Expert Charges Marketing Professionals On Tech Adoption, Financial Performance

Experts have charged professional marketers to enhance their capacity by being technology savvy and also deliver finance performance marketing if they are to remain relevant in the ever-changing marketing world.

The chief executive officer (CEO), OPay Nigeria, Mr. Olu Akanmu, who gave the admonition at the graduation ceremony of the Simon Page College of Marketing, over the weekend in Lagos, noted that, the marketing business is changing rapidly, and every business today is impacted by technology, saying, “So when we all talk about digital transformation, it is not limited to any industry because every industry is being digitally transformed.

“Anyone who is going to practice marketing must therefore be connected to the digital transformation trend of the industry because you cannot practice marketing today without also learning technology, especially now that the marketing industry is also going digital.”

He further said, marketing should speak revenue and performance language and not just the brand’s preference among the public.

“As marketing people, we need to be accountable for the investment in marketing, especially on the issue of performance marketing.

“If shareholders give you N500 million to do marketing, they expect a return in tangible revenues, not just because people love the brand. They love the brand, but how much does it translate in terms of the tonnes of cartons that have been moved out of the factory? That is the language of the boardroom, and so marketing must speak the revenue and performance language.

“So today’s marketers now have a better platform to thrive in the industry with the kind of training they receive from Simon Page, unlike some older generations who just stray into the marketing industry,” he said.

On his part, the chief executive officer(CEO) of Corporate Shepherds Limited, Idorenyen Enang, charged the marketing professionals to see themselves as value creators, as that is what the organisation is looking for.

“To the graduands who have taken these steps, many of you may be thinking the profession of marketing is just buying and selling, and most especially in Nigeria, where everyone thinks they are marketers, which is not so in other climes.

“I just want you to see yourself as a value creator, and in today’s world we real a solution, but you have to have a mindset of being adaptable because you are not going to find the same problem all the time.”

So whatever situation, brand, company, business, organisation, or content you find yourself in, you must give value, and when you move to the point of value, there is a place where opportunity is given and reward is given,” he stressed.

The CEO and founder of Simon Page College of Marketing, Dr. Princewill Omorogiuwa, reaffirmed that, the college will not relent in providing the skills and training that are needed to thrive in today’s world, adding that, “and we have been doing that for the last 15 years through bespoke training as a prominent marketing training provider.”

He said: “We make sure that whatever training we are giving our graduates will be relevant in that particular environment. In the last 15 years, we have changed our curriculum about four times to meet demand. We never had any qualifications that had to do with digital marketing before now.

“Now we have a curriculum that has to do with sustainable marketing, and the same way we are going to have curriculum in the future that will have to do with data and analytics, so expect that as the environment continues to change, we will also be able to adapt to it to come up with a curriculum that takes that on board so that those who take our qualification and then qualify can improve significantly not just their jobs and careers but also their organisations.

“We are happy that 120 professionals are graduating in digital marketing, professional marketing, as well as project management from 2020–2022, adding to the 5,000 trained marketing professionals.”