This section is concerned with the Nigeria energy crisis as it relates to the penetration of renewable energy in the country. Nigeria is one of the most populous African nations, but it is a poor nation with a per capita GDP of $2,160 in comparison to industrialised countries, and her energy crisis is also hindering the development of its economy (Saad and Bugaje 2016). Despite the country’s vast reserves of oil and gas and the potential of using the renewable energy to its fullest, their deficiency in electrical sources due to structural and financial issues as well as losses due to the poor way of generating power and insufficient ways of generating the cash. The efforts of government agencies and private sector in trying to provide better solutions by adapting the policies that can provide better solutions have not any yielded visible results (Akuru et al. 2017). In view of the energy crisis, the need for renewable energy has never been more necessary, but its wide spread usage has been limited for lack of marketing. Marketing communications are part of those marketing practices that help develop long-term business relations (Okoro and Chikuni, 2017).
Fill and Turnbull (2013, p. 20) assert that “marketing communications is audience –centred activity, designed to engage audiences and promote conversations.” The focus of marketing communications then is on generating engagement and conversations as outcome of the activity. Essentially, it is a process that business organisations and audiences come in communication with one another. And the understanding of the audience’s preferred communications environments, messages are developed and presented and participants are encouraged to offer attitudinal, emotional and behavioural responses. Therefore, marketing communications is a complex activity and its applied by business organsations with varying degrees of sophistication and success. Its roles and tasks are to differentiate, reinforce, inform or persuade audiences to think, feel or behave in particular ways (Fill and Thurnbull, 2013)
Appropriate integrated marketing communication (IMC) is required for long-term business sustainability of renewable energy (Odunsi et al., 2012). IMC as both a concept and a process involves the adoption and use of various marketing communication tools to ensure the needs and requirements of customers. This paper asserts Uzoma et al. (2012) position that IMC is one of the efficient marketing tools that could help organisations construct a sustainable relationship with customers and the businesses.
Essentially, marketing communications or promotion is about establishing contact with consumers and organisations (trade) to influence their knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in a direction that is favourable for the marketing policy. The commercial communication of an organisation contains both marketing and enterprise communication. Enterprise communication or corporate communication is a broader term for marketing communications. Its aim involves building trust and goodwill among internal and external relationship groups. Public relations (PR) activities are mostly used for this goal (Lagae 2005). Not only marketing communications but also product-quality, price-setting and distribution techniques – the other instruments of the marketing mix – can improve or strengthened a brand. Therefore, marketing communication contains all of the instruments through which the marketer spreads information regarding the product, price and distribution. It should be noted, that a poor-product quality cannot be compensated for by a professional deployment of the promotion mix. But, the price and the choice of distribution channels partly determine the success of a marketing strategy (ibid).
IMC is understood as the use of marketing strategies to optimise the communication of a consistent message of the company’s brands to stakeholders. It is an approach use to creating a holistic and seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand or the business enterprise. This approach merges all aspects of marketing communication e.g. advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and social media, through their respective mix of tactics, methods, channels, media, and activities in such a way that all work together as a unified force. IMC as a process is usually designed to ensure that all messaging and communications strategies are consistent across all channels and are centered on the customer (Belch & Belch 2004). In other words, as a planning process IMC is designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organisation are relevant to that person and consistent over time.
IMC is also an approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign by using well-coordinated different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other. IMC recognises the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines advertising, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing, interactive/internet marketing and sales promotion and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact. IMC enables company’s marketing to go beyond traditional media and conventional methods in order to achieve success and wide usage of their products and services by communicating with consumers using a myriad of tools to convey a unified message on a product. This is the business practice of the 21st century. IMC as a management concept relies on consistency as a key in ensuring that consumers understand marketing message which leads to a great result and return on investment. It is about investing the right amount of money towards the most effective approach.
With this concept in mind, IMC places emphasis on the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion and combines them to provide clarity. Therefore, an adequate integrated marketing communication strategy helps to develop long-term relationship marketing scope with the renewable energy industry of Nigeria (Uzoma et al. 2012).
This proposal positions the potential impact of IMC on the renewable energy industry of Nigeria. Society and the people are the major stakeholders of every organisation, hence, in order to attract the customers towards the products and services of organisations, the effective role of integrated marketing communication is greatly required.
It needs to be stated that, IMC is designed based on marketing strategies such as:
SOSTAC Planning: The design of IMC is based on business strategy that employs SOSTAC planning. The SOSTAC model of marketing consists of several elements that can help in the process of implementing effective marketing strategies and raise the popularity of the brand. According to Hult and Ketchen (2017), it is important to make use of the digital form of marketing in the context of the modern day business, where this kind of model can be used effectively.
Marketing Mix: Also the application of marketing mix in IMC helps to decide upon different parameters that includes the promotional strategy for a product.
Target market (Segmenting, targeting and positioning STP): As a matter of strategy, businesses determine their target market group to help evaluate potential customers and in designing the business marketing strategy. Customers within the target group would have basic characteristics such as income, lifestyle, age and geographical location. Determining the target market is one of the vital criteria for successful business marketing (Olsson et al. 2015). This is to enable businesses to understand the demands and needs of customers. The testing of the target customer group enables companies to accurately investigate and collect information about the target customer group through the use of customer survey analysis and which also help in understanding the demographic requirement of any region concerned. The decisions that are implemented in the business strategy and IMC respectively focus on the needs and demand of the target customer group so as to increase the popularity of the product or services that are being offered in the market (Brennan 2014).
