Is Bigi Merely Grandstanding?

In Nigeria, the sausage roll market has been under the dominance of UAC foods with its Gala brand assuming the generic name for the sub-segment. This has not discouraged other entrepreneurs from venturing in the segment. Recently, Rites Foods Ltd, makers of Rite beef sausage rolls introduced another product under the brand name, Bigi beef sausage roll. Ralph Tathagata reports that the new entrant might be lacking a precise marketing strategy.

The flourishing and competitive beef sausage roll market in Nigerian recently received a new entrant from the stable of Rites Foods Ltd under the brand name, Bigi.
Like its flashy predecessors (Meaty and Hotty sausage rolls from Leventis Nigeria), Bigi comes in a flamboyant red and silver packaging with the brand name boldly inscribed in blue colour. Interestingly, Bigi appears to be sharing quick and close shelf presence with some of the market leaders like Gala according investigations.
M2 recent survey shows that Bigi’s shelf presence with leaders like Gala from UAC, Meaty and Hotty (Leventis Foods) especially among traffic retailers was evident. Some of the sellers who spoke to M2 attest to this.
Mathew Okere, a roving retailer of various consumer goods especially sausage rolls, cakes and Yoghurt says: Bigi is another “brand of gala” in the market. We started selling it this year and it is doing well like other sausage rolls.
On how well Bigi is doing in the traffic market, he says: “I am not saying that Bigi is selling more than Meaty or Gala but people are buying it, maybe they just want to taste it. Some people think it is made by the same company that makes Meaty, so it maybe benefiting from the success of Meaty. What I know is that customers are buying Bigi.”
Another hawker at Maryland who identifies himself as Jerome believes that Bigi is yet to register a strong market presence to command consumer loyalty: “I cannot say that Bigi is selling like Gala or Meaty. In fact, many times I return two or three cartons of Bigi out of the four cartons I carry from the shop daily. Customers don’t know much about Bigi unless we tell them that it good like other sausages,” he says.
Findings also reveal that Bigi sells for N50, the same price as the major players.
To verify the opinions of the sellers, M2 contacted Rites Foods’ Opebi office in Ikeja, Lagos State, but the company was not forthcoming on the marketing strategies in place to earn consumer loyalty and build Bigi into a viable brand.

Marketing Strategy
While few watchers foresee a challenging warfare in the beef sausage roll market segment especially between Bigi and Meaty as close rivals, others doubt the possibility of a fierce competition as Rites Foods, makers of Bigi do not appear armed with any clear-cut strategy designed to position the new entrant for the battle for consumers’ minds against other brands before it. For now, Bigi’s manufacturers are keeping their plans close to their chests, going by repeated visits to their office.
The front-desk officer at the sales department at Rites’ Foods Opebi office referred M2 to the quality manager who was said to be very busy. Further attempts to get relevant names or contacts who can be reached for useful information hit the brick wall.
Marketing experts believe that without well designed strategies, it will take a great deal for owners of Bigi to elicit feedback from occasional purchasers (brand switchers) to help it get past initial obstacles.
Some are of the opinion that apart from creating awareness through market presence which passively promotes initial purchases, serious marketing shapes and reinforces consumer attitudes so they mature into beliefs, which need to be reinforced until they develop into loyalty. They assert sales are just the beginning of an opportunity to turn the purchaser into a loyalist.

Branding
A brand offers instant product recognition and identification. Consumers identify branded products as a result of effective marketing, consequently developing confidence in the product quality.
Although it is often difficult to achieve initial customer recognition of a new product regardless of branding, however, the brand name Bigi is quite recognizable and memorable. But market experts maintain that effective marketing before and after the sale of a new product is the key to overcoming this obstacle.
Watchers are wondering if there is a subtle attempt by the manufacturers of Bigi to pass-off on Meaty, as the packing and colours look alike. Others think the name, being very close to UAC’s quick service restaurant chain “Mr Biggs” could be an effort to make the public think that it is from the stable of the conglomerate.

Competition
Efforts to get Seni Fawehinmi, corporate brand manager, UAC, makers of Gala beef sausage roll to ascertain the assumed market threat Bigi might be posing was not successful as at press time. His counterpart at Leventis Foods neither answered nor returned several telephone calls made to know how his company sees Bigi’s direct market challenge to Meaty and Hotty beef sausage rolls.
What looks clear is that while Gala and Meaty among other leading beef sausage roll brands command loyalty through recurring streams of profit generated by repeat and referral sales, Bigi appears to be Bigi appears to be leveraging merely on its market presence as a attraction strategy market presence as customer development strategy. Whether this plain market impression can take Bigi to its desired destination is yet to be known.