MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIGEST

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...

Just before you lash out, it’s not me saying that agencies can’t deliver strategy, it’s the clients!  Maximised   is an independent Management Consulting Business that focuses on Agency assessments to help drive marketing improvements; and out   of all the disciplines they measure: process; outputs; strategy; creativity; behaviour; finance; and inter-agency collaboration;  strategy  scores the lowest pretty consistently across clients and industries. And it is not marginal either, about 10% below the total average; it scores less then financial management! And that really is saying something. This is an expensive agency offering and one that most point to as the thing that sets them apart and provides them with a point of difference. “If only”, the clients say!  Big client And it’s not as if there are no strategic people in agencies. It’s not as if the ones that are there have no knowledge or insights, actually quite the opposite. ...

Imagine you were running a business and you received an email from someone you didn’t know that looked like this: “Hi, I do a lot of great stuff. Can you give me N5million, or introduce me to any of your friends who might be able to?” How would you feel? What would you think? Could you imagine a high profile artist such as Tu Face, Tiwa Savage, Whiz Kid or Olamide sending something out like this? Yet variations of this kind of message are being sent by music artists every day.  You can change out the amount or even trade the sponsorship money for some kind of service like booking a tour — but the tone ends up being the same each time. In other words, it sucks. This kind of pitch does not work. Let’s try that again… Put yourself back in the seat of a business owner or a Marketing Director. Now, imagine you received a message from a trusted colleague or friend of yours who writes: “Hey! I just came across this amazing artist who’s doing some great work and would be...