Using the STP will provide the unique experience of product that is being provided by companies will determine the level of popularity of the product. In the case of renewable energy in Nigeria, the target customer can include all segments of the society.
Branding: As a strategy is understood as a long-term process of establishing strong reputation for a product within the market and also for raising the value of brand awareness among the potential target customer groups. Effective branding strategy comes as direct result of business policies and enables companies to properly communicate with the customers in order to understand their demands and complaints. Also branding strategy is decided based on the competitive advantage of the product and service and on brand position within the consumer market (Pagani 2013). The branding strategy of a company makes a promise to the customer on the quality and the features of the product or service that is being offered. By using the branding strategy, the purpose of any particular company can also be defined clearly using functional concepts of evaluation that can be regarded as the immediate reasons for business success (Strauss 2016). It will be vital for renewable companies to maintain a consistency in their branding strategy in order to maintain the reputation of the products and services in the Nigerian consumer market through setting a strong platform in order for the renewable energy business to be sustainable (Barney 2014).
Other platforms to be considered for the use of IMC could be digital marketing techniques (websites, Search Engine Optimisation SEO, social media etc.) and by preparing the marketing policies in such a way as to raise the level of brand awareness among all target customer groups. Digital marketing is commonly used by businesses to communicate with customers and stakeholders generally (Ryan 2016). It also saves cost of advertisement when compared to traditional form of marketing (D’silva and Michael 2017). Techniques of digital marketing such as SEO increases the visibility and popularity of companies websites, while social media as a platform for promotional technique e.g. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. are sources to attract target group of customers and provide information to target market (Tiago and Veríssimo 2014).
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): The use the digital marketing helps to formulate effective policies of CRM, which will help businesses to provide valuable information about the product and services as well as assistance to all the existing customers. These policies will also help the businesses to retain the existing customers and gather useful information from them for the improvement of the quality of products and services that are being offer to the market. An effective CRM is one of the important components of marketing which is used to raise the popularity and brand awareness of products within the target group of customers (Solomon 2014).
Development of every organization depends on the adequate policies and marketing strategies taken by the practitioners. Marketing communications are part of those marketing practices that help develop a long-term relation (Okoro and Chikuni, 2017). The use of IMC based on the strategies discussed above can be applied to the renewable energy in Nigeria as one of the main avenue to establish the wide usage of renewable in the Nigerian consumer market.
Nigeria is one of the most populous African nations, but it is a poor nation with a per capita GDP of $2,160. The country is facing crisis in energy sources, which is also causing problems for the development of its economy (Saad and Bugaje 2016). The country has vast reserves of energy resources with over 36 billion barrels of oil, 187 trillion cubic feet of gas and 4 billion metric tonnes of coal and lignite. That is not all, Nigeria also has a large amount of renewable energy resources which include hydroelectricity (estimated at 14,750MW), solar (radiation estimated at 3.5-7.0 KWh m-2day-1), wind potential of (150,000 terra joule per year, generated by an average wind speed of 2.0-4.0m/s) and biomass energy (at 144 million tonnes per year) (National Technical Working Group on Energy Sector 2009).
Yet, the country is facing deficiency in electrical sources due to the structural and financial issues and has been facing losses due to the poor way of generating power and insufficient ways of generating the cash (Akuru et al. 2017).
This research will attempt to examine whether there is a problem of either the underutilisation of renewable energy potentials or inadequate usage of renewable energy sources.
Regarding Nigeria, the energy mix as of 2005 was largely depended on crude oil which accounts for 57% followed by gas 36% and hydroelectricity 7% (Oyedepo 2012). But in view of the energy crisis described in the introduction and the need for renewable energy, appropriate marketing communication is required for long-term sustainability (Odunsi et al., 2012). Also the availability of other renewable sources will be explored with their commercial relevance for power supply.
But what actually is renewable energy (RE) and what benefits are there to derived from its usage? Energy sources from rivers, solar, wind, biomass, ocean waves and tides and geothermal (heat of the earth) are called RE because they are regularly replenishable by natural processes and hence are endless in supply i.e. they possess security of supply. But, RE are not known to operate for certain without negative polluting effects on the environment. Technologies used to harness renewable energies are referred to as Renewable Energy Technologies RETs or clean technologies or green energy or “Greenther”.
The benefits RE include among others: they are inexhaustible as their rate of use does not affect their future availability; they are clean and pollution free, hence they are sustainable natural form of energy; and they can be cheaply and continuously harvested as sustainable source of energy (Oyedepo 2012).
Therefore, creating awareness on RE and promoting the wide use of RE through the application IMC can help to ensure the sustainability of energy supply and Nigeria’s sustainable social economic development (ebd). It is this area of study that this project wishes to extend and develop ways through IMC to help facilitate the wide spread usage of RE.
This proposal asserts Uzoma et al. (2012) position that IMC is one of the efficient marketing tool that could help organisations construct a sustainable relationship with customers and the global communities. This research will explore further the way that IMC could be applied to the penetration renewable energy among the Nigerian populace.
The research aims to structure the IMC model in such a way that it could be applied effectively to spread the usage of renewable energy in the context of Nigeria. The objectives are as follow:
The central questions that the project consequently asks are:
This research is necessary because, just as consumer needs have changed, the practices of marketing around the world have changed radically, too. What was suitable for the products and services marketing of the past century are not suitable for the larger, wider, more diverse, broadly educated consumers of the twenty-first century. In order to enhance the awareness and use of renewable energy as credible solution to Nigeria power supply problem, and thus promote social economic development, an effective IMC model appear to be very necessary. The main focus of this research is to explore further how IMC as tool of penetration could help in spreading the wider understanding and usage of renewable as alternative power supply for socio economic development.
