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2022 Marketing Trends in Uganda

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Many marketers have already touched on how we can expect marketing to evolve strategically in 2022. To make a solid plan for the short term, it’s important to keep an eye on where you’re heading in the long term. Nobody can say with 100% certainty what the future of marketing will look like, but industry professionals can offer useful insights and predictions into some of the possibilities.

 

In this episode of the #MarketingAtDatamine space, I hosted one of my lecturers, PAUL LEMI, a marketer, the National Sales Manager for DKT International, and a Tutor at DATAMINE and we talked about the upcoming 2022 Marketing Trends.

Paul Lemi, a tutor at Data mine

Let’s get right to it!

 

Give us a small brief about Metaverse Marketing

Metaverse marketing is a very new concept and it’s taking its toll. Most of these innovations in the digital world take us by storm on the global scene and we are yet to see how Africa will respond and particularly Uganda.

Take Metaverse as a 3D version of the Internet. It’s very exciting and we are yet to see how it will go because currently, many Ugandans have not yet embraced even 3D imaging. However, let’s see how things go…

Do you think podcasts build a loyal following?

That’s a good insight. Podcasts are becoming very common and one thing I can say is that the online/digital channels are going to be a very instrumental part of Marketing. The Pandemic opened so many eyes of people and organizations across the globe, even in Uganda to the need of being digital since they were not interacting physically anymore.

 

The UCC publication on data downloads from various organizations shows you that there was a 19% growth last year and that is expected to go higher as we see many people embracing digital.

 

Podcasts are going to be very big. You’ll see that Twitter Spaces have been growing rapidly and over 187M people are using them.  Club House which launched before Twitter Spaces is also at about 10M people at the moment. Locally we are seeing Kabushenga as one of the guys using TWITTER SPACES quite a lot and many people are listening in each and every episode. So YES, it’s an area that brands can use to engage their audiences and build a loyal following because if it’s real-time interaction.

 

Is the VIDEO LANDSCAPE taking over Marketing?

Video marketing is one of those areas that is going to continue to grow. You’ll notice that YouTube has also launched YouTube shots for the short videos, TikTok has really grown, and Instagram reels are also still growing.

 

If you look at TikTok in 2017, it had 65M users and by the close of 2021, there were over 1 Billion users. If you look at it by region, you will see that in South-East Asia by the end of 2020, we had over 198M users of TikTok. From TikTok reports, there is a group of 19-29-year-olds who form 35% of the Users of the application. The next group that is big on that is that of under 18 which is around 21% is for them.

 

You will notice that TikTok has grown to take over Snapchat which was starting to become popular in Uganda. You will also see that videos in Uganda nowadays all have the TikTok logo on them and this shows you the strength of video marketing. Very many people are becoming big earners just by creating content.

 

Video Marketing is going to be very important and TikTok with over 1B users is chasing up Facebook which already has 2.8B users. Various brands should figure out how to use the video landscape in creating engaging and good content for their audiences.

 

With video brand endorsements, the game is really changing & I’ll give you an example of my wife, who follows APASS & is taken up by his content, even though she doesn’t know the language he communicates in. However, his creativity behind the screen is THAT GOOD.

 

What is the role of consistency in some of these new marketing ventures such as video?

Definitely, like any other marketing campaign, you have to be consistent to gain your audience’s attention every time. This means; investing time to create high-quality videos and putting together the right content to create stories that excite people and those that people can relate with. Getting on these platforms is not just about creating any kind of video, you need to invest in the video equipment so that your content matches the quality.

It’s important to go into this but if you are not ready to invest in creativity and quality, then you will be wasting your time. The good thing with digital/online is that it’s not as expensive as the billboards and TV ads that we always see.

 

Why are some brands still slow at embracing E-Commerce?

E-commerce is becoming something very big and somebody who is not thinking in that direction to have people easily get their products/services is probably doing a disservice to him/herself. This also has a relationship with search engine optimization (SEO) which is more to do with optimizing your website, technical configuration of content and all pages to become easily found on different platforms. I want to link E-commerce to that, the reason being that there was a study done by emarketer.com and they were trying to look at the behavior of shoppers and they found out that 61% of people research for products online. So when someone wants to buy something, the first thing they will do is to go to their search engine and search about a product before they make any decision to buy. Then of those that were researched on, 13% of these went to a physical store while the rest purchased it online.

 

That alone shows you that, indeed e-commerce is something we should embrace.

 

What should people look out for in terms of counterfeits on the rise, in the E-commerce industry?

First off, anyone selling counterfeit goods online is not trying to build a brand but rather carrying out a one-time sale. Anyone building a brand will try as much as possible to offer proper goods and to make the experience of his/her client memorable so that they can come back again.

 

When buying online, always look out for reviews, and if somebody doesn’t have enough reviews, always think twice when buying from them. Also, lookout for a return policy when buying online and be wary of those who don’t have it. It is important to have certain elements such as trust when you want to build your brand online.

