Who says Guy Kawasaki is the Father of Evangelism Marketing?

Guy Kawasaki, the chief evangelist of Canva and former chief evangelist of Apple Computer is regarded to be the father of evangelism marketing and I should be laughing out aloud, because it must be a joke. I don't even have to beg to disagree with that. The fact is, it is not true.

What is Evangelism Marketing?
If Evangelism marketing is an advanced form of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) in which companies develop customers who believe so strongly in a particular product or service that they freely try to convince others to buy and use it, then evangelism marketing was started in Africa where word of mouth is loudest!
It is our nature and part of the oral tradition of our African culture.

Since I was a child, I have seen both Lever Brothers, now Unilever and Nestle use customers as traveling sales men and women as Door-to-Door sellers of goods in different neighbourhoods in Lagos to promote Omo detergent, Lux soap, Maggi cubes and other household products by simply word of mouth marketing or what later became social marketing and what has been used in community based distribution by Information, Education and Communication (IEC) program officers in various projects in Nigerian villages, towns and cities since the 1980s to date and I used it successfully at the old Tejuoso Market in Lagos with traders using word of mouth to promote pain relievers, condoms and contraceptives supplied by pharmaceutical companies.
And even before the arrival of these companies, evangelism marketing has been used by village town criers to promote products and services and then followed by the traveling sales men and women promoting products and services on public transport buses like Christian evangelists on the street and from the street, evangelism marketing has moved to the internet through blogging on various social networking platforms.

Influencer or influence marketing is also a form of evangelism marketing, now made more popular with social media. No matter the sound bites or the buzz words, evangelism marketing is not a recent invention or phenomenon and nobody, including Guy Kawasaki should claim the credit for the development and popularity.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima


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