There is availability of interesting academic literature on RE and IMC, but the uniqueness of this study will be in its innovative exploration of IMC and the construction of IMC as tool to help in penetrating and promote the wide spread used of renewable energy into the larger Nigerian society. Secondly, the novel contribution of this research will be in the way that the collected data will be analysed using system thinking analysis.
The proposed research contributions are:
The study aims to look into the use of IMC as effective tools for penetration, marketing and promotion of the brand images of any product and service. This will be applied to the renewable energy industry of Nigeria regarding how IMC tool can be applied to a product to penetrate market and promote a society and build long term relationship with customers. Essentially, the scope of this study covers IMC not just as it helps to construct a sustainable and long term relation with the customers of renewable energy in the emerging market of Nigeria, but also how IMC tool could be applied as penetration tool.
In recent years, an increase academic interest has been noted in relation to RE as sources of energy that could solve energy problems and foster economic development in the emerging economies. This section addresses the various issues of renewable energy adoption in the Global South (developing economy) and the various tools and techniques that have been adopted in the literature to adequately account for the usage of renewable energy. Titus Olaniyi’s (2014) work on limitations of traditional energy planning approaches and the need for new methodological framework, will be expanded upon, just as his contribution for the need for alternative paradigm, for energy (2014b) as well as his proposed applications of modelling to sustainable energy policy systems will be further explored. Oyedepo (2012) has worked extensively on the necessity of exploitation and promotion of renewable energy resources and the application of energy conservation measures in various sectors such as manufacturing industrial set-up, office and residential buildings and transportation in Nigeria. But, there are developmental challenges in the entire Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region (Mohammed et al. 2013) and prospects for renewable energy in Nigeria (Aliyu, Dada and Adam 2015). However, adequate application of marketing communications can help to spread the usage of renewable energy resource and build long-term relationship with customers in Nigeria (Uzoma et al. 2012). Based on the exploration of relevant literature, the research will evaluate issues and concepts of energy industry, renewable energy in Nigeria as well as IMC and its impact in relation with customer behaviour in terms of relationship marketing (Kadafa 2012).
Currently, the Nigerian economy is making use of the websites as one of the platforms for IMC in a strategic manner and the design of the websites is done in an inexpensive and user-friendly manner. The designs are quite responsive to help the customers in appreciating the views that have been put up in the websites. The website is one of the influencing factors that help the organizations in achieving the sales and marketing goals (Kowalska-Pyzalska 2017).
Social media, as an IMC tool is one of the ventures that have not been exploited by the energy industry in Nigeria. But, it can give opportunity to the industry to communicate with the target audience in a better manner. The use of social media will help in identifying the stories that are engaged towards the leaders of the industry and identify the best platforms that will help in achieving the goals of the industry (Yusuf et al. 2014).
The use of videos is another method that will help in the information to be provided to the consumers so that they can be aware of the facts that are happening in the RE industry in the country. With the help of the new technology, the audiences can get a better view of the products and the processes that will showcase the working of the industry and the help that the consumers get from this industry (van der Weshuizen and West 2016).
Press releases are an effective method of marketing communication to release the updates about the happenings in the industry. This is beneficial to reach out to the corporate clients (Okoro and Chikuni 2017).
The above section highlights through secondary research the works that have been done on RE and the IMC tools that are currently being used to spread the awareness about the renewable energy and sustainability.
This project combines a variety of literature with that of various marketing approaches. But the research distinguishes itself through its focus on the application of IMC to the wide spread use of RE.
Nigeria is one of the largest countries in the west of the African continent, on the coast of Gulf of Guinea. It has a population of about 198 million as of 2018 (Worldometers.info 2018) with a GDP of about $1.2 trillion as per the 2018 estimate (Data.worldbank.org 2018). Nigeria has a mixed economy with plentiful supply of the natural resources, well developed legal, financial, communications, agriculture, transport and industrial sectors.
The energy sector of Nigeria is quite developed for production but the supply power to all the citizens has not been achieved yet. In 2014, in the report of energy consumption in Nigeria showed that the industrial sector consumed 4,057 GWh, the commercial and public services consumed 6,379 GWh and the majority amount, 14,003 GWh was consumed by the household. The electrification rate is 45% but at the same time there are issues in the undermining electricity supply in the country. However, the demand for electricity is increasing as the population and employment opportunities are growing in every sector (Africa-eu-renewables.org 2015). Although, the government has been taking measures to increase the level of power supply to the maximum number of citizens, however, there are extensive power outages that have made the country among the nations with lowest annual consumption of electricity per capita. Many of the government owned electricity companies have been sold to private owners to increase their productivity as a part of the 9 years long reform process.
Aliyu, Ramli and Saleh (2013) highlighted the energy crisis in Nigeria in their paper. They stated that unless Nigeria ensures access to stable and clean energy for majority of its citizens, it would not be able to join the league of most industrious countries by 2020. The authors have also suggested that in the next 20 years the government of Nigeria should introduce the new technologies for electrifying, using the Long-range Energy Alternative and Planning (LEAP) system and setting up nuclear plants. Thus, not only the production, but the distribution system also needs to be improved in Nigeria.
Ogundipe and Apata (2013) supported the notion that there is a relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth and they provided evidences for their argument with statistical calculations. By applying some statistical techniques, it has been found that the variables have bi-directional causal relationship and electricity consumption directly and significantly affects economic growth in Nigeria. The authors also said that the government must intervene through policy recommendations to strengthen the efficiencies of the power generating agents and curtail the power losses during transmission by replacing the worn-out equipment periodically.
