m2weekly.com » Brand & Product Reviews

Chivita Active Facebook Presence: A Hit

M2 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:37:08 +0000

Nze Eunice
Successful business owners know that they must be adaptable and open to learning to be successful in today’s market place. The prolific use of the internet, both by businesses and most importantly, by prospective customers, is a blessing because it offers businesses an easy to use and cost effective marketing tool.
Aside from having an internet presence in terms of a web site, any company would do well to consider the benefits of social media to grow their business. Online social media outlets are undoubtedly one of the most important elements of a business’ internet marketing strategy today. This is because eventhough these sites are absolutely free for a business owner to take advantage of, they can generate huge returns.
Chivita Active, a product from the house of Chi recently took advantage of the social media , when it launched a quiz competition on Facebook tagged “activate your sixth sense”. The quiz lets you answer 6 multiple choice questions correctly (in less than 6 seconds) ranging from current affairs to world facts for a chance to win a Chivita Active Christmas hamper with loads of gifts.
Being a Facebook lover , I have taken a lot of quiz competitions, more out of curiosity andthe quest for knowledge than the expectation that the brands will fulfill their own part of the bargain. However to my surprise,when I tried the Chivita Active sense quiz ,I was met with a pleasant surprise.
When I checked my mailbox in the office one morning I could not believe my eyes when I saw an email from Chivita Active congratulating me for being one of their winners.Well, even though inside me I felt it must be a ploy, I nevertheless went ahead to the designated venue and guess what ? I got a pack of Chivita.!
Now this is not where the story lies. Itactually began started when I was sharing my chivita active with some loved ones and I was getting surprises. I realised that some of these people doesn’t even know the difference between the regular chivita and the Active Chivita. Some said it is same as five alive and some others said something else.
I instantly became an ambassador for the chivita brand. I unconsciously took my time to explain the differences and so much more to these people. At the end of the day, I asked myself why I was doing this; the reason wasn’t farfetched, I was excited that I got a pack of chivita while educating myself on Facebook.
Chivita Active is a smart brand because it has used the social media to create more awareness not only to their elite audience but also to the non-elites and that qualified the brand to feature on brands hits and misses this week.

