Marketing beyond economic depression: An exposé of Nollywood’s 5Ps marketing framework

Abstract

Nollywood is a cultural child of circumstances, benefitting from the collapse of the cinema industry. Several factors led to the collapse of cinema in  Nigeria among which is the economic crisis that rocked Nigeria during the General Babangida-led Administration. Since the inception of Nollywood in the  early 1990s, the marketers have continued to experiment to sustain the industry with varying degrees of successes and failures. The reality on  ground is that Nigeria has a thriving video film industry which has become a model of some sort to other countries. What exactly is/are the factor(s)  sustaining the Nigerian video film industry, popularly referred to as, Nollywood? This study set out to examine the sustaining force in Nollywood through  a testing of the McCarthy’s 4Ps marketing framework on the industry. The work is a part of a larger research work that employed both primary and  secondary research methods and covered the film markets in Idumota and Alaba both in Lagos State, and Electro-Mart Onitsha in Anambra State. It is  discovered that the 4Ps marketing mix does not strictly apply in Nollywood. But there is in existence in Nollywood a framework termed, the Nollywood’s  5Ps marketing framework, which employs McCarthy’s 4Ps marketing framework and an additional ‘P’, termed, ‘Personalisation’. The paper recommends,  among other things that, there is need for proper situation of Nollywood and the other creative industries under a government ministry; and that  Nollywood marketers should endeavour to make available verifiable statistics about their production costs and film earnings at every point in time for  research and documentation purposes in line with international best practices.