Marketing communications in Kenya

Using marketing communications to deliver customer value

Presentation to CIM Class

By Herbert Thuo

Marketing communications can & will deliver positive customer value

Marketing communications. What is it?

What is it? Marketing communications is a diverse yet

very crucial aspect of modern marketing

MC can be defined as all communication from the organization to potential or existing consumers

It is important to not that MC is not an island of a topic. Integration with existing strategy islands is crucial!

The strategy ladder

Due to globalisation & integration of business functions, marketing communication is changing very rapidly

All departments in an organization is therefore responsible for modern marketing. They all have a small contribution to make.

If we are to liken marketing to the human body, if corporate strategy is the head, marketing communications is the mouth & face.

If firms are to survive, they must address key issues in marketing communications:The switch from traditional media to more

unconventional & innovative media E.g. Large digital screens, PR 2.O, CSR 2.0, Branding 2.0

AD agencies can make or break achievement of your MC objectives. Smaller agency can work for you too!

Consumers are continuously talking to companies. They need to listen!! Investment in ICT know how and equipment.

The move from advertising to innovative PR. Consumers sometimes feel that ads are subjective and skewed. Opinion leadership is powerful!

Did you know that Michael Jackson is worth more dead than alive? After his death sales of memorabilia & CD Sales grew by over 700%

Customer Value. In detail

This is the sum total of all benefits which a company/brand/product promises that a consumer will receive in return for purchase or loyalty. E.g. When you buy a range Rover sport……Panadol…..a sean paul concert ticket

Customer value can be deduced by the consumer in the following ways:PriceCompetitor offeringsIts marketing communicationsBrand promise

What is customer value?

Who are you looking atimpressing with your brand promise?WHO?

WHAT?

WHERE?

What do you intend to

offer to your who’s?

Where will you connect

with your who’s?

The who seems very important doesn’t it?

Without a good understanding of your target, your firm is likely to end up spending a fortune and end up with a withered bouquet of different flowers.

i.e. a Wide array of different customers who may look good initially but eventually fail to influence business growth and fail to contribute or erode shareholder value

The most powerful creator of customer value is branding.

Customer value is a result of experiences, perceptions, interactions with the brand.

Customer value ensures that future business growth is secured & short term objectives are achieved.

Customer value can be created through pain & time by marketing communications. Remember that customer value is a result of planned and unplanned experiences and interactions in the market.

Did you know that Africa doesn’t have a single brand in the top 200 brands of the world? A challenge to African marketers.

MC & Customer Value. The linkThe 3p’s & MC Mix

Marketing communications 3P’s

PUSH

PULL

Key account management

Branding

Customer retention

PROFILE

Corporate identity

Generate & sustain dialogue with end consumers

Perception building for the whole organization.

Members of marketing channel. Geared at gaining their trust & commitment

Diving into the sea with no clothes. The HB Foods wayA fictional case study

PUSH

HB foods has 10 dealers and 200 resellers in Kenya.

HB Foods has a product portfolio consisting of breakfast cereals, bread spreads, biscuits, beef jerky etc with over 300 employees.

HB foods organizes an annual one week retreat in Mombasa with all our resellers and dealers just to make sure ‘we are on the same page’

HB foods has set-up a rewards scheme for dealers who achieve their targets. We sit down with our dealers and help them with their business plans. We set targets together to be achieved in a certain time.

HB foods has also debt financed some of our dealers especially those in financial trouble with an aim of selling back

PULL

HB foods has invested heavily in brand building.

HB Foods has a rich brand architecture which leverages some of the older brand’s equity and pours it on to some for the newer brands.

HB Foods

Breakfast cereals

Snacks

Spreads

Beverages

HB foods has employed the services of a full service agency to handle PR, Advertising and experiential marketing. We pay a monthly retainer of about KSh 3.5Mn and this excludes any 3rd party costs like printing

HB foods uses the following brand building framework1. Understand the consumer through audit2. Get valuable insights from the audit about consumers

their preferences and behaviours3. Map out your different consumer needs on a grid and

this will automatically segment your brands and their respective users.

4. Construct the brand essence of the brands.5. Come up with a brand promise6. Deliver a contemporary identity system7. Deliver the promise through marketing

communications!!

PROFILE

HB Foods is interested a lot in how consumers and the public in general perceive us.

We employ the following tactics to keep our reputation up:1. Equal employer2. Employ interns as a source of future consumers and

fresh ideas3. We have a CSR department that urges employees to

take 21 paid days off work to help in HB Foundation.4. We have an internal marketing programme that takes

care of our internal consumers5. We are always at the forefront of research &

development. We have funded 2 programmes at the Nairobi University that seek to come up with new ways of making foods safer and reducing the waste produced at HB foods industries in Thika.

