RAJAB 11 1430 A.H.
FRIDAY JULY, 3 2009.
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Vision20: 2020 and the role of the advertiser (II)
By Reuben Abati
To cite two examples in the context of 20:2020 Nigerian economy, there is bound to be greater competition of branch, increase in purchased power may also well mean a phenomenal expansion in market share, and volumes, requiring different patterns of media space purchase Media Challenges and advertising agencies in the context of an improved economy may also be better positioned to deliver value with obvious cost implications. To a great extent therefore, vision 2020 could become a source of unity for industry, and a catalyst for changes, in the structure of business. Advertising is a people's business much in the same manner in which vision 2020 is about people and their lives. Marketing activities, such as engaged in by advertisers can help ensure full utilization of a nation's production capacity, promote competition and inspire the people's spirit of entrepreneurship with win-win spill-over efforts for all stakeholders including government which stands to gain higher revenue from taxation and other regulatory interventions.
This idyllic expectation is achievable however only if government is determined translate its plans into measurable outcomes Good governance is central to what development projects, Incidently, this has been a major area of failure sin 1960, and it is the primary source of the challenge that the Vision 2020 proposal faces.
Vision 2020: of challenges and public perception
The biggest problem that the Vision 2020 project faces is that of widespread public cynicism about it, arising from frustrations with the country’s leadership and the stark failure of similar development plans in the past. Nigerians in the past two decades alone have witnessed so many of such initiatives as Vision 2020. The most famous of this is perhaps the Vision 2010 plan by the General Sani Abacha administration in 1997.
In the Vision 2010 Main Report, it is stated inter alia that “Our vision statement for Nigeria by the year 2010 is – “to be a united, industrious, caring and God-fearing democratic society committed to making the basic needs of life affordable for everyone and creating Africa’s leading economy.”
The Report is detailed, with expected outcomes and time lines. It is therein stated instructively that “The Vision as crafted by the Committee is intended to serve as a compass to guide our collective actions to reach our targets by the year 2010. We can then plan for the period, 2020- 2050 – during which we would aim at joining the developed nations in particular, the major powers which are responsible for shaping the future of the entire world.”
It is obvious that the Vision 2020 project had been anticipated in the Vision 2010 document, but to be noted carefully is the fact that all the expectations and the action plans articulated in the Vision 2010 document were not realized.
Still the Nigerian government continued with the Visioning process. In 2004, the Obasanjo Government launched what it called a National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) to cover the period 2004 -2007.
NEEDS-1 as it was known was a medium-term strategy “to achieve effective poverty alleviation through wealth creation”, taking into consideration “political socio-cultural and other peculiarities of the nation.” This was followed up by NEEDS-2 to cover the period 2008 – 2011 with emphasis on four goals: poverty reduction, wealth creation employment generation and value re-orientation. Not many Nigerians can point to many achievements deriving from NEEDS- 1 and NEEDS-2 which were even extended to the state and local government levels as SEEDS and LEEDS respectively.
However in the introduction to the NEEDS-2 document, it is declared that “Nigeria aspires to be in the league of the 20 leading economies in the world by the year 2020. “ It is this aspiration, pointed out in the Vision 2010 document, and restated in the NEEDS-2 document, that now forms the substance of the current Vision 2020 process in the context of not four goals but seven. Without the people’s buy-in however, not much may be achieved.
The people are frustrated with their leaders. There have been so many reports of corruption and political brigandage since 1999 that even in a democratic context, the people nurse doubts about the future.
Poverty is yet another challenge: Vision 2010, NEEDS, Vision 2020, Re-branding Nigeria sound like slogans to ordinary Nigerians who are more pre-occupied with survival. There is also a lot of ignorance and alienation in the land. Nigerians at the grassroots level are not easily impressed by reports that the government is dreaming or seeing visions: they are interested in practical, immediate results. All of these constitute a marketing and communication challenge, and an opportunity for a proper definition of partnership between government and marketing professionals.
Marketing plays and can play a central role in the development process. To sell Vision 2020 to Nigerians, to communicate a sense of where we are, where we should be going and what we need, the midwives of the Vision 2020 process require skills that are in the province of marketing and communications. In this regard, I recommend the expression of partnership at all the key stages of the Visioning Process: (a) Defining the Vision, (b) Communicating the vision, (c) Implementing the Vision, (d) Monitoring and Evaluating the Outcomes.
