Plan for unexpected scenarios in VUCA economy, Salvador urges marketers
By Abimbola Mohammed
Damola Richard Salvador, CEO and Lead Strategist at Digisplash, a content-led, integrated marketing and advertising agency has tasked marketers and practitioners in the Integrated Marketing communication (IMC) industry to ensure they plan for unexpected scenarios in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) economy like Nigeria.
He noted that so many things have happened in the past few years that challenged the way and manner in which marketers plan, and stressed the need for urgent rethink in marketing strategy, while noting that marketers should be able to predict and plan for better results.
Salvador made this known at the just concluded first Quarterly MARKETING EDGE Virtual Summit while speaking to the theme: “Scenario Planning as Panacea for Complex Marketing Environment”.
The Adman said: “Marketing can’t be done the way it used to be; marketers need to plan for better results. When it comes to marketing spend nowadays, clients don’t really care about just awareness, they want conversion and return on investment. If the past year has taught businesses and marketers anything, it’s the importance of having a plan in place for unexpected circumstances. But, how can we plan for the future when it’s at such a high degree of uncertainty?”
He added: “OMI survey data findings, less than 60% of marketers build out their plan on scenario planning. 23.4% of marketing spend needed to be reallocated when COVID-19 suddenly shut down all in-person events. Marketing organizations that didn’t do scenario planning and lacked budget visibility were paralyzed by the decision.”
He, therefore, urged brands and businesses to be mindful of value as value will stand them out in a competitive market.
“People will pay for what they value, protect what they value and stay with what they value.”
Explaining further, he noted that scenario planning is not necessarily designing a plan around a specific catastrophic event as disruption in the supply chain, a crash in the stock market, and changes to oil prices, or even new business opportunities or unexpected growth can signal changes.
“Scenario planning embraces unpredictability and strives to improve the flexibility and adaptability of business practices. Based on the scenarios we are anticipating, we can adjust the current program in order to be compatible with the plausible scenarios. For instance, the way we are studying messaging our product or service may no longer feel relevant, so we might need to shift strategy,” he said.
He advised that regardless of business size or industry, it is crucial to think about how the business would operate under different circumstances and have a new strategy ready to execute.
“Scenario planning keeps marketing organizations agile and flexible. It identifies the important constants in your marketing strategy and your strategic targets. In addition, it provides a structure for addressing future scenarios and critical uncertainties. When armed to the teeth with a variety of back-up plans, you can act quickly and decisively,” Salvador concluded.
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