Bournvita and Milo: Two Brands in Rejuvenation Race

M2 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:24:09 +0000

The two major contenders in the cocoa beverage drink segment in Nigeria serve it hot in the rat race of brand rejuvenation.
Kenneth O. Eze
Brands know that fear of competition is not just the beginning of wisdom but of self, mind, market and pocket share preservation. The brand must first be in existence and warm itself into the minds of prospects before it can look forward to converting the prospects to customers. The importance of mind share as against market share is not lost on brand custodians, as a good portion of marketing spend is justified by the need to get into the minds of the public.
Competition is a keen race for patronage. This places a burden on brand custodians and their consultants to keep an eye on what the competition is doing. How is the competition fairing in the race? Taking eyes off the competition could be likened to taking legs off the pedal in a motor race. The infallible rule has it that brands can only do that at the peril of extinction.
The two leading brands in the Nigerian cocoa beverage segment are in no mood to relax and have taken turns to rejuvenate in a bid to stay connected with the people. Milo from the stable of Nestle was first to fire the salvo by a re-launch, that has seen it engaging mother and child, a clear departure from its posturing as ‘the food drink of future champions.’ Milo’s strategy of focusing on purchasers and influencers simultaneously, as against solely influencers is probably informed by its major rival’s strategy of focusing on purchasers, particularly mothers.
This shift in strategy watchers maintain is influenced by the major rival. This is rather peculiar as marketers seem united that brands can avert the rout to fading by focusing on the youth to guarantee continuous patronage. Tobacco companies have long championed this stance and it has taken the intervention of the law to save young people from being inducted into the smoking habits at tender ages. The scheme is that young people sustain brands through habitual purchases and patronage that could last a lifetime, spanning say 50 years, depending on when the person got ‘hooked.’ Why is Bournvita able to turn the rule on its head?
Look and Feel
These two contenders came in similar packaging with the family size being 900g tin packs. This would have given them a level playing field, as the packs were difficult to distinguish, if not for the colours. Bournvita has however gone ahead to reboot and come off with plastic packaging that gives it a more youthful look and feel. The lid has also been changed to a screw-able cover that reminds of Pronto. This move has left many wondering, if Bournvita has left Milo behind and is now in pursuit of Holicks.
With Milo being the first to relaunch, it seems that Bournvita is opening its own chapter of fear the competition. Bournvita is also joining the struggle for leaders of tomorrow by expanding its engagement of mothers to include children. The brands retain their corporate colours of green for Milo and purple for Bournvita. The colours are integral parts of the brands and their look and feel.
Physical content of the packs are brownish granules that the public understand to be substantially cocoa. If these drinks are substantially cocoa, that makes their marketing battle inevitably fierce as each has to be patronised on perception, being basically the same product. Each has to build a strong perception to keep going or fade off.
Milo fires the first salvo, coming in very fine granules that lend themselves to dissolving easily in hot or cold water. Conversely, Bournvita is coarser than Milo. It is also less inviting to the eyes. Its coarser nature probably account for the longer time and efforts it takes to dissolve in cold water. Both drinks taste almost alike, depending on other ingredients added or quantity mixed per glass of water. Bournvita’s coarse and hard to dissolve qualities are like the physician’s errors though, tucked in the belly of the earth – the packaging covers this seeming low point from connecting strongly with the public.
What are they selling?
Whereas Bournvita and Milo have cocoa, little milk, mineral among other nutritional values, they vigorously market themselves as energy-giving drinks, employing sporting activities in their marketing communications. Milo latches on basketball to woo loyalists of the energy sapping game, particularly at youthful level to join the bandwagon of Milo drinkers. The brand has a long association with basketball and other school sports sponsorship as part of its brand building strategies. It is also strong on academic quiz sponsorships. Milo is also strengthening its hold on youth through football with the aid of Peter Rufai, former Super Eagles’ goalkeeper, who is helping out with a football clinic, the second season of which just ended. All these give Milo an edge in corporate social responsibility initiatives.
Bournvita has taken on health conscious mothers and their knowledge showing children through corporate social responsibility initiatives on breast cancer and sponsorship of children’s television programmes.
Whereas Bournvita can be said to be finding it tough responding to Milo’s numerous articulated involvements with school children through sports and quiz, resorting to sponsorship of kid programmes on television, Milo is matching Bournvita’s CSR initiatives with its mother and child marathon, with which it marked its relaunch.
Concerted efforts are made by both brands to sell themselves as invigorating to the public with only the sensitive few aware that they get knocked to sleep on indulging in a cup of their preferred drink. Milo and Bournvita are selling themselves as if they are Nescafe or Lipton. What an irony for brands that could easily pass for bed time drinks, yet the power of perception has left them in the minds of the public as energisers!
Likely Impact of Rejuvenation Efforts
Jean Marc Lehu, explored ‘how to protect, strengthen and add value to your brand to prevent it from ageing,’ in his book Brand Rejuvenation. Lehu prescribes a lifecycle for brands comprising birth, growth, maturity, decline (renewal) and death (life).
Custodians of Bournvita and Milo seem well aware that death lurks in the corner for brands that do not address the ageing issue, hence concerted efforts being made at warding-off ageing. Nestle and Cadbury the manufacturers of these brands have a rich history of rejuvenating and resting brands depending on where brand thermometers point. The question remains, ‘what is the likely impact of the efforts?’
Lehu counsels that it is not just essential to rejuvenate; careful efforts must go into ‘determining the appropriate rejuvenation programme.’ Due care must be exercised as an oversight of one symptom has the potential of frustrating the entire effort. The audit process, Lehu cautions must ‘identify all possible causes of ageing; because if a single one of them were to be omitted from the rejuvenation factors the company is ready to deploy, the entire rejuvenation strategy would be potentially jeopardized.’
It is incumbent upon the brand custodians of Milo and Bournvita to ascertain the stage of their brands in the lifecycle Lehu prescribed with a view to determining what remedies the brands would do with presently. Rejuvenation is the single thing that perpetuates brands else they would acquire human nature – grow old, (mature) probably get sick (decline) and die!

