Category: Marketing

Prior to the advent of GSM in 2001, phone penetration was low to the point of being negligible. Nitel had the monopoly. But all that changed with the GSM revolution brought by the licensing of Econet, Mtel, MTN and the later entry of Glo and Etisalat into the industry.

At first, all that was needed for marketing success was availability. Because the demand for a phone was far more than the supply, these companies were on a roll, snapping subscribers after subscribers from phone starved Nigerians. That has since changed. The landscape is becoming more competitive and the growth rates of yesteryears are becoming hard to replicate. In a nutshell, continued success in the contemporary Nigerian GSM market calls for marketing wizardry.

Despite the figure being brandished by NCC, the Nigerian telecom market is reaching saturation point. Most of the new lines being activated are purchased by people who already own one or more phones. An additional phone line does not translate to increase airtime usage; in fact, the reverse is mostly the case. The mobile industry ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) in 2003 was around $54 per month but as at December 2008, it has fallen to $13.

So how are the major players in the Nigerian telecom industry facing this reality?

MTN

It is the undisputed market leader in coverage, revenue and subscriber base. This is easily attributable to MTN’s marketing savvy.

Effective differentiation and positioning are the biggest determinants of marketing success. And MTN is a master of the craft, exemplified by its product and service actually owning values — real and perceived, rational and emotional in the consumers’ minds. And their possession of these values and meaning in the consumers’ minds (beyond primacy of product) has enabled them to successfully differentiate themselves.

Coverage

That was the original competitive advantage of MTN. In the early years of GSM in Nigeria, while its main competitor – Airtel (then Econet) was mired in management crisis, MTN was building capacity and adding town after town under its coverage. After which it started covering all the major highways in the country. And having achieved broader coverage than its competitors, MTN quickly reflected this in its positioning statement — changing its tagline from the best connection (a generic and daft tagline) to everywhere you go.

It then followed logically that if you want to be able to use your phone wherever you may be in the country, you have only one choice: get connected to MTN.

Reliability

This message is subtly embedded in the company communication message. It is really doubtful whether MTN has a more quality network than its competitors, but that is not the issue. The issue is that MTN was smart enough to take advantage of an unexploited positioning opportunity. The result is that MTN owns the word reliability in the customer’s mind.

Leadership

This is largely a quantitative issue. With over 40% of the market, the leadership position is a given. And coupled with its association with coverage and reliability, MTN’s leadership is unquestionable.
The result? Decreased price sensitivity. MTN’s charges are about the highest in the market, yet the company still adds more new subscribers than its competitors year after year. This is just one of the benefits MTN is enjoying from its supremely high brand equity.

HOWEVER……
For MTN to continue to enjoy its position, it must become even better in its marketing. Leaders lose when they make mistake in their marketing strategy. MTN’s market success was helped by the mediocrity of its competitors’ marketing. And it would be naïve of MTN to expect a continuation of this state of affairs.
And most especially, MTN needs to know that as much as your brand equity gives you price premium, in an industry like telecoms, it is only for a time. This is because as the number of offers within a category multiplies, the differences between them start to become increasingly trivial and loyalty to the best value replaces any previous loyalty to a brand.

Airtel

A confused brand.

There are only a few brand mis-management graver than that of Airtel Nigeria. On August 5, 2001, Airtel became the first telecoms operator to launch commercial GSM services in Nigeria. In its first two years of operation in Nigeria, the company was running neck to neck with MTN for the leadership position in the industry. But a deluge of management crisis led to its loss of momentum. This situation was further compounded by the perennial identity change of Airtel – five times in the last couple of years. Econet, Vmobile, Celtel, Zain, and Airtel.

All these factors make the job of managing the brand a challenging one. Unfortunately, the company’s marketing has been average at best.

Positioning

What does Airtel stand for?

What associative cue does the name Airtel evoke?

To me the answer is confusion. This sad state of affairs is not only the result of perennial identity change; it also results from poor product management strategy. Airtel has so many products in the market that it is very difficult for a prospective subscriber to know the one that is most suitable for him.

The way to build a strong brand is having a narrow focus and owning a word in the mind. Because Airtel lacks any meaningful differentiation, it will always realize meager results from its marketing. The result has been that Airtel has had to compete on price.

Now, if being the low price provider is Airtel’s value proposition, (let’s leave the appropriateness of this strategy for now) then the smart thing for Airtel is to convey it in all its messages and in everything it does. This, Airtel has failed to do.

