Learning Is An Integral Part Of Marketing – Hafsa-Rimantha Arthur

The Regional Head of Marketing for international consumer goods group, PZ Cussons, for Kenya and Ghana Mrs Hafsa-Rimantha Arthur has been adjudged the Marketing Professional of the year 2020 at the 10^th edition of the prestigious Marketing World Awards.

Mrs Hafsa–Rimantha Arthur received the honour for her outstanding contribution to her organizations brand at the awards ceremony held at the, Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra on Friday, 2^nd June, 2021.

In an exclusive interview with The Marketing World Magazine; she talks about her achievement and what it entails to be a marketer in the corporate world……

Congratulations for the award. How do you feel this Evening?

I am excited naturally to be acknowledged for the work that we put into the marketing space and the marketing fraternity. I think it is a very warm feeling and I’m grateful to the organizers of this event for identifying that, yes, I have added value and recognizing me as such.

How has the journey been for you in the industry?

It’s never being easy but I think that for me I’m grateful to have been a marketer. I think my first opportunity to be a marketer, I grabbed it. I have never looked back. I think it is the excitement, it’s the challenge of the unknown that really keeps me going and it’s when you are entering into unknown territories that you come up with things and so as you face those challenges everyday you come up with new things and it makes it all the worthwhile, so it’s been exciting and it’s been difficult but it’s been good all together.

Currently we are faced with the new normal, in this covid era what is your view of marketing?

I believe that in this season, every marketer is really accessing what they do, what they have known, how to market and how they are going to go about it. I think the most obvious of change is the digital world, when I say the digital world, it’s not just been on facebook but literally the way you interact with people has automatically changed and there are more opportunities, more directions coming into the dynamics.  So now you are looking more at your search engine optimization to find out if you are there, you are looking more at your CRM how well are you doing, you look at different platforms, different media to make sure your message gets to the people.

There are different levels of marketing and I think that in this new era, whichever level you are that space is made available for us and I will encourage every marketer to keep learning because if you are not learning, you are not a marketer. You have to keep learning, you have to keep adding value to yourself so that you can also add value to what you are doing because your consumer is moving very fast and we need to play catch up of our best, be ahead, a step ahead of the consumer.

Once your consumer is moving very fast, your competitors are also in business. What do you think about competition in the marketing industry?

I think competition is what makes marketing necessary otherwise we will be selling commodities. You just bring yours, get a little and you are gone. When we are talking about branding, brand promotion, brand marketing, it’s about competition. It’s about owning a space in the consumer’s mind and I want to own a space, you want to own a space. So how well are you going to differentiate so we are always watching what each other is doing and I think that forces us to go deeper within ourselves, go outside and also understand what more we can do so it’s a constant journey of how do I do it better, so we welcome competition. I think you’ve seen us with our competitors sitting side by side tonight, both of us receiving awards. It’s a beautiful thing to happen.

What is the way forward for your company, where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Before this award, I think PZ was in a very good place for growth. We’ve had very tremendous performance in the last two years. This year definitely promises to be another very strong performing brand. We are seeking to double our business in the next five years and that means we are going to go all out when it comes to marketing and proper marketing so everyone in the space should watch us and let’s see how the journey goes.