Oyedepo (2012b) wrote about the sustainable development in Nigeria in terms of the development and growth of the energy sector. The author highlighted that the entire African continent has been facing a tough challenge of having a full access to clean energy. This is an essential factor for establishing socio-economic development and eradication of poverty. It has been found that although there has been increase in energy production, still 60% – 70% of the Nigerians do not have access to electricity. Thus, according to Oyedepo (2012b), the government of Nigeria must diversify the sources of energy in the domestic, industrial and commercial sectors and also must incorporate the latest advanced technologies to implement waste reduction and to save cost. The author also pointed out that implementing sustainable practices is necessary in the country as these results in reduction in pollution and various health benefits, which is a step towards sustainability. Renewable energy is costly but the environmental cost is more, which will affect the future generations of the nation. Thus, the government of Nigeria has been taking measures to implement energy efficient and conversion practices in all the sectors of the economy.
In another article on energy for sustainable development in Nigeria by Oyedepo (2012a) shows that adequate energy is one of the most essential factors for driving economic growth forward and also for sustainable development, as this helps in increasing productivity, strengthening the economy and social welfare by enhancing the living standards, and reducing the environmental pollution. Thus, the author emphasized the necessity of the renewable energy sources and energy conservation, which is a requirement for sustainability.
Nigeria ranks 12 among the largest petroleum producers of the world. However, the renewable energy production in Nigeria is still at its emerging stage. As highlighted by Mohammed et al. (2013), there are only two sources of renewable energy in Nigeria, the hydro-power and the biomass. The projects of solar and wind energy are quite less in number and the policies and initiatives are in the developing state in Nigeria. Although the country produces a large amount of oil and has started developing the renewable energy projects, yet more than half of the total population does not get power supply in the country. The government of Nigeria has targeted to increase their energy production and supply power to almost 90% of its population by 2030 and 30% of its production would be from the renewable sources (Gerretsen 2018).
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project was completed in February 2018 and the project will supply clean power to around 2.6 million citizens of Nigeria (USAID). This project earned the financial support from USAID, the government agencies, private individual donors, non-governmental organizations, and various financial institutions in the country, which also had the aim to reduce the harmful carbon di-oxide emissions by 4.5 million metric tons. The hydroelectric plant, located in Mambilla got the financial support from the Chinese investors, acquiring 85% of the total fund (ESI-Africa.com 2018).
The major activities that are related to consuming the energy are mostly lighting and cooking along with the usage of the electrical appliances. The domestic and commercial consumption purposes energy resources are predominantly are kerosene, electricity and cooking gas. The major gaps that are present in the consumption of energy are the lack in the maintenance of the facilities, which are causing huge losses in the energy sector (Anifowose et al. 2016). The second factor is that the major breakdowns of the power grids that happen on a continuous manner due to the use of outdated equipment. The National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) now known as PHCN is not getting enough funds for maintaining the functions of the power grids in a proper manner. The organization also lacks a proper method of collection and billing system, which is causing problems in using the renewable sources in an efficient manner (Yusuf et al. 2014).
Still, the driving force of growth and sustainable development globally is the access to reliable and adequate energy. As Oyedepo (2012a & 2012b) puts it, access to energy is a vital enabling condition for achieving sustainable development. Therefore, clever energy policies and research can play an important part in putting both the developed economies and the global south on the road to more sustainable energy development paths. The danger of continuous use of fossil fuel has been made clear, and the need for renewable energy as one of the significant requirements for the people to live their lives has been established (Oseni 2012).
But has Nigerian populace been made aware of the significant requirement of RE as a source for sustainable social economic development, and if not what marketing strategies and tools are being deployed to make them aware? Herein lies the problem that needs investigation. Okoro and Chikuni (2017) believe that the energy industry in Nigeria can adopt several marketing communication strategies to build a long term relationship with the Nigerian community.
Renewable sources of energy are currently in focus now. This is a way of sustainability that needs to be practiced for better living in the future. According to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), there is abundance of renewable energy resources in Nigeria, among which, the solar, wind, small hydro power (SHP) and biomass are most common. The organization stimulates the investment in the renewable energy resources as there is a vast untapped potential in it. The Commission has set a target of producing a minimum of 2000MW electricity from the renewable sources by 2020 (Nercng.org 2018).
Aliyu, Dada and Adam (2015) wrote about the present status as well as about the future prospects of the renewable energy in Nigeria. The authors wrote about the energy crisis in all the economic sectors in the nation, and also highlighted that 40% of the total population of the nation are connected to the national grid and they also suffer from frequent electricity outages. Nigeria uses large hydropower and reducing hydrocarbon energy resources for the electric grid. However, it is now a known fact that fossil fuels not only contributes in carbon footprints but also affects the economic stability of a nation due to fluctuation oil price in the global market and also make the country vulnerable to the political unrest of the oil producing region. Hence, Nigeria must explore its abundant renewable energy sources, which have not fully exploited yet.
Another study conducted by Shaaban and Petinrin (2014) focused on the potential of the renewable energies in Nigeria and meeting the energy needs of the rural India. The authors also supported the fact that Nigeria has plenty of renewable as well as conventional energy sources which have not been explored fully yet, and which have the potential to provide sufficient amount of energy to both the rural and urban residents. However, the country is suffering from one of the lowest electricity consumption rates in the African continent. The authors highlighted that as the demand is always more than the electricity generation, the rural communities always fall behind the urban communities in regards to the power supply. Hence, there are obstacles in implementing the policies and due to the inefficiencies, the allocation is unequal resulting in lack of energy supply to majority of the population. Along with that, the depletion of the fossil fuels is pushing the country to explore its huge resources of renewable energies. This would increase the power generation substantially and the rural dwellers can also get access to the electricity. The government can thus introduce incentive policies for the power generating companies for producing and distributing the uninterrupted to the urban as well as to the rural followers. Improvement in the energy scenario would enhance Nigeria’s position in the global investment market.
