20 Brands Nigerians Can’t Resist

It is a little over a month into the New Year; so it is still too early to judge the performances of brands for the year. But in the last 12 months, in a crisis hit 2009, there is a lot to talk about on how brands fared. While the past year was not a good outing for many brands due to the global financial meltdown, others enjoyed more brand awareness and market share courtesy of sustained and innovative campaigns. Here, Joseph Ekeng looks at what could possibly be the 20 Brands Nigerians couldn’t resist in 2009. They are presented in no particular order.

Alcoholic Beverages Have It
Last year witnessed robust activities from brands in the alcoholic beverages sector. The Guinness brand was indeed very busy and had every reason to. Guinness stout clocked 250 years and the brand fittingly spared no coin in ensuring a grand worldwide celebration by organizing a real-time global concert.
Guinness also signed on former Super Eagles captain, Austin “Jay-Jay” Okocha, as brand ambassador of its Power of Naija campaign. This is apparently an extension of the brand’s attachment to football, Nigeria’s number 1 sports. Okocha’s first outing in Guinness’ colours came when his former colleagues faced a must-win World Cup qualifier match against Kenya. The advert, drawing from Guinness’ brand niche of inner strength, persuaded Nigerians to be optimistic that the national team will make it to the World Cup, and indeed, they did.
“Guinness stout has gotten to the point where it has entrenched itself across the Nigerian media,” Otabor Victor, Director of Business Development, Rosabel Advertising says. “And despite concerted efforts by rival Legend extra stout to gain improved market share, Guinness has maintained a firm grip and continues to improve its performance,” Sunny Nwosu, President, Independent Shareholders Association, remarked at the company’s AGM held recently.
During the same period Star larger beer from industry rivals, Nigerian Breweries, also rolled out a massive campaign to celebrate its 60 years presence in the Nigerian market. Star, like Guinness, has sustained its brand momentum using several adverts and promotional campaigns. Star also strategically positioned itself by sponsoring entertainment news segments of every major prime time newscast in Nigeria including those on Channels TV, AIT, and STV.

Making Immediate Impact
By the time Etisalat joined the GSM fray in Nigeria, the trio of MTN, Glo and Zain had close to 60 million subscribers and were locked in a frenzy of marketing and promotional campaigns to gain improved market share. Though the market had room for more players, analysts held that it would require unusual creativity and aggressiveness for a new operator to survive the onslaught of the big three. One year after its official roll-out, Etisalat has shown it can indeed compete after it achieved a two million subscriber mark, a feat that surpassed popular expectation.
But this has been built on fierce creativity and aggressive campaigns which  launched by inviting subscribers to reserve choice phone numbers long before the roll out date. Etisalat also added more fun to mobile telephony by providing free internet access and easy connection to social network sites like Facebook. It recently concluded a promotion where it gave out $1million in prize money, reputed to be the biggest in Africa.
“In the last 12 months Etisalat has made significant investments in the airspace, activations and awareness campaigns to ensure that people don’t miss the name,” Otabor says. With just over two million subscribers, Etisalat is far behind the over 20 million subscriber base credited to any of the big three but the network has creatively targeted the youth market in all its engagements.
Compared to the other telecoms brands, analysts rate Etisalat high for its ability to build its own market and make immediate impact in a tough terrain. Two of the big three, MTN and Glo, have also been very active in campaigns although several observers are unimpressed with Glo campaigns claiming they lack creativity and focus. “They seem not to know what they are doing. They run promos even well beyond the time limit,” Otabor points out. MTN was commended for its strategic involvement in popular programmes like “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and “Project Fame”, two of the most watched programmes on Nigerian TV.
However, some brand experts believe Etisalat has not fully exploited the weaknesses of the other networks in branding itself uniquely. “I thought they could have stood for the new Nigeria. I thought Etisalat would fill that void. But they came in and started emphasizing on functionality. When you begin to project your brand on functionality, you begin to have competition,” Kenny Badmus, Chief Imagination Officer of Orange Academy, says.

Seeing What Others Do Not See
In Badmus’ eye, Wazobia FM was the best brand in 2009. This sentiment resonates very far. Like Etisalat, Wazobia had a great challenge to catch attention fast, coming into a radio industry that already paraded big players like Cool FM and its sister company, Rhythm; Raypower; Brilla FM; and others. But the new station quickly made impact with its unique style which enabled it reach out to the grassroots in a language they understood.
It established a niche and went on to capture the hearts of the elites and working class who wished to be entertained in an informal language. Expectedly, the adverts followed naturally.
“They defined their super niche to reach out to Pidgin English speakers who want to be who they are,” Badmus says. “I can tell you that when people are held up in traffic, more that 60 percent of them listen to Wazobia. Forget the tie and suit. That is because the brand is reaching out to something in us,” he explains.
This, perhaps, is what Indomie seeks to do lately by branding itself uniquely as a meal for kids’ heroes. It emphasized this by launching animated super hero adverts, followed by a Kids’ Hero awards last year. The new campaign has kept the Indomie brand busy and alive in the minds of consumers, particularly kids, and helped it sustain clear dominance in the noodles market. To further strengthen its lead and appeal, Indomie repackaged the product by adding more minerals to it. Even though the brand has failed to successfully birth extensions, it has remained dominant.
While acknowledging that the coming of Next Newspapers has added panache to the Nigerian print media, pundits would rather vote veteran, Punch, for its consistency and balanced editorials. They say the new comer is barely a year old and cannot be said to have fully cut its teeth in the highly turbulent Nigerian media terrain. One analyst claims that having only Punch equates to having all the newspapers in Nigeria. The weekend editions have also greatly improved. The publication is largely believed to be the most authoritative and editorially balanced daily in Nigeria.

