THE TASTE OF ADVERTISEMENT IN CAMEROON.
Freddy Rolland TANGUEP
ICT Manager at ICRC-International Committee of the Red Cross of Geneva | Ph.D. Candidate | Telecom Engineer | international MBA | 10+ Years in Telecom & ICT industry | ICT Trainer | Author & Writer
Introduction
When we talk about advertising, for the general public it is briefly ads that appear either on television, in a broadcast channel or a poster on a roadside panel talking about a particular product or thing. But for marketing professionals or scholars, advertising simply represents a form of communication whose objective is to influence consumers so that they adopt a desired behavior (The product can be animal, material, human or intangible).
In Cameroon, advertisement really came out around 1974, because before 1974 advertisement had no real place since the State was based on five-year plans and the production was really less than the demand; then the ‘’Cameroon Publi Expansion (CPE)’’ of the French group HAVAS was born, which was in charge of all advertising action across the country. The CPE thus had a monopoly, then in 1987 a study carried out by a group of experts mandated by the European Community concluded that there was a need to regulate the advertisement market in Cameroon. In this sense, the law n° 88/016 of December 16, 1988 governing advertising in Cameroon and decrees 89/1218 and 89/1219 of July 28, 1989 relating respectively to the organization and operation of the National Advertising Council and regulating the advertising profession will come out, thus making the market, once belonging only to the state, segment into three part CPE (CRTV and Cameroon Tribune) and local authorities (Urban councils?and district municipalities). Subsequently, the CPE will be extinguished by the advent of the liberalization of the advertisement sector because other companies (SOPECAM, CRTV & the Urban Council of Yaoundé) dragged it to court (It begins on April 29 with SOPECAM) for unpaid royalties which amounted to more than 1.237 billion francs (531 million for CRTV and 700 million for the urban council of Yaounde, just to name a few). This event has really sounded the death knell for the liberalization of the advertisement sector and the opening to other companies, both private and public, hence the framing of the legal machine or the state by multiple laws and orders aimed at reframing and oversee the sector over time.
Thus said, nowadays, what is special about Cameroonian advertisement sector? What is the taste of advertisement in Cameroon, both from the point of view of the State or Government, as for the companies practicing in this sector of activities, as for the final consumers and the general public?
Briefly answering these questions will constitute the corner stone of our investigations and analysis so far. From then, we will strive in turn to try to outline briefly the types of major advertisements existing; then we will examine the feelings of advertising in Cameroon vis-à-vis the various stakeholders, namely, government, companies in the sector and the general public.
1-) Understanding advertisement: Forms and types of advertising
The advertising message generally contains three elements: the visual editorial (text, slogan, title…), the visual illustrative (format, color, desire, character…) and the sound (musical background…).
Literally we note three forms of advertising depending on the purpose:
? The Cognitive form (Here the goal is to make known an element x);
? The Conative form (Here the goal is to move the buying rate of an element x) and lastly;
? The Affective form (Here the goal is to make people love an element x).
From these three forms are synthesized four different types of advertising:
? Persuasive and informative advertising: its objective is to get a message across using rational arguments. It will inform and explain to the consumer who will be invited to reflect.
? Projective or integrative advertising: it starts from the principle that the individual who will be encouraged to consume belongs to several social groups which each have their standards. By consuming a product, the consumer will therefore be valued and will be able to refer to a social group.
? Mechanistic advertising: it is based on the theory that the consumer is conditioned by society. This one will use the advertising bludgeoning so that, consuming a product becomes a reflex.
? Suggestive advertising: it is like the opposite of persuasive advertising, because it does not appeal to the reason of the consumer but, to his senses and his emotions. This form of advertising will therefore not praise the merits of a product, but rather played on the wishes of the consumer.
So, in the Cameroonian advertisement environment, do we find these different types of advertising? If so, how they are actually perceived by people.
2-) The taste of advertisement seen by the government
In recent years, in view of the activities carried out in the field of advertisement in Cameroon, it appears that the Government so far is not satisfied with the advertising sector in Cameroon (Listen to multiple speeches done by the multiple Ministers in charge of Government Communication). This could be justified by: The multiple updates of laws and decrees in force (The law of December 16, 1988; The law N ° 2006/018 of December 29, 2006 and that of 2007) around the regulation of the advertisement sector in Cameroon therefore the last known to date is the law relating to the Regulation of advertising activities in Cameroon made public by the President of?the Republic on December 29, 2007. This law has even been analyzed by experts in the field of advertisement and, it has been noted that it’s still contains shortcomings for the total development of this sector of activity.
3-) The taste of advertisement seen by companies on that field
In Cameroon, the related businesses are divided into two proportions: consulting agencies and advertisement agencies with operating licenses in good and due form; then other private companies and some in the informal sector.
The advertisement agencies having operating licenses complain about the fact that the market is juicy but they do not yet benefit from it as they should, since the Government does not fulfill its duty of regulator well:
? On March 6, 2018 in Douala, GICAM and the Cameroonian Association of Marketing Professionals (ACPM), organized an information seminar on the legislative and regulatory environment for advertisement in the country during which we will learn that the market for advertising is?almost about 25 billion FCFA that the government should still table to regulate more.