Star and Heineken: Brainstorming an Intra Stable Rivalry

M2 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:24:02 +0000

The blend between politics and economy seems to be brewing hot at the Nigerian Breweries with Star Lager seeming to be at the receiving end. Will the repackaging of Heineken prove the bold masterstroke that drowns ‘shine, shine bobo?’ Kenneth O. Eze

Star Lager beer, Nigeria’s pioneer indigenous beer is a gift the Dutch presented the country with in June 1949. As with all gifts with potential of transforming economic landscape, the inspiration and conception came much earlier. Where flooding of Nigeria’s beer market with imported beer brands from Europe is inspiration, incorporation of Nigerian Breweries, NB, makers of Star Lager Beer in 1946 comes handy as the pregnancy.
The country’s beer drinking population was glad to have something to call their own and this defined the way they connected with and remained glued to Star Lager until calculated efforts since 1988 to dissolve this bond.
Patriotic flavour and appropriate naming joined forces to make Star Lager an instant success. The beer quickly evolved into Nigeria’s leading lager brand with Nigeria’s dominance of the West African Sub-region giving it a push into the West-Coast in the same breath.
The decision of Heineken NV to open a subsidiary in Africa, particularly as at that time proved a marketing masterstroke that has given it a strong footing in the African continent. The oneness of Nigerian people was at its peak as at the time NB opened shop and presented the people with something to celebrate and bond with. The economy was also buoyant permitting more leisure as at the time Star Lager was born. It could be said that all market indices were in favour of the pioneer lager beer brand in Nigeria.
The conducive environment at Star Lager beer’s birth was not taken for granted by the founding fathers of the iconic drink as they pioneered many marketing moves in Nigeria in the bid to etch the brand on the minds of the people, in addition to winning and sustaining market leadership. Part of the deft moves made that remains indelible on the minds of followers of brand development in Nigeria is the live presentation of Star Lager beer’s advertisements on television. Yes, the brand builders had to resort to live presentation of TVCs to make Star what it turned out to be.
The state of development of technology would not deter the movers of the brand and they had to assemble a crack team of copywriters and dramatists to script and present the television commercial aimed at building a strong brand for Star Lager live on television. How many took advertising as serious as to go this extra step in pre-colonial Nigeria? Can you blame Nigerians for falling head over heels in love with Star?
Entrepreneurs focus on their businesses, so Heineken NV probably monitored its investment in Nigeria closely. The management agreement between the companies ensured that the parent company always had a decisive say in the affairs of the subsidiary. Success breeds enemies, so Star Lager beer’s success seems to have bred enemies for it, sadly both within and without, rather at home and abroad.
The rousing reception accorded Star Lager and the strong bond between the beer and Nigerians prompted the competition to look at Africa’s most promising market. Initially the Dutch was content getting returns on investment by way of good financial figures but globalisation might have tempted it to take its game further by foisting its international flagship brand, Heineken Lager on the success its subsidiary had recorded in Nigeria. According to a statement on NB’s website ‘Heineken Lager Beer was re-launched into the Nigerian market in 1998.’
This re-launch seems to be the headache of the shining star of the beer market in Nigeria. What worries market watchers is that the re-launch and marketing strategies to propel the new entrant appear aimed at wrestling leadership of the beer market from Star Lager and bestowing it on Heineken. This many argue would not have been possible in a democratic setting and could hardly be said to be a decision reached for purely economic reasons. At corporate settings, decisions are reached on one share, one vote as against the everyday democracy where it is a vote per man.
Available information on NB’s website on the ownership structure reveals why it is so easy for the foreign legion to upstage the chairman and foist another. The website discloses that ‘Heineken NV has a majority shareholding of 54.10 percent while 45.90 percent is held by Nigerian and foreign individuals and associations.’ Arithmetically, adding the holding of the ‘foreign individuals and associations,’ to that of Heineken NV could mean that NB is well in the hands of foreigners to the tune of over 60 percent shareholding holding. This is only probable but it points the way democratic decisions could be reached at NB.
This explains that this coup de tat would have been a less bitter pill to swallow if entrepreneurial goals outweighed patriotic zeal in reaching the decision to oust the Nigerian star with its foreign master.
It is curious that Nigeria’s democracy claimed one of its celebrated casualties in the person of Festus Odimegwu, whose role in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term bid cost him his place as Managing Director of NB. Watchers draw the political angle to the clipping of the wings of Star Lager to this unfortunate incident given that saw Odimegwu replaced by Michiel Herkemij in April 2, 2007 shortly before the orchestration of the strategies that seem determined to see the end of Star Lager as market leader in its own native country.
Observers are worried that while NB continues to propagate Heineken with the world famous European Champions League, Star is devoid of sponsorship engagements in Nigeria to boost its stand as the people’s beer. The name continues to propel the brand forward and who would not want to identity with a star, even Heineken in its bottle has the star crest in red colour in seeming admiration of the icon. Star tries to connect with the people through music which is once in a while as against football, planned in annual seasons that its master has colonised in the bid to dominate mind and pocket share. People who proudly identify with the beer seem to flock for obvious reasons, ‘I drink Star Lager. I am a star!’ Beat this, if you can. Who doesn’t want to be, or at least be associated with a star? Stars shape the way things go, including the market, even the beer market.
The Champions Planet that Heineken promotes is to position itself as a beer for planet earth, so watchers felt ashamed listening to a radio advertisement where Star Lager in Pidgin English laid claim to being the world’s leading lager. Was that designed to scorn? The brand owners might have an answer.
All these efforts seem to have been of no effect as ‘shine, shine bobo’ continued to shine. So the masters appear to have resort to a single masterstroke with the unveiling of the Heineken Magnum, a 150cl Champaign-like bottle meant to set Heineken apart from its main rival. The claim now is to get people to celebrate big. Will Star Lager beer take this onslaught from its supposed brother in its strides as it did with other strategies?

