fact, the most effective product development and commercialisation models are those that encourage dynamic communication and idea sharing among engineers, marketers and customers.

Another benefit of involving users in new product development is cost saving in R&D and prototype development as well as on new product promotion. In fact, the savings made on the promotion front can be considerable as a percentage of the total operating costs of the company, and thus can impact the bottom line positively.

In Pakistan most companies have a traditional approach to new product development in that they look for new ideas from overseas or via market research, their distributors, sales staff or the competition. However, in a competitive market this approach wipes out any chance of differentiation. Today almost 80% of products are standardised and with every passing day there is less room for differentiation. The rate of failure among new products is rising, with only two out of 10 new products surviving.

Research has shown that consumer innovation models are equally applicable in Pakistan. It is only a matter of changing mindsets and looking at customers as a source of idea generation and not just as a source of revenue. Pakistani manufacturers and marketers should not underestimate the ability of their end users to generate ideas. Pakistani consumers today are knowledgeable, educated, affluent, and have the ability to generate new ideas and share their post consumption experiences, making it a win-win situation for both parties. The end users get what they want and manufacturers get a healthy ROI on new products. Although end users may lack the technical knowledge to design products, the fact is that the new product development process starts with a simple idea. True innovation is the result of combining the end user’s knowledge with technical knowledge.

Some techniques which Pakistani manufacturers can use to start the involvement process include creating online communities; best idea competitions (through the print media or the internet); interactive TV programmes and websites; door-to-door surveys; focus groups and mall intercept interviews.

Be it an incremental innovation or ultimate innovation, customers can play a vital role in the process. In Pakistan the most realistic approach would be to start treating the ideas of ordinary users as the inspiration for the innovation process rather than as a solution. The idea of user innovation is based on one basic premise, which is that the end user knows more about design faults and benefits than a researcher sitting in a lab. Today, not only is the customer king, he is also market research head, R&D chief and product development manager.

Product categories
where customer’s killer ideas were hugely successful

• Computer game software
• Containerised shipping
• Food and beverages
• Home furnishings
• Fashion design
• Life saving medical equipment
• Open source software
• Packaging design and material development
• Personal product related backup services
• Reality TV shows
• Scientific instruments
• Sports equipment
• Textiles

Profitable global brands
where the customer has been they key innovator

·      Microsoft employs 15-20-year olds to brainstorm new ideas for computer application software.

·      Dell launched www.ideasstorm.com to gather and implement customers’ ideas.

·      Lego has a ‘mindstorms’ online user panel to solicit feedback on existing products.

·      Nestlé consults with parents regarding improvements to its baby formula products.

·      Pampers holds focus groups with parents to generate ideas for new designs.

·      Johnson & Johnson Personal Care undertakes consumer feedback and new product idea surveys.

·      P&G organises on-the-spot hair washing events to generate feedback on its shampoo range.

·      Nokia tests prototypes of every new device by distributing them to actual end users, sometimes free of cost.

·      BMW pioneered user innovation in car manufacturing by posting a toolkit for its customers to generate ideas for new designs. BMW selects the best ideas and invite these customers to meet their design engineers.

·      Starbucks launched www.mystarbucksidea.com to encourage user suggestions, which customers discuss and vote on, giving the company the ability to judge which ideas gain popular support.

·      eBay upgrades its website based on customer feedback.

Consumer innovation models in Pakistan

·      Unilever Pakistan’s Rabta Consumer Care Line: The message is “whether you have a complaint, compliment or suggestion, we would love to hear from you.”

·      Nestlé Pakistan’s web ‘call back’ and ‘talk to us’ option encourages customers to share their experiences. Customers are also invited to share their recipes which could help improve the company products.

·      ICI Home Paints involves its customers in devising colours and shades.

·      Depilex involves its customers through its training institute programmes.

·      Fashion designers work closely with their customers to innovate.

Product ideas
that didn’t come up to consumer expectations

·        Herbal medicines

·        Japanese and Thai restaurants

·        Flavoured tea

·        Flavoured yogurt

·        Medicated mattresses and shoes

·        Luxury and ranch homes

·        Packaged ready-to-eat desi food

Nasir Riaz is associated with the University of Central Punjab, Lahore, where he is involved in teaching, research and consultancy. nasir.riaz@ucp.edu.pk

First published in the January-February 2011 issue of Aurora.