? Recently, on December 19, 2019, in Yaounde the first ordinary and extraordinary sessions of the National Advertising Council (CNP) were held and it emerged that this sector although being in full evolution and offering a competitive market, reigns in non-compliance with the law in this area and that the Government should take responsibility through MINCOM (Ministry of Communications) for cracking down and going on to repression on the one hand, and on the other hand, the government should improve and/or amend the laws in force in the sector by bringing the innovations relating to the application of the decree laws on the advertisement relating to tobacco and its related products or derivatives.
All or, at least most of the other companies, complain about the heaviness of laws and procedures regulating the sector and, other elements which we can summarize as follows:
? Failure to comply with legislation and law: Advertisement Agencies face unfair competition from unlicensed actors (clandestine agencies, journalists, animators, humorists, etc.) The ethical rules are not always observed, in particular with regard to respect for good morals and the protection of children.
? The fragility of local agencies (small finance capacity): Many of these agencies are created by disappointed employees of existing agencies. They therefore do not have sufficient means to get started, and sometimes count on a captive client to start. The loss of these captive customers often leads to the closure of theses startup agencies. Local agencies also suffer from unequal competition from foreign agencies, which take over the communication budgets of multinational companies.
? Cronyism as a method of awarding contracts: Advertisement is one of the sectors where we most perceive the existence of what are called "networks". The survival of agencies often depends on the address book of their chief executive officer.
? Prostitution of advertisement media: Faced with the proliferation of media, the owners of these media are not very demanding on the quality of the advertising messages entrusted to them for dissemination. For the same reason, the prices are almost never respected, there is a clearance sale constantly. The media readily accept to design messages even free of charge and without expertise, provided that they are sure of ensuring their dissemination.
? The position of strength of the advertisers: The offer being overwhelming in terms of advertising in Cameroon, the advertisers are in a position of strength to negotiate at a discount the rates of execution of the works.
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4-) The taste of advertisement seen by consumers and the general public
Understanding the appreciation of advertisement in Cameroon means first of all, understanding the Cameroonian people in their diversity and situating the current Cameroonian context.
Indeed, the colonial heritage of Cameroon (Two official foreign languages: French and English), just like the cultural diversity of Cameroon (plurilingualism, multi-culturalist and henceforth interculturality too) makes the context of acceptance of advertisements by the general public very complex and at the same time, represents a particular asset in a competitive market and makes Cameroon a special case in this area. On the other hand, the factor of human development also plays a big role there, because advertising communication being audio, visual and written, it is necessary to take into account all social strata according to time and species because, there are people which are: either perfectly bilingual (English & French, or English & a local language, or French & a local language); either half-bilingual or imperfect; either knowing only one language (meaning French, English, or a local or native language only). On the other hand, there is also the impact of globalization (The world has become a global village) which represents all the elements coming from outside which can impact in the appreciation of advertisements made in Cameroon by the general public or consumers: it is absolutely necessary to take account of these external influences from now on in Cameroonian advertising and to make the fact coexist in Cameroon with the fact of made in Africa, made in Asia, in Europe, in America and know how to find the right dosage and the right balance.
From the above mention of our contextual analysis of advertisement in Cameroon, it is clear that the general public and consumers have a bitter taste for advertising. We will back up our claim with investigations and the events that have taken place in recent years. A study of the advertisement market trend in Cameroon in 2016 revealed that the advertising sector is successively dominated by the mobile telephony, food, brewing, cosmetics, banking and insurance sectors.
Speaking of this dominant sector that is telephony:
? In December 2012, in a press release which he has just published in the government daily Cameroon Tribune, Jean Louis Beh Mengue, the director general of the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency, summons the mobile telephone company MTN Cameroon to "cease without delay an advertising campaign which turns out to be incomplete and to repair the damage caused to consumers who complain all the time about false advertising”.
? In 2016, the Cameroonian Consumer Foundation lodged a complaint in 2016 against Orange Cameroon and MTN Cameroon with the services of the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) in Yaoundé for "False & Lying advertising on 4G".
Apart from those cases, street-micro interviews produced by several television channels like CANAL2 international or STV have revealed that, Cameroonian consumers complain and admit to consuming products following the advertisement even if they know it is a lie (for some it irritates them but they say not to complain too much because, they know that companies must sell). This is the case for example of brewery products of ‘’Brasseries du Cameroun’’ such as TOP Pineapple, Grenadine, Orange, Grapefruit or even Djino fruit cocktail were people giving their opinion related to advertising of these TOPs as : these carbonated drinks advertising must be made by specifying the fact that they are drinks with a fragrance or aromas of these fruits and, not fruity drinks or made from fruit as some of their advertisements lend has confusion in the minds of consumers.
Some also indulge in criticism with short comic videos on social networks such as YouTube or they put up small spots to criticize amateurism in the shooting of Cameroonian video advertisements: bad actors, choice of environments, language tone and articulation, bad assembly…
Conclusion:
It is now clear that advertisement in Cameroon has made considerable progress and is constantly growing with a 110% increase in investments relating to advertising between 2013 and 2016. However, there remains a bitter aftertaste of advertising seen from different stakeholders who remain dissatisfied with the quality and benefits of Cameroonian advertisement in their regard.
In general, let it be the government which demands more professionalism from operators in the field; or the companies which ask for a taking of responsibility on behalf of the government in the framing, the improvement of the laws and the punishment of the outlaws; or even consumers who complain through consumers associations about false advertisements and so on; the bitter taste of Cameroonian advertisement comes out.
Nevertheless, considerable efforts and remarkable advances have been noted in recent years and expectation for brig future is to believe.
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