Glo and Etisalat: Game Changers of Similar Colouration?

M2 — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:37:21 +0000

Globacom Nigeria and Etisalat joined the telecoms market in Nigeria well behind other notable competitors but they seem to share similar strategies that appear potent enough to swing the pendulum. Competitors beware!
Kenneth O. Eze
This week, two late entrants in Nigeria’s telecommunications market go head to head in the brand versus brand segment. Knowledge acted upon has efficacy more than anything else to save the enterprise from demise. The knowledge that customers make or mar the business is what many businesses and the people driving them need to realise as the examples of Globacom Nigeria, popular in telecommunications circles as Glo, and Etisalat Nigeria tend to show that no business can go wrong standing by the people. What winning cards are these players applying in the marketing field that the competition and probably other businesses need to note or risk adverse repercussions?
Short Term is Short Sight
Econet Wireless might have been the first to open its shops to Nigerians eager to hook onto the world of global system of mobile telecommunications but its entry did little to save the people from the problem talking to one another was at the time. All the early telecommunications operators seemed to have formed a cartel against the Nigerian populace to make them pay through the nose for telecommunication services. The people loathed this. Telecommunication services became a necessary evil.
The clamour for pay per talk (per second billing) fell on deaf ears as telecom operators responded with what sounded as if rehearsed that pay per talk was not possible in a new market like Nigeria. It took the intervention of Glo to break the deadlock and compel other competitors to adopt per second billing in a move considered by marketing experts as compelled by fear of the competition. To this extent, many Nigerian telecoms subscribers remain grateful to the Mike Adenuga Jnr. led company for hoisting the patriotic flag and saving them from the rip-off of other operators. The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC came off as having done something right in awarding the second national carrier licence to Globacom.
Critics might aver that Glo did what it did in a desperate bid to gain good footing in the Nigerian market which already had a clear leader by the time it joined the race. However, the success that the strategy has bestowed on Glo shows that the company came into the marketplace with its sights set on the long haul as against its predecessors that seemed eager to recoup investments in the very short term.
Similarly, Etisalat Nigeria joined the market at a time Nigerians were already spoilt for choice. The yet to be equalled creative market entry strategy – 0809uchoose campaign – remains fresh in the minds of the people. This, in addition to taking advantage of the number 9 licensed to it to take up and brandish the Nigerian passport, are strategies that underline that Etisalat was poised to build lasting relationships with the people of Nigeria, as against the competition who seemed content to merely doing business with them.
First in Mind Instead of Marketplace
Glo may have come to the marketplace when competitors could already boast of leadership but seemed poised to be the first in the mind. The patriotic zeal the company displayed bought it a place in the happy minds of Nigerian telephone users. The company also gave lots of people the chance to own their first Blackberry and complied with the law of focus in marketing when it gave customers the chance to make a choice of handsets and pay overtime as they buy airtime.
Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, which the writers ‘dedicated to the elimination of myths and misconceptions from the marketing process,’ assert that, ‘it is better to be the first in the mind than to be the first in the marketplace.’ The marketing experts argue that ‘the law of the mind follows from the law of perception. If marketing is a battle of perception, not product, then the mind takes precedence over the marketplace.’