 

Influencer Marketing is the thing but what should brands look out for?

The influencer-brand relationship is something important and it involves ethics – the right or wrong. If you want to build your brand in the right direction, definitely you are going to make sure that you are responsible as an individual for whatever you are posting out there. You don’t want to be misleading people, I mean, it’s just a moral authority for you.

 

The interesting bit, as we are taking up this topic is that the influencer-brand relationship is something that is going to be very big.

 

However, it will be very important for brands to assess how an influencer behaves online or their track record so that it reflects positively on the brand when that particular influencer is hired. This is called an “influencer audit” – it identifies the influencers akin to your brand or competition.

 

What’s your take on Virtual Reality (VR) Marketing?

On the global scene presently, Rwanda played smart at the recently concluded DUBAI TOURISM EXPO because they knew the kind of audience they were going into and they needed them to experience this. VR is definitely something quite heavy to invest in for certain brands, who might be looking for just a QUICK WIN instead of the vision of building a brand.

 

Virtual Reality can actually be related to experiential marketing in the traditional age whereby someone is getting a memorable experience. It is a new way of creating an experiential moment, without a lot of moving parts. It’s not very popular here but the brands that can afford it should definitely try it out.

 

What do you have to say about brands using Green Marketing as CSR?

It’s very interesting that you have brought up a topic like that. Sustainability, also referred to as the triple bottom line whereby organizations are thinking about the people, the planet, and the profits is something that’s very big, especially in Europe, and America, where they think much about their carbon footprint.

 

Here it is quite misunderstood and many people don’t appreciate it however, it is a trend that many organizations are trying to adopt especially those with a global affiliation, they are trying so much to see how they can be sustainable in whatever they do.

 

The good thing is that these organizations invest in a lot of communication to educate various masses about this. I would like to relate this to an example of various companies that are doing production locally. This is a global challenge but the earlier we start on it the better and let people appreciate that.

 

I am hoping we wake up to a day where Ugandans start appreciating those green concepts and start using brands like 2GULE which appreciates and tries to save the earth. Incidentally, everybody has their own thoughts on the impact of global warming. If you have been following global trends, you should be worried about what the environment might be like tomorrow.

 

Talk about STORYLINE Marketing

When you make up your mind that you want to build your brand, remember that it’s not a one-time thing so you have to invest heavily. This means investing in the right talents. The same thing is applicable when crafting campaigns and that’s why we really need to appreciate agencies that are coming up with most of this creative work when it comes to things like storyline marketing.

 

Although many people are running away from agencies and going to radio stations directly as a way of cutting costs, I see big brands continuing to dominate this landscape. I for one can tell you Coca-Cola has consistently executed this WELL and I can remember as far back as their 1997 Tyrese commercial when he got onto a bus singing, which shows you the power is storyline content.

 

This takes me to the traditional media side. A trend from the traditional media side is that there is going to be quite a lot of interaction because people have been really missing their brands. It’s going to be interesting how we see different companies market their brands.

 

By Faisal Ssesanga AKA PYEPAR FAISAL

Sales VS Marketing: The Ever Raging Battle

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Have you realized that at most workplaces, the SALES TEAM thinks MARKETING is always out of touch with reality? Marketing teams think sales is myopic (too focused on individual customer experiences)?

 

The animosity between these two departments (Sales & Marketing) is quite DEFINITELY misunderstood which is why I had to bring in JOHN PAUL OKWIR to teach us a thing or two about SALES VS MARKETING. Not only is he a tutor at DATAMINE, but he also carries with him massive experience in both sales and marketing.

Before we delve into our conversation, let’s put to bed the difference between Marketing and Sales – Marketing is building awareness of your organization and brand to potential customers while Sales is turning that viewership into a profit, by converting those potential customers into actual ones. One might also say SALES refers to all activities that lead to the selling of goods & services whereas MARKETING is the process of getting people interested in the goods & services being sold.

 

Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Who is John Paul Okwi?

John Paul Okwi is a passionate marketer. I started my craft in Finance and accounting then got into Sales where I found my passion for Marketing. I currently work for MTN Uganda under Marketing and I am also a Tutor at DATAMINE an accredited CIM study center.

 

Introducing to Sales

I did business development which is just a sexy name for salespeople. Over the years, I learned that we are all salespeople in one way or the other. We are all selling something from ourselves to our businesses. You are selling yourself to your boss, neighbors, friends, family & even religious places are selling faith. Even the oldest profession in the land (prostitution) is a sales job. Salespeople have been here for the longest time and are not about to go because there will always be people buying products or purchasing services.

 

Technology is here to aid sales, not to replace it. Gone are the days when salespeople used to go around knocking on doors to get clients because the practice has shifted from “sales pitches” to customer experience. So sales is the management of a customer experience or a prospect experience leading to a customer. I think Sales is no longer a transaction but a relationship.

