News Star newspaper

LEVERAGE
Edition 13

Seasonal sales promotion
The bait beckons

NTIA USUKUMA
If there is any notable  characteristic Coca-Cola has, it is the instinct to use every opportunity play up to her rating as the world's number one brand.  With about two months still ahead before the largest marketing window on the calendar-the December/January festive period, the super brand flagged-off her battle for the giant share of this market space with the manhunt for the character with the best features that would suit her Afro-Santa 2008.
It's a matter of days before other brands join in this frenzy.  Already, the Cross River state government has stated massive publicity of Nigeria biggest tourism brand, “Carnival Calabar”.
The festival is packed with 55 colourful events within 32 days (30th Novembe2008  1st January 2009).
Every brand analyst can comfortably bet on the fact that almost every section especially the extremely versatile telecoms industry as well as the very competitive pay-TV sector would experience a charged atmosphere of promotions in the next one or two months.
Etisalat has announced her desire to capture at least 30% share of the current GSM market within 12 months. Daarsat, the new pay-TV brand owned by Daar Communications is in a titanic battle in a highly competitive sector. Visionary  builders, handling these ambitious brands, are not likely to ignore the atmosphere of love and comrades provided by this  season to reach-out forcefully to prospective consumers. Competitors will not idle away either.
This explains why so many brands activate promotional campaigns in commemoration of the season.  Accordingly to Dan Kamson, the Managing Director of a huge retail shop located in Ikeja, “Consumers are usually favourably disposed towards large scale purchase of consumers goods and entertainment products which are sometime overlooked at other times.  This explain why sales promotion bring in more returns this period of the year”.
The use of inducements like extra cash, prizes, free products, gifts etc is very critical for sales promotion to achieve its set  goals. These benefits are always highlighted boldly on creative materials like handbills, print, radio or television adverts, used in communicating with the desired audience.
According to Chike Ofili of Reputation Consulting, “promotions, especially those done at festive seasons are essentially to reward loyal customers or acquire new ones.  It can also be used to unbundle “accumulated greed” of shop or brand owners through acts of atonement packaged as price cuts or extra offers”.
Whatever the motivation for seasonal sales promo, what should preoccupy the minds of brand builders is the extent to which promotions build brands.
Some analysts express  their belief that  promotions can add tangible and immediate extra value to the brand.  “Apart from increased sales volume which is the immediate value” Jumbo Okeke, an advertising practitioner believes “brand value could be enhanced by extra creativity and uniqueness of any promo”.
However Eric Frank, a director with Saatchi & Saatchi Africa has the feeling that “promotions give a great deal of confusion  to consumers”.  In his words, “Instead of making efforts to build brands, companies fall over themselves to appease consumers, to offset volumes of their product which is quite distracting. A high level of devotion to sales promotion may have positive effects on short term market share but can also have a strong negative impact on   brand value, attitude and long term market share. And without an effective advertising effort to emphasise brand image and quality, customers become deal-prone rather than get loyal.  So, emphasis on price slash eventually destroys brand equity”.
He strongly believes that the future of any product depends on the strength of its brand building, not the short time gains of promotion.
But despite these disadvantages, many analysts still believe because of its capacity to generate increased brand awareness and recall, promotion can still be very instrumental to brand building.
From various discussions with experts, there is a unanimous recognition of the fact  that  sales promotion is a catalyst for accentuating brand equity and its relevance comes alive more at festive periods like the one we are about experiencing in the next few weeks.
However what matters is the ability of brand builders to integrate it into other marketing communication activities so that the organisation's message in the market place remains consistent, thus meeting or even exceeding customer's expectations.
To create lasting impact, sales promotions must complement other tools in the communication mix - advertising, exhibition, direct marketing, public relations and personal selling.  As promotion creates market volume, other tools should roll in to create a good market value for the brand.
But for sales promotion to even create this volume, there are basic ingredient that must be present.  It must not be organised too often, it must be creative and difficult to imitate.  There must also be a specific objective and theme and its provisional efforts must be conducted in line with other marketing plan.
Other ingredients are the presence of simple, attention-catching messages, which must be communicated clearly in details. Even if all these impressive ingredients are present, one must not fail to identify that promotion can negatively affect brand value if handled carelessly.
Excessive promotion can hurt, both long-term profits and market share in the long-term. Still on the negative side, market leadership could also be achieved, even if it is temporary,  through “bribes”; besides  faulty promotions can also draw competitors into a price war, which leads to general reduction of profits for all players in the market place.
However no matter how  brand analysts try to play it down, the promotion-bug is here to stay.

