{"id":121110,"date":"2021-12-11T19:11:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T02:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121110"},"modified":"2021-12-11T19:11:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T02:11:13","slug":"why-we-need-a-marketing-department-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/11\/why-we-need-a-marketing-department-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we need a Marketing Department right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Garvin Karunaratne<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Perhaps a Paper written and published a\u00a0 decade ago may show why we need a Marketing Department .today<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proven Sri Lankan solution –\nPart IV:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing Dept determined prices for producers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Ceylon\nDaily News: 12 th April 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe red onion season there was a hive of activity and the Assistant\nCommissioner in Jaffna ran round in circles attending to purchasing red onions\nand dispatching them by the wagon load to Tripoli as well as to cities like\nGalle. Once, I covered the Galle District from my headquarters at Ambalantota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ncan remember an instance regarding the sale of red onions in Galle. Wagonloads\nof red onions came from Jaffna. We sold to the traders at a wholesale price and\nalso sold at a cheap rate in our retail unit at Galle. It was my task to see\nthat traders were provided with red onions and also to see that our retail shop\nnever ran out of red onions. I was in Galle on a certain day and everything was\nin order. I got back to Ambalantota my headquarters by night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private\nretailers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The\nnext morning when I went to my office, I received a telegram from Head office.\nIt read ‘MP for Galle, Dahanayake reports shortage of Red Onions in Galle.\nProceed immediately, inquire and report.’ I hooked into my car in anger – it always\nhad my toiletries and extra clothes. I was back on my way to Galle, driving as\nfast as my Peugeot 203 would take me. I went to a number of private retailers\nobserving whether they had red onions and finding the sale price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\nwent to our retail unit and found they had ample stocks. I had my network of\nprivate informants whom I contacted and was satisfied that our shops functioned\nwell. I always built up a private spy service of friends. Then I went to meet\nDahanayake. He was not at home and I waited till he came. It was hours but I\nhad to meet him. He came home at around ten o’ clock in the night and was\nsurprised to see me waiting for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nshowed him the telegram and told him that there was no shortage of red onions\nat all in Galle. He looked hard at me for a moment. I knew him well and was in\nconstant touch with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas strange and I wondered for a moment. ‘You know, Garvin, we have to please\nour voters. Some fellow came and told it to me and to keep him happy I sent a telegram\nto your Ministry’, I asked for the name of his informant and was told that he\ncannot remember. I pointed out that this telegram gave the impression to my\nMinistry that I was not doing my work well. ‘That is politics,’ he said. Next\ntime I go to the Ministry I will tell the Minister that everything is\nsatisfactory. Tell me if you have any problem? That was all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nsubmitted a report of my investigation and what Dahanayake told me, and the\nMinistry took no further action. Evidently Dahanayake had contacted the\nMinistry. We, Assistant Commissioners were always on pins. Working with\npoliticians was always demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians\nwere of two categories. One group was the Minister and the Deputy Minister in\nthe Ministry under whom the Department functioned. The other category happened\nto be the politicians in the Districts where we worked like Dahanayake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\ntimes it so happens that the requests of the District Members of Parliament\ncannot be accomplished by us. A clash ensues and we get transferred overnight\nto please the District Member of Parliament. We are even kept in quarantine for\na short while to please the Member of Parliament – to give him the impression\nthat we are punished. Eventually we are given a kick upstairs. We\nadministrators get used to this play of politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van\nsales<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The\nMarketing Department also made van sales. Van sales on the streets in cities\nwas done when there were quantities that could not be easily sold at our normal\noutlets. A van with a Marketing Officer or a Manager would be sent out to\nattend to street sales. The sales will go on till late in the night at times\ntill our stocks were sold. Our officers had to work round the clock when the\nnecessity arose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nAssistant Commissioners in the Districts advised the producers what varieties\nshould be produced – this was based on the demand. They attended divisional\nmeetings chaired by the Divisional Revenue Officers (later Assistant Government\nAgents) and worked through various cooperative and rural development societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low\nprices<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We\nlaid a dragnet covering all producer fairs in the island and visited them to\nsee that the traders offered reasonable prices to the producers. We were known\nto the traders and they were aware that if they offered low prices, one of our\nmobile purchasing units will be sent the very next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall\nthe Marketing Department did purchase less than ten percent of the crop, but we\nreally ruled the day to determine the prices for the producers as well as the\nprices in the cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nBakery was established in Colombo which produced bread, cakes and short eats\nand sold to consumers at reasonable rates. This Bakery proved to the bakers\nthat they could easily manage to get a profit and offer the bread at the\ncontrolled price. Today most loaves of bread offered for sale in the cities are\nshort weight. This Bakery was closed down by the UNP Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospital\nsupplies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The\nMarketing Department also had a Hospital Supplies Branch that supplied the\nrequirements of vegetables, fruits and essential commodities to the main\nhospitals. The idea was that the hospitals would get good quality supplies at a\nrate cheaper than local traders. In the case of main hospitals there was a unit\nwith an Assistant Manager who had to order supplies from Tripoli Market or one\nof our main depots at Kandy etc. and buy the rest at cheap prices at local\nFairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\ntimes problems cropped up and were solved. At times though good quality fruits\nwere supplied by us, by the time the fruits reached the patients at meal time,\nit was not the same fruit. The Department got the blame. Once I remember one of\nour Assistant Commissioners stood in as a patient on a hospital bed, with a bed\nhead ticket, unknown to the hospital staff other than the doctor in charge, to\nprove what was happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effective\nadministration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\n\nThe Marketing Department was really built up\novernight by Commissioner Basset. That will explain why many units even when I\njoined in 1955 were housed in wooden sheds. There was no time to plan and make\nup buildings. It was a case of a cement base for the floor, wooden uprights and\nwalls built of timber – a structure that was put up within a few days.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Garvin Karunaratne Perhaps a Paper written and published a\u00a0 decade ago may show why we need a Marketing Department .today Proven Sri Lankan solution – Part IV: Marketing Dept determined prices for producers (Ceylon Daily News: 12 th April 2010) Garvin Karunaratne During the red onion season there was a hive of activity and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}