Billboards That Raise Eyebrows
I stroll through the streets of my city Douala, it’s the end of the Ramadan period, and I see billboards of 12 and 18 square meters everywhere in the city featuring Muslims. Honestly, I don’t know about you, but I find it strange that the Muslim community, representing 35% of the Cameroonian population, only appears in the campaigns of major cities during Ramadan and, of course, Eid al-Adha.
But why is it always like this? Let’s dive into a minute of a bad communication practice that has become so common that it seems to have become a standard in the marketing calendars of local advertisers of low-cost products.
Brands Want to Sell to Muslim Consumers
Which is entirely legitimate when you are a player in mass consumption. You want to encourage the target audience to fill their baskets a little more. It’s a festive season, a time for celebrations. What should be true for Easter and Christmas should be true for the celebration of Ramadan and Tabaski. Brands pretend to create a connection with their consumers during these times of celebration and show solidarity with their joy. Of course, they don’t forget to fill the shopping cart with the products they present in front of the fez. However, something bothers me. As mentioned earlier, one in three people in Cameroon is of Muslim faith. Why are they so little or not represented in the communication of advertisers outside of the celebration days?
Do Muslims Pose a Problem?
Said like that, one might already want to shoot me. And that can be understood. But if you sit down and think about it for two seconds, it seems that, outside of the Feast of Sacrifice and Ramadan, Muslims do not exist. Or that they are not the “real” target. But who is the “real” target? At least what they consider to be so. That is, individuals whose religious affiliations are not clearly displayed. By acting as if advertising is secular, they deny what is the essence of the market, its diversity.
Wouldn’t they want to be accused of being pro-Islam brands or religion-oriented? But no. It’s just about respecting the diversity of their consumers. Communication for mass-market products is becoming increasingly inclusive to be effective. Depending on its market segment, the various components of this segment need to feel represented. And currently, it seems that there are only two months in the year when boubous and abayas are allowed.
To Build Strong Bonds, You Must Build Them Together
Precisely, one of the keys in marketing is to create a strong connection between your brand and your audience. It is a bond that is built over time. A bond that the brand weaves through continuous dialogue whenever possible, through its on-the-ground actions, media communications, and internet-connected platforms. Take a tour of the internet; you will be surprised to see that everyone is waiting for Islamic holidays to remember the ethno-religious configuration of their audience. Some exceptions like Crédit du Sahel (you can well imagine) stand out as good students when it comes to representing the diversity of their market.
Unfortunately, marketing has this cunning aspect that when the numbers are good, they are questioned less. Yet, following a small study I conducted on the matter, Muslims, and mostly the youth, feel underrepresented in communication campaigns and say they do not identify most of the time with the people depicted. And let’s remember, one in three people in Cameroon practices Islam.
Intrusion or Inclusion?
I’m not going to make an apology here for Islamist communication or religion-oriented marketing. No. But in the era of inclusion, where we talk about the representation of women at all levels (one in two people is a woman), this should also apply in this case.
In summary, I invite my favorite audience, the brand managers, to consider that it might be time to take a different look at the issue. While in other parts of the world, quotas are set in certain industries to ensure the representation of the population, we can still try to start from the basics. Integrating diversity into mass communication pleases everyone, and it’s also what makes us love the country. It yields better results in the long run. In any case, better than a poster plastered on the eve of the holiday with young girls who are ultimately only Muslim in their veils.
