From the time the telecommunications industry was deregulated in 2001, the industry has remained competitive in every facet. Players and operators have used a variety of strategies and techniques to attract over 150 million prospective targets. Coverage, reliability, leadership, and positioning differentiation tactics have been adopted by notable service providers such as MTN, Glo, and Airtel. An integrated communications approach is being used by the companies for the effective attainment of specific objectives of each strategy.
Beyond this, brand strategists’ thinking is now shifting towards strategic influence for the realisation of exponential sales growth. Strategic influence is also known as marketing warfare, in which companies use influential people as ambassadors, promoting their core offerings through varied communication channels.
Companies are encouraged to regard each other as friends, allies, neutral audiences, and hostile audiences in marketing warfare, a sector where strategic influence is deployed. LTC Susan L. Gough characterises the United States as a lone superpower country in his book The Evolution of Strategic Influence. Despite this, he believes that for the country to flourish on a long-term and global scale, it will require the assistance of other countries.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Given Gough’s perspective on strategic influence, it appears that telecoms providers in Nigeria should have a deliberate, conscious coordination or integration of all informational attributes of performing artistes or influential people they want to use as ambassadors in order to influence customers’ views, attitudes, and behaviour in ways that promote their (companies) products and services to achieve their objectives.
The simple use of coverage, dependability, leadership, and positioning differentiation by Nigerian telecoms carriers would not help them win market share wars, according to Kunal Muzumdar, general director of digital marketing agency POSSIBLE. He said, “Power isn’t just in reach; it’s in influence.” “Take the time to get to know them and see if they’re a good fit for your brand.” He went on to say that marketers should make an effort to interact with influencers who share a brand’s genuine problems, interests, and passions.
It’s also been recommended that brand ambassadors should be consistent with the business’s identity in some way, whether it’s through their appearance and demeanour, company values, ethics, or industry knowledge. Brand ambassadors’ personality features and performance attributes are critical in telling clients about the benefits they might expect.
What do consumers care about ambassadors?
We’ve broken out what consumers care about ambassadors in the following section, which we believe will aid your brand ambassador marketing approach. These are the characteristics that customers want to see in any ambassador you hire to promote your business. Consumers always want to identify and internalise with their favourite artists or prominent persons, thus the attributes are based on that. By identification, we imply that a person tends to identify with someone of comparable social rank, which makes a long-term connection more likely. Internalisation, a sort of influence, is typically used by people who believe their behaviour is similar to their values, according to an expert.
Ambassadors drive the bottom line
The goal of utilising brand ambassadors is to produce new customers and retain existing ones in the short term, as well as to grow revenues significantly in the long term. As a result, brand ambassadors with a large number of social media followers are essential for brand improvement and exponential sales growth. According to experts, they (artists) give your brand a face and appeal to customers on both an emotional and functional level. To achieve these goals, a well-coordinated action plan with strategic management and measurement is required. According to a study, there is a clear link between a celebrity’s consistent image and the brand being advertised.
Ambassadors act as purchasing factors
We discovered that brand ambassadors inspire people to buy telecoms products or services after analysing a number of brand ambassadors in the industry. “The modern telecom client, especially the first-time customer, is far more likely to base their product decisions on recommendations received from someone they trust,” according to Reward Stream, an online information source. They want to know how their products and services work in “real-world” situations, particularly subscription services. These purchases are driven by necessity rather than impulse, so breaking through the noise and getting “the genuine deal” from someone they trust is important. In short, people no longer trust advertisements as much as they once did.”