It is not all gloom for the brand. Airtel needs to first take stock of its marketing asset and devise ways to get the optimum result from them. For instance, survey after survey has shown that Airtel is perceived as a most customer-focused company. But Airtel seems oblivious of this great marketing asset that if properly utilized can pay a huge dividend to its brand. This, coupled with its low price could form the nucleus of Airtel’s positioning strategy. And a brand perceived as customer-centric will always enjoy market success.

GLO

If there is any company whose entry into the Nigerian telecom industry was greeted with great anticipation and expectations by the public, it was Glo. This was due to:

The huge publicity that accompanied the story of how the company won, lost and fought to re-win operating license from NCC. The company came at a time Nigerians were becoming increasingly disgruntled by the high cost of GSM service.

And Glo did not disappoint. At least initially.

It won wide market acceptance and goodwill by launching its service on per seconds billing (i.e. the prevailing practice then was per minute billing whereby even if your call terminates after one second, you still pay for the full minute). It also priced its sim cards cheaper than what was available in the market thereby ensuring that more people had access to its service. And it paid off. Despite being a late entrant into the market, in a little over three years, GLO captured about 25% of the Nigerian GSM market. Unfortunately, the company marketing since then has been mediocre and wasteful.

Effective marketing involves much more than overpriced ads and flashy celebrity display. Yes, celebrity display. If there is any marketing practice Glo is known for, it is her unprecedented use of celebrity endorsement. But celebrity endorsement as a core brand building strategy is simply stupid (except in some industries like lifestyle, cosmetics, and fashion). Another marketing practice associated with Glo is sales promotion. In fact, it is an inside joke in the Nigerian marketing community that Glo doesn’t do marketing—it does only promotion. The problem is, you don’t build a brand by sales promotion—you only build temporary sales.

Glo probably has more marketing assets (at least potentially) than its competitors. Exploiting just one or two of this is enough to leave competitors gasping for breath. For example:

Glo is the only Nigerian owned GSM brand– this means its profits are kept in Nigeria…..(though this might not be the best positioning strategy for a company with international aspirations)

Glo is the first single company to build an $800 million high capacity fiber optic cable—this huge investment shows GLO’s belief in and commitment to Nigeria and its resolve to provide its subscribers the highest quality service. In other words, Glo has the most claim to the word quality in the customer’s mind.

The potency of these assets is that they could be used to connect with the market on an emotional level. All that is needed is a good positioning strategy. But that, for now, is what is lacking in Globacom.

ETISALAT (now 9Mobile)

Had Etisalat entered the Nigerian telecoms market earlier, it probably would have attained market leadership by now. The reason for this is not farfetched: Etisalat is simply the most creative marketer in the Nigerian telecoms industry.

Etisalat’s market entry strategy is the most well thought out I have seen in Nigeria. First, the company recognized it was coming into a developed market which means it would have to gain customers from the existing providers. And to overcome this uphill task, Etisalat started by first identifying the singular reason people find it difficult to change their GSM service provider even when they are dissatisfied with the service they are getting—which is that changing provider will mean changing phone number, (i.e. there is no sim convergence in Nigeria) a daunting and inconvenient prospect.

This, Etisalat addressed by asking people to choose any phone number they want. And people did. Choosing numbers that are similar to their existing numbers. As a result, Etisalat gained hundreds of thousands of subscribers even before it launched its services! and Etisalat’s subsequent marketing has equally been brilliant.

Segmentation and Targeting

here Etisalat performed better than its competitors. For example, it effectively targeted the young population with the Easy clique, a product that resonates well with that market segment.

Promotion

Etisalat has become the trendsetter in the industry as far as meaningful sales promotion is concerned. In fact, its competitors have been reduced to copying its promotions.

But, despite all the above, Etisalat still needs to improve its marketing. What the company needs most at this stage is a deepening of its subscriber base. As much as brand building is vital, at least equal if not more attention should be devoted to sales building marketing.

If there is anything that all these tell us, it is simply that the old school of marketing is still the only school that counts: know your consumer. Segment and Target accordingly. Position specifically by ensuring that your brand stands for something clear, important and differentiating.

Nigerian companies are finally embracing online marketing. As someone who has been at the forefront of advocating this paradigm shift, this development should make me happy. Unfortunately, this is not so.
My unhappiness with the Nigeria companies’ new found love for digital marketing stems from the level of mediocrity I see being exhibited by new digital marketers.
This post will dwell on what is wrong with the approach of most Nigeria companies to online marketing and how they can jettison mediocrity and start deploying ROI focused digital marketing programs.

