The president, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), Dr. Idorenyen Enang, has said professional marketers are ready, willing and able to partner with government at all levels to drive growth by designing and properly communicating programmes and reforms in the polity.
Speaking in Abuja at the 2023 NIMN annual conference themed: “The Role of Marketing and Ethics in Nation Building,” he urged the president and governors to employ professional marketers who are strategic brand communicators and specialists, as spokespersons.
He said, “As marketers, we just hope this will be a great opportunity for us to let the world know that we can do it, one thing I will say, I will echo the keynote speaker’s word that a time will come when Mr president, governors will not be carrying journalist as spokesperson, they need professional brand communicators and specialist because people are brand, you need people that would not just sell in the country, sell in the brand but understand the ethics of it. We need professionals to sit down and craft a strategy to be able to work in the entire system and then implement it using the vehicle of the media to drive it.”
Enang noted that the conference is a gathering of professionals, who are present to provide thought leadership into how the nation can be stirred and built using marketing and ethics as essential catalysts.
Speaking at the event, the director-general of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo disclosed that there was need for various strategies to strengthen Nigeria’s marketing economy.
According to him, an enforceable standard of practice needs be established to provide acceptable industry-wide rule of engagement which will cut across the interests of several sectors in the industry, especially where it is understood that a flop in one sector of marketing ecosystem is a potential catastrophe for the other.
Delivering a paper on ‘The Roles of Marketing Communication & Ethics In Nation Building,’ a former chairman, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, and group chief executive officer, Prima Garnet Africa, Mr Lolu Akinwunmi said that by focusing on sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, services, and investing in infrastructure, education and technology, Nigeria can unlock its economic potential, create employment opportunities and improve the standard of living for its citizens.
