MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIGEST

Freedom of speech  is the right to articulate one's opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship, or societal sanction. The term  freedom of expression  is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. Freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice". The version o...

The last thing you want is for your business to be known as a “Jack of all trades” because you always get stuck with the “Master of none” part. We see this in the sustainability world a lot, in good and bad times — communication with everything thrown in:  “this product is organic and made with renewable energy and we give to the Nature Conservancy and treat our employees great so you’ll be healthy, save money, enjoy your job and save the world!” Phew! What a mouthful, and earful! Yes, even the targeted messages of our digital communication become overwhelming and unwanted very quickly, leaving audiences turned off. Well, let’s take a step back for a second and look at the target of our communications.  They’re people!  Not colour-laden pie charts or graphs that look like EKG readouts. People! With emotions that are many times impossible to track. Even with all the analytics and targeting possibilities digital media affords us toda...

Just stop interrupting! Now, would you ask someone to marry you on the first date? Nollywood romance stories sometime portray such successful ‘love at first sight’ scenarios. But we know it’s never that simple in real life. Reality normally requires building a relationship before popping the question; earning trust, learning to know one another, seeing that you are right for each other and taking the relationship to the next level when you're ready. If this makes sense to you so far, then why are you selling, or trying to sell to strangers on your first date with them? So what's the buyer's journey? Simply, “the buyer’s journey is the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to a purchase." There are three stages to the average buyer's journey : the Awareness stage; the Consideration Stage; and the Decision Stage. Awareness: The awareness stage represents the top of the marketing funnel (TOFU). For example, the ...

Oba Otudeko, Chairman, FBN Holdings Nigerian giants of industry, Dangote Cement, FBN Holdings, and Nigerian Breweries, among others, are declaring after-tax losses, relatively from last year's. Reports from the websites of the companies quoted by Financial Nigeria , show that although they are making appreciable volume growth, they are grossly falling short on after-tax margins. Dangote Cement Dangote Cement reported that its gross revenue for the nine months period ended on September 30, 2016 rose by 21 per cent to N442.09 billion. The company’s top line growth was driven by record sales in Nigeria and increased production in other countries. However, the company said after-tax profit fell by 15 per cent to N133.52 billion compared to N157.99 billion posted in a similar period last year due to the impact of lower cement prices in Nigeria and higher import costs caused by the devaluation of the naira. For the period under review, basic earnings per share fell by 17...