By Princewill Ekwujuru    & Providence Obuh
Lagos—Dependence on oil and oil-based computations of national wealth is not likely to endure for the next decade, hence the need for marketing professionals to open new markets aimed at intangibles.

Dr. Josef Bel-Molokwu, a faculty member of the School of Media and Communication of the PAN-Atlantic University, PAU, stated this at the annual marketing edge national summit in Lagos, noting that oil would soon become a commodity of the past.

Bel-Molokwu was the guest speaker at the summit where he delivered a paper entitled A New Roadmap for Marketing in the Age of Global Oil Glut.

He reminded marketing professionals of the challenge posed by oil in world economies, saying the changing façade of economies as a result of the nuances and fluidity of oil has, for more than a decade, sustained an atmosphere of challenges, fears, uncertainties and a surge of innovation and creativity.

He said: “The new orientation to marketing has at its heart the need to absorb the shock waves of recession and value shrinkage occasioned by a realization that dependence on oil and oil-based computations of national wealth will not likely endure for the next decade.

“New energy sources, new production processes, new oil fields in hitherto non-oil locations can only intensify the glut.

“Face it, it is not just that oil prices are falling, or that more oil is being found. The reality is that soon, very soon, oil will become a commodity of the past.

“So it behoves marketing experts to take on the need to open new markets in the direction of serious sale of intangibles, no longer the effortless sell that is oil.”

According to him, it has become increasingly difficult to reach and convince customers in the face of quantitative and qualitative challenges of rapid demographic and psychographic changes.

“These changes in the human persona were brought about largely by unprecedented technological advancement,” Bel-Molokwu added.