Changing From the Old
The brand horizon in 2009 was not the exclusive preserve of commodities as state governments also joined in the game. For instance, Lagos State carved a niche for itself with the aggressive pursuit of tax reforms and infrastructural development.
Like Calabar, known globally for its huge tourism prowess (including the annual Calabar Carnival, Obudu Mountain Race and Tinapa), Lagos State also highlighted its tourism reputation by making a big show of its indigenous Eyo Festival which was packaged last year for a global audience. But there is more to the Lagos rebranding drive.
“Look at what is happening in healthcare, doctors are leaving private practice to join Lagos State hospitals,” Badmus says, adding that governor Babatunde Fashola has given Lagos a new meaning.
Dettol clearly gained equity this year by standing out in the healthcare sector through the reinforcement of its old message of protection. Dettol soap was also upgraded to compete with hitherto dominant antiseptic soaps like Tetmosol, Delta and Tura. The introduction of soap extensions like Dettol Cool and Dettol Active Deodorant Soap quickly helped its profile and positioned it as a favourite for users. Badmus notes that with its current series of adverts and new products, Dettol has re-emphasized its traditional message of protecting the family from disease. “They say ‘if I don’t care, who will?’ They are talking to something in every mother,” Badmus says.

Keeping the lead with little effort
Some brands didn’t need to do more to maintain their top position. That was the attitude Coke adopted in the last year. Coke has been the number one brand in the world in the last seven years according to Interbrand annual rankings. However, this brand power is not much felt in Nigeria as the brand does just enough to sustain its place as one of the most powerful brands in the country. Coke’s only major activation in 2009 was the launch of a new bottle. And, during the year, it also terminated its sponsorship of the Federation Cup. Coke retains its place as a top brand in Nigeria on the basis of its ability to assert itself as the premier refreshment brand. Badmus believes that Farouz soft drink had a chance to gain brand equity on coke but faded along the way.
Some other brands won equity by simply holding tight to quality. Julius Berger barely ran a campaign last year but has depended on the quality of its construction works to drive value. “They will not do any project that is not their brand. If Julius Berger is doing something, you know it is Julius Berger and that is what I call a brand,” Badmus says.
The same certainly goes for Nokia which has remained the leading handset in Nigeria almost since the coming of GSM into the country. Nokia stands out in technology, connectivity, and most importantly, durability which makes it the most popular handset across various market segments.
Peak indeed stood out, not necessarily because of its campaigns, but because it had no real competition. Although, Peak introduced the Peak Tin Milk in Sachet extension which is fast gaining market acceptance, the brand was primarily sustained by its continued awareness campaigns.

Leading Through Excellence
For many Nigerians, GTBank is clearly the best bank in the country. It’s operational brilliance, customer relations and creativity stands it out. While a few respondents prefer First Bank, following improvements in its customer service and creative product packages, GTBank stands out simply based on the story of excellence in its services.

Giant Strides
In 2009 there was always something new to expect from Arik Airlines. And indeed, its achievements in the year were a mere fulfilment of the promises it made during its celebrated launch in 2006. In July it won nomination for Airline of the Year at the Business Awards 2009. In August it hit a milestone, when it carried its three millionth passenger – a particularly impressive tally, considering that it has been operating for less than three years. That number rose to 4 million last month. In November, it became the first airline to touch down at the newly built Ibom Airport in Akwa Ibom during the launching of the airport. In December 2009, it extended its services to New York. No other airline in Nigeria could boast of such level of expansion.

Alcoholic Beverages Dominated
Despite any individual rankings, the alcoholic beverage brands were the real champions last year. The huge brand impact of alcoholic beverages has been greatly helped by the leap in beer consumption in Nigeria. As the global recession forced European beer consumers to tighten their belts, the Nigerian industry assumed greater importance, according to a study by BMI’s Food & Drink, a research publication.
The cushion provided by Nigeria is evidenced by the performance of Heineken’s Nigerian Breweries unit. Accounting for about 65 percent of formal beer volumes, Nigerian Breweries reported a 37 percent year-on-year increase in second quarter net earnings amounting to N16.85billion (US$113.7mn). Heineken has invested over US$500million in Nigeria over the past five years and with a brewing capacity of about 10mn hectoliters, Nigerian Breweries makes up more than half of the Dutch giant’s beer producing capacity for the entire Middle East and Africa region. Nigeria has overtaken Ireland to become Guinness’ second largest market behind the United Kingdom.