Where early birds in the Nigerian telecommunications market appeared content with offering good products, late entrants, Glo and Etisalat blasted their way through to the people’s minds, through innovative and pocket friendly offerings that seemed to factor in customers and prospects, winning them over in the process. While Glo was the first to give Nigerians the opportunity of choosing the numbers they wanted as telephone lines, though they paid for the privilege, Etisalat took the game further by giving people the chance to select their preferred lines at no cost. Building on the success of 0809uchoose, the company has been discreetly pitching its choose your preferred number to a select crop of Nigerians, offering them alternatives to their already existing telephone lines. Accepting this would see Etisalat register an Etisalat line exactly the same as the one the subscriber was using. There is a chance for whoever accepts this, to retain his signature telephone line! A drive that would further etch Etisalat on the minds of Nigerians as one of the major issues constraining migration from network to network has been number identity.
Giving ordinary folks the chance of using two identical numbers on two networks seem to be a perfect way of presenting a viable alternative. When placed side by side with Etisalat’s strategy of offering bonus call credit for calls received, it is easy to understand why the subscriber base of the operator seems to be growing at a rate faster than that of the competition.
Values and Alternatives
Glo is officially licensed as second national carrier. This position is reinforced by the seeming demise of the Nigerian Telecommunications Company, Nitel, and weakened by the free economy that has seem its rivals that ought to have been depending on it instead of Nitel, develop and deploy infrastructure across Nigeria. Can Glo take the market back by legal means, having been licensed to be the only alternative to Nitel? There are doubts if its disposition as a patriotic Nigerian citizen would permit it to go this far. Being a business, it is up to it to find out ways of exploiting the profit angles to the license it purchased from the NCC.
Etisalat’s operations in Nigeria is its eleventh in Africa and fifteenth in the world. So, the company brings with it quality experience driven by its core values of optimism, simplicity and caring. Where Glo is Nitel’s alternative and would not press for its rights to provide infrastructure at a premium to the competition, Etisalat brings its caring mind to the business by offering subscribers a part of the money paid to it when someone calls an Etisalat subscriber with the competitor’s line. Head or tail you win. The company is also seeking to bind people to long term relationships by offering subscribers free anytime to one chosen partner on the same network. Talk about strategies of growing subscriber base.
The telecommunications industry seems to have been overtaken by sales promotions. Even when regulators make frantic efforts to clamp down on the tide, operators have successfully slipped away. Glo and Etisalat are the ones that seem to have sustained their promos without draws, employing innovation to allow customers take the centre stage by determining their winnings. When what a customer wins is an automatic function of the volume of his/her patronage, the power is vested in the customer to determine participation and winning. The elements of luck and suspicion that often plague such processes are removed. Both companies have also managed to keep the process free of scandals. The strategy has seen the companies run promos on a continuous basis as against the shot-in the arm effect that promos generally have on products, they are able to raise and sustain sales through promos.
Ten years down the line, can it be safely said that the Nigerian telecommunications market has come of age? Probably no. The clamour for number portability is yet to get the desired response from the regulators. That’s the single masterstroke that would empower Nigerian subscribers to move freely from network to network without compromising number identity or being compelled to resort to alternatives like Etisalat that tends to be sneaking in.
It is up to players in this market segment to understand that everything is possible in the marketplace. The future is always tough to predict but that is where planning takes pride of place in business. Marketers owe their careers and the brands they market a duty to think like the prospect thinks as that seems to be the masterstroke for marketing success irrespective of segment, brand or product.

