How Marketing & Entrepreneurship can solve all the problems in the world.
Just in case you missed the Marketers Rule the World not Women Part 1 check it out and catch up with the rest. So here’s how one marketer creates problems for us in the
world and it becomes another marketer’s opportunity to sell more to the world.
Charles Darwin in the evolution theory stated that it is the
smartest of species that survive…we I presume you are smart enough since you
are already reading this. Am I the smartest in the planet? NO however I know
just a few things that could also changes the world. I cannot be Bill Gates or
Steve Jobs but my contribution in the world matters to. Motivational speakers
have told me that I have the potential to be whatever I want to be. YES…you
heard me right….I can be anything! However for now I am a blogger, Social Media
Specialist and a marketer. Not bad after all!! At least am doing something!
Back to my story, I want to show you just how one man’s
poison is another man’s food.A few rich people have made billions by simply
doing something to solve the problems in the world. Do they face challenges?
Yes they DO! Big challenges!
When the fast food marketers created obesity in the world a
whole new industry emerged; it was the wellness industry! Since somehow a good
number of you have fat in all the wrong places, someone was brilliant enough to
start a gym in your neighborhood. The gym gets equipment from a supplier
locally who then sources them from the manufacturer. This scenario created a
lot of jobs in the world just because one marketer was brave enough to tell the
world that eating fast food is ‘cool’. Today we have wellness & health
magazines, weight loss consultants to nutritionists all cashing in on just one
industry!
When the beer marketers made alcohol look nice to consume
they created a lot of problems in the world! A lot I repeat!! When you can’t
stop drinking or partying every day you need to go to rehab, see a consultant!
Do you pay? Yes you do! Because you need help! When your spouse can’t stand
your drinking habits he/she files a divorce in court, then lawyers come in to
help you sort out the mess and split what you worked tirelessly over 20 years
equally! The lawyer is the happiest man here….He made
loads of cash simply because one man decided to drink beer every evening after work!!
Alcohol is what has lead to increase in infidelity, men not only drink alcohol
till 4 am because it’s sweet!! No!! Something goes on that leads to something
and lastly it gets intimate! When people start getting intimate with strangers,
they need protection, thus a brilliant guy made condoms and birth control
pills. Do they sell? Yes they do….a lot!! When the world wanted to enjoy sex
better with their partners one guy made sex toys, porn movies and all the crazy
stuff that Getrude Mungai teaches us to use and by the way she has a mammoth following on Facebook with 49000 subscribers! Got me thinking....people really want to know how to do it right in bed!!
Does she make cash out of this? Yes because already there's a motivated market ready to pay for what she offers!
The world’s richest people are also great marketers, if they aren't they hire the most brilliant guys or agencies to push their brands. A lot of people do amazing stuff in their bedroom's, art, apps, designs or whatever you do but if you can't sell your cool stuff then you'll remain poor forever! We buy loads of fake products just because they are marketed properly! Now that’s the application of marketing to entrepreneurship.
The world’s richest people are also great marketers, if they aren't they hire the most brilliant guys or agencies to push their brands. A lot of people do amazing stuff in their bedroom's, art, apps, designs or whatever you do but if you can't sell your cool stuff then you'll remain poor forever! We buy loads of fake products just because they are marketed properly! Now that’s the application of marketing to entrepreneurship.
When the car marketers sold millions of units worldwide they
created traffic jams in Nairobi, global warming because cars run on fuel, the
motor spares business is huge locally and thus garages, car music & audio
business .etc etc. So if the car marketers didn’t sell the cars, there would be
no petrol stations, no garages, no car wash, driving schools…See now? The world
would be so boring! We’d all be unemployed and complaining to the government.
With traffic jams everywhere in the city we marketers created jobs &
businesses for city planners, engineers, contractors and suppliers!! Thika road
is ongoing as you read this, some Chinese guy (Founder of China Wu Yi) in Hong kong is smiling all the
way to the bank because Kenyans need roads; they can’t fit & move during
the rush hour. To keep getting more business locally he will invest in Toyota
or Nissan in Japan, move more units, create more traffic snarl ups in the city and thus
he’ll get another contract to build new roads or repair the ones he did! That’s
a bit cruel but that’s how the world works!