6. In addition to the full service agency, we have a small PR department to handle crisis communications as they arise.

Did you know that marketers are the 3rd highest paid people in the world?

Below the lineProduct integral initiatives that are shown below the line in their accounts e.g. Leaflets, posters, experiential, sales promo, PR, Personal selling etc

Above the linePlaced in paid for media. Above the line depicts an agency accounts for commissions earned from buying media space for clients e.g. TV, Radio, Print,

Billboard

Through the line i.e. direct marketing

ADVERTISING

PERSONAL SELLING

PUBLIC RELATIONS

DIRECT MARKETING

SALES PROMOTION

THE MARKETING COMMUNICATOION MIX

Advertising

This is a non-personal paid for communication targeted through the mass media in order to achieve certain objectives

Advertising messages can either be rational or emotive.

Rational messages can be descriptive, factual, comparative e.g. if you wash your clothes with Jik, you get a whiter wash

Emotional messages can be based on fear, humour, sex, music e.g. E-Pill contraceptives communications.

What are some of the best Ads you have seen based on the previous criteria?

What makes them so good and memorable? They employed the appropriate media

especially B2B They followed a coherent theme across

different platforms e.g. Mimi ni member They were targeted e.g. FA Men beauty

products ranges They were innovative e.g. Strepsils, NTV re-

launch, my dog ate my homework?, Nissan product ranges, Virgins

They connected at a higher level e.g. Safaricom’s natakuwa kuwa mkenya

Personal selling

This is an oral presentation by a salesperson to a customer with the aim of getting a sale through persuasion.

Personal selling exists within the overall marketing communication mix as a support and effecter/ implementer!

Common tasks in personal selling includes prospecting, selling, servicing, allocating e.g. most computer hardware firms like copy cat invest heavily in personal selling. They understand the powerful role it plays.

Public relations

This is the planned & sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill & mutual understanding between an organization & its publics

4 angles Publicity i.e. commonly propaganda e.g. kencell &

safaricom A source of information i.e. with no persuasive intent.

Simply information. E.g. Ministry of health 2 way asymetric i.e. with consumer attitudes and

behaviours in mind, aims to change consumer attitudes to fit within the organization. E.g political parties

Two way symetric i.e. PR practitioner serves as a mediator between public & organization to quell anger & discontent e.g KQ strike

Direct marketing

This is the planned recording, analysis & tracking of consumer behaviour in a bid to foster long term customer relationships.

Strengths of direct marketing? Get down to the individual Communication can be personalized Reinforcing other marketing mix tools Unlimited creative platforms available e.g.

telemarketing, inserts, door to door, take ones, direct mail, blast emails.

Direct marketing will be the spring board for future marketing initiatives in the near future for Kenyan firms. As budgets become tighter, more innovative forms of communication will be found in direct marketing.

Sales promotion

These are a range of tactical marketing techniques designed to add value to a product or service to achieve a specific sales objective.

The Barclays mkopo wa salo promo was an incentive for non-barclays consumers to acquire accounts and benefit.

Buy one get on free promotions e.g. K1 BOGOF Nakumatt loyalty programmes Safaraicom live win a Mercedes promo etc

Sales promotions have varied aims like increase awareness, switch in buyer behaviour

Sales promotions have varied aims like Increase awareness of new products e.g. BMW

X6 Switch in buyer behaviour e.g. Orange

Thursday poa promo encourages consumers to buy more than 100 bob airtime to get double rewards.

Incentives towards purchase e.g. joining an elite group of male sophisticate types i.e. Adam magazine

Smooth seasonal deeps in performance e.g. coke?

Generate a consumer database for tracking & targeting purposes e.g. Nakumatt smart card

Increase shelf space allocated to your brand e.g. Notorious brands like blueband & tusker have been known to understand the value of shelf space. NB 80% of purchases decision are made at POP.

Did you know that love is the most profitable emotion? So many millionaires have made money from this emotion.

THE PLC & MC

Intro (awareness & acceptance)• PR, Advertising, personal selling & sales

promotion

Growth (differentiation) Advertising. Direct marketing, personal selling

Maturity ( retaining customer loyalty) ALL

Decline (remind & reassure brand loyalists) Direct marketing & personal selling

Conclusion. The future of marketing communications

lies in delivering customer value in newer more innovative and cost efficient means.

The emphasis on customer value is justified as it is at the heart of securing future revenue streams and loyalty.

In these hard times that remain uncertain & erratic customer value can be built diligently through marketing communications.

CONTACTS

[email protected]/in/herbertkamau My Blog: http://thuobrands.blogspot.com/Cell: +254 720405080

Brands can’t be copied, they can succeed in difficult times & can’t grow old….they are timeless

ENDThanks for your time