Branding in the Midst of Civil War – Sri Lanka Brand Archive

In the war between the separatist north and the ruling south, the capital city of Colombo had endured suicide assassinations, truck bombs, and a besieged population subject to military checkpoints and terrorist warnings. In spite of all this activity, the people of Colombo were always cheerful and busy going about their daily lives. 

Sitting in my Colombo hotel room on a hot day in March 2001, I was contemplating my branding assignment with one of Sri Lanka’s national newspapers. The country was embroiled in a civil war. My view outside the window was of the Indian Ocean and the remains of the Central Bank building, destroyed only a year before by a truck bomb that killed and maimed over 150 people. Across the street they were putting the finishing touches on the reconstruction of a hotel lobby that was blasted by another terrorist action. Was this assignment a such good idea?

New friends
My worries were erased upon meeting my client in the lobby bar that evening. Lal Wickrematunge is publisher of the Sunday Leader, a weekly publication with a circulation of over 15,000. Friendly and disarming, smoking cigarettes and cracking jokes, he invited me to have dinner with his wife and some colleagues at a nearby restaurant. Their warm welcome convinced me that this was the start of a great relationship.

There are 3 major newspapers in Sri Lanka. Printed primarily in english (Sri Lanka was a British colony before independence in 1967), one is government controlled and the other two are private. The Sunday Leader, a weekly, had a reputation for telling the real story, and was usually the paper people turned to after reading the “official” versions in competitor publications during the week.

The next morning my driver took me to the offices of Leader Publications Plc. We drove through several checkpoints and past the parliament buildings. The traffic was heavy, smoke billowing out the back of crowded buses and zippers darting back and forth through busy intersections. Lal showed me around the newsrooms and computer facilities, and introduced me to the editors and feature writers. Leader Publications has over 50 employees in their offices, their printing plant, and on the road.

Newspaper Stand, Colombo

The brand challenge
I only had three weeks to make an impact; so I had to make my time and effort count. We settled into the boardroom to examine some of the issues facing the paper.

In spite of having won journalism awards for their accuracy in reporting and a reputation for due diligence, a large percentage of their target market considered the Leader to be a poor cousin to the other independent national newspaper.

In terms of presentation values, the Leader was lacking in quality. Colour photos were blurred due to inaccurate placement of the color separation plates in the printing process, the header logo was dated, and each news department had initiated their own graphic style. This rough and hodgepodge approach was in direct contrast to the high quality reproduction and clean look of the competition. My challenge was to have management articulate the newspaper’s core brand values; have them commit to delivering on these values at all levels of the organization, initiate design standards, and provide a new, consistent look and feel that reflected this branding initiative.

The rewarding aspect of any branding exercise is seeing people enthusiastically embrace ideas that were already present, but not expressed in the workplace. The management consisted of Lal and his brother as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, department editors, a production manager, and the paper’s lawyer.

The Sunday Leader had a strong brand, it just hadn’t taken the steps necessary to strengthen and clarify it. I immediately had management focus on the newspaper’s production values.

We examined not only the Sri Lankan papers but included international papers like the Financial Times of London and the International Harold Tribune. I wanted to initiate a style that demonstrated excellence and authority.

Design momentum

Now that I had some momentum, we were able to have the production manager commit to improving the print process. We found a candidate who had many years experience with the aging Heidelberg press the Leader had at its printing facility just outside the city.

Within a week the colour separations were matching and were no longer blurred or distorted. We created a new masthead and design template for the production artists to follow. An art director was hired to implement the new design and ensure that it was consistently applied and maintained throughout all publications on a weekly basis.

Living with danger

What’s it like to be a journalist in a country where you can often be at odds with the government in power? Sethia Wickrematunge, Lal’s brother, had his house machine gunned one night while he and his family were out at a favorite restaurant. They had published a story that did not put the army in a very good light. How did he find living under these conditions?

“It’s been going on for 15 years,” he told me with a laugh, “so you just get used to it.”

Unfortunately this gentleman was assassinated a few years later.