It first struck me as a simple, good idea. How do you reward consumers, mostly Nigerians? Give them credit!
I bought a bottle of Pepsi from Iya Ibeji, a 29 year-old – plus or minus 2 years – mother of four children (within the age-bracket of, say, 11 months – 9 years old), who owns a container-shop where she retails, drinks and fast-moving-consumer-goods) the ‘FREE AIRTEL AIRTIME INSIDE’ on the crown cork, as she handed the bottle over, arrested my immediate attention. I wasn’t to be bothered as such. Promos come and go as motorists do on Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
It was a day or two later I heard on Radio, caught it on Tv, Billboards etc… It was during these moments, the promo started to agitate my small brain… I’m not an Airtel subscriber, but what If I am, will it encourage me to buy for the sake of it? I doubt. I’m hardly-starved of Airtime-units to call friends and family etc… they’re people who cut across social classes. So I put the question to some of them. And I got relatively similar answers. My focus group is an infinitesimal fraction of the whole. The more I stumble on ads currently running the more I cast a glance at the composite-size of our population, the richer older, poorer older, richer younger, poorer younger – I mean people who have needs and desires in a world of appetites – Africa’s most populous, 60% of whom are below 25 years of age, which, thus, portend an apodictic certainty that Nigeria, has a larger, youthful market. One, we may say, has furnished Pepsi, 7up etc… demographic dividends.
I‘ve also noticed those that fit the profile on Pepsi’s billboard, the richer younger, prefer but, are not limited to, the PET bottle. OK. Let’s say they’re exemplified to connect with their peers, that they’re merely captioned in order to endear others. Let’s also say that it is immaterial which social class drinks more or less of Pepsi, Mirinda, 7up and such. Let’s also categorize, in the strict and economic sense of it, Airtime as a ‘scare commodity’.
Whose idea is this, Pepsi/7up, Airtel, or we the consumer? Why is it one-minute-loyalty-reward-you-cannot-load-more-than-three-times-a-day-and-valid-for-three-days? Is this the most equitable way to reward teeming consumers, whose wallets are chiefly responsible for their survival in the market? Are they rewarding subscribers with units after each and every top-up, as some kind of added incentive? Is this in line with Pepsi’s freely, adopted standard? If the good deeds of word-of-mouth are plausibly responsible for more sales of goods and services, wouldn’t it be cheaper to use the crown corks and tailor-made posters on their delivery-trucks, as means to gain breadth and reach?
Moreover, every promo, if it is to be followed with success or not, requires tacit understanding of what makes Brands: thick. Apparent in their logical and historical antecedents, that is to say, they aim ‘To Make People Happy’, gives meaning to their real activity. It would, however, be fallacious to conclude that this concept is their global, local strategy. It is merely posited insofar one is necessary in order to make their positive, auxiliary object: clearer. It is to be observed as an instrument of their Strategy, but not on that account exclusively owned and operated; therefore, it belongs to both tactics and Strategy!
Come 22nd of March, 2014, the promo will climax. I look forward to hearing of its resounding success. I honestly do. As for me, a consumer since nineteen-kokoro, my Loyalty counsel is that, Pepsi/7up should just imprint ‘Drink Pepsi/7up’on their billboards, or as matter of urgent attention, and as part of their Marketing oversight, some – not all – of their delivery-trucks negotiating our towns and cities are in begging-need for makeover, their presence on our streets is not befitting for their status!
Bashar Branding 