 Marketing lesson from Obama’s campaign

Mr. Obama's objective was not just  to communicate the fact that he was an agent of change. In today's environment, every politician running for the country's highest office was presenting him or herself as an agent of change. What Mr. Obama actually did was to repeat the "change" message over and over again, so that potential voters identified Mr. Obama with the concept. In other words, he owned the "change" idea in voters' minds.
In today's over communicated society, it takes endless repetition to achieve this effect. For a typical consumer brand, that might mean years and years of advertising and hundreds of millions of naira
 
AKUNNA OLEBARA with Agency report
 
Nov. 4, 2008, will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing.  Take a relatively unknown man, younger than all of his opponents, black with a bad-sounding name. Consider his first opponent: the best-known woman in America, connected to one of the most successful politicians in history. Then consider his second opponent: a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator.
It didn't matter, Barack Obama had a better marketing strategy than either of them. "Change."
Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was the master of the "big lie” theory. According to Goebbels, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
The opposite of that strategy is the "big truth." If you tell the truth often enough and keep repeating it, the truth gets bigger and bigger, creating an aura of legitimacy and authenticity.
What word did Hillary Clinton own? First she tried "experience." When she saw the progress Mr. Obama was making, she shifted to "Countdown to change." Then when the critics pointed out her me-too approach, she shifted to "Solutions for America."
What word is associated with Mrs. Clinton today? You may not recall. She learnt the hard way that consistency in message is key in marketing.
There was also John McCain. An Oct. 26 cover story in The New York Times Magazine titled "The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate." The visual listed some of the labels the candidate was associated with: "Conservative. Maverick. Hero. Straight talker. Commander. Bipartisan conciliator. Experienced leader. Patriot." Subhead: "When a Campaign Can't Settle on a Central Narrative, Does It Imperil Its Protagonist?"
Actually, Mr. McCain did settle on a slogan, "Country first," but it was way too late in the campaign and it was a slogan that had little relevance to the average voter.
Tactically, both Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain focused their messages on "I can do change better than my opponent can do change."
"Better" never works in marketing. The only thing that works in marketing is "different." When you're different, you can pre-empt the concept in consumers' minds so your competitors can never take it away from you.
Look at what "driving" has done for BMW. Are there vehicles that are more fun to drive than BMWs? Probably, but it doesn't matter. BMW has pre-empted the "driving" position in the mind.
The sad fact is that there are only a few dozen brands that own a word in the mind and most of them don't even use their words as slogans. Mercedes-Benz owns "prestige," but doesn't use the word as a slogan. Toyota owns "reliability," but doesn't use the word as a slogan. Coca-Cola owns "the real thing," but doesn't use the words as a slogan. Pepsi-Cola owns "Pepsi generation," but doesn't use the words as a slogan.
As a matter of fact, most brands follow the Pepsi pattern. Every time they get a new CMO or a new advertising agency, they change the slogan. Since 1975, BMW has used one slogan: "The ultimate driving machine."
Thirty-three years ago when the "Ultimate driving machine" campaign started, BMW was the 11th-largest-selling European imported vehicle in the U.S. market. Today it's No. 1.
Thirty-three years ago, Pepsi-Cola was the No. 2-selling cola in the U.S. market. Today, many advertising slogans later, it's still No. 2.
The average Pepsi-Cola advertising slogan lasts just two years and two months. The average chief marketing officer lasts just two years and two months. The average corporate advertising campaign in BusinessWeek lasts just two years and six months. 
The Obama campaign has a lot to teach the advertising community.  Simplicity-About 70% of the population thinks the country is going in the wrong direction, hence Obama's focus on the word "change." Why didn't talented politicians like Clinton and John Edwards consider using this concept?
Based on experiences, in the boardrooms of corporate America, corporate chieftains can identity  "change" as an idea that is too simple to sell. Corporate executives are looking for advertising concepts that are "clever." For all the money being spent, corporate executives want something they couldn't have thought of themselves. Hopefully, something exceedingly clever.
Consistency What's wrong with 90% of all advertising? Companies try to "communicate" when they should be trying to "position."
Mr. Obama's objective was not just  to communicate the fact that he was an agent of change. In today's environment, every politician running for the country's highest office was presenting him or herself as an agent of change. What Mr. Obama actually did was to repeat the "change" message over and over again, so that potential voters identified Mr. Obama with the concept. In other words, he owned the "change" idea in voters' minds.
In today's over communicated society, it takes endless repetition to achieve this effect. For a typical consumer brand, that might mean years and years of advertising and hundreds of millions of naira.
Most companies don't have the money, don't have the patience and don't have the vision to achieve what Mr. Obama did. They jerk from one message to another, hoping for a magic bullet that will energize their brands. That doesn't work today. That is especially ineffective for a politician because it creates an aura of vacillation and indecisiveness, fatal qualities for someone looking to move up the political ladder.  The only thing that works today is the BMW approach. Consistency.
But not with a dull slogan. Hitachi has been "inspiring the next" for as long as anyone can remember, but with little success.
Effective slogans needs to be simple and grounded in reality. What next has Hitachi ever inspired? Red ink, maybe. When you put your corporate name on everything, as Hitachi does, it's difficult to make money because it's difficult to make the brand stand for anything.  Relevance. By his relentless focus on change, Mr. Obama shifted the political battlefield. He forced his opponents to devote much of their campaign time discussing changes they proposed for the country. And how their changes would differ from the changes that he proposed.
As you probably know, Mr. Obama was selected as Advertising Age's Marketer of the Year by the executives attending the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference in Orlando last month. But one wonders if these CMOs are getting the message.  As one marketing executive said: "I look at it as something that we can all learn from as marketers. To see what he's done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it's created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It's very easy for people to participate."
Whatever happened to "change"?