TGI’s Hit on Peppe Terra

M2 — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:28:11 +0000

Nze Eunice Onyinyechi

On Brand Hit and Misses this week is a brand that has done its homework by finding a unique niche in the condiments market and has been able to bridge that gap by coming up with a product that satisfies its target market with little or no disadvantage.
My first encounter with the Peppe Terra brand was a TV advertisement where I saw pepper, tomatoes and onions flying on the TV screen. My kitchen encounter with it was far more memorable than the TV experience. For me, it was truly a huge relief from the pains and stress of cooking. An M2 survey on the movement of the brand from the shelves reveals that the brand has performed wonderfully in the past few months and seems to have warmed it way into the hearts of housewives.
The brand positioning is another great hit as it is positioned as a brand that eliminates the stress and mess involved in cooking. I once spoke with the Head of Marketing at the makers TGI, Probal Bhattacharya, who said that Peppe Terra is a ready to cook blend of the freshest tomatoes, spiciest red peppers & premium onions, produced through state of the art processes and hygienically packed in a easy to open-n-use tetrapak.’
With Peppe Terra, one don’t need to buy, clean, cut, blend and boil tomatoes, pepper and onions to prepare your favourite delicacies. The company promises not only good quality, freshness and hygiene, it also claims that Peppe Terra makes life very simple by cutting off all the non value added chores associated with cooking. Peppe Terra is available in 70gm packs and available in all open markets in Lagos.
Coming from the stables of TGI Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the House of Chi, TGI is one of the youngest companies under the Group. It was set up in 2010 to spearhead the Groups foray into core FMCG business noted for its highly competitive and growth intensive players such as packaged foods, condiments, non-alcoholic beverages & personal care.
While the company has produced several other condiments alongside Pepper Terra, in my opinion, none has the kind of target Pepper Terra has because the brand is in a class of its own, with very few or even non existing competition. The product has done well to grace this page as a brand that has hit its target market the way it should.