With global warming, Kenya has severe dry spells and floods
in the rainy season. Why? All our cars
run on fuel. We just did "Kenyans for Kenya" a few months ago for Turkana
resident; good news is that now they have oil and hopefully next year we won’t
do it again for them!!! As you move from
point A to B you burn fuel, do you look behind to see the trail of smoke you
leave? NO. It’s not your problem until your uncle in shaggz calls you asking for
school fees for his son. Why? The crops failed, he didn’t harvest anything because
rains were not enough. As a city dweller, your car is causing so much trouble
today to the farmers. If there’s no
food in the village, then we pay handsomely for meals in the hotels. The grocer in your
neighbourhood doubles the price or reduces the quantity of what he or she
sells to you. We complain a lot; saying "Maisha imepanda bei" (The cost of living has gone up) but
how will it come down when we cause these problems ourselves? See how the
problem you created has caused more problems that you can’t handle? So who
helps the village? The government through extension officers (Job Creation) to help the farmers grow
drought resistant crops as you cruise in the city!!
I could go on and on but the moral of this long story is; don’t
complain about every small challenge there is in the country. As we agreed
earlier you are TOO SMART to say on national TV that the government ‘should do
something’. Since you are too cool for that, analyze the problem there is the
country or in the world today, what problems have other brilliant marketers
caused? The traffic jams? Right? Don’t tweet about it, the clever guy won’t
encourage people to walk to work. NO. He will import motor bikes…Really cool
bikes and sell convenience, time saving & mobility across the city to the
frustrated Kenyans. With the bike, you can zoom past guys in nice cars stuck in traffic;
make it to work in time. Can Kenyans buy bikes? Yes!
If Jeff Koinange, Peter Nduati, Bob Collymore, Mike Sonko & ministers start riding these bikes,(if there's good security in Nairobi) they'll appear cool to buy and thus a very aspirational middle class will dump their cars & buy them also! That alone will de-congest the city during certain times of the day & during the rainy season we can go to work in one car rather than one family leaving home with 4 different cars! You just need to drop your mum & sister at work while your dad takes care of the other members of the family!
The very first guys who bought the boda boda’s are rich men in the village. The few more brilliant guys who imported the boda bodas into the country now live happily in the Runda's of today. They only watch news on TV about how the bikes they sold are killing Kenyans on the roads. Feels sad? Right? but he made his CA$H and now scanning the market for a gap, when he’s back to the game he’ll make a killing again. Is he smart? Yes. Did he have to go to school to learn that? No. Does he have a MBA? In most cases he doesn’t. Is he rich? YES! Don’t we all love cash & all the comfort money brings? Fill the blank space----------! Remember the guy didn’t ‘eat’ NHIF or NSSF cash, he made his cash & paid taxes, so nobody bugs him. Let’s move on!
If Jeff Koinange, Peter Nduati, Bob Collymore, Mike Sonko & ministers start riding these bikes,(if there's good security in Nairobi) they'll appear cool to buy and thus a very aspirational middle class will dump their cars & buy them also! That alone will de-congest the city during certain times of the day & during the rainy season we can go to work in one car rather than one family leaving home with 4 different cars! You just need to drop your mum & sister at work while your dad takes care of the other members of the family!
The very first guys who bought the boda boda’s are rich men in the village. The few more brilliant guys who imported the boda bodas into the country now live happily in the Runda's of today. They only watch news on TV about how the bikes they sold are killing Kenyans on the roads. Feels sad? Right? but he made his CA$H and now scanning the market for a gap, when he’s back to the game he’ll make a killing again. Is he smart? Yes. Did he have to go to school to learn that? No. Does he have a MBA? In most cases he doesn’t. Is he rich? YES! Don’t we all love cash & all the comfort money brings? Fill the blank space----------! Remember the guy didn’t ‘eat’ NHIF or NSSF cash, he made his cash & paid taxes, so nobody bugs him. Let’s move on!
