Myanmar: Key challenges ahead

With the country's rapid reforms earlier this year, brands have set foot on Myanmar's shores and begun to ramp up marketing activity in the market.But challenges, such as lack of talent and data lie ahead still.Yesterday, Coca-Cola announced its plans to enter the market, teaming up with local company Pinya Manufacturing to launch several of its soft drink brands for the first time after more than 60 years.Aside from sampling events, Coke has run out of home advertising on its "Open Happiness" theme, hoping to entice Burmese to take to the brand.It is aiming to start up a bottling entity in Myanmar that will leverage Pinya's resources, a local soft drinks firm to distribute its products country-wide. Meanwhile Coke also gave US$ 3 million from its charitable giving arm to Pact, a non-governmental organization, to support women's economic empowerment and job creation initiatives throughout the country."This dovetails with the demographics and very sentiment of the people of Myanmar who are looking forward to new opportunities, experiences and products," said a Coke spokesperon.Earlier, its rival PepsiCo also announced a deal with local distributor Diamond Star, granting the latter exclusive rights to import, sell and distribute Pepsi-Cola, 7-Up and Mirinda, PepsiCo's top revenue-earning drink brands.Like its competitor, PepsiCo will look to invest in other developmental projects in the country. It said in a release that it plans to explore investment in agricultural development projects, as it banks heavily on agriculture, sourcing more than four million tons of potatoes annually and working with farmers globally to make its products.It also signed an agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) to develop vocational training initiatives in Myanmar.Another brand that has freshly entered the market is Panasonic, setting up a representative office in Myanmar in a bid to reach consumers there. Managing director of Panasonic Consumer Marketing Asia Pacific Hiroyoshi Suga said the country was one of its areas of focus among emerging markets."We have taken infant steps into the Myanmar market, but now, we need to strengthen our marketing activities and presence through advertising, channel development, shop front activities and branding," said Suga, declining however, to reveal which of Panasonic's products were targeted for Myanmar.WPP chief Martin Sorrell also earlier expressed his interest in the market, with several WPP agencies entering earlier this year.Key challenges ahead Aung Thura, chief strategist at Burma-based Ignite Marketing Communications says that brands looking to enter will have several challenges, including a lack of experienced talent and data on consumers, which multinational brands will have to invest in at their own expense."There's a lack of experienced local staff across all disciplines, especially in the marketing discipline. On the off chance that they can find one, that person may not want to move from where they are, but mostly it will simply be a lack of people. The marketing community is a small one and everyone knows every one here," said Thura.Also, there is a current lack of data on the market, consumer behavior and attitudes. "It will be up to the multinationals to develop that understanding at their own expense - pay for their own research - as data needed for marketing purposes is very limited," he added.Finally, available mediums in that market are still very much traditional, with the most effective being TV. Earlier, MediaCorp also launched in Myanmar, signing up pay TV operator SkyNet to offer Channel NewsAsia in the country.Print, OOH and radio are developing but again lack of data and conventional wisdom of local marketers will hinder their use for a while, and as for digital it is very much in its infancy, until proper and reliable infrastructure is put up, Thura said.