Conference underscores role of market research in Nigeria’s growth initiatives

Doyin Salami, adjunct professor, Lagos Business School has underscored the role of marketing and marketing research in Nigeria’s search for new growth sectors to facilitate expansion and further diversification of the economy.

He said marketing and marketing research will assist the nation in getting ahead of the curve and guide the production process that will generate faster economic growth.

Speaking on the ‘Role of marketing research in Nigeria’s growth trajectory’ at Marketing Research Academy’s, MRA, programme in Lagos, the renowned economist said marketing research engenders understanding of existing and anticipated market needs. “It bridges the gap between product innovation and market place needs”

Stating that nobody buys a product instead they buy the solution, Salami described innovation as gap identification. He listed three concepts in marketing –value creation, value communication and value exchange.

He said it is important to innovate and create value, but it also more important to communicate that value at a level that consumers are willing to continue to pay for it. Salami who teaches economics to business managers said affordability of  product and consumer segmentation are significant in marketing  to determine who affords the product. Relating marketing to economic growth, he said Nigeria has three key sectors – Agriculture at 22 % of GDP, Distribution at 17% while oil at 10% which forms about 60% of government revenue.

He said marketing is already embedded in distribution activity as it involves selling and buying. He therefore said that understanding the consumer is a key component of marketing in playing its role in economic growth. “A marketer cannot sell to people he/she doesn’t understand and with understanding, innovation to fill market gaps becomes crucial”

According to him, new marketing methods demand new kind of marketing executives and a paradigm shift from the old ways. Without marketing, product is not created and demand will diminish”, he said.

Also speaking at the forum, Feyi Olubodun, CEO, Insight Publicis Nigeria who was represented by Tayo Oyedeji, MD and Head, Starcom MediaVest SA said marketing is not just about promotions and advertising but it starts from product development, innovation to pricing, distribution and promotion.  “So if we must grow as a nation we have to create new products and find a way to get it across to the consumers”, he said.

Tayo said the role of government in value creation process is to create an enabling environment. According to him, some farmers biggest problem is not fertiliser or seedlings but getting their produce  into the market. This is a government challenge instead of private sector problem.

Speaking on understanding the consumer, he told the audience that mass market is dead. No marketer should plan to reach all Nigerians, instead Tayo said what marketers need to do therefore is to identify the segments that are profitable for their brands and find a way to reach this segment.

He said in marketing, segmentation is key.  In the past, he said segmentation has been executed through income, demographics, age among others, but Tayo said segmentation needs a hybrid model that takes into account the psychographic of the audience in order to have a much better way to determine target audience and reach them.

Nigerian consumer today is a global audience and marketers need to understand this instead of talking to him or her as a local audience.

Speaking on digital marketing, he said because Nigeria has the highest incidence of access to the internet by mobile phone in the world at 81 per cent, this means that digital is not something marketers do on the side as it is increasingly becoming the most important part of marketing. So if any marketers must be effective, they need to understand digital and spend money on it. Today,  Nigeria spends about 6 percent of total Ad spend on digital, It should be about 20 % currently, he said.

In his contribution, Aggrey Maposa, CEO of Kantar Nigeria said any marketer that understands key mindsets of a consumer; he/she will perform ahead of competition.

These changing mindsets are around identity, technology, digital, balance and health and nutrition. On identity, he said people are becoming sensitive to their ethnicity and region. This is where Hero Beer keyed its marketing strategy.

He said technology has brought liberation to consumers and it has allowed them to connect beyond borders with different people, a development that was never envisaged. Maposa said this is influencing and inspiring what consumers plan and expect for their lives and what they expect brands to provide.

On health, Maposa said consumers are becoming more conscious of what they eat to obviate certain ailments. Therefore, marketers need to understand these consumer changing habits in the way they develop products.

Daniel Obi