In today’s world, marketers are currently seeking for new ways to connect and engage the female population globally growing at about 49.56 % female in 2018 of the world population of 7.62 billion according to Worldometers. This gives credence to the long call for gender equality as featured in the celebration of the International Women’s Day (IWD) yearly.
Specifically, in Nigeria’s marketing and communications industry, a women conference and awards tagged ‘Women In Marketing & Communications Conference/Awards (WIMCA)’ has been at the forefront of renewing the call and chattering the way forward for professionals in deploying new ways of marketing to women and seeking long time engagement.
The third edition of WIMCA held recently in Lagos themed “Better the Balance in the Brands and Marketing Communications Industry” was in line with the theme of IWD this year, ‘Better the Balance’
Findings indicate that there are so many girls/ladies at the secondary and tertiary levels of education in Nigeria, in spite of this, few women are only at the top in the corporate world. A cursory look at the global scene revealed that the number of female CEOs in 2019 according to Fortune 500 now stands at 6.6%, a considerable jump from 2018’s total of 24 of 4.8%.
Also, industry analysts reveal that, only four out of the top 20 AAAN member agencies have women at the helm of affairs in different agencies. In the commercial banking sector, two out of the 21 commercial banks in Nigeria have female as Chief Executive Officer. The ten major Media Independent agencies on the other hand do not have any woman as the head. Other sub-sectors of the industry cutting across both agency and clients’ side have very few women piloting the affairs of their organisations. However, a good number of women are calling the shots as CMOs with opportunities for more women engagements on the client’s side of the business.
Hence, according to the organisers of WIMCA, the event was designed to identify the current trends in marketing communications while addressing the career challenges of female marketing professionals.
Corroborating on this, Joshua Ajayi, the Convener of WIMCA, and Publisher, Brand Communicator, said “For the past few editions of this conference, the theme of the International Women’s Day (IWD) Celebration commemorated every March has always informed the theme of WIMCA, and this year is no different. Hence, the theme for this year’s conference is ‘Better the Balance in the Brands & Marketing Industry,” after this year’s IWD ‘Better the balance’ theme.
“The theme is a reminder to us in this industry that the race is on for gender-balanced boardrooms, government, workforces, media coverage, income and wealth distribution among others. Interestingly, the industry, the nation, the continent and the world generally have in the few couple of years recorded history-defining achievements in gender balance, though, there is more to be done.”
Speaking on the theme, Ademola Adebise, MD/CEO of Wema Bank and Keynote speaker, represented by Tunde Mabawonku, Chief Finance Officer at Wema Bank Plc said a lot of women in marketing and communications industry are doing great, he therefore urged women to support each other, be focus and be deliberate about their goals in the quest to ensure that more of them get to the top in their career and to the boardroom.
Contemporary trends in marketing to women
Similarly, John Ugbe, CEO, MultiChoice Nigeria and keynote speaker while speaking on contemporary trends in marketing to women explained that his organisation has more women who have risen to the top in their career and more are still springing up. He urged other organisations to deploy creative ways in addressing female related challenges.
Proffering solution to a case study which involved an agency that has about 25 female staffs while 18 of them got pregnant at the same time, Ugbe suggested such an organisation should provide an enabling environment in terms of where they can get medical attention close by to make them comfortable and as well go all out to win the account of brands attracting pregnant women and mothers because the pregnant women in the agency can relate better with the brand than any other person.
He added that his organisation will continue to seek more ways to empower women, one of which is the MultiChoice Women Forum.
Meanwhile, during the panel discussion, moderated by Anurika Azubuike, Founder, Marketplace Innovation Africa, the panelists proffered new ways of marketing to women.
Bukky Bandele, Marketing Director, Electricals Africa, HPZ, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc said that today women are the biggest influencers and spenders and they are loyal once a brand is able to effectively engage with them.
Bridget Oyefeso-Odusami, Head, Marketing and Communications, Stanbic IBTC said that women are really interested in the functionality of any good or services they key into, explaining that more women invest 90 per cent of their earning in their financial and investment services.
On another note, Tolulope Adedeji, Marketing Director, AB InBev West Africa said that women are in the season of empowerment and are readily interested in anything that will empower them and make their lives better.
Similarly, Emmanuel Agu, Group Marketing Director, JOTNA Nigeria Limited pointed that in Television commercials and advertising campaigns generally women are often projected in a bad light either as a domestic worker or as a sex object which is also often portrayed in the movies and musicals. He therefore explained that there is need for diversity which a balance of male and female in the work place and the need for organisations to stop lip services to issue of gender equality, “What an organization does is a reflection of who they are,” he said.
Equity Vs Equality
The issue of organizations choosing between equity and equality in their corporate philosophy has always been on the front burner. Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial while Equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.
At the second session of the conference, Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, Group Chief, Sustainability & Governance, Dangote Industries Limited who spoke on the sub-theme, ‘Better the Balance in the Work Place; Equity or Equality?’ said women in business are always dedicated and for them to find the way to the top they need to “define and understand the problem, align with a global movement.
She revealed that men usually networking, seal deals when at pubs, adding that they usually reach consensus before a board meeting. She therefore advised women to borrow a leaf from that, embark on networking, support each other to rise to the top and equally learn to complete favourably with men.
Meanwhile, during the panel discussion moderated by Tosin Adefeko, Managing Director, AT3 Resources, Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, Head, Sustainability, Access Bank Plc urged women to be more deliberate in their approach and stay on top of their trade irrespective of men domination or not. She said that her organisation Access Bank has made the working environment easy for women irrespective of the stage of life they are.
Charles Nnochiri, Head of Marketing, PZ Cussons, on his own part said that irrespective of being a man of woman, people should be treated equally and their expertise should be the criteria to pick a potential employee not necessarily the gender. He said that equity should be favoured ahead of equality.
In the same vein, Caroline Oghuma, Executive Head, Corporate Affairs, MultiChoice Nigeria, stated that today’s organisations are making conscious effort to ensure equity in the workplace irrespective of the gender. She therefore urged women to be diligent and innovative in order to remain relevant in the work place.
On a different note, Bunmi Oke, Managing Director, Ladybird Limited said both equity and equality are needed in the work place, pointed that all women have a role to play by being the best they can be, have a positive mindset, work hard and fight for what they want.
Interestingly, the event was chaired by Udeme Ufot, Group Managing Director, SO&U while sectorial heads and members from NIMN, IAA, NIPR, AAAN and among others were also in attendance to give their support to women and WIMCA 2019.
Prominent and outstanding female marketing professionals in the Nigerian Integrated Marketing Communications industry were awarded from different sectors for their contributions to the growth of the industry.
