MAMBA: Redefining Energy Drink Market in Nigeria
By Daniel Eteghe
Since the debut of MAMBA Energy Drink, leading energy drink from the stable of MAMBA Energy Drinks Limited, the brand has been able to create a shift in consumers’ consumption pattern by its commitment to producing a high quality energy drink that is carefully formulated for African consumers and sooth its peculiar climate and lifestyle.
The attention to the African consumer is a major pillar of Mamba’s brand positioning and drives its marketing and consumer engagement initiatives.
According to the brand owners, “Mamba is the only energy drink that has been formulated specifically for the African consumers, taking into cognizance their cultural and environmental uniqueness”.
Research and development of the MAMBA Energy Drink started in 2013, with the aim of producing a superior quality, tasting energy drink experience targeted at the African market.
The brand offers its consumers a lot of nutritional benefits as MAMBA is loaded with amino acids, citric acids and essential b-vitamins which the human body requires daily to fight fatigue and improve concentration, lower cholesterol, and stimulate metabolic processing of food to energy.
MAMBA Energy Drink was officially launched in Lagos on June 20, 2018 amidst pomp and fanfare, but the drink began making its presence felt in 2016 when it began testing the waters in order to feel the pulse of the consumers.
Those periods were vital because it helped the manufacturers of the brand to gain significant insight which helped them to continue to tinker with the formulating process until they were able to achieve a formula that was consumer African-centric.
Having succeeded in achieving a perfect blend of energy drink for the African market, and also getting very positive feedback from a large army of drinkers, the brand immediately rolled out the carpet last June for an elaborate launch in Lagos. What followed the launched was an aggressive multi-channel marketing campaign to drive home the Mamba branding message to gain top of the mind awareness.
“We wanted to be sure that this is a product that is going to have sustainability, because there have been a lot of players that have come in and gone. We believe this is the right time to officially launch the product” Managing Director of MAMBA Energy Drinks Limited, Mr. Ayo Ojuroye, said on why the official launch was delayed.
According to him, MAMBA is produced in line with the internationally required standard when compared with other foreign energy drinks but stressed that the brand is solely focused in satisfying African consumers.
Speaking in the same vein, the General Manager of the Company, Mrs. Titilola Adedeji, said the name ‘MAMBA’ was given to the brand because it is associated with fierceness, speed and aggressiveness.
On the choice of Lagos for its initial market penetration, Adedeji said: “We believe Lagos is the economic hub of Nigeria, once we conquer Lagos, we will effortlessly dominate other parts of Nigeria and the larger market in Africa”
She, however, pointed out that the plethora of foreign energy drinks in Nigeria prompted the introduction of an exclusive African type, MAMBA, a premium energy drink with the finest taste.
According to her, MAMBA Energy Drink is unlike any of its competitors, as it has been carefully and expertly formulated exclusively for the Nigerian and African consumers.
In her words: “Mamba Energy Drink is more than just the typical energy drink. It contains Citric Acid, an oxidant which enhances skin tissue regeneration, smoothness and perfection. It is also healthy due to reduced caffeine and taurine content with increased Vitamin B,”
Commenting on the competition in the marketplace, Adedeji said “We want to be very strategic and creative in our brand management approach such that establishing our brand’s identity in both the conscious and the subconscious of the average Nigerian energy drink consumers will be easy to achieve”.
The General Manager noted that part of the brand’s Unique Selling Point (UPS) is the high quality of the product that leaves a lasting impression on consumer’s palate because of its unique and distinctive taste.
She added that MAMBA connects with the key emotion points of consumers as it connotes power, elegance, formality, strength and authority.
Adedeji further revealed that consumers’ patronage have doubled since the official launch of the brand, affirming that the brand will become the number one energy drink in Africa in the nearest future.
Although the brand is currently being imported, Adedeji is hopeful that it would soon be manufactured locally, adding: “We are passionate about growing the brand. We are hopeful that we can commence local production in the next five years, because we are particular about the quality of our product, we will take out time to ensure once we do production locally the quality is consistent.
MAMBA Energy Drink is currently available in Lagos and some other parts of Nigeria but the brand was officially launched in Lagos.
The owners of the energy drink said plans are on top gear to expand to all parts of the country, creating great opportunities for distributorship in the drink industry, and eventually export the product to other African markets as soon as it is firmly rooted in Nigeria.
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