The United Nations
says Pakistan is a third world country. In short that means they qualify
for all sorts of aid and assistance from the rest of us.
All this may be true...yet
on my two most recent visits to Pakistan I have clearly seen that the
business community is most certainly NOT third world.
To me this is most
interesting...as many other such places around the globe "enjoy"
this special status. In some the game seems to be NOT to grow out of the
bottom rung ranking. Not so in Pakistan.
Friend Ozair Hanafi
is an excellent example. Ozair is the Managing Driector of Orient Direct,
a McCann-Erickson company.
Ozair began in mainstream
advertising 26 years ago. His leadership took him to the chair of the
Marketing Association of Pakistan for three terms.
In 1991 he founded
Orient Direct, and bagan Pakistan's first direct marketing agency. About
this time last year Ozair decided Pakistan was ready for a true direct
marketing conference. So, he organized just such an event...where I was
fortunate enough to be one of the keynote presentors.
It was an amazing
event. And extremely successful.
Because of his personal
involvement in direct marketing, his speeches on the subject and his agency,
Ozair is known in Pakistan as "Mr. Direct Marketing". From his
own lips, here is how he defines the discipline:
- "Direct Marketing
is any marketing activity which creates and sustains a measurable direct
relationship between you and your prospect or customer.
- "Direct Marketing
is based on a strategy of one to one.
- "It is not
just a medium like Direct Mail. It is not just a channel of distribution
like Mail Order. It is these and more. It is a way of marketing, it
is a method of Marketing.
- "Direct Marketing
empowers you to capture and capitalise on customers and adds profits
to almost any business large or small.
- "The most
important word in Direct Marketing is 'measurable'. For if response
can not be measured; if cost and income cannot be weighed and assessed,
it's not direct marketing!
- "Direct Marketing
is the best way to win and maintain customers."
Sound familiar? Certainly
does to me! You need not have a degree from Oxford or Harvard to know
that direct marketing is really a basic, easy to understand business concept.
And those concepts are applicable everywhere.
Let's listen to more
of what Ozair has to say:
- "Through Direct
Marketing we generate a dialogue between our prospect and ourselves.
- "Direct Marketing
is Relationship Marketing. It is affinity marketing.
- "Before approaching
a customer or a prospect, we gather enough information about him or
her. We have the profile of the customer before us.
By knowing as much about him as we should we trigger the right response
from our prospect."
Over the last couple
of decades there have been a number of big name DM guru's who have predicted
direct response marketing was on the cutting edge of pushing general advertising
out the door. Not an idea I have ever subscribed to...never-the-less every
other year or two someone says just that.
Let's listen to how
"Mr. Direct Marketing" in Pakistan looks at general and direct,
and their place in the marketing mix:
- "In mass advertising
we are busy in a monologue. In Direct Marketing we generate a dialogue.
- "Direct Marketing
should be used, as a key component for developing and designing the
total Marketing Strategy of an organisation.
- "Mass marketing
has its own value. Direct Marketing helps mass marketing in measuring
results. We don't tell our clients, 'do this but don't do that'. It's
not at all like that.
- "What we suggest
is that, Direct Marketing is as important as the rest of the media.
We are not here to replace the electronic or the print media.
"In fact, Direct Marketing is here to support the total marketing
programme of the marketeer to get the right results in a cost-effective
manner.
- "We have to
see everything in its totality, and always keep the consumers' interest
supreme.
- "We have to
remember that it is the 'human element' that gives the desired depth
and dimension to effective marketing, and this comes about through Direct
Marketing"
Let's end this mini-introduction
to direct marketing in Pakistan with a view of the future...from Ozair:
- "We believe
that direct marketing can flourish in a society such as ours. The future
is bright. It is going to grow with the economy.
- "We would
love to have as many players in the field as possible. So there is competition.
Because that is what will help us improve. The more the merrier. It
will provide us with more opportunities."
Great attitude from
a fine gentleman. Maybe YOU should plan a visit to Pakistan during an
upcoming symposium. To learn more about upcoming programs, write:
Ozair A. Hanafi
Managing Director
ORIENT DIRECT (PVT) LTD.
195-A, SMHS
Karachi 74400 PAKISTAN
Telephone +92+21+455-7440 or 455-9978
Fax +92+21+455-0187