Kantar research boss highlights reasons for product failure in African markets
The Managing Director/CEO, Kanter Market Research Agency, Maposa Aggrey has identified multiple reasons as to why there is increasingly a high rate of product failure across major markets in Africa.
Aggrey, who appeared recently as personality guest at MARKETING EDGE on TV program aired on Television Continental, observed also that there existed direct proportional positive relationship between strong equity and growth performances for brands in markets across the continent.
According to the agency boss, available research findings have revealed that more than 88 products introduced into the markets experienced imminent failure, especially within the first year of their market entry, pointing out rather that the incident of product failures was not country specific, rather it was a global phenomenon.
Answering to question as to why product failure was a recurring feature across major markets in Africa including the Nigeria, the market research specialist highlighted among other things, poor understanding of the products vis-a-vis consumer needs, inappropriate pricing and lack of effective communication as factors responsible for frequent product failure.
“The thing about products is that it goes beyond the quality of the product itself. It’s about understanding the unique product that would fit the moments that it’s been designed for and doing so in a way that would be desirable to consumers at the point.
“What we normally see is that sometimes our clients or manufacturers produce very good products, but sometimes they are a little ahead of their time; they don’t communicate so well. Sometimes they produce products that are so good and then price them badly,” he said.
Explaining further, he noted: “Sometimes they produce products that are very good but the format, maybe something as easy as putting a juice in a plastic bottle, instead of putting it in a PT product can actually make it fail. So, the whole trick of understanding successful innovation is strategy led innovation.
“You’ve got to fully understand the consumer and the market that you are designing some things for, and then you’ve got to understand your own unique advantage over the others as you design the product. And then you’ve got to understand the whole circle of the consumer; how they consume and where they consume it, so that you will be able to meet all those potential reasons for failure.”
In his critical assessment of the market research and advertising industry environment in Nigeria and across the continent, the foremost research expert observed that the industry had evolved in phases over time with recent records showing a decline in fortune, but added that the drawback owed to major restructuring in the overall global economy.
Dwelling specifically on market trends and developments in Nigeria’s economy, the market research analyst noted that the country had greater potentials for growth, judging from several economic indices in favour of the country.
“When I put everything on balance, I see Nigeria with a very positive future. I have always seen it having a positive future, otherwise I should say I was disappointed by the turn of things around 3, 4 years ago. But putting everything on balance, Nigeria would grow. It will grow because it has a great population, it will grow because it has got a diversifying economy, Nigeria is moving away from a strictly oil based economy into an economy that is a little bit more diverse,” he said.
He added: “It will grow because of the focus on manufacturing and growth of local industry over and above imports, it will grow because the political systems, as much as it might sometimes be disheartening, are transforming. People are becoming more and more informed on what works and what doesn’t work, and that will lead to the growth of Nigeria.”
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