Prof. Uditha Liyanage on the new mod-tradi consumer

Prof. Uditha Liyanage will be the keynote speaker at a special Consumer Insight Forum organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) on 2 March at the Hotel Galadari.

This would be an entrance-free seminar for the country’s senior marketing fraternity.  Shaheen Carder, Managing Director of The Nielsen Company will present research insights on the new mod-tradi consumer and Bathiya and Santhush will illustrate how they successfully appealed to the hearts and minds of the new consumer in Sri Lanka.  

Panel discussions among four senior marketers will also be featured.  The panellists are Imal Fonseka, Sri Kanth Selvadurai, Tharaka Ranwella, and Sajith Gunaratne.  

The seemingly opposing socio-cultural forces of traditionalisation and modernisation have to be closely recognised in one’s attempt to profile the emerging Sri Lanka-consumer.  The force of traditionalisation gathered momentum in the post-1956 period, while the impetus of modernisation was felt particularly in the post-1977 period.  

Escaping the attention of many, the two forces of traditionalisation and modernisation have been converging, over the recent past, giving rise to the new post-modern consumer.  

The chief implication for marketers in this regard is to find focal areas of fusion, and avoid an attempt to either hark back to the past for its own sake, or become overly modernist, and thus address only a small and alienated group of consumers, at best.   Discerning the fine line of fusion between the traditional and the modern impulses of the consumer is the challenge that the Sri Lankan marketer encounters.  He also needs to identify the disparate socio-cultural and urban-rural groups that are variously impacted by post-modernist tendencies, which the marketer can ignore at his peril. Indeed, postmodernism appears to be a megatrend that has begun to unfold  across the Sri Lankan market place at varying levels of intensity.  

President of SLIM Rohan  Somawansa and the Steering Committee Chairman Ahamed Aroos invite marketers to be a part of this special seminar and get to know the changing landscape of the Sri Lankan consumer.  Those interested should call SLIM Office and register.