“You need guts and discipline”: Finding new customers with Idonrenyen Enang #SheHive Lagos
SheHive Lagos brought together the best of the bunch and of course, our speakers were just as awesome. The distinguished marketing practitioner and former Managing Director of L’Oreal West Africa and Samsung West Africa, Idonrenyen Enang was one of them. With a career spanning almost three decades in several key positions, Idonrenyen has a wealth of experience in several areas. This includes brand management, marketing management, strategic planning, organizational redesign and more. He showed us how to take the headache out of finding new customers and never lack them again. And we just couldn’t resist sharing some of these lessons with you! What marketing really is You see, marketing isn’t about sponsorship and advertising. The whole essence of this shouldn’t be lost on you. Marketing is actually about identifying a need and making money out of it. In between this, is the supply chain. Of course, you’re an entrepreneur and out to make money. But there are so many different things to do in order to get people to actually cough out money for that product or service, no matter how good. There has to be some transfer of value and that’s where profit comes in. Here’s the thing; there’s no way to handle this except by really knowing how. And even if you could, you would drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with everything, wouldn’t you? So, how do you snake around such a problem? Go to the shrine Start-ups typically have short menus at their disposal but you need to broaden your scope. Your menu should include advertising, strategy, branding, research and internet. Everyday should be research day. Why didn’t she/he come for a purchase today? Why did they not like our product/service? That’s how the mind of a marketer should work. It may feel a little overwhelming getting people to patronize your products or services in the current recession but it is the best time for creativity and innovation. In fact, this is the best time to launch a business. Understanding consumption and purchase occasions is the basis of a successful sales strategy. In addition to this, you need to determine the following. The who of marketing —discipline This is about you. You simply need to be a rebel. Lots of guts and discipline are needed to increase patronage of your brand. The what of marketing Basically, the what is about metrics —numbers. If you can’t triangulate numbers and make them speak to you, then your investments might just go down the drain. For example, the reason why you use a particular brand of toothpaste is the physical satisfaction you get from it. After this stage, comes the emotional attachment. The whole experience is where that brand gets a hold of you and that’s brand equity metrics. The why of marketing —the essence The idea is to market the essence. You need money and every stakeholder needs value and satisfaction. You’ve got to meet somewhere between the two. The how of marketing Now, you may have the best product or service there is in town but marketing doesn’t stop there. You’ll need to rightly position yourself by consistently improving on your customer experience. There’s an art and science to delivering to the end user. Positioning tells you what type of product to innovate, how to improve on it and what sponsorship to ask for. Finally, Idonrenyen shared 5 keys to tracking performance, remember them. Availability Merchandising Space/equipment Price to value Quality And there here you have it, ladies. Entrepreneurship may seem hard but knowing what to do is essential to finding new customers. When building a business, give yourself every advantage that you can. Try these ideas by Idonrenyen and we bet, business will be easier! What could possibly be better than participating in the #SheHive action? Actually attending the next one, obviously. See you in Joburg!