Marketing is the most important aspect of business right now, says marketing expert Ian Lyn.

Speaking at the 39th Annual University of Technology (UTech) Marketing Seminar at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston on Thursday, Lyn said many companies have failed to weather the storm of the current economic climate due to lack of marketing.

“I’ve personally been at a company where branding and marketing built it up and lack of marketing brought it down,” noted Lyn, general manager of New Line Motors and president of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association.

He also said, on the national level, Jamaica has failed in recent decades to properly market itself, causing the country to miss out on an abundance of hard currency.

“In the 1960s, as a country we marketed ourselves so well that we were able to build the tourism industry,” said Lyn, adding that “In 2010, there are individuals in the tourism industry that are doing a good job at marketing but as a country, the Government has not marketed Jamaica properly so that we can benefit.

“We’ve missed the ball, we are not as agressive as we once were and that’s one of the reason why we don’t have enough money coming into the country,” he added.

Lyn also used the platform to encourage marketing students to do as much information gathering as possible outside of school, be confident and lead by example.

Meanwhile, Anbell Telecommunications boss Andrew Pairman spoke about new marketing methods driven by technology. He cited the tremendous impact that technologies like video marketing, mobile marketing and social media marketing were having on the dynamics of the industry.

The theme of the seminar was “Strategic marketing: Stimulating Growth & Sustaining Development in Declining Markets”.The annual event explores a different angle of marketing each year and attracts a host of notable speakers from corporate Jamaica.