Lampe Omoyele Challenges Brands To Adapt To Local Market
Lampe Omoyele, Managing Director of Nielson West Africa believes that most brands fail in Nigeria because they do not understand the dynamism of the Nigerian market and how to tap into new and existing needs of the consumers.
Omoyele made this observation as one of the speakers at the just concluded Brand Innovation Conference organized by Brandzone LLP, in Lagos. Speaking on the title “Keeping Global Brands Locally Relevant: Connecting Brands To Consumers”, he asserted that global economic power is shifting from developed world to the emerging markets.
He backed this up with an IMF growth projection for 2016 which predicted that the developing Asian nations and Sub-Saharan Africa will record the highest economic growth of 6.4 and 5.1 percent respectively. Nigeria, with Africa’s largest economic, is projected to grow at 5 percent in 2015 and 6 percent in 2016.
That means there are a lot of opportunities for brands that seek to expand into the African market, but he warned that if brands must effectively tap into the opportunities in these emerging markets they must first understand the forces driving the consumerism, as failure to do that will result in untimely death.
Omoyele a brand and marketing expert who has worked in some of the big multinational companies in Nigeria and other African countries noted that some of these forces include fast growing population and young consumers, poverty reduction and growth of middle class, information technology rapid urbanization among other things. He added that brands must also understand the market context matter and leverage on it for growth. That means knowing the dynamism of each market and adapting your brand to it.
“Growth without consumer understanding is not sustainable. Do not underestimate the consumer: Spectrum, needs, sophistication, media, messaging and method,” Omoleye said.
Drawing comparism between the Nigerian and Kenyan markets he said “malt drink in Nigeria is understood to be non-alcoholic, whilst in Kenya it is termed as alcoholic.”
He also pointed out that Nigerian mums consider their children being healthy as more important than being tall; whereas in India, growing tall is considered more important. That is why Horlic’s brand promise in Nigeria is strong, sharp, health. While in India its brand promise is taller, stronger, sharper,” he said.
Speaking further he said that the average Nigerian consumer wants to stand out, they like to keep up with the latest trends, they like to try out new things, they are prepared to pay more for products that is exclusive and they are confident about the future. “Brands must be fully mindful of these details if they must flourish here,” he said.
On the subject of brand loyalty, he noted that unlike what is obtainable in the western world, brand loyalty is not sacrosanct in Nigeria, because consumers exhibit more loyalty to shops than they would to brands. “68 percent of consumers in the Nigerian market will buy a substitute brand. They are more brand disloyal. While 31 percent visit another store, more shop loyal,” he said.
Also very important is the evolution of the internet which has come to largely influence the things we buy and how we buy them, Omoleye said. He said life has become digital and more and more of the Nigerian consumers are embracing the internet. This trend has a major influence on the consumers and brands can leverage them for the growth of their businesses.
According to him, 58 percent of consumers now have access to the internet and two-third of that is via the mobile phones, 24 percent of consumers on the social media. He also disclosed that 28 percent of Nigerians who visit the internet are actually there to discover products, and 19 percent shop for best prices. In conclusion he declared that how much growth brand record is dependent on how much they are willing to adapt and innovate to the local market.
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