KAMPALA — In the African markets, firms operating in developing economies like Uganda deal with burgeoning use of the internet, new electronic purchase methods, and a wide range of social media and online sales platforms.
This is also due to the rise of COVID19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions.
However, marketers and business owners are unclear about the pattern of influence of firm-initiated (i.e., paid media, owned media, and digital inbound marketing) and market-initiated (i.e., earned social media and organic search) digital communications on B2B & B2C sales and customer acquisition.
The business owners are brought into this context because in small markets, a business owner carries the gravitas to propel their companies to new heights beyond the rudimental strategies i.e. offering discounts whilst ignoring the leverage online media plays to distinguish a brand from the noise of existing market players.
In michael porter’s five forces of industrial competition(Bargaining Power of Buyers, Bargaining Power of Suppliers , Threat of substitutes and Threat of new Entrants ), business leaders tend overlook the Bargaining power buyers possess over their services owing to the monopoly they have accrued over the years , but this is not so due to the existing vacuum that threat of new entrants would occupy owing to the ease of doing business through digital marketing approaches
In order to realise sales outcomes, I have faced a complex huddle to explain to business owners in terms of the difference between B2C Digital Marketing and B2B Digital Marketing which to me one is market to end of value chain with focus on brand building and customer journey involving purchase and post purchase activities and the later focuses on market to value chain , with focus on lead segmentation and subscriber engagement. Tactical approaches in a B2B context would involve lead nurturing and content delivery.
It is at this point that many business owners tend to impose B2B tactics on B2C digital marketing strategies which has led to many unfruitful online activations.
As I will be discussing in the coming episodes about technology emerging economies, customers utilize social media platforms at least twice as often as users from
developed economies which has made online marketing a new frontier given such a large and growing number of users , likes, shares, comments, etc.
Such complex interplay is highly visible in emerging markets as customers in these markets differ from their developed market counterparts in more than one manner.
This answers the queries on bringing developed market ideas to small markets without properly assessing their feasibility.
A high level takeaway is whether despite the pandemic we shall realise a surge in online presence of companies which I highly doubt due to the fact that there is limited awareness of the business leaders of this frontier leaving the race wide open for new entrants to take advantage of the channels.
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This writer, Gideon Nkurunungi, is a Content Technology Consultant, a Chief Technical Officer at IMPACT driving the overall vision and strategy for IMPACT Outsourcing Ltd, and other subsidiaries.
