Marketers urged to innovate with ‘Buy Nigeria’ campaign

Marketers in Nigeria have been urged to come up with innovative ideas and campaigns capable of giving traction to the ‘Buy Nigeria’ initiative of the Federal Government aimed at supporting backward integration of raw materials at the 2017 Marketing Edge National Stakeholders Summit and awards for innovation held recently in Lagos.

With the fast changing information and communication technology, Nigerian marketers and product producers need to increase the rate of product innovation, quality of products and services, to improve modes of delivery to compete in a single global market.

Adebayo Shittu, Communications minister, in his remarks at the summit themed, “Brand Marketing and Marketing Management in a Recovering but Restructuring Nigerian Economy: Challenges and implications for marketing services providers” said, there is the need for marketers to continually research into global development and innovations with a view to replicating same in ways that suit Nigeria’s national environment to achieve ‘globalisation’.

The Minister, represented by Akeem Yusuf, Special Adviser on Digital Resources Optimisation, said marketers are currently faced with the challenge of creating new ways of conducting their functions and extending the thresholds of product research, market intelligence and product delivery.

The minister therefore urged marketers to deploy modern technologies in delivering marketing pitches and advertising campaigns.

“As government adopt policies and strategies to ease of doing business in the Nigeria, it behooves all Nigerians, particularly marketers who have responsibility to deliver products to consumers to give traction to the ‘Buy Nigeria’ slogan by developing more local products and services to achieve import substitution, create employment and reduce pressure on our foreign reserves,” he stated.

Keynote speaker, Ekwunife Okoli, CEO, Advantage Consult Limited, in his presentation urged participants at the summit to understand the consumers’ mindset, which can lead to innovation, brand building and driving scale.

According to him, it is time to change the focus of marketing executive to ‘marketprenuer’ to enable them think as startups. However, John Ajayi, publisher and CEO, Marketing Edge, advocated for a changed mindset to educate marketing service providers on new developments in the industry.

Bunmi Banjo