The Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of Lilvera Group, Mr. Buchi Johnson, has urged clients and corporate organisations to review their marketing plans and budgets as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that has redefined the dynamics of the Nigerian marketing environment.

The London Business School alumnus, who spoke to journalists in his Lekki office, said that there will be new opportunities, post-pandemic, that brands can pivot to be a part of. Technology is making it very easy for us to get a lot of things done and presently, any business that wants to make it has to create strategies using technology to achieve success online.

“Going forward, a serious minded organisation that wants to achieve great success for its brand and products must adopt an 80% to 20% budget planning for its marketing activities. This is as a result of the COVID-19 impact on bottomline as well as government regulations,” Johnson said.

The Lilvera Group boss, who believes that brands must make a conscious effort to understand their consumers’ online needs, said: “Understanding your consumers’ online behaviors will help any brand align with their needs. To achieve this, brands must ensure their teams are social media savvy to meet consumers’ needs.

“Their understanding of tech tools will help manage sales channels and consumer conversations. They will also be able to understand what influences consumer decisions in the present situation as well as what influence new business and partnership,” he said.

Buchi Johnson advised that it is important businesses begin to take crisis communication and management seriously as pandemic continues to bite harder.

“It is also important that businesses should have a crisis management plan on hand, the pandemic is a huge crisis that a lot of businesses did not envisage and could not manage. This caused a lot of businesses to shut down or lay off workers. It is important now more than ever to have a crisis management plan,” Johnson stated.

As a marketing communications expert with over 12 years’ experience, he said: “I have come to understand that change is permanent and to stay relevant, one most understand the trends and stay steps ahead of uncertainty.”

Speaking on the impact of pandemic on retail marketing space, the CEO of Lilvera Group said: “The retail sphere would be impacted no doubt but brands that adopt digital marketing would conquer this space and make greater success out of it despite the effect of the pandemic.

“I am an early adopter of technology and an advocate of it as well, I think up ways to use technology to build my business and it has been the best strategy so far during the COVID-19 issue. We literally kept working during the lockdown, found new ways of doing things and offering our clients new ideas, which saw us grow through the lockdown to this present time.”

•PHOTO: L-R, Goddie Ofose, Chief Executive Officer, December 29 Media, Habeebat Raji, Business Executive, Lilvera Nigeria Ltd, Buchi Johnson, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Lilvera Group And Paix Otene, Head Administration, Lilvera Nigeria Ltd, at the Lilvera Nigeria Limited Media Interactive Session in the company’s headquarters in Lekki Phase 1 Lagos at the weekend

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