 

ARE SALESPEOPLE BORN? AND NOT MADE?

This debate has been there from time memorial and not just in business, but in leadership as well. My personal opinion is that SALES is changing because the bank in the day, it was all about presenting a product & hard-selling someone to buy it. Today, 90% of the top salespeople are friends because customers are not looking for salespeople but for buddies!

 

Is sales a skill? YES & NO. Of course, there are people who are naturally friendly so they might have an easier time let’s say at the bar or so in closing a sale however everyone is a salesperson in a way & this is why we are empowering people at DATAMINE to become all-around salespeople. By the way, when you are friendly & you’re a salesperson, you’re probably going to morph the entire sales process into an emotional real & at DATAMINE, we already teach how emotions supersede logic so customers & prospects are more likely to buy. All this requires traits like likeability & friendship, which are not born at birth but learned over time.

 

Are today’s Sales Teams’ lazy?

Sales, in general, is not a walk in the park. It all starts with MARKETING, whose primary function is to PRIME THE CUSTOMER – Understanding the needs of a customer in order to come up with products & services that offer value. After this, they communicate this value EFFECTIVELY to prospective clients in the form of awareness so that by the time SALES comes on board, it’s all about CLOSING. The issue is sometimes, MARKETING churns out poor quality/ cold leads which in the end reflects poorly on the SALES TEAM when it’s time to close.

 

What’s the case for Marketing?

Marketers are your customer champions, your customer ambassadors. They are there to understand and pinpoint customers that would share value with them. Marketers offer a long-term effect to your brand, changing perceptions, beliefs, and whatnot.

 

Marketing as a discipline is rather a long-term venture because you need to understand and develop competitive advantage approaches, which takes time. The common denominator between Sales and Marketing is that the customer is changing and we have to address those changes. Marketing’s primary focus is to ‘prime’ – it’s to find out what a client wants, a client’s beliefs, and whatnot. To create value and to market and awareness towards that value effectively.

 

 

 

If sales teams and marketing teams are supposed to work together, why the animosity?

 

As much as most marketers might not agree with this, Marketing sprung out of a Sales orientation. Over time, the market was crowded with a number of products and options to choose from and that’s where the Marketing orientation came in to understand customers a little bit better.

 

For most SMEs, Marketing is the same as Sales – they often don’t separate the roles until the workload is much. As organizations grow, they realize the need for planning, which is the astute test that ensures that Marketing and Sales work together.

 

Sales are easily seen well as seeing the tangible results of Marketing is not as easy as it seems. But I think the major cause of this animosity is mainly a budget allocation issue that has to be addressed.

 

There is also a cultural conflict between the types of people employed by these disciplines. Marketers tend to be more analytical, data-oriented, and focused on building a competitive advantage for the client well as for Salespeople it’s quite the opposite. The Sales oriented culture involves moving out to go look for business and close sales because most times performance is benchmarked on a daily/ weekly basis, as opposed to once a month when it comes to Marketing.

 

The other issue is SALES is a very tangible venture and its impact is seen instantly whereas Marketing departments are not doing a very good job at demonstrating their value & impact. We should be having a discussion on how these two departments can work together. There is also another battel of Marketing VS Finance but it will be for next time.

 

How can brands put cohesion between these two raging departments?

This is a disclaimer – it’s possible but this won’t be very easy. Of course, the first would be enrolling for DATAMINE where you can learn all these things.

 

However practically, let me just share about 3 low hanging approaches that can help us create synergies between these two departments;

  1. Having regular meetings with the teams. Many leading companies have mastered that element of having these two departments work together and this is not easy to imitate and it builds the best competitive advantage.
  2. Having people from the two departments share feedback and learn from each other. This in turn will show how SALES can advise marketing & how Marketing can help SALES out better. Marketing might have secondary data but Sales is in touch with primary data on a DAILY.
  3. Unpacking the Sales funnel. If we can streamline and understand this, we could build these synergies by removing the misalignment that exists.

 

 

In what practical ways has Sales or Marketing changed?

 

Sales has changed because the customer is changing – Salespeople should be selling benefits more than they are selling products. Customers are looking for people willing to share knowledge and information and that is what is bringing in key sales these days – it’s not about the product anymore. Salespeople shy away from technology and tools that could help them make the work easier.

 

Marketing is also changing and our burden is heavier now. The ball game for internal marketing is changing – it’s no longer about customers but also your staff, it’s about people. This means we have to market to our people a lot more and build cultures that support growth. Understanding customers for Marketers has become key, this is beyond the demographics. We need to intimately understand our customers – what do they like, what are their beliefs, what do they love? It’s basically about Sentiment. Lastly, ROI has changed. The reason why Marketing is not appealing to Sales & Finance is that we are shy about talking the numbers game.

 

By Faisal Ssesanga AKA PYEPAR FAISAL