Since Nigeria’s Independence from British Colonial rule in 1960 to date, the number of enterprises that have wobbled and ultimately foundered, make an infamous list too long to enumerate.
State sponsored and privately commissioned businesses make this long list of failed attempts at creating wealth for both the employees and their investors.
There was a time in history, that Emirates Airlines, today one of the worlds biggest Commercial intercontinental Air carriers, had fewer planes than the miserably failed Nigeria Airways.
This was a state sponsored National Airline that was a great vision by its founders to ease National and International transport, as well as serve as a platform for revenue generation for Nigeria. It is needless to state here, how far ahead National carriers like Ethiopian, Kenyan, South African, Egypt, Tanzanian, Tunisian amongst others have gone since the pitiable collapse of their then contemporary, Nigeria Airways. What about the “gold mine” that never achieved its potential, yet continually gulps billions of Naira to this day, The Ajaokuta Steel complex?
The United States of America today is a global economic and military giant because of their ability to not only develop their steel industry, but efficiently “market” it. Fact! Ajaokuta, without doubt, was Nigeria’s most ambitious developmental project that has colossally failed.
There may be no need to mention the once very famous Arewa Textile industry. Nigeria and Nigerians today have developed an unbelievable appetite for foreign clothiers. Almost every Nigerian that has ever earned as much as NGN 50,000 at any point, owns the Gucci, Versace, TM Lewin, Ralph Lauren brands.
Can we categorically claim that these brands make better fabric than what Arewa Textiles could have churned out if it kept a steady developmental pace? No! Fact!
What exactly happened to these ambitious projects? A good number of people have promoted that school of thought that these enterprises failed as a clear result of mismanagement. Whilst it is true that mismanagement contributed a large portion to their failure, it is pertinent to ask; in what areas of mismanagement did they fail? Did they fail because their managers summarily “looted” proceeds from their profits, or they were not even properly managed to become profitable in the first instance?
We at GeoData World Communications elect to see the failure of enterprises from the perspective of a failure in proper ‘marketing’ of the goods or services an enterprise offers. We believe that like a game of chess, the king, which is the essence of the game ( a product or service) becomes most vulnerable without the queen (the engagement or marketing activity).
We totally think that a huge reason why our country fails is because we are not communicating our brand as much as we should, to who, when, where and how. We absolutely agree with the statement that “doing business without Advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark”.
As a Creative agency that offers businesses the marketing services of helping to persuade, motivate, and cause customers to take an action, one that leads to a satisfaction for both, we know that Advertising has evolved into a form of communication between a Service/product provider and a user/consumer.
The ability to engage an audience through a conscious action of communication, whilst having a commercial offering that promises satisfaction, remains the one true way of becoming profitable.
Many people perhaps have not come to terms with what Advertising entails. True practitioners of Advertising will better refer to the practice as Integrated Marketing Communications (IMCs). The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), is the statutory body that regulates all forms of Advertising practice in Nigeria.
The vision of this organization is ” To promote responsible and ethical Advertising practice, acting as THE CONSCIENCE OF THE SOCIETY and watchdog for consumers, while managing the needs and interests of stakeholders in Nigeria’s Advertising industry”.
One of APCONs’ four pronged missions is to create ” an industry (Advertising) reform through the provision of a forum to debate emerging professional practice/ SOCIAL ISSUES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES in a fast changing environment”.
If the above vision and mission of APCON is true, it therefore means, Advertising practice and hence, IMCs, is the pedestal upon which Nigeria can prosper or fail, economically, politically and in any other ways as a sovereign state.
We at GeoData World Communications believe that not only should every elected or appointed government official understand the true consequences of poor Advertising, but every Nigerian should. Our Country becomes whatever we sell it to be. If we sell it short, we reap a poor harvest, if we sell it for what it should be, a bountiful harvest awaits.
In the light of all these, GeoData World Communications and Technologies Limited will be launching a blog; #GWCommsNG on our website www.geodataworldng.com on Wednesday, the 9th of May, 2018.
The blog will seek to inform, educate, propagate, and share best practices of the Advertising practice to the general public. We consider this our corporate social responsibility, that every Nigerian should say and act what best portrays Nigeria as a destination of choice for great investments and profitable ventures.
We hope to be sharing great insights on Marketing for every type of enterprise, green horn and established. For the small or medium scale enterprise that may not be able to hire APCON certified Marketers to charge them to prosperity, this should be their forum for insights.
For the multi-billion Naira enterprise that pays huge amounts to Agencies like ours, this blog should shore up whatever services we offer you. This is asides the hope that this blog will create an opportunity for mentoring between startups and those who have broken through the clutter to profitability.
If it were in our power, we would insist every Spokesperson for Government functionaries, agencies, public liability companies and private organisation got a professional education and development from APCON. For one, they would have the opportunity to understand what they are marketing, to whom, where and how. We sincerely believe that proper application of the practice of Advertising will save Nigeria the ridiculous “demarketing” of our common wealth by those who should sell us better. The Nigerian Media should consider what we will be offering as a great source for their work.
As Nigeria faces multiple challenges bordering sectarian and ethnic crises, the manner of reportage of these issues will go to great lengths in downgrading or scaling up the varying differences we have as a people.
Insights on Advertising on #GWCommsNG will be contributed by Advertising Industry professionals, Public Relations gurus and other well versed people of good will.
We have on our list of contributors, Captains of great Advertising agencies, Veteran Practitioners, young and dynamic industry icons as well as award winning marketers of repute.
We have also taken care to create a feedback mechanism that will allow contributors and readers, the opportunity to ask questions and have a back and forth with contributors, with a view to promoting an opportunity to learn.
It is our hope that collectively, we will get Nigeria working and profitably so.
Tom Akor ARPA
MD/CEO
GeoData World Communications and Technologies Limited.
I was anticipating a lot of people will find time to read and add their comments to this thread but sadly, most of Nigerians don’t quite love reading in the first place. This however is something we all should want to be part of.