Role Model
 
The brand master with Great vitality
Idorenyen Enang

His long uninterrupted career in brand marketing that spans about 20 years, has moulded in him an image of a brand guru with leading edge techniques and leadership skills needed in steering a world class organization. Without mincing words, superb qualities and innovation ideas guided Idorenyen Enang during the successful launch of Satzenbrau and the rebranding of Fanta during his stay in Guinness and Coca-Cola respectively.  He  also handled the master brand, Coke. Today Enang who believes in mentoring is in Cadbury, as Commercial Director.  Here, he bares his mind to KEHINDE OLESIN on his journey to the top:
 
How has the journey to becoming a leader been on this business terrain?
God has been the actual architect, he has been able to design the path and all I have done is to walk in it and follow. It has been very exciting for me, I have worked for almost 20 years I worked in elf as a Youth Corper and moved from there to join Guinness Nigeria Plc as a management trainee. I remember sitting there with my colleagues, I recall looking at our marketing director and managing director wondering ever if I will get to that position. Here I am not too long; I am sitting down and working as a director. I can't ascribe anything to myself except the zeal and knowledge that god has given to me to be able to act and that is what has transformed my  movement today. I have not gotten to my  top yet. I am still aspiring .There is always a dream. I believe God has a particular place and a purpose for my life.
What is the most difficult decision you have had to take as leader?
I think the hard decisions I have had to take were when the issue of going into a new job came on. You have a plethora of opportunities, when you have to choose between career, purpose and money; twice I have decided to go with purpose and career as against the monetary fulfillment. These are very tough times. This is because of reality of what you look at; the offer was a very good offer. It is not something you hear and just walk away and feel so glad.
Was leaving the Coca-Cola job for Cadbury one of these difficult decisions you had to take. Considering the financial situation and restructuring going on at Cadbury?
It was Clearly it was not just the Coca-Cola offer, it was more than that. It has to do, as I said earlier, about listening to God and knowing what exactly you wanted. By the time the job offer from Cadbury came and I had accepted, I had three other very lucrative offers I. And then I was working for coca Cola Company, a company that had all the trappings of greatness, goodness and the environment was an excellent environment where you would like to work. Walking out of that into a different environment was a great challenge. I would have chosen to go with the riches and the luxury of a different life. One of the jobs offer was an international offer, so part of my purpose is rooted in rebuilding. My coming to Cadbury is part of that fulfillment
In Guinness you handled Satzenbrau, and other brands in Coca-Cola Company and now in Cadbury. What are the peculiarities of the brands in these three companies?
Frankly speaking the brand is a person; the brand connotes everything, both intrinsic and extrinsic values. I started with Guinness, Satzenbrau was my baby. When you talk about somebody getting the opportunity to do something, I think I had the opportunity to challenge the market leader with Satzenbrau. It definitely had to portend itself as an excellent and quality drink .and the entire image about it was the class, it was premium. You could see a brand like that comes through and in clear terms that was why on  the first day of launch we had a 10percent market share.  Gulder really had a hard fight for market share in 1995,  the year Satzenbrau was launched .The other brand I had a privileged to manage, was when I came to the Coca-Cola Company, and that was Fanta. By the time I was handling Fanta it was the number 8 in the whole world. Then Coca-Cola Company had representation in over 200 companies, and Nigeria as small as you can think we are, the volume of Fanta was high. Handling a brand of that stature in Nigeria was a great excitement for me, especially as I have just moved from Guinness. I don't see the brand as a kiddish brand. People come around and say Fanta is for  children; adults are not taking fanta.
What strategy did you use to overcome this Fanta mentality?
The first thing I did was to reposition Fanta, it was my main assignment. We had this Welcome to the World campaign that was my baby more or less. and we moved from that to Share the Fun, and that is still the platform you still find for Fanta till today. Clearly one of the things you will see in a strong brand is, even in transition from being  seen as kid's drink to  a youthful and teenage brand the strength and appeal remains. A year after, I moved on to the big brother, that is the Coke.
Now what about the peculiarities?
