Etika marketing VP shares best practices

Best marketer: Santharuban was named CMO of the year in the Malaysian CMO Awards 2018 and he also won the Marketing Trailblazer gold award for the food and beverage category.

AFTER being named chief marketing officer (CMO) of the year in the Malaysian CMO Awards 2018, Etika Holdings vice-president of marketing Santharuban Thurai Sundaram shared that the inspiration to excel came in part from the good work that the marketing industry itself has forged.

“One good thing about the marketing fraternity is that we get a lot of exposure to what others are doing,” says Santharuban as a hats-off gesture to those from other companies.

He says marketeers are themselves consumers and that “sets a benchmark or learning curve for us to learn and try and improve ourselves.”

He adds that when comparing Malaysia with other countries within the region, diversity certainly is one of the key differences. “We have a multiracial community,” Santharuban said, “therefore creatives, materials, advertisements need to appeal to these.”

He says that words used in an advertisement or on a packaging may sound perfect in, say Bahasa Malaysia but would not translate well into Chinese or English.

“That is one challenge that we have here,” he explains.

“These different languages have to then be applied to a huge medium mix of radio, TV and print – all of which come in three or four different languages.

Etika is unique, Santharuban elucidates, as the branding targets various different product profiles, and these brands could well be competitors among themselves, as all are within the beverage category.

He pointed out that most companies have one product in a category, but for Etika, all its products are competing for share of throat in one segment or another.

This level of market saturation can be a huge barrier for most players that are considering the launch of new products.

However, Etika seems to have tackled the issue with purposeful audience targeting, clever marketing and great products to suit various consumer profiles.

Working with partners on marketing has also been a primary focus for Etika. “For instance, we had Bruno Mars when we launched Pepsi Black.

So yes - we use very similar platforms, but when it comes to adapting to our market here, we work very closely with our partners.”

Santharuban reveals that Etika has been consistently meeting market needs by creating marketing programmes that reward loyal consumers.

These successful programmes are then reinvented annually.

For example, Mountain Dew’s Dew challenge, which ran for five years, offers different creative challenges and competitions for consumers to join in every year.

The brand has also been very active in supporting Malaysia’s gaming community where the country’s talent has shown high potential in professional e-sports.

In light of a recent Nielsen report that most Malaysians consumers have a positive outlook for next year, Santharuban said that it is a good sign for Etika.

However, he adds that as all businesses are inevitably linked to consumer sentiments and “the more positive consumer sentiments are, the better it is for business.”

He then offers that consumer demands are consistently evolving as people always want something different.

That becomes almost a responsibility that Etika has to assume when looking for ways to give consumers what they want.

Santharuban gave an example that consumers today prefer beverages that are healthier and have less sugar.

Yet they want these at a low price - a fact consistent across all industries.

Consumers have also become more prudent in reading the labels and understanding what they consume, a situation vastly different 10 to 15 years ago.

“We need to ensure that our products meet those demands,” he says, indicating that FMCG consumers want products that are good and worth their money.