The Colombo University's MBA programme for its 4th Semester introduces 'International Marketing' as one of marketing subjects. Students following this programme are required to make a group presentation on this particular subject area. This year 8 groups participated for this special presentation. This event took place on 25 August 2010 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. The set topic for this event was 'A Critical Assessment of International Branding of Sri Lankan Organizations'.

Dr. Fazeela Jameel Ahsan, a senior lecturer of the Faculty of Management and Finance from the University of Colombo.

For this particular assignment students were required to select a local company that dealt in international branding exercises. They were asked to evaluate the difficulties and challenges they faced along with their success and failures whilst also analyzing their international branding exercises. Lecture series on International Marketing was conducted by Dr. Fazeela Jameel Ahsan, a senior lecturer of the Faculty of Management and Finance from the University of Colombo.

This event was successfully held with the participation of faculty members and the MBA batch of 2008-10. The 8 groups' selected local international branding companies which included Canro Fibres an organization that exports local coir based products, especially to China and another selection made was on The Hotel Industry of Sri Lanka and how this industry is promoted to the outside world.

The other selections included Nature's Secrets, Hemas Personal Care Products with a focus on the product 'Kumarica Hair Oil', Lanka Wall Tiles, International Construction Consortium (ICC), the MAS Holdings Amanthe brand and Riley's.

These presentations were evaluated by an eminent panel of judges including Dr. Fazeela, Mr. Sarmaa Mahalingam , Chairman / Managing Director of My Beverages (Marketing)Ltd and Mr. Saranga Wijeyarathne Assistant General Manager - Advertising at Wijeya Newspapers Limited.

While all presentations delivered were highly commended by the panel of judges a special appreciation was given to the team that delivered their evaluation presentation on the international branding of Lanka Wall Tiles headed by Sherly Mahendra.

The event also paved the way for panelists to discuss and evaluate the problems that Sri Lanka is up against with regards to international branding. Some of the points raised during this discussion was the fact that Sri Lanka as a country at present has still not received an international branding status.

Sri Lanka has to therefore be branded in the international arena as a country in order to pave the way for our local brands to be recognized in the international market. It is imperative that Sri Lankan organizations with international involvement should consider co-branding and strategic alliances with other relevant brands outside Sri Lanka.

Coca Cola which at present is positioned as the world's leading brand according to a research survey conducted by Inter Brand is valued at US$ 68 billion. However the largest export brand in Sri Lanka is valued at only US$ 7 million according to local brand valuations. In order for our local brands to be selected amongst the top world brands much brand positioning has to be done.

While leading international brand representations are from super powers such as USA and Germany etc. only two Asian representations have made it to the top international brands these include South Korea and Japan.

What still remains encouraging is however the fact that with the war situation no longer existing in the country, Sri Lanka has a massive potential to work towards an effective approach with regards to international brand positioning. At the end of the workshop it has been re-emphasized by panel of judges that all MBA participants should give serious thought towards starting their own international businesses to help Sri Lanka.