Akuru et al. (2017) discussed about the country’s move towards 100% renewable energy. The government of Nigeria is concerned about if there can be improvement in the situation to provide cost effective and stable electricity supply. However, according to the authors, this situation can be achieved only if the unexplored renewable energy sources are tapped and exploited to their full potential. The country must focus on the non-conventional energy sources as the transition from the conventional to non-conventional sources is not only beneficial for the environment but also for the economy as well. It is said that the production of energy from the renewable sources would definitely increase the power supply in the country and solve the crisis of low electricity per capita. Thus, 100% renewable energy production is the next big thing for the country to achieve sustainable power supply and foster economic growth.
In this context, the readiness of the country for 100% renewable energy can be assessed. Mas’ud et al. (2015) highlighted that although the African continent is rich in energy resources, which can promote economic growth, yet the full potential was not achieved yet due to the fact that the countries are not ready with adequate funding and equipment and policies. The authors wrote that Nigeria has policies for renewable energy generation but the incorporation of that energy into the national grid has been not done yet at a larger scale. Due to its location on the earth, Nigeria has the benefit of extremely high wind speed and high level of solar irradiation. These can be utilized to the full capacity to produce energies, which can solve its energy crisis issues.
In this context, another study by Mohammed, Mustafa and Bashir (2013) can be mentioned. The authors explored the renewable energy developmental challenges and its consumption status in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This region is the most economically and physically backward and impoverished region in the world. The lower level of energy production and access to it is a major cause of lower level of development in this region. There are other constraints also, such as, inadequate funding, lower pace of technological development and diffusion, underprivileged policies for energy and inefficient energy infrastructures and all these deficiencies are overlapping and affect the economic growth in a significant manner. Hence, the dependency on the renewable energy sources is increasing in the SSA region. On the other hand, the production capacity from the renewable sources is also dependent on the advanced infrastructure and adequate investment and those again are dependent on the economic condition and development in the nation. Thus, there are quite a few key challenges that affect the production of renewable energy in the SSA region.
This section highlights the consumption of renewable energy in Nigeria based on the data and information regarding the proposed research topic. It illustrates and portrays the data with diagrams as appropriately shown in the following diagrams.
Based on secondary research findings, it can be said that majority of the population use various sources of renewable energy for their needs and lifestyles. About 68% of the Nigerian population depend on the small and large hydro energy (Oyedepo 2012). Also, 1.70% of entire community of Nigeria depends on the on-shore wind and about 0.85% of the Nigerian people depend on the offshore wind. Furthermore, it has been found that solar energy is adopted by a large number of people that is 7.45% of the entire population (Ohunakin et al. 2014). However, only 0.05% people depend on the Biomass energy for their daily use.
On the basis of the above information, it can be evaluated that in the recent years, the usage of renewable energy has increased in Nigeria (Shaaban and Petinrin 2014). Nonetheless, a massive number of Nigerians depends on the hydro power that is 35% of the overall population of Nigeria (Ohunakin et al. 2014). It has also been found that 24% of the entire Nigerian population still depend on the wood energy for their daily life (Shaaban and Petinrin 2014). However, it has been observed that 20% of the overall Nigerian people have adopted bio-fuels as a source of their renewable energy supply and 9% of the Nigerian people have adopted wind power as the source of their energy.
It needs to be stated though, that from the year of 1980 to the year of 2012, the level of energy consumption has increased in Nigeria (Shaaban and Petinrin 2014). The diagram below helps us to understand the increased level of renewable energy in Nigeria.
The research question still remains to be answered: what is the role of marketing communications and how is it been applied to influence the people of Nigeria to adopt the renewable energy sources for their daily use. Ohunakin et al. (2014) have showed in their study that effective marketing communication helps to build a significant long-term relation with the Nigerian customers.
From the foregoing analysis, it can tentatively be safely mentioned that marketing communication is one of the significant tools that are being used by the renewable energy companies to communicate with the potential and active consumers as well as other various corporate clients. Therefore, with the help of effective communication strategy, the attention of the customers can be captured by the renewable energy companies using several marketing communication mediums. Without doubt, adequate marketing communication techniques need to be adopted to generate revenue and increase profitability in any organisation.
That being the case, part of the task of this research is to provide a better understanding of marketing communication and how it is be strategically managed in the case of renewable energy in Nigeria.
Within this context and scope of the research, the renewable energy industry of Nigeria has been made the epicentre of our investigation to elaborate the usage of renewable energy within the Nigerian society. In this regard, this research proposal has attempted with the help of some relevant diagrams to show that the level of usage of renewable energy in Nigerian has been increasing gradually but inexorably.
In this connection, marketing communication strategies help the energy industry of Nigeria to construct a long-term sustainable relationship with the Nigerian people. Hence, effective deployment of marketing communication tools with the right mediums are positively promoting the relationship marketing in terms of establishing the long-term relation with the customers.
