Dominant brands risk losing market share on lack of new thinking, says Needscope CEO
As Nigeria’s $510 billion economy, the biggest in Africa with population of about 170 milllin continues to attract more local and international investors, a specialist in strategic brand consultancy has cautioned dominant brands in the market to always put on their thinking caps as a strategy to maintain their lead.
Maria Tyrrell, the Managing Director of Needscope International, who held this position while speaking at a roundtable on market research recently in Lagos when she visited the country believed that competition is fierce in the Nigerian market as every player wants to grab a sizeable percentage of the share market.
She believed that market dominance by a brand could mean irrestible attraction to consumers but if a product becomes so generic it could create a risk because competitor may come with a new niche for consumers and then the dominant brand would gradually lose the market.
The consultant advised that when a dominant brand is in that position, the organization should engage in constant innovation through new products.
“The brand custodians should try to do things differently about the brand. Another strategy is relaunching; doing something different to get the consumers outside their thinking because being a category norm could become boring”
Maria who said brands are struggling to enter Nigeria due to dividend yield and the big population further advised companies to engage their brands in conversation with their audience through digital space and traditional media platforms.
“A lot of work we do for companies is on their digital strategy; online interaction and advertising. So if you are going for a particular need, your digital strategy should be aligned. Digital is not different thing from traditional media, it is just of different format; the philosophy is the same”
Assessing the Nigerian competitive market, the brand expert said the path to be a winning brand is to get connected to consumers emotionally. She said emotional connection with the consumers is really at the heart of making a brand irresistible.
She regretted that many brands are in the market just to get share among 170 million people, to make money rather than go through a more systematic approach to know what the consumers need and target it. So I think a lot of brands will come and go until we understand what people want”.
“What irresistible brand means is that it’s a magnet; you can’t resist it. When you get to a store and you are faced with variety of products in the same category, you will choose the irresistible brand without really explaining why. It is loyalty but more than that because loyalty, you can switch when a cheaper brand comes on board but if it’s irresistible, you get that emotional connection you can’t explain”.
Irresistible brands’ strength comes from their perfect fit with needs that are specific to particular consumers and particular circumstances. Like a powerful magnet, irresistible brands pull large numbers of consumers towards them, but there will be some for whom they do not exert the same level of attraction.
Daniel Obi