by Uche Briggs
In 2009, Red Bull sold 3.9 billion cans in 160 countries without the use of a mass marketing approach. The reason: Strategic target marketing. To understand how to utilise precision in the marketing process, it is important to understand what is referred to as the marketing concept. The term marketing concept which was attributed to General Electric many years ago refers to a business philosophy which ensures that all the planning and processes of the business is focused around satisfying the consumer need. The entire focus is thus targeted towards utilizing available resources to meeting existing needs thereby creating a competitive advantage for the organisation in the market place. Given the saturation of branding and brand speak; one may assume that this is the inevitable direction every company should go. Not necessarily. But that is talk for another day.
This entire process of precision driven marketing consists of 3 interdependent phases. Firstly the market has to be divided into sub segments based on their unique needs and characteristics which enable them respond in a certain way (Market Segmentation). The story of Knight and Bowerman has been told time and again all through marketing literature. Bowerman’s desire to create comfortable footwear for long distance runners has morphed into one of the biggest brands in the world – Nike. Fastforward several years, in 1996 Kevin Plank identified a need existing in the market and created comfortable underwear from Lycra which absorbs moisture and thus helped in preventing him from suffering from heat exhaustion during his sports practice. After founding Under Armour, he went from selling 200 pieces at 12 USD, the turnover just over 10years later (2006) was $400million. Today, Nike and Reebok have ventured into that product category. Will Under Armour need to enter other market segments to achieve consistent growth? Time will tell.
To bring it closer home, precision is what makes Guinness Nigeria’s recent Made of Black campaign such a beautifully crafted and executed piece of marketing. Guinness was faced with the challenges of global product markets. The life expectancy of the Nigerian had reduced significantly and the product had reached maturation stage.
The next step will be to carefully analyse the different segments of the market to consider profitability and growth rate, barrier to entry and all other factors for the competition (Target Marketing). This exercise has to be done in tandem with the consideration of extant resources available to the company. When His Eminence, the daddy GO of Mavin Records, Don Jazzy called D’Banj and anointed him for service in the Nigerian music industry, it was not enough that they had segmented the market into Pop, hiphop and Gospel. He had to consider several other factors like the profitability of each segment and the capacity of the artiste to deliver seamlessly. We all know the result of that fine piece of marketing.
The third part will be to position the product and service delivery towards chosen target market in such a way that it delivers enduring value (Brand Positioning). In the early 90s, Mobil Oil conducted intensive research and discovered that only 20% of motorists were driven by price while making their buying choices. The research enabled them to categorise motorists into 5 distinct group based on purchase decisions. Mobil Oil thus targeted 3 of the key groups by introducing a philosophy called ‘Friendly Service’ accompanied by value Added offerings like cleaner toilets, cappuccino and sales guides made all the difference in those market segment.
To bring it closer home, precision is what makes Guinness Nigeria’s recent Made of Black campaign such a beautifully crafted and executed piece of marketing. Guinness was faced with the challenges of global product markets. The life expectancy of the Nigerian had reduced significantly and the product had reached maturation stage. To sustain the growth, the brand had to explore markets that had not been previously engaged. The thrust of the marketing direction had started with the The Table of Men campaign and had progressed to The Colourful World of More. The Made of Black campaign is targeted towards a younger demography, the latest in the series of campaigns attempt to move the brand personality from an Udeme to a more hip, tech savvy and famous young chap. The onus of responsibility, of vision, hardwork, and consistency which typified Udeme is conspicuously lost on the new brand persona and replaced with the fast and furious outlook of attitude, panache, style, focus and accomplishment. The decision to target the social media generation, the deliberate use of Kanye West’s soundtrack, not Talib Kweli or Jay Z or Common; the futuristic theme, the pan African approach, is what makes the campaign tick. In using celebrities such as Phyno, Olamide and Eva, the brand attempts to evoke the associations with what they represent. Understanding that the beer drinker is largely a creature of habit, the brand will have to find a way to get people drinking for the first time to drink Guinness.
Nigeria is an interesting country which boasts of a heterogeneous market. The mass market which is the thrust of the FMCG marketing process is what drives a lot of marketing decisions. However, for SMEs, the fine art of targeting niche markets may just be the key to winning. With two consumer related initiatives – Truppr and TPL (Twitter Premier League), one is constantly learning that niche markets can deliver sustainable value in the long term.
…To be continued
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Uche Briggs is a brand manager resident in Lagos and founder of The Brand Jury which is, for all intents and purposes, an eclectic selection of the Baddest Brand Guys Ever Liveth. He tweets from @UcheBriggs
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
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