Samsung and Tecno: Two Brands, Many Similarities

M2 — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:23:55 +0000

Samsung and Tecno are two handset brands with similar attributes, yet they present different choices to consumers in Nigeria.
Kenneth O. Eze
Opening the world’s sixth largest market to the mobile communications world holds lots of potentials and attractions for brands venturing into similar sphere. The lure of Africa’s largest market is tough to resist, so with the licensing of GSM and other mobile telecommunication operators about ten years ago, device makers and vendors came to Nigeria in droves.
Nokia’s omnipresence in the telecommunications market was part of the opening scenes in Nigeria with the Nokia 3310 handset leading the way. With continuous evolution, several phone brands and products that were there at the outset have become extinct. But Samsung is still holding forth. Tecno has also come on. What makes these two brands tick?
Samsung has a history of inching-in against the tide of successful brands. Its advent in the Nigerian home appliances electronics market in the early 90s seems to signpost this trait. In a market segment dominated by notable international brands like National Panasonic, Sony, Philips and LG; Samsung came in as a definite underdog. Its story today indicates that it is probably better for a brand to be underrated, particularly at the point of entry into the market.
The brand has progressed to the point of becoming the choice of the younger generation people aged 35 and below in Nigeria seem to have Samsung and LG as their preferred home appliance as far as electronics is concerned. This is an irony given that the brand met with very hostile reception as at the time it entered the Nigerian market. Today, Samsung has diversified with several product brands under the corporate brand name. While this form of branding risks the failure of one being the failure of all, so far, Samsung has weathered the storm well.
Handset manufacturers swarmed the Nigerian market like bees about a decade ago when the market opened up. It is a well known fact that Nigerian consumers are very discerning and this characteristic seems to be what has forced several handset products that ventured into the country to bow out in ignominy before they were able to transform into brands. Today, people scarcely remember Sendo, Talk-About, Motorola, Sagem and the many other entrants that could not last the distance.
Tecno, a recent entrant appears to be coming in with the same audacity and tenacity that has seen Samsung etch its name in the minds of Nigerians in the various product segments it is playing in. Observers point out that these brands share certain attributes:
Like Samsung, Tecno is coming into the market segment with the full knowledge that some brands have established themselves there. Apparently, the brand will have done a thorough homework before venturing. This appears to be the main reason why Tecno is surviving the initial resistance that newcomers face.
Samsung entered the market with cute designs, riding on aesthetics as against its more established competitors whose looks were more serene. This may be part of the reasons the youth have caught the Samsung bug. Competitors have not just been forced to take notice, they are well on the way to complying. Tecno has done the same with its telephone handsets, adding some value by offering enhancements at very low rates when compared with the competition. Samsung also sold at cheaper rates at the point of entry.
Both brands seem to have approached the Nigerian market with their sights set on the long haul. This is particularly true for Tecno which would have ordinarily passed for the everyday Chinese manufactured phones, derisively known as Chinko, but for the presence of well branded technical stores/workshops dotting several neighbourhoods to sell/mend the handsets. This singular act appears to have gone a long way in convincing many that an investment in a Tecno phone would not easily go down the drain.
Emeka Okafor, a journalist says, ‘I was attracted to buy a Tecno handset when I saw their office at Olowu Street, Ikeja. The magnitude of the office convinced me that whoever makes such investment would stand by the product it sells.’
It does not appear though that the brands can be rightly said to be competing on price as it is normal for brands to be priced according to value and perception so that consumers can see that they are getting value, else patronage would be difficult to engender. Where Tecno is selling at lower prices than Samsung, Samsung is also selling lower than Nokia, pundits point out to buttress this assertion.
The brands seem to be in harmony that they are selling equipment with which people can ignite and satiate their emotions, so they have latched onto Nigerian’s most popular emotional cult football. Samsung, in its choice of brand ambassadors Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi, all of Chelsea FC. Tecno appears to occupy a permanent position in Nigeria’s most widely circulating sports newspaper, CompleteSports, in the bid to connect with the sporting fraternity.
Interestingly, some Nigerians use both handset brands as many people currently use more than one telephone network. This has made it easy for brands like Tecno that offer multi-SIM handsets to earn not just share of mind but share of pocket. Samsung also has dual SIM handsets but the company markets the handsets in a manner that analysts posit appear aimed at warding-off competition as against carving a niche. Conversely, Tecno appears bent on carving a niche for itself as the handset brand that offers Nigerians a chance of holding their four or three SIMs in one handset, conveying convenience. Is Tecno selling convenience?
This is only a semblance. Many phone users and their neighbours complain that Tecno handsets are too loud, indeed noisy. This attribute makes the handset unfit for the corporate environment. This appears to be the main reason why upwardly mobile Nigerians find themselves unable to take advantage of the convenience offered by Tecno in making a choice of handsets. Samsung reaps the benefits, where Nokia is a bit far away.
Tecno’s noisy attribute seems to be its way of matching Samsung on the sphere of brand ambassadorship where the rival has chosen three football stars of Chelsea FC, whose supporters in Nigeria have the good reputation of being noisy.
Femi Matthew uses both Samsung and Tecno and says, ‘my Samsung is rugged. Tecno is fragile. My son has dropped the Samsung on the floor on many occasions without any damage but just once and the Tecno got its screen broken.’
Ruggedness is an attribute Samsung seems to have added to its brand probably because it is looking up to Nokia, the brand to beat, known to be uncompromising in this aspect. Tecno seems well advised that you cannot be everything to everybody, so it is playing on offering services that Samsung and Nokia are offering at premium to everyday folks at everyday rates. And getting ordinary people to enjoy what their highly placed neighbours are enjoying at a premium seems to have the potential of giving the brand a stronger footing in the marketplace.
Tunde Williams, a student of the Lagos State Polytechnic, says he had to drop his Tecno handset despite patronising it for the affordable ad-ons. He claims that he was somewhere in Ogun State and noticed that while other people around had network service he didn’t. Curious, he fixed his SIM card into another handset brand and the service came on. This defined Williams’ loyalty to the handset brands. He says that he would have held on to the Tecno on the premise that if he had issues the company would repaired it given its physical presence in Lagos, but he could not come to terms with holding the phone and yet being incommunicado, which defeats the very essence of a telephone line.