Sustainable marketing communication (SMC) is defined as the communication process, that is, media and messages, that are directed towards the stakeholders of an organization with the purpose to achieve the marketing and sustainability objectives of the organization (Kahle and Gurel-Atay 2013). As stated by Wilson et al. (2012), the marketing communication of a company is sustainable if it helps in building the human, natural and financial capital of the organization, addresses the stakeholders’ interests, fosters the integrity, accountability and transparency within the organization, and finally helps the organization to move forward. Integrating sustainability into the marketing communication is an initiative towards the sustainable practices of an organization. As seen from past research on the consumer behavior, people are more likely to be loyal towards a company that incorporates the sustainable practices in its businesses. This method is implemented to highlight the sustainable practices of an organization, being transparent to the clients and other stakeholders. Moreover, this communication strategy helps the sustainability practices of a company to get exposure and this can stimulate the investment in the organization and it can also enjoy the benefits, and incentives provided by the government for applying sustainable practices in the business (Lii, Wu, and Ding 2013).
Minton et al. (2012) wrote about the social media and sustainable practices in a cross country framework and they highlighted that in South Korea, people are more active in the social media and have sustainable behavior except for recycling to reduce wastage of resources. On the other hand, people in the USA and Germany, are not only involved in sustainable communication across social media but also have the awareness about sustainable practices followed by the organizations, and practice them. Social media facilitates the practice of green advertisements which is a sustainable marketing communication technique.
Ottman (2017) have provided a framework for rules of green marketing. The author mentioned that customers have realized about the importance of environment and green practices, and hence they trust those brands that are transparent about their practices. Moreover, imprinting the recycling logo or bio-degradability claim is not enough, the customers prefer to consume the products that have sustainability benefits in its practices and adopt the sustainable marketing communication technique for communicating with the customers.
According to Singh and Pandey (2012), green practices have led to the rise of green marketing practices. This marketing type requires an understanding of the public policies regarding the environmental protection along with traditional marketing mix. Moreover, it is closely linked environmental sustainability and industrial ecology. With the growing trend of green practices and green marketing, the companies are now adopting the green marketing techniques to create an impress among the target customers, who are concerned about the environment. The authors also mentioned some of the products and services that have some green characteristics, such as, products from recycled materials, organic products, goods that can be recycled, or have eco-friendly packaging and energy from the renewable sources. In green marketing practices, the marketing mix should be developed in an innovative manner to incorporate the green practices. These include advertisements promoting the relationship between the product or services and the biophysical environment, promoting a green lifestyle due to eco-friendly product or services, and those that present a corporate image of establishing environmental responsibility. Thus, it can be said that, sustainability practices also include adopting the green marketing techniques to create a position among the target consumers who have the sustainability awareness.
The role of social media can hardly be overlooked in the energy industry of Nigeria. Both gas and oil industry of Nigeria gets advantageous benefit through the social media. According to (Okeh et. al, 2014), the positive impact of social media not only helps to develop the social and cultural aspects of the nation but also helps to create demand and construct an effective relation with the community of the country (Adaramola and Oyewola 2011). Some of the benefits to be derived with the help of social media in the energy industry include.
As stated by Aral, Dellarocas and Godes (2013), social media nowadays play a major role in defining the market position of a company and its business strategies as well. The energy companies must know what is being said about them in the social media as the analysis of the social data intelligence helps the companies to know about the consumer concerns faster and address them in a quicker manner. Hence, for the purpose of building a global awareness, the social media is very effective. Social media analytics is beneficial for evaluating the customer service performance and their perceptions, understanding the causes of customers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction, gaining new ideas regarding CSR and sustainable power supply from the forum discussions, channeling the customer towards the right department, understanding the market competition and identifying the potential causes of churn. All these have become quite easier due to the social media.
In another study by Du and Vieira (2012), it is seen that some energy companies, like Exxon, have limited use of social media, but they either maintain a blog or public forum to communicate with the customers. Thus it can be said that social media is beneficial for the energy companies for not only gauging the market reaction about their business but also addressing the customer queries and grievances in a much quicker manner, which improves its efficiency as well as its reputation in the market.
Another aspect of social media in the energy sector has been highlighted by Khor (2013). The author stated that social media is a sustainable tool for communication and thus, while promoting the renewable energy sources, using social media is an appropriate medium. Various green marketing tools and strategies are being developed in all types industries and the energy sector is no exception. As this industry is taking initiatives for increasing the production of renewable energy sources to save the depleting conventional energy sources, it is also advisable that social media should be used for creating awareness and marketing. Social media is an internet based medium, which does not use any valuable and depleting physical resource and thus, using social media and other digital medium is important for establishing sustainable practices.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) refers to the integration and coordination of all types of marketing communication tool and strategies to achieve the maximum potential output of impact on the customers at the minimum cost (Luxton, Reid and Mavondo 2015). In other words, rather than focusing on each of the promotional aspects as independent factors, IMC allows the marketer to make an integrated plan that includes sales promotion, advertising, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling and framework to measure the effectiveness of the plan. This strategy is quite useful in all industries, including the energy sector.
Oyedepo (2012), describes the various elements within the IMC e.g. concentrates on the audience, channel focused and driven by the results as the pillar of IMC. The author believes that, these stated pillars or attributes of IMC are helpful for the renewable energy industry of Nigeria in order to construct a sustainable long-term relation with the local community. The illustration of the IMC tools is shown in the figure below.
Figure 5: IMC Communication Tools
(Source: Abila, 2012)
A study by Menegaki (2012) showed the impact of the customer preference survey on designing social marketing mix on the renewable energy in Europe. It has been found that the renewable energy sources in Europe are insufficiently exploited and surveys were conducted to find out the acceptability and willingness of the customers to pay for the renewable energies. It is helpful in generating an IMC for the organization, state, consumers and businesses and also the policies. It can be said that the energy companies can conduct surveys in social media and then use the findings to create a marketing mix to address all their customers groups individually.
