Building internal capacity in the marketing industry

The whole world is bracing for impact as the effects of the COVID-19 continue being felt across the globe, lives are being lost day in day out, infection rates keep on rising exchanging countries like a trained spy in a Hollywood movie. As this continues to occupy the headlines on most international news channels and the trending topic on social media platforms, the economic impact follows behind like a shadow, casting fear, doubt and uncertainty.

The virus has so far infected over 1 million people and killed tens of thousands more, and as it spreads, its dark shadow follows behind threatening to affect even more, In Kenya Uasin Gishu Governor Mr Jackson Mandago who is also the chairman of the North Rift Economic Bloc (Noreb) while addressing a public meeting intimated that the country should focus on combating the virus by locking down the country first and dealing with the accompanying effects later.

How will the government handle the effects of the virus both long term and short term when it has so far failed to address most of the critical issues in the country even in a time of plenty? The government has been on a borrowing spree with the face value of improving the country’s infrastructure with development projects such as the Standard Gauge Railway train service from the seaport of Mombasa to Nairobi and creation of an express way linking Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Waiyaki Way in Nairobi, projects meant to decongest the roads and facilitate foreign trade..

Kenya mainly exports agricultural produce to USA, Pakistan and horticultural produce to Europe through The Netherlands which makes up a total of 46% of the total exports, its citizens living and working in foreign countries remitted over 26 billion Kenyan shillings in January 2020 and the amount was poised to increase as Kenya has kept on exporting professionals not only through blue and white collar corporate jobs and sporting talent but also in the entertainment industry by excellent talents like Lupita Nyong’o, Eddie Gathegi and the Sauti Sol music band. This is the dream of many, becoming exceptional and basking in the glory that comes with it, the movies refer to it as the ‘American Dream’.

There is nothing wrong with seeking exceptionalism but as Mark Manson puts it in his book; ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’ the truth is that not everyone is exceptional and there is a high probability that most of us are average, below average and mediocre in most and or different areas and those who are extremely exceptional in one sector are likely to be overly mediocre in some areas. With increased use digital media and the new world of oversharing, the mediocre does not want to be left behind in search of glory and will also seek for opportunities to broadcast their ‘Mediocrity' in search of fame - what does this mean? We all have different answers, but mine will go hand in hand with the title and that we should learn to learn to allocate weights differently to the things we hold dear and give attention to it and filter out the rest.

I am a marketing professional and my job is to creatively craft my messages to stand out the clutter and reach the intended target audience and this is increasingly becoming difficult especially with the coming of age of digital marketing. There are new ways to get in front of customers, potential customers are bombarded by a tonnes of promotional messages, and they have to keep learning new methods to filter the messages, they have to learn the subtle art of not giving a f*ck.

With the realisation of the inherent differences in human character and behaviour in a society, communities introduce systems to manage and organise itself so as to achieve benefit for all. For a country this is highly critical for the vast differences that comes with the varied populations. A country needs its critical systems to work- it does so by investing and developing security, health, education, communication and transport infrastructure with the objective of providing opportunities for its citizens to thrive and this is true for whichever political system be it capitalism, communism or socialism.

Governments are tasked with the responsibility of building and managing a country’s infrastructure so as to ensure its citizens benefit. In Kenya, citizens practice their democratic rights and elect their leaders every five years through a majority, the winner proceeds to form the government which will oversee the country’s management including setting of policies, rules and regulations. With that out of the way, what does your elected leader do for you? Your elected leader decides to put his interests above all other by becoming corrupt, abusing their powers and usurping more from other departments all for selfish gains, seeking to impress through useless shenanigans seeking attention so that you renew their tenure allowing them to secure their interests.

Like things aren’t hard enough already the COVID-19 pandemic comes into play, it moves like a bride with a long flowing gown towards the altar only that instead of bringing with it joy and promise of happiness it brings death, destruction and despair. The government is caught flatfooted, realising it failed to perform its duties, it failed to undertake its mandate to take care of its citizens by building capacity for its citizens to thrive, it failed to build proper security, education, health, communication and transport infrastructure. It focused on selfish gains through entertaining foreign interest which came as promises. All of a sudden the veil is lifted exposing their crookedness, the leaders did not build systems to support the citizens, they begin scrambling to compensate, doing what they should have done in the first place, only now with extreme pressure.

Mark Manson continues further in the book imploring us to be ready to take responsibility of our actions. We are inherently wired to treat responsibility as a form of accepting fault which may not necessarily be the case. Something may be our responsibility but not our fault and the same applies the elements which make us happy or unhappy. ‘Nobody else is ever responsible for your situation but you. Many people may be to blame for your unhappiness, but nobody is ever responsible for your unhappiness but you’, says Mr Manson, you choose the metrics to apply to your experiences.

The government has continuously exposed its deficiencies by constantly disappointing, its operations riddled with scandals and fraud, who is at fault and whose responsibility is it? They have misused the power we gave them and it is squarely their fault but it is our responsibility and we should be ready to be accountable. Back to my career as a marketing professional, I endeavour to achieve favourable consideration by my prospect by applying a mix of different communication strategies including digital marketing. This puts me squarely at loggerheads with my responsibility as a citizen promoting local sustainability. Leaders are at fault by misusing their power favouring foreign interests especially in terms of trade and here I am as a marketer pushing all the blame allocating faults and responsibility to everyone but myself.

I have a collection of marketing tools that I can apply to communicate with my customer including traditional media such as billboards, wall branding, radio, television and newspapers and digital media which includes social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. The tools I apply are meant to achieve the greatest return on investment and you guessed it there is a significant skew towards use of digital marketing. I promote my product online through paid advertisement, sent direct to the accounts of the owners of the respective digital media platform, get the attention of my prospects on the sites and close sales for my company and earn considerable bonuses for myself.

How do I spend the bonus, I go for trip abroad, spend money in foreign hotels, import a vehicle, purchase designer clothing and use the balance to fund other luxurious escapades. I have spent my marketing budget on foreign platforms, made money for both myself and my company from the local market and spent most of the income to acquire more foreign products and services. The result is negative contribution to the local economy, an exact copy of the government which has invited foreign countries and companies to exploit its resources at the expense of domestic companies.

This is the reason Kenya’s economy is mainly supported by the service sector. We claim know everything but outsource everything remitting all our income to foreign countries, we don’t support our own industries. We are quick to look out for solutions from outside and not within. The pandemic is closing the boarders forcing countries to look at its own industries for solutions, we have now realised we need to have better equipped hospitals, produce essential equipment, better schools, transport and coordination systems, items we took for granted since we could outsource from foreign countries.

Marketing professionals need to take up responsibility and similar to all other industries practice responsible business. It is not enough to stare up the stare case, you have to step up. The market is a resource like any other resource that needs to be nurtured, we should exploit it responsibly while securing capacity for future generations. Traditional marketing communication channels such as billboards, wall branding, on ground activations, radio and TV allow businesses to circulate money within the local economy which in return builds more effective demand within the economy. Instead of businesses jumping into the shoal of ‘going digital’, let us evaluate the overall economic impact of our strategic communication choices and practice sustainable marketing.

As we face this pandemic, let us also take in patriotic lessons and develop our own industries, build capacity from within, use the local company to do your product activation, produce your marketing collateral locally, higher local talent. Digital marketing is one of the most effective to reach your customers, but always strike a balance in your expenditure. You are mining revenue from the local market, put back a resource into the economy and achieve a circular economy.