How Nigeria Companies Market Online

Banner Ads
To most Nigerian companies, digital marketing starts and ends with banner ads. Well, to start with, banner ads are the least effective marketing channel.  See some statistics about banner ads:

• An estimated 31 percent of ad impressions can’t be viewed by users. (Comscore)
• Of those banners that are in view, a Nielsen eye-tracking study shows that 92 percent are simply not noticed.
• A recent study by OnScroll in the U.K. estimates that a whopping $11.7 billion was wasted on display ads in 2012 alone.
• 8 percent of Internet users account for 85 percent of clicks. (ComScore)
• About 50% of clicks on mobile ads are accidental. (Source: GoldSpot Media)
• You are more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad. (Source: Solve Media)

Now, when you juxtapose the stats above with the ever-worsening case of banner ads fatigue, you will begin to understand what I am talking about.
While it is true that the quoted stats are not Nigeria centric, the true stats for Nigeria will probably be worse(You don’t believe me? just head to bellanaija.com, lindaikeji.blogspot.com, stelladimokokorkus.com, ynaija.com, naij.com and other popular Nigeria sites and you will see how inundated you are with banner ads)
So, for a brand to build its whole online marketing strategy on banner ads is preposterous, to say the least.

Social Media
Another big online marketing lie that Nigeria companies have bought into is that social media is the marketing panacea. So many “marketing experts” have touted social media as a magic bullet, promising it will change the very fabric of how we market online. And it seems Nigeria companies have bought this hype hook, line and sinker.
Sorry sir, The truth is, social media is not the marketing panacea it has been sold to you as. In fact, countless studies have shown that social media is the second least effective marketing channel after banner ads!

SOLUTION
Does the above mean companies should not utilize banner ads and social media marketing channels? Not exactly. The point I am trying to make is that “banners ads or social media are only a small part of the creative offering – if used well they can perform equally as well as other channels for both branding and DR. The real insight comes when a company looks beyond each silo and start to measure the cross-channel value of a campaign, optimizing based on what works and equally what does not.

In other words, you need to take a strategic approach to digital marketing. This means asking questions like “where is the company today and where does it want to get to?” then applying those answers to the selection of marketing opportunities. And of course, employing the best practices for the selected channels to get the best from them

This post was written in 2014

Last week, an internal report on the digital health of the New York Times was leaked. The report generated huge interest and comments online with Joshua Benton, editor of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, calling it “one of the most remarkable documents I’ve seen” in his years running the Lab.

I think the document is a must read for every business development and marketing personnel.

The document made me reflect on the digital strategies (or lack of it) of Nigeria media houses and I am unhappy to say: the prognosis is not good for them. In other words, all Nigeria media houses are on a destructive trajectory. That is, if they do not change course.

Darwinism And The Inevitable Death Of Nigeria Traditional Media Houses

Darwinism focuses on the evolution of species as caused by natural selection. It’s the idea that nature favours individuals of species that have certain traits which give them an advantage and helps them live better and longer in their environment/habitat. The other, less fortunate individuals have a harder time competing for resources and are therefore more likely to die off. In short, it’s the “survival of the fittest”.

Darwinism makes us understand that it’s not necessarily the strongest or the first to arrive who are most likely to survive; it’s the most adaptable who wins in the end.

The same is true in business. In an era of Digital Darwinism, no business is too big to fail or too small to succeed. And in media business, the existential threat is “adaptability to the digital age”

Below is an excerpt from an article I wrote on a similar theme four years ago Titled The Solution To The Dwindling Newspaper Circulation In Nigeria:

“……Such powerhouse newspapers as The New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune are also facing the same challenge of plummeting circulation figures. The difference is just that they are confronting the issue holistically rather than self deceive themselves that all is well.

What brought this social state? Mainly, the internet. Yes the internet. Most of the newly empowered middle class have access to the internet and seriously, why should I buy a newspaper for information when the same is available on my blackberry free of charge? Moreover the internet gives me access to different sources for the same information—all for free.

When I finished NYSC in 2005, my main source of information on job vacancies was Tuesday Guardian newspaper. And it wasn’t only me. All my freshly minted B.sc. friends consulted Tuesday Guardian for employment opportunities. Fast forward five years to 2010 and what do you see? Nairaland, naijahotjobs, NBF social website, careers Nigeria, kerewa.com etc. These are free job listing websites where a job seeker will not only find vacancies, but also tips on writing CV, interview tips………..”