Mangold and Faulds (2009) highlighted in their paper that social media has become a hybrid element or communication tool in the promotional mix, which has a significant impact on the consumers. The internet based communication medium has become an integral part of the sales/promotion tool under integrated marketing communication. As stated by the authors, this tool is beneficial as it enables one person to communicate with thousands of people regarding any issues including marketing about any product. Thus, consumer-to-consumer marketing communication is significantly magnified through this hybrid communication mix. It is termed as hybrid as the social media enables the marketers to promote their products or services directly to the customers or target market, which is a traditional marketing method; while on the other hand, the social media also creates the opportunity for the customers to interact with one another which has a great impact on the sales of the product or service. Hence, there is scope for having access to the feedback directly, which is beneficial for the companies to improve their products and services. Thus, it is highly important for the companies to integrate social media in their IMC tools and techniques so that it can have a broad impact on the target consumers and at the same time, continuously upgrade their systems, products and services to meet the changing demand of the consumers, which will help them to sustain in the industry.
From the extensive literature review above, it can be said that various independent studies have been conducted on the economy of Nigeria, its energy sector, renewable energy, and various aspects of marketing, such as, sustainable marketing communication (SMC), impact of social media on the energy sector, and attributes of IMC on the energy sector. However, there is no study on the relationship between the sustainable marketing communications and its impact on the energy sector or in case of renewable energy. It has been found from the reviews that similar to any other industry; the energy sector also needs to understand the customer perceptions, especially towards sustainability and therefore should focus on addressing the customer concerns. In case of Nigeria, although the country has the second largest economy in the African continent, and has vast renewable energy resources, yet the country is suffering from low electricity per capita and lower development. The literatures have focused on different aspects of the marketing communication and their necessity in developing the customer perception regarding the renewable and other conventional energy sources, however, no study has been undertaken to highlight the importance of sustainable communication mix and its role in the energy sector. As there is a need for sustainable power generation in Nigeria through exploring the renewable energy sources, the impact of the sustainable marketing communication will be evaluated to develop policy frameworks that would also give importance to the public opinion.
Thus, the literature gaps can be summarized in the following manner.
Figure 6: Conceptual Framework
(Source: Author)
From the conceptual framework above, it can be said that this research paper will explore the relationship between the variables depicting the effect of proper marketing communication, effective utilization of marketing channels and the development of the renewable energy sources in Nigeria and the awareness and popularity of this alternative energy sources. The growing usage of alternative energy sources is a step towards sustainability and that should be maintained in the society. By implementing effective marketing communication and proper channels to reach out to a larger audience, the Nigerian government can create awareness about the significance and necessity of the renewable energy sources. It can also advertise about the growth in the developmental projects in the country so that people get the information and change their perspectives regarding the alternative energies. Thus, this research study will help in gaining the information regarding people’s awareness about the growth of renewable energy in the country and its necessity for the sustainable development. This conceptual framework helps in understanding the flow of the study and the aspects that would be covered by the researcher in the course of the study. For example, under marketing communication channels, the researcher will explore various IMC tools and their impact on the consumers and thus, the outcome would be beneficial for policy making.
The primary aim of the paper is to apply the IMC to wide spread use if RE. Hence, the research will concentrate on the practices of IMC done by various practitioners. The research will be facilitated by the data collected from these participants. It will provide new angles to look into the matter and the culture and discourse analysis will also be used to interpret the data. It has been already found that Nigeria being one of the most populated country of Africa, has per capita GDP of $2,160 as compared to other industrious countries (Adaramola, Paul and Oyedepo 2011). The development of the country is getting significantly hindered by the energy crisis. It would be wrong to say that the country does not have sufficient potential for using renewable energy. Nigeria is full of huge reserves of natural gas and oil but what the country lacks is electrical sources.
This is because there are poor financial conditions and structural deficiencies present too. The local government of the country along with various governmental and non-governmental agencies is trying to find out better solutions for the issues but have failed to result in improved condition. Therefore, the methodology section is aimed at discussing how the research has taken the initiative to resolve the issue by the help of IMC plan and the other methodological techniques in order to meet the research objectives.
The issue of energy crisis in Nigeria has been noted and according to that the research questions have been posed. The first question is how is the term ‘renewable energy’ understood and what has developed /changed in the economy of Nigeria since the application of renewable energy. The second question is wat are the most important channels used in the marketing communication strategies being recently applied. The third question is important for the present research that is how the application of an effective IMC model tool improve the penetration of renewable energy in the county of Nigeria (Adom 2015). In order to answer the possible questions, there will be an application of a combination of strategies, methods, philosophy and approaches for the interpretation, data collection and evaluation of the entire subject Mackey and Gass 2015).
Research philosophy analyses and develops a particular study in detail. There are to total three types of research philosophies including realism, positivism and interpretivism. The positivism type helps to develop deeper examination of a particular study. On the other hand, Interpretivism deals with managing the activities and realism in contrast is a mixed type of approach of the other two types of research philosophies. In this research, relevant primary and secondary data will be collected to justify the positivistic philosophy (Lewis 2015). The positivistic philosophy is helpful when statistical data is deliberately used. Notably, the study will not only evaluate the findings, but also interpret them from few literary perspectives that will support the use of interpretive philosophy for social problems. The researcher will be facilitated with the primary data in getting deeper knowledge of the use of IMC in practical application while the secondary data will support in identifying the theories related to IMC (Integrated marketing communication) (Akuru et al. 2017).
