Marketing is Not a Guessing Game

Is marketing ever a guessing game, and did companies get successful out of sheer luck? A deceptively simple part of every business, marketing is in its simplest form all the activities targeted at converting individuals and/or businesses into customers and driving profit. Marketing involves the research, product development, promotion and pricing strategies required to position products and services in the marketplace and motivate target audiences to make a purchase.

Marketing is what distinguishes product A from B and is the secret sauce of successful businesses. Whether your business has existed for years or just recently started, finding the most effective marketing strategies is critical small and large. From the market stalls in Idumota, Onitsha or Kano to the sleekest boardrooms, all businesses depend on marketing. While the market person might ring a physical bell in an attempt to sway passing customers, large corporations also ring bells using marketing materials. Marketing requires careful planning and strategy to ensure appeal to the intended target audience. The most successful marketing campaigns do not just happen - they are planned down an inch.

Marketing is not one size, one community fits all: once only a one-way conversation, marketing continues to evolve and be redefined to fit the current generation. The average consumer is now defined by personal characteristics and their ‘digital tribes’ in our increasingly hyperconnected world. Local context matters - the nuance of who and where, is essential in crafting a successful marketing campaign. When Nike releases an advert, it deploys quality visual imagery and inspirational messaging to capturing audience attention in most western countries, yet that same method sparked outrage in Japan.

The future

Ask any marketing or brand enthusiast, the most popular marketing theme is the 4P model – Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. However, this ubiquitous marketing formula has evolved and no longer obtains in its original form.

‡ Product – focus is no longer on the actual product but the entire product ecosystem and content

‡ Price – focus is now on revenue models. The goal is to price the ecosystem and not just the product or service.

‡ Promotion – focus is now on Engagement, to gain deep insights about customer motivation and behaviour, and not just about consumer and trade promos.

‡ Place – focus is now on accessing customers and customer relationships everywhere as access has been democratised.

Here are some known tactics that have aided 21st Century marketing scene:

Content Generation

To focus and convert customers with precision, content-driven marketing addressing potential needs and concerns from the target audience is assured to bring in leads. More often than not, companies churn out content that is not focused on their respective target audience and runs, losing their attention. Research statistics indicate that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads. For example, content creation on TikTok, a social media application has generated buzz.

Age of Social Capital and Sustainable Marketing

In the age of sustainable marketing, customers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are significantly paying attention to brands that are well informed on the societal problems and issues in the world. This goes with personal commerce, where customers co-curate their experiences with brands to reflect their preferences over a given period. In this instance, businesses are expected to serve and engage with what they believe in, which may range from traditional to liberal views. Brands build effective sustainability marketing when they speak the customer’s language and have actions that solve a particular social problem. For instance, Ghanaian skincare brand, Nokware, appeals to customers with its natural products and sustainable packaging.

Technology and Automation

Less than two decades ago, businesses focused their marketing efforts on cold calls, billboards, newspapers, and tv adverts with stringent workflows and processes. However, now with the emergence of technology, there are multiple marketing and automation software helping companies to reach their goals and scale across multiple platforms with ease. It has inevitably made it effortless to respond to customers, take orders and maintain connections. To support content schedules and customer relationships, brands now have the power to schedule their posts ahead of time, automating initial inquiry responses on WhatsApp, Instagram, or email, etc. For instance, the Nigerian hair company, Natural Hair Wigs, uses an automated email workflow as one of its revenue-generating channels.

Social Media and Conversation

Social media a great tool for sparking and building on conversations; it begins with content marketing and the right choice of social media platform to facilitate the exchange. People are innately social beings who crave connection and interaction. Social media has been that link enabling businesses to leverage personas and humanize their brands to their target audience. To humanize the brand is to act just like a friend to the consumer, one they are familiar with and find relatable. Hence, instead of always selling on these platforms, the goal should be to build community by driving conversations with current consumer trends, educating, showing behind-the-scenes moments using appealing images and videos, and setting the brand up in the consumer’s mind as the preferred choice. We see a perfect example on platforms such as Twitter, where brands such as Cowry wise or Piggyvest leverage trends and share jokes with the consumers.

Community Engagement

A community is a group of people connected by a single cause or attribute. Some elements link people together. A growth strategy as a marketer is to create a community around a business or a particular product. Community engagement builds loyalty as it feeds directly into the needs of the consumer.

The conversation is not a oneway street with the consumer as they are in tune with the happenings and works of the business. For instance, Disney has a strong community within the entertainment industry.

All these strategies enable a business to reach customers more precisely and effectively. It answers the question of marketing not being a guessing game if the focus is right on the customer ecosystem and their needs.

● Adegbite is a thought leader in Strategy and Supply Chain, who has worked with leading organisations like PwC and an IOC. He also founded Naspire, a business research platform using African business insights to help entrepreneurs and professionals succeed. He can be reached via tunji@naspire.com.