Marketing Nigeria – The challenges (2)

Tourism is not about smiles, bikinis and beaches. It is about the economy. Tourism is a window to overall destination engineering – generating income and creating economic activity. By providing 1 out of 12 direct jobs in the world and 9.1 percent of global GDP, we can see why it inspires national competitiveness, with the attendant national pride that accrues to nations performing well on this scene.

There were 1 billion tourists globally in 2012, with over $1.03 trillion in international tourist receipts driving airlines, hotels, cruise liners, taxi cabs, shopping malls, music venues, and theatre business. We can ride on the back of the success that Nollywood and our music industry have recorded on the world map!

Today there are over 7 billion people in the world, with people crossing borders in incredible volumes on a daily basis. This is why this government must get Nigeria into a much higher ranking in the global passport ranking. South Africa ranks 90, and Nigeria a miserable 41.

Just think about it, the small principality of Hong Kong with a population of 7.4 million receives 48.6 million visitors a year. As at 2013, Nigeria recorded 650,000 visitors, according to the World Bank, compared to 5.1 million visitors to the Dominican Republic. So maybe that creates an opportunity for Nigeria. The basic insight derived from the desires and motivation for travel is that the consideration is either about collecting unique experiences for leisure or for business. As countries have their unique identities based on their geographies and culture, it is the duty of branding to weave stories and narratives about the destinations in such a way that fires desire in the visitor to pack his or her bag and travel. This is where authenticity comes in. Authenticity becomes a competitive advantage because it provides the customer with a unique experience as each country destination differs in its geography and culture. It is when a country defines a structure communicated by the performance of its assets that the individual customer imbibes the meaning of that country. It is when the intrinsic and extrinsic values of a brand are communicated flawlessly that a customer is motivated to take a buying decision.

To drive home the point, while Brazil has somehow acquired an image of creativity and achievement (the way they play the game of football with flair and passion, and win) at the world’s most popular sport, and you combine this with the gorgeous girls on the Copacona Beach and the Rio Carnival, there’s little wonder people associate the country with creativity and fun.

So whether it is Dubai or Kenya, the maker of the universe has left no country disadvantaged. This is why a country must start by unearthing its own truth and investing seriously in promoting its national assets and designing spin in its meaning for its desired customers.

How do we market Nigeria?

First, I believe that we must begin with the realization that a country is not only about natural resources and cannot build its future on low-hanging fruits as we have become with oils – a largely mono-product economy. This is more so crucial when the country does not control the technology for extraction, sale and marketing.

Let’s take our creative industries. Which country today has the highest number of young musicians who are even outdoing the Americans in the R&B game? Which country produces the highest number of movies in the world? And whose movie industry is developing at the fastest rate? Which country has the most vibrant fashion industry, drives Africa’s cultural renaissance, and has its clothes exhibited in international fashion weeks, adorn models on the runways and mannequins in stores? Which country has produced such a dizzying constellation of African literary giants – Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, John Pepper Clark, and is now seen as the renascent environment for new writers – Chimamanda Adichie, Chibundo Onuzo, and many more? Which country has more progeny with blacks in the diaspora; with culture that is still surviving from remnants of the slave trade?

To a lot of people, Nigeria is highly endowed with natural resources, and we say this all the time. In the 80’s ‘marketing experts’ in government tried to sell this without success – remember the ‘Andrew don’t check out’ campaign? The other strategy was to promote our traditional festivals, which has led to TV and radio commercials that present the jaded cliché of masquerades to the point that the uninformed will be forgiven for appraising culture, tourism and nation marketing as synonymous with masquerades and dance alone.

So what do we market going forward – our physical assets? Do people want to come to Nigeria because we have two massive rivers, a myriad of not-so-small ones and the Atlantic Ocean? Maybe, maybe not. Do people want to come to Nigeria because of the death traps we call roads? Maybe, maybe not. Do people want to come to Nigeria to see the organized chaos that is our cities? Maybe, maybe not.

The story was told of an American who visited Lagos on a business/pleasure trip. When he requested his guests to show him round the city, he was taken to Ajegunle, Makoko, Ikeja, Balogun, Ikoyi, Banana Island, VI, and Lekki axis. On their way back from Lekki, the American asked, “Where do your wealthy live?” His host said, “But I showed you already: Ikoyi, Banana Island, VI and some parts of Lekki.” The guy repeated, “But where do your rich live?”

The point is we would not succeed in getting visitors into our country based on how many Eko Atlantic cities we have – because many of those abound in different parts of the world. The global community, no thanks to us Nigerians, has invested Nigeria with the imagery that plays to the undisciplined and the criminal. But I do not see the associated perception of our country that arises from this imagery indelible.

All we need do is have a really deep probing of our identity strength, relative to our context, and out of this equation we will find first our genius loci – the distinctive atmosphere or pervading spirit that characterizes our nation.

So we need to design deliberate spin on our national meaning, by employing storytelling at painting an enchanting imagery on the senses of our prospects and customers in such a way that we stimulate their desire for our assets – spiritual and material – in order to make a choice of destination Nigeria, and of course to the rejection of our competition.

 

Being text of the investiture lecture delivered at the NIMN on Friday, 17^th February, 2017 at Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos.

 

Biodun Shobanjo