Now take a Guinness, take a Satzenbrau, I think Guinness is the only brand that has that kind of stature; but I can say that the Guinness brand will not necessarily stand with Coca-Cola. It is intrusive, it is big, it has stature, skill, has depth. One commonality though, between the two is the power behind the two products. Each time you see an advertisement where they are pouring a Guinness or a Coke, what you see is strong intrinsic benefits of a product that has strong value. That is one quality I think both brands have. One thing that Coca-Cola has that Guinness does not have is that you can find Coca-Cola everywhere, all over the world. You come out of an aircraft and you get into a lonesome place, you have never heard of, there is one person you can greet, and, you can trust, that is Coca-Cola. You will always see a coke sign; you will always see a coke bottle. There you may  not find  Guinness  you will not find in Satzenbrau. Coke is almost a phenomenon. There is always this emotion with Coca-Cola; and Guinness too. This is because all I am today Guinness laid the foundation for my career. Guinness is one of the best brands to work with in the world. When we had the Malta Guinness launch, the brand had an intrinsic campaign that defied marketing itself, marketing will tell you to be targeted, but Malta came out, it was good for everyone.
What about the last 14 months of your career at Cadbury?
In the last 14 months I have had the privilege to coming close  to a beverage that is second to none. I say this with every sense of humility; Nigerians have not fully embraced what it is to have a brand like Bournvita. Many people can imagine I am saying this because I am a  director in Cadbury; it is not just about that. That product, offers a lot more than you can imagine. Growing up as kids, we had the experience of taking this drink, even with the competing brands and for me it is still Bournvita. Of course the number one candy in Nigeria is Tom Tom. For thirty eight years it has stood the test of time. TomTom is as pervasive as a radio set .As pervasive as Coca-Cola if I may say. If you are looking for brand matching Coca-Cola, it's TomTom for me. There is no place you will walk to in this nation you will not see one person selling TomTom. In the next couple of weeks we are going to treat Nigerian to another variant of TomTom.
Cadbury recently launched Stimorol, has the chewing gum been able to gain its own market share
Stimorol is doing well. I will stick with the fact, and the fact is that Stimorol is the only chewing gum, for emphasis chewing gum in Nigeria. Not many people know the difference between a chewing gum and a bubble gum. Nigerians, consumers are not that aware .Since we launched stimorol, it has been effectively been in thee market for two months. There was a clear strategy. Stimorol is in over 3 thousand outlets in Lagos, super markets and groceries. We look at our selves in a different kind of light. We do understand that shoppers' habit is different from consumers' habit. The occasion, the brand, the pack, the channel and the consumers, that is how it works; there must be an occasion to get fresheness, you now look for the best brand that suits you. Lagosians are used to buying in the traffic. Now bubble gums or mints from so many places are bought are chewed, some people don't even bother looking at the labels. Most of these hawkers are not Hausas, they are from the republic of Niger are they are being serviced by some people who may not be Nigerians, which interprets why the indigenous chewing gum like Stimorol may not be among their wares. Most of those things come here and they land so cheap, that is the reason why you find the cheap gums with these hawkers.
What motivates you as a leader?
For me, there are two things that motivate me. People are the centre piece of what really motivates me, and then results. I love to see people grow, I love to see people get developed, I love to coach people, and I love to mentor. I enjoy the act of leading people not to go through the mistakes I made. That is where I draw my motivation from.
What are those things you would have done differently if given another chance?
One of the very principles I hold dearly is about sticking to the fact. I go through the process of getting facts, then I get information, from that information I get insight and those insight form the basis of what I use in taking my decisions. So most cases, the decisions I take are grounded on the information and the insight I have. That is why mistakes are some things that do not appear in my dictionary. However,  one of the things I would have loved to do differently is to spend a lot of time understanding finance. For example my MBA which is in Marketing would have been in finance. I would have done that differently because as a marketer, at some point I didn't want to be a marketer only, but general manager, and finance was much needed. I wished I had some one who would have hinted me it was important for my course and I would have gone that way. Then the other one was when I worked as a brand manager, I would have set up what you can call a talent pool, especially from Youth Corpers that came then. These are trainees that stay with you for a year so then they move , they would have gained so much from the company, just to leave and not utilize those thing. Some of these corpers are doing very well now.
What advice do you have for upcoming business men especially marketers?
You need to define your scope. Where you want to be and what you want to do. Once you do that you have to be destination minded. After this, you do a thorough examination of yourself. You look for someone who has treaded your path, a mentor. Then trust God to put a godly manager or boss into your life. When I mean godly, it is a man with a balanced heart and head.
Who are the people that have affected your life?
Tunde Bakare who is my pastor has affected me. Some of my managers, especially my penultimate boss in the Coca cola company, Larry Drake, Okoli, Seni Adetu both managers  of Guinness in Cameroon and Ghana respectively. Also, my dad and my maternal grandfather
What are your hobbies?
I love reading, traveling, watching movies and playing chess.