Don’t go to business to create the next Safaricom, you’ll
never make it, you’ll never beat them! They’ll fry you up with their fat
marketing budgets and nothing will ever be heard of you again. Think of what
you can do, what problems has Safaricom has created, are there any gaps in
their industry? Think of what service
you can offer to Safaricom and they’ll pay for it if it adds value to their
business.
Don’t open a hotel on Waiyaki way so that the employees of
Safaricom come eat at your joint; Naaaah!!! already there’s Njuguna’s and
cooler places at ABC place for the well paid guys at the ‘green house’.Why should they come to your Mama Ciru café? That’s now where pro
marketers come in (but this time with the help from above) to help you convince the smartly dressed executives why the should sit in
a stuffed café and enjoy your food!! But then 'Mama Ciru' again cannot afford to
pay a consultant and remain afloat; however she can do Cakes & Ice cream or
fruits and supply them during tea breaks to the employees because someone doesn’t have to go all the
way to Kangemi or Westlands market to buy just one banana. That's better now for Mama Ciru because she's getting more innovative!
The above scenario isn't entrepreneurship but what I call ‘just being in
business" and we have a lot of businessmen in Nairobi today. In fact everyone is
into some kind of a side hustle in the city today! If you are "just in business"
you cannot change the world, you’ll never leave a legacy behind. When Steve
Jobs died the world mourned him,we all wanted to see if Apple can remain alive
after he’s dead. Well it’s still there because it’s not just a ‘Business”.
You’ll make cash in the short term if you’re ‘just in
business’ and when the business climate changes you’ll close down. Entrepreneurial
ventures can withstand the worst economic crises in the world only if they
remain innovative! You got the brains, you are unique, and you were created in
God’s own image. You are superb, so awesome and you can something great for the
world too. Don’t replicate what’s being
done, do something different to fill in a gap in the market and there are a lot
of niches in the world today, so scan around globally and see what you can
offer the world!
If you are brilliant, think of what you can do,it doesn’t have
to be big, you don’t need a lot of capital to start a business. Furthermore
there’s a lot of cash following great ideas, nobody will invest in a not so
great idea, the banks first watch you struggle, roll it out, and if they think
you can do better then they give you their cash!! However this shouldn’t be the
barrier to starting a business; Apple, Virgin, Microsoft, KQ, P&G and Coca-Cola
weren’t all built in a decade! So as you think BIG, remember to start SMALL and
most importantly start NOW. Don’t procrastinate! Do it now.
All the best in what you are planning to do and just in case
you need help from a marketer who understands Social Media & PR then holla,
we’ll take it to the NEXT level in a very short time!!
Kindly use #SmartEntreprenuers to share any business success
lessons you know. Let’s solve the problems in the world by sharing information with other entrepreneurs
and cc me @KenyanMarketer.
In my next article I will talk about how entrepreneurs, designers, innovators, marketers who are smart can work together and start the next Apple, Microsoft or Facebook by simply working as a team to create the world's next biggest thing. You cant do it alone, but you also don't need loads of cash to succeed; but if you are part of a talented team then cash will flow in. People can invest in your idea if you can deliver & build what you are so passionate about. However the most important thing is; there has to be a MARKET for what you want to sell!! Think big with the customer angle in mind.
If you like this article, kindly share it on your Facebook or twitter, help me pass on this message! Lets solve our problems, lets not complain, lets work harder but in a smart way. Let's #DoitFOR254
Cheers!
If you like this article, kindly share it on your Facebook or twitter, help me pass on this message! Lets solve our problems, lets not complain, lets work harder but in a smart way. Let's #DoitFOR254
Cheers!
This was a killer! keep it up man
ReplyDeleteThanks Victor. I appreciate your review!
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ReplyDeleteDriver's is a formal class or plan that prepares a new driver to get a learner's allow or driver's license.Thanks! Look for additional posts on this topic soon. Thanks admin.
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