If anything, the situation is graver (than it was four years ago) for Nigeria media houses:

• More of the traditional media audience have moved (and are moving) online: With the proliferation of smart phones and the relatively wider reach and affordability of broadband internet access, more people (especially the young) are shifting their media consumption online
• Emergence of new and agile web only media outfits: Three of the top five local media sites in Nigeria (Nairaland, Linda Ikeji and Naij.com) are new digital only outfits according to Alexa. The development of the telecommunications industry and dedicated data centres in Nigeria, majority of emerging media houses are pitching their tents on the digital space.
• An exploding population of digital native

How Nigeria Media Are Currently Adapting

It is obvious that Nigeria traditional media houses are aware of some of these challenges and are taking actions to adapt to the reality:
1. They have built websites and are publishing digital versions of their content online.
2. Some more sophisticated ones have even gone ahead to build apps and toolbars which they actively promote

Unfortunately, they are tackling the issue in a wrong way and if they continue this way, their extinction will be inevitable. This is because the approach they have taken is at best cosmetic.

 

 

STRATEGIC APPROACH TO DIGITALIZING OF NIGERIA TRADITIONAL MEDIA

The first and most vital task before Nigeria traditional media houses is to evolve a digital strategy. That is the truly hard work. It starts by asking the bigger questions about your present and your future: What should you become; How must you change to achieve this goal of transformation.

For a newspaper like The Guardian for example, The big question will be: How can The Guardian become more digital while still maintaining a print presence and, what has to change? That means aggressively questioning many of your print-based traditions and their demands on your time, and determining which can be abandoned to free up resources for digital work.

Without a strategic framework, digital success will be impossible. Actualizing this will be very difficult because it is almost certain that the only way to guarantee a long term success is to have paradigm shift in strategy to “digital first” . And this will have a whole lot of implications from hiring to resource allocation.

Some Salient Tips
After designing a well thought out strategy, below are some of the tactics Nigeria traditional media houses can employ to get to their publishing nirvana. Borrowing from the leaked Times Document, I will divide my recommendations into two broad parts: Audience Development and Newsroom Strengthening. The first is a core part of the newsroom team (journalists), while the other is a more broad effort that includes imperatives for business units and the newsroom alike.

 

Audience Development

1. Use big data to personalize: Data is king. Know as much about your audience as possible. This will aid personalization. For a start, you can start asking readers whether they would be willing to be contacted by reporters or if they are willing to share some basic information about their interest, alma mater and industry so you can send them content about those topics

On a more advanced level, you could create a section of the homepage that uses reader patterns to customize a list of content that readers missed but would most likely want to see. This means that though all readers would see the same top news stories, the other articles you show them would be customized to reflect what they haven’t seen (and would likely want to see based on the footprint they left earlier)

2. Content discovery and distribution is key: This is one area all Nigeria media houses fail woefully. In the digital age, it is not enough to have quality content, your content must be discoverable by its intended audience. This is a broad area that I cannot possibly cover in this post. But my suggestion will be that you must master two key areas:

(i) Content promotion via social media

(ii) SEO. Technical SEO hack like structured data/schema, site map, canonicalization etc can have a profound impact on your website discoverability

3. Motivate content engagement: There are so many ways to do this. All that is needed is creativity. For example, Linda Ikeji executed one of the most effective audience development campaigns I have seen out of Nigeria last December when she gave out one hundred thousand naira each to ten of the most consistent commenter. The result on her blog is phenomenal

Newsroom Strengthening

1. You need new talents: You needs a broader array of digital talent, not just reporters and editors, but “technologists, user experience designers, product managers, data analysts, digital content strategists, and content creators–all working under people who have coherent goals

2. Leverage your biggest asset – content: In the digital space, content is king. The NYT document puts this best when it states “You have a huge advantage. You have a tremendous amount of high quality content that you have a perpetual license to.”
While the focus of the newsroom may be on current events and stories, sometimes it’s important to provide context to what’s happening. And evergreen content can help do just that. So, resurfacing archival content will be great

3. Experiment more with the way you present content: You just must be willing to experiment more in terms of how you present your content: “We must push back against our perfectionist impulses. Though our journalism always needs to be polished, our other efforts can have some rough edges as we look for new ways to reach our readers”