Tell Kenyans your products can heal , prevent several diseases , or enhance performance in some particular areas and you are suddenly in serious business . In pharmaceuticals people have come up with their own homemade solutions . Do you remember the omnipotence of quail eggs ?
Lack of trust brings desperation and hence emergence of healing gospels , witch-doctors-with weird names , and other self-made herbalists . Most developed countries don ’ t have these dramas because they have formal ways of evaluating new information and citizens trust bodies mandated to do that .
In Kenya , regulatory bodies expected to be our watchdogs are either compromised or lack adequate resources to enforce standards . Do you trust a product just because it has a KEBS standard mark ? Do you trust NEMA reports ?
Doing good is therefore left to moral compulsions of a company
or a politician . Companies will do good because they want to do good . Politicians will be honest because of their convictions and not because people demand it .
In an environment of mistrust , marketing is hard work and expensive . In the absence of standards to evaluate quality or the truth , there are many myths , half-truths , and lies that are held as truths . Whatever your intentions are as a business building goodwill starts from a negative .
You must tell your customers who you are , where you are coming from , where you are going , your convictions , and what makes you different . You must demonstrate that difference . You must bring evidence to support your intentions and claims . Loads of information from third parties and trusted sources must be availed . Endorsements from trusted sources are also encouraged . Building trust is expensive but there are numerous benefits . Industries infested with mistrust have opportunities too . We for example make the choice of water to buy based on the credibility of the company that manufacture it . Strong and trusted brands can therefore , easily and successfully , get into drinking water business . In absence of other methods of evaluating quality , price stands . Pricing strategies are therefore important . When earned , trust takes time and a heap of bad deeds to erode . Customers also are quick to forgive when they trust . This however does not apply to our political landscape . Our politicians have no goodwill ; they lost it long time ago . They don ’ t have to build any - they buy it . And as their customers , we are quick to forget or forgive .
Herman Githinji is a seasoned marketing practitioner and law graduate from the University Of Nairobi . Currently the CEO Bidco Land O ’ Lakes Company that makes quality Animal Feeds using American Technology . You can commune with him on this and related issues via email on : Hermangithinji @ gmail . com .