The Fedora Makes A Comeback

M2 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:51:55 +0000

The fedora hat is back in style and getting popular by the day among the male folks, more so than probably any fashion accessory in their wardrobe. It is one accessory when polishing off an executive appearance or hitting the red carpet.
What makes it a bold fashion statement? Along with practical uses like providing protection from the wind and rain, the fedora also gives its wearer a stylish and mysterious look. Most men are interested in it because of how it makes them feel like gangsters or bad boys in the mould of Al Capone.
It is said that a smile from a man doting a fedora while tipping the hat to a female is downright sexy because it leaves the woman wondering and wishing.
The fedora hat comes in a variety of styles and colours. Sizes and styles vary so greatly that any man who wishes to wear one can find the perfect fit and style for dress and leisurewear. However, popularity plays a great role in determining which fedora hat to add to your wardrobe of accessories.
So when next you are feeling like Indiana Jones, want to wear a mysterious look and of course grab the ladies attention, make sure to dot one.

With Skype, communication is real

M2 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:50:35 +0000

Although the Skype platform has been in existence since 2003, it is gradually gaining huge acceptance among upwardly mobile Nigerians. It is now common place to hear people ask, ‘are you on Skype,’ just like they ask, ‘are you on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, or do you have a Blackberry Pin?’
With Skype, you can share a story, celebrate a birthday, learn a language, hold a meeting, work with colleagues – just about anything you need to do together every day. You can use Skype on whatever works best for you – on your phone or computer or a TV with Skype. It is free to start using Skype – to speak, see and send instant messages to other people on Skype for example. You can even try out group video, with the latest version of Skype.
Furthermore, for a little fee you can do more things, in more ways, with more people – like call phones, access WiFi or send texts. You can pay as you go or buy a subscription, whatever works for you. And in the world of business, this means you can bring your entire ecosystem of workers, partners and customers together to get things done easily.

Why Men’s Pencil Mouth Jeans are Hot

M2 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:47:45 +0000

Jeans are pants made from denim. In the 1950s, jeans, originally designed for cowboys, became popular among teenagers. Historic brands includes Levi’s Lee, and Wrangler. Jeans come in various fits, including skinny, tapered, straight, boot cut, Mommy-cut, maternity and flare.
During 2008 and 2009, pencil mouth jeans began to replace the baggy jeans of the 1990s and early 2000s. Among women, skinny jeans are most often worn tucked into boots or scrunched up over the wearer’s footwear. This was later adopted by more mainstream pop culture, increasing the popularity of skinny jeans amongst young men.
Today a very popular and probably the most notable maker of skinny jeans is the H&M-owned Swedish alternative fashion house Cheap Monday. Although skinny jeans used to be very popular with artistes, they are now common among teenagers and young adults in Nigeria.
Derrick Iloka, a corp. member explains that pencil mouth jeans pants gives him a sense of belonging. ‘As far as I am concerned, pencil jeans make me feel young and energetic. You know baggy pants are no longer in vogue. Moreover, they are for old men. So, no young guy who knows what’s going on would put on baggy pants today. They belong to the yesteryears,’ he enthuses.
This trends proves highly popular among females as it gives the look and fit of jeans but the comfort of leggings. Skinny jeans had also emerged as a staple of contemporary hip hop fashion. Many of those who wear urban styled clothing have replaced their baggy jeans and slacks with skinny or slim fit denim.
A recent research reveals that the United States spent $25 billion on jeans in 2008 and $28 billion in 2009.

All Natural Fruity Muesli

M2 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:41:14 +0000

Nze Eunice Onyinyechi, Ralph Tathagata and Blessing Nwobodo
For those who love to start the day in a healthy way, the Word Alive Group, makers of Apha Master’s Breakfast, has released into the market a healthy option called All Natural Fruity Muesli.
Although the cereal has been around for some time, following the formal launch of the Muesli, it has been going places making it part of almost every home in recent times. It is the only Muesli with 30 percent fruit and very high fibre content.
Most children’s day is not complete without a meal of cereal and it seems adults are joining the craze. This is attributable to the fact that it is a healthy food in a convenient pack which is available in neighbourhood stores and supermarkets.
The cereal is available in a 750g pack that sells for N1000.