The main focus of the research about the IMC is investigating how the tools can be applied to the country so that the wide spread usage of renewable energy is facilitated and enhanced. Although there are many works which have been already done on the renewable energy, the application of IMC in the energy industry will be a new contribution to the literature and also the knowledge. The pillars of IMC are audience and channels. The attributes of IMC communication such as advertising, direct marketing, interactive internet marketing is supposed to be supportive to the renewable energy industry (Akinyemi, Ogundipe and Alege 2015). It will help to construct a sustainable long –term relation with the local community. Hence, the research will use the inductive research approach. This is a research approach that begins by collecting data which is relevant to the topic. After having collected a good amount of data, the researchers get a deeper insight into the collected data and searches for patterns. Then they move from the data towards theory making a general set of propositions important. Hence, this approach will help the researcher of this particular study to construct innovative model or theory based on the data found and meet the objectives of the research.
The selection of what type of research strategy will used is not done yet at this stage of the research. It is still not specified which type will suit the topic of concern and the serve the research objectives. However, having gone through the objectives and questions that have been proposed, it can be said that either the survey strategy or the case study method would be appropriate to use. The case study method is useful but in this case it is not suitable because the data collected from the case study method cannot be generalized easily to the wider mass of people (Smith 2015). It is likely that the case studies will not be relevant completely to the topic. Notably, case studies are usually made on one person but in this research a huge mass of people belonging to the renewable energy industry and other are associated. The limitations of the case study research strategy might lead to biased data collection and impact the outcomes too.
Therefore, it becomes difficult to deduce a definite conclusion from the case studies. On the other hand, the survey method is relatively easy to administer and can be generated in less time period along with being the cost –friendly mode. The survey method is capable of collecting data from a vast volume of respondents and there are numerous questions which can be asked whether open ended or close ended. The broad range of data can be analyzed to determine the reliability, statistical significance and validity. Hence it has been decided that the research will make use of the survey method. There will be certain levels of survey and will use questionnaires regarding the topic containing close ended questions. The questionnaires will be circulated in the market among the target population. In research, it has been considered as one of the most cost-effective, quick and brisk method to know the views of a greater mass.
The study will involve both the primary and secondary data collection methods. The primary data will be collected from the surveys conducted using questionnaires and personal interviews too. The secondary data will be collected from the already existing data available either in printed form or online. The study will use both the primary and secondary because the degree of accuracy in primary data is extremely high and it can be collected via may ways either face- to-face or circulating questionnaires. It provides more up to date data specific too the research questions (Dannels 2018).
However, it requires a large sample size in order to generalize the issue and quite costly. Hence, the research will also take help of secondary data which is time, effort and expense saving. he primary data collection is specified by the secondary because by the help of this type of data, the researcher will easily identify the gaps and understand where to work particularly (Meyers, Gamst and Guarino 2016). This particular research will be based on the reactions of 100 employees working in the renewable energy industry for a long time. The questionnaire will capture their opinions on the IMC used in the industry. The researcher will get a huge amount of opinions from the respondents and examine the factors they will raise and conclude it in a desired manner.
The quantitative data collected by the help of survey questionnaires will be analyzed. The data will be converted into percentage and numeric so that a comparison and comprehensive data is gained. The data will be converted into graphs and charts after that in order to provide a pictorial and graphical view of the research. The quantitative data will be analyzed by the help of thematic approach. The analysis of the qualitative data from the research is highly challenging but important for the innovation process. In this respect, the thematic approach helps to gain empathy and knowledge regarding a person, group, organization, culture or interaction. The researchers take the help of thematic approach in order to discover framing for a particular research question and patterns from a broad range of data (Flick 2015). The researcher is facilitated with the ability to appreciate the situation or group they are researching on. However, the thematic approach is highly inductive in nature and the themes gathered cannot be predetermined by the researcher. The researcher can use the findings and run a statistical analysis in order to validate the themes.
Since, ethical considerations are important in research, it has to be maintained in an expected manner. The researcher is supposed to adhere to the aims of the research and promote authentic knowledge and prevent erroneous work. Notably, ethical considerations allow the researcher to get the assistance and collaboration of their mentors, peers and other participants/ contributors of the study. The ethical considerations are based on values like trust, accountability, fairness and mutual respect among all people who are involved in the study. However, it is also dependent on the intellectual property rights and protection of the participants. Another ethical consideration is being accountable for protecting animal or human subjects if made part of the research. The gain of public support is equally important.
In this study, the primary sources for the qualitative research have initiated few ethical challenges for the researchers. The most essential concern that needs to be addressed as soon as possible is the concern of privacy. However, the anonymity of data will be maintained by following the ethical guidelines of Plymouth University. The collected data will only be used for the purpose it has been collected. Moreover, the participants will be allowed to withdraw whenever they wish and are welcomed if they think that the data being used are uncomfortable with them (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018). The secondary data will be cited correctly to maintain the authenticity and copyright of the original author. It is another way to pay honor to the relevant authors whose works have formed the base of the research.
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Anticipated Activities (Years) |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
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Yr.1 In-depth reading on RE & IMC & drafting literature review (10/2018- 11/2019) |
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Yr.2 Data collection & data analysis begins (12/2019 – 11/2020) |
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Yr.3 Data analysis continues, completed & Interpreting the data (12/2020 – 11/2021) |
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Yr.4 Findings of the data & Begin planning for write up (12/2021 – 11/2022) |
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Yr.5 Write up continues & Preparing final report (12/2022 – 12/2023) |
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