can offer what the consumer will most likely be looking for .
The can of worms referred to pertains to the fundamental human right to privacy and whether this type of marketing could unwittingly cross over to unethical marketing practices . The need to protect the consumer in this case would be vested in the regulatory institution .
As intimated earlier on it is desirable to exercise this regulation within a free enterprise scenario to avoid a situation where creative business practice is stifled by bureaucracy but the regulatory body does need to have the force of law to effectively regulate the profession .
Internet marketing has created new opportunities but with the opportunities comes huge challenges that need to be debated and common and ethical practices adopted and disseminated to all marketers but this can only happen within a regulated environment .
We have seen a great deal of social media marketing that in reality is a con game perpetrated by sharp and unscrupulous people who mainly indulge in ridiculous behavior to raise their following and become attractive to marketers that would like to reach their followers .
This influence marketing , although the jury is still out on how effective it is , has spawned an unreal and potentially unhealthy exhibitionism . It has negative and undesired social consequences and has glued many young people to their devices and away from real life .
Equally questionable is the affiliate marketing where an online retailer pays commission for tapping into the traffic of a third party website . These types of social media marketing skim very close to illegality as the data is used without consent of the recipient .
The Covid-19 epidemic has speeded up the adoption of more internet options for marketers as they try to maintain their presence in a restricted movement arena and this is why the regulatory mechanisms need to be in place before the chaos reigns .
We are aware that marketing and especially sales are going to be critical for business revival after Covid and this is also the time that desperate businesses trying to boost demand due to changed lifestyles
The crux of the challenge is to get practicing professionals to become engaged and active members of the profession by recreating effective and credible institutions that will train and certify the practitioners and eventually weed out those that have brought disrepute to the profession .
may very well be tempted to fly too close to the edge of legality .
We all know that marketing is the driver of businesses and we have empirical evidence that Kenya economic development was at its peak in the seventies and eighties when the marketing profession was also at the height of influence in all businesses . The sugar industry that collapsed in the Coast , Western and Nyanza areas , the textile firms that have closed in the same areas and Thika , the cashew nut factory that has closed and the struggling coffee , tea and milk industries are all a failure of marketing even if the politicians have accelerated the demise .
The pyrethrum and cotton industries have stalled and the vegetable oils and barley initiatives have ceased , we have been unable to grow our tourism numbers although we have superb natural resources and we have failed to attract conference business , all these are marketing failures .
International companies have moved their manufacturing hubs from Kenya even though we have educated and trained personnel because we have created a hostile business environment mainly because the government advisers are not marketers but quarks with political connections .
The branding of the country is a marketing function and takes into consideration the competitive advantages that the country holds and endeavors to maintain and exploit them for the immediate and long term interests of the country .
We have undertaken highly visible and expensive infrastructure projects which may very well become white elephants since the decision to build some was not a decision taken with a holistic marketing focus but a narrow political lens aided by corruption and vote-baiting .
The marketing profession then was clearly demarcated and career progression within the profession was well defined but the very success of the profession that made it the sought after profession for business graduate students started to attract nonprofessionals into the discipline .
To justify their titles that were not based on rigorous training and experience the intruders infiltrated the marketing institutions and since they did not have the requisite qualifications they did away with the strict requirements that kept the high standards .
The all-important post graduate practitioners certification that was then required to advance in the marketing profession was derailed and with time it ceased to be a requirement to secure an engagement and to get promoted . The profession was in a crisis .
The marketing professionals , in trying to protect their discipline , allowed the society to be dismantled into specialist categories like advertising , public relations and research and unwittingly weakened the already suffering marketing clout and voice .
The loss of influence was occasioned also by the failure of leadership within the fraternity as there was no follow through to get the government to adopt and pass the necessary legislation that would allow the marketing profession to flourish .
The marketing function is so crucial to the development of this country that the only way to jump start the previously stalled efforts is by resetting the professional standards and taking back control of the discipline and there are adequate examples worldwide on how this can be achieved .
At the moment marketing in Kenya is
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