I love marketing communications.
I love the practioners too. I am sure my friend Lekan Oshunkoya will be amazed at my sudden love for this human endeavor.
I love to hear it right and succinctly and to pass it on as same (that may be the reason I am considering a few weeks of internship somewhere filling a corporate communications vacancy-yes, I know there are differences between this branches of communications).
Take a look at adverts on TV (very well produced-clear pictures, good audio, succint message), outdoor billboards and the variants (graphically exciting and clearly pass on messages), radio jingles (you never believe so much has been packed into 60 secs, it still beats my imagination and I give it to these guys, they are great).
But does the promise always match the delivery? In all my experience no!
My love for marketing communication especially as practised here in Nigeria stems from the fact that practioners clearly help keep hope alive.
They tell us what it can become -the service or product they are selling- and not what it is (that is my disgust).
Look at the telecos in Nigeria for example…I carry four mobile phones until recently, not because I love the gadgets that much, but because I could not avoid to be let off the communication grid and at one time or the order some devil goes up and messes a network’s system hampering service delivery for hours ( and sometimes days) and then you the subscriber cannt get what you bargained for and their is no reprisal for the ch***ts. A friend once joked that is network allowed him recharge before prompting he cannot dial out due to network problem.
Airelines? I buy 10:00 o’clock tickets when I need to arrive my destination (mostly 60 minutes away) at 4:00pm. This is to accomodate all the unexplained delay (or has things changed?).
I could go on…
My position: put the cutomer at heart, spend the huge budget on advertising on customer satisfaction systems (may be reward too) and see how the ageold marketing communication tool- word of mouth will do magic!!!
What is it the advert (irrespective of medium) want to tell me, that my satisfaction from using the product/service cannot? Or what can it say that strongly worded referrals from satisfied customers?
Today it is a case of opposites – I am propounding a law? Maybe.
What we hear and see about a product/service is not what we get when we buy it. And worsestill you cannot return it and get your money back.
I do not remeber buying anything perse for its marketing communications in a long time, I have depended on recomendations from satisfied buyers /users except offcourse not any of the moblie telephone services (no body around seem satisfied, we all just continue to accumulate services/networks in the hope that one or two will work at anytime. Don’t you wonder why new telecos have customers even when according to authorities over 40 million Nigerians are connected? I mean Nigerians who need to be connected are!).
I see all those newspaper adverts, TV commercials and billboards as sources of great entertainment :), which I do not prefer to quality service delivery do you?!
Somebody please do something!