Briefly

Cisco Brings Cisco Live! To Africa
Cisco®, the world's leading networking giant recently announced the introduction of Cisco Live! a new format for the company's annual Networkers conference. This year the event, which draws network engineers from all over Africa for technical training, education and networking, will take place in Sandton, South Africa from 1-4 December 2008.
This annual conference, has for years, been at the forefront of educating participants on new technologies. This year, the new Networkers at Cisco Live! will incorporate a mix of technical and business offerings. The format broadens the traditional technical focus to include executive tracks that examine the role of technology in improving business in a challenging economic climate. 
“It is exciting that the first time the Cisco Live! brand is being introduced outside of the United States to Africa. With Cisco Live! we are taking the event to the next level to provide a platform where industry players from Nigeria and indeed across Africa can learn new technologies, discuss business trends, share ideas and network,” said Richard Edet, Regional Sales Manager, Cisco Nigeria.
The theme of this year's conference is “The Power of Collaboration”, and delegates can look forward to thought-provoking keynotes from local and international Cisco executives and industry experts.
Cadbury out with TomTom Honey Lemon
In a bid to fill the gap in the market for the need to provide consumers with medicate candies, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, makers of the oldest candy brand in Nigeria, has extended the brand once more as it introduces the Tomtom Honey Lemon.
The new Tomtom Honey Lemon which will be competing with the likes of Vicks Le Plus and Maxol Lemon also contains vitamin C. Cadbury Nigeria Plc is known for it efforts of constantly providing brands that consumers love and it is also not resting i1 oars in ensuring that this new addition to its offering does not fail to provide the usual brand promise that is present in all its brands. The new flavour is target Apart from t new flavor, Tomtom already has the Tomtom original and Tomtom Xtra which was launched early 2008.
 
Hi Malt embarks on School time promo
One of the market challengers in the non- alcoholic drink market, Hi-Malt is currently running its own consumer reward promo. The promotion tagged School Time will see consumers going home with as much as 1.3m free drinks. The bonanza which is solely targeted at rewarding students will also dish out over a million free exercise books.  Hi-Malt school time promotion started on Sept 20th, 2008 and will end December 15th, 2008. 
 
TBWA\CONCEPT Reality Recruitment produces “winners”
 An event that signaled the commitment of an indigenous marketing communications firm to consistently groom local talent was concluded by TBWA\CONCEPT last week.
It was the final outcome of the gruelling three-week Reality Recruitment staged by the company, billed to produce six lucky candidates who would be tutored by skilled and experienced hands in the advertising world without paying a kobo
During the three-week period, twelve candidates were assigned daily tasks and scored on four key parameters; Originality, Creativity, Relevance to brief and Personal Discretion. Two were evicted at the end of each week based on their scores. According to Boye Adefila, Creative Director, each candidate competed like an Olympian and won and lost in good faith. He noted that, to compete globally, advertising agencies must up their entry requirements in terms of ability to stretch the imagination.
Amongst the six successful candidates, who were offered automatic admission into the six- month Creative Internship (a.k.a Kindergarten Programme) were four girls and two guys, each with different educational backgrounds and from different parts of the country; Emem Ekpo, Mathew Imerhion, Temitope Ibiyemi, Nena Jumai Okeke, Suziette Ukey and Godwin Ndubuisi.