(a) Defining the Vision: The Federal Government is currently at the stage of defining the Vision 2020 in terms of its content, priorities and concrete deliverables. Advertisers and their firms as key players within the economy can be involved at the various planning stages as members of the Business Support Group, the Stakeholders Committee and the Technical Working Groups, and where they are not members, their inputs can be sought, or they can as relevant groups make representations.
Assessing the interests of the products and services segment of the economy, as well as market behaviour requires marketing research, and the kind of knowledge that marketing experts can place at the disposal of the process.
The visioning process also requires proper segmentation of sectors and interest groups, an area in which marketing experts can provide useful insights. But more importantly, the participation of the marketing industry in the Visioning Process provides an opportunity to include in the knowledge-pool that is generated, the concerns of the industry and its various audiences in society, as well as the latter’s behaviour and peculiarities. Nigeria seeks to be differentiated from other countries of the world. The definition of that proposition can be supported by the marketing and advertising industry.
(b) Communicating the Vision: This is perhaps the key area in which the advertiser can bring marketing strategies to bear on Vision 2020. At the heart of the entire Vision 2020 idea is the plan by the Nigerian Government that the country can be re-branded. This re-branding objective was a key component of the Vision 2010 document, with the adoption of a Vision 2010 Slogan: “A great Nigeria.. is ours to build.” Ahead of the official launch of the Vision 2020 document scheduled for October 1, 2009, the Yar’Adua government has since embarked on a re-branding campaign, under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and Communication. The adopted slogan as announced is “Good people, Great nation.”
The Minister in charge of this campaign, Professor Dora Akunyili had pointed out that the campaign will be mostly driven with private sector support. Advertisers and their firms are primarily engaged in the business of branding, turning products and services into strong brands, packaging symbols and ideas, with the goal of adding value in the market and gaining greater equity. It is the same objective as the Vision 2020 and the re-branding project. Firms can be encouraged to adopt the Vision, and to plan their businesses on the Vision 2020 template. This can then be incorporated into their own business campaigns, a buy-in that will immediately offer a grassroots dimension to what is otherwise considered an elite activity by the majority of Nigerians. This social marketing can be classified under Corporate Social Responsibility contribution. Oftentimes, CSR efforts by Nigerian companies are designed for the selfish purpose of self-promotion, rather than a genuine attempt to promote social causes or ideas. Advertising can be better utilized as a social and technical vehicle for promoting ideas and values about Nigerian culture and heritage, and not as an instrument for misleading the people on the truths about their own lives.
(c) Implementing the Vision: Much of this will depend on government and its departments and agencies. It is important to stress that stakeholders also have expectations from government. Government must ensure a sustained open communication of the process of implementation, challenges and outcomes. Stakeholders also need to be continually engaged to deepen the partnership that was originally sought. Marketers in particular can offer advice on strategies of innovation, communicating change, and the management of uncertainties. In addition, respective stakeholders in achieving the new brand, must translate the new reality into shifts in their operations. The advertising industry in particular will need to strengthen its rules with regard to standards, and compliance with ethics. Greater quality assurance in products and services will be expected from advertisers, in particular, for whom the sphere of operation is bound to be more competitive and international.
(d) Monitoring and evaluating the outcomes: This is a citizenship responsibility for all Nigerians, be they marketers or other stakeholders. The governance process can only be deepened in the context of a feedback reality.
In the final analysis, the dream of change and progress that is represented by Vision 2020 can only be realised if political leaders themselves show moral example by transforming themselves into agents of change. The re-branding of Nigeria must begin with the re-branding of the leadership elite, and a general re-orientation of the citizenry, to inspire trust among the people and faith in the Nigerian brand. The test of the Vision 2020 process will not inhere in the production by October 2009, of a well-articulated policy document, it lies in translating projected goals into concrete and measurable inputs and outcomes. The short and long of it is in the earlier declaration “that the countries represented in N11 have the potentials to join the league of the 20 largest economies by the year 2025, if their economies are well managed and resources effectively harnessed.”
