Experts canvass technology as tool to drive brand efficiency
By Felicia Nwosu
In a bid to create a targeted and personalised experience for consumers, professionals in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) industry have posited that brands need to embrace and leverage data and technology for effective policy making, strategic planning, and informed decision to help drive marketing efficiency.
This was the position of many speakers at the just concluded MARKETING EDGE Stakeholders Quarterly Virtual Summit, with the theme: “Maximizing Marketing Efficiency in the Age of Changing Consumer Behaviour”. The Quarterly Summit is one of the brand’s initiatives organised to address issues that affect the core of the industry, as well as expand the frontiers of advertising and marketing knowledge.
The marketing eggheads unanimously stated that consumers are becoming more demanding than ever and, therefore, suggested that advertisers should go beyond developing campaigns for the sake of selling alone as consumers want to be part of the journey from start to end.
In achieving this, they called for a purposeful marketing and overall planning that go beyond the attractiveness of the campaign and address specific needs to improve marketing efficiency. They challenged brands to be more receptive to digital innovation for marketing, and to ensure that they lead consumers through the digital maze by building a start-to-end connection with them.
Commenting on the role of data in creating a complete and total consumer experience, Dayo Adefila, Head, Digital Strategy (Africa) at PZ Cussons, said brands must develop business plan based on the specifics that data can help to identify, and tackle within a specific period of time, and which revolves around consumers’ behaviour, differentiation and even distribution.
The experienced professional reaffirmed that the deployment of the right consumer insight tools would help brands build strong customer relationships that will eventually grow the value of the brands.
“There is nothing like an overnight change in marketing, if you are not tracking your data on a quarterly or yearly basis, it will definitely affect your market share as a brand,” he said.
Contextualising the theme, Emeka Obia, Head, Strategy and Planning Unit at Leo Burnett, noted that Nigeria’s huge and vibrant population is a formidable force for brands to leverage for greater market share. He reiterated that Nigeria has a vibrant population with access to social media, and so communicating with them has become more critical.
The Leo Burnett head of strategy also noted that the vicissitudes of the global pandemic have caused 77% of consumers worldwide to expect brands to show support to people in times of crisis. This, he explained, has become the behaviour of consumers across the globe since the eruption of the pandemic.
“If you look at the consumer landscape, you will find out that different facets of the economy have been disrupted especially from the consumer point of view, and we have also seen that technology has actually become a transformational tool in every facet of the economy. Therefore, tapping and understanding the landscape on how to drive engagement with consumers has become more critical,” he said.
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