Coca Cola 60CL Pet Bottle: A Reward For Consumer Loyalty?

I’ve often wondered what brands do to keep consumers coming back for only their products. I listen to brand owners talk about the high level of consumer insights and behavioral patterns at their fingertips. However, I was taken quite aback when the series of competitive value propositions flooded the beverage market.

You see, I’ve held on to this notion that a customer is capable of staying glued to your brand if you deploy the right marketing campaigns. Well, that changed quickly with FMCG brands and I think the brand managers think the same way.

It all started with the introduction of the Big Cola drinks by AJEAST. This was a smart move as AJEAST had a plan to enter the Nigerian market as quickly as possible. Hence they offered 65CL pet size of their drink for N90. Up till now, I haven’t seen an ad on the Big Cola but I see it in every shop I go.

In terms of awareness, Pepsi and Coca cola probably have the highest top of mind for any beverage company not just in Nigeria, but worldwide. It was surprising to see that Pepsi also introduced more value by increasing the size of their pet bottles to 60CL for the same price. This was cleverly done via their somewhat successful online ‘Long Throat’ campaign. It insinuated that revenue was under threat from the AJEAST brands and they had to act fast.

Coca Cola recently followed suit by also introducing 60CL pet bottles at the same price. For a company that owns the second most common word in the world to feel threatened by competition is something to think about. Could it be that we as Nigerians, don’t care about brands and we just want more value for less or are brands not doing enough to bond with their consumers? Both questions have the capability of painting the right picture. I recently was exposed to campaigns executed by brands (Especially Coca Cola) abroad and I was impressed. There is this conscious effort in their campaigns to generate emotions from consumers and this is key. Little wonder why we have coke and pepsi addicts over there. I recently had a chat with a friend on this issue and these were his exact words:

‘Nigeria is still a poor country. We think of the price and the value first. The quality can come after’.

While this represents his opinion, he may not be far from the truth. There was the case of Cowbell milk to Peak milk and Tecno mobile phones to the likes of Iphone and Samsung to buttress his point. Value proposition is beginning to move to the telecoms industry as GLO is constantly gaining the highest amount of internet subscribers – due to their ridiculously cheap data plans. Spectranet is also dominating the ISP market due to their low data offerings. Whether or not their product or service is top notch is a different case.

So if this is the case, do we need to step up our marketing campaigns to retain customers or simply throw quality out the window and offer consumers more value for lesser price? That’s left for the brand custodians to decide.