Why brands intensify awareness campaigns for festive season’s sales
Financial brands appear to be gaining the upper hand as brands and products in the hotly competitive Nigerian marketing environment have intensified their awareness and advertising campaigns.
Specifically, leading banks in the financial services sector are leaving no stone unturned in creating competitive advantages for themselves while deepening market penetration and sharing their communication messages to the target audience.
They are closely being followed by the telecom brands who are all-round seasons’ advertisers with unhindered customer activations and engagements.
The telecom brands who are major spenders in the Nigerian marketing and advertising landscape are currently neck-deep in mouthwatering data value offerings campaign.
However, notable brands in the fast moving consumer goods are not doing much due to the general lull in the market, a development that has resulted in high incidence of unsold inventories. Leading the centre-stage in the financial services brands awareness campaigns are Zenith Bank, Access, GtBank, FirstBank and Wema Bank. Others are UBA, Stanbic IBTC, Polaris Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Bank of Industry which has gone to town with its 60th anniversary campaign.
Most of these banks are either pushing their mobile apps, new account products, complete products bouquet or creating bonding with the target banking public through season’s greetings and felicitations. The major media platforms being deplored for these campaigns are newspaper adverts, billboards, social media and Television. While some of the financial brands are majorly predominant in the print, some have carefully opted for tactical campaigns in TV and social media.
MARKETING EDGE investigations have revealed that the preponderance of brands advertising campaigns across media channels Pan-Nigeria is not unconnected with the fact that the festive season offers veritable spending opportunities by the consumers who have hitherto been handicapped by poor purchasing power.
We also gathered authoritatively that increased brands advertising campaigns was informed by the fact that there are lots of cash and improved liquidity in the national economy due to inflows in the diaspora funds. With some Nigerians living oversea sending money to their relations in this festive season, more funds have entered into the country thereby helping to reflate the economy.
Not only that, it was gathered that some companies which may not have achieved their set sales target for the year before now due to the hiccups in the economy as a result of illiquity would want to make last minutes efforts to increase their fortunes as the season is usually associated with heavy spendings across various market segments and target audience.
Commenting on the preponderance of brands advertising campaigns in this Yuletide season, Managing Director of X3M Ideas, a leading creative shop in Nigeria, Mr. Steve Babaeko, stated that the massive campaigns by different brands was informed by the need to get a share of the market in the industries which he observed have been under intense pressures over time.
Analysing the different markets segments, Babaeko said: “The banking sector cannot afford to fold its hands with the new realities as regards new Central Bank policy in the sector. So, the banks have quickly realised the need to tap into the youth population to get more followers and audience.”
Continuing, Babaeko, who is also Vice-President of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) noted: “The fast moving consumer goods have been under pressure too because of low consumer purchasing power as well as the ever-rising cost of production which has forced some companies to fold up. This is the time for a few companies still active to latch on the increased spending power.
Babaeko also disclosed that the poor consumer purchasing power had impacted negatively on the telecoms sector due to the fall in the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
Before now, he observed the ARPU used to go higher; but in recent times, it has been going down, adding that the festive season offered an opportunity for increased spending.
Speaking in a similar vein, the Managing Director of Brand Eye, a leading media buying shop, Mr. Femi Adelusi was of the view that the beehive of media and brand advertising campaigns is due to perceived increased liquidity in the national economy.
“Marketing Edge investigation on increased brand awareness campaign is credible.
“As we can all see, a lot of brands have December as sales season. This is because the yuletide season offers brands a remarkable sales opportunity. It is a season driven by high increase in cash and disposable incomes,” Adelusi hinted.
Not done, he added: “December time is when most companies pay bonuses, while state governments and public services employees are paid 13th months in salaries, thereby boosting their purchasing power.”
Adelusi, who is equally the Vice President of Media Independents Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), also revealed that brands tend to increase marketing and advertising activities in the festive season especially those that are on the stable of corporations that are still struggling to meet their target for the year.
His words: “Companies that have been under-pressure over time and have not met their sales target for the year will as a matter of fact increase their advertising campaigns so as to benefit and partake for the spending spree of the season.”
These views were equally corroborated by Managing Director of Float Foods Ltd, Aare Fatai Odesile who said that “There is a high propensity for spending at the yuletide season; hence the reason why almost all brands are unrelenting in being part of the action. There is a high propensity for increased spending during the festive season.”
This propensity to spend by the consumers is not in the physical cash available but in the mind. The reason for resurgence in brand awareness campaigns is because the battle is in the mind of the consumers. This can happen at different media levels.
“No brand owner worth their salt would go to bed at this point in time. Anybody who does so is doing that at their own peril,” Odesile added.
For the Managing Director of Noah’s Ark, Mr. Lanre Adisa, the opinion was the same as he revealed that the development was in order in economics.
His words: “It is natural in most economics. Brands during this season want to belong. They want to make some sales. This is a season of celebration. It is a season for holidays when families re-unite and bond together.
“These activities necessitate buying and spending, so it is natural for brands to want to get into the minds of the consumers,” he revealed.
Speaking further, Adisa said the increase in brands advertising campaigns may not be unconnected with the advertisers desire to catch up over lost opportunity in the first quarter of the year due to the lull created by political campaigns and the subsequent 2019 general elections. “It is now that brands are revving up their awareness campaigns so as to be on top of the mind”.
According to an online story posted by a blogger, Victor Ijidola, “Simply put, brand awareness campaign is the degree of a brand’s consciousness in the minds of its target customers.
“That’s why the success of every company begins with people knowing about its existence.
“Brand awareness is the reason industry giants like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Heineken still run multi-million dollar adverts on traditional media. They are not doing adverts on TV, radio, and in newspapers to drive sales. They are doing it to keep their target customers aware of their brands which eventually drive sales in the end.”
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.