The Market is a very fierce place and any brand that fails to acknowledge this will pay dearly, there are a lot of forces in the Market and When I say 'Forces", I am not talking about the traditional forces of demand and supply
Brands are in a War to grab the eyes and hearts of the general population and there are a lot of Factors that can be considered when releasing Products to the general Market
What inspired this post actually was this Picture of the New Peak Milk Tin that clearly has the consumer in mind
Peak Milk was one of the Strongest Milk Brands In Nigeria and they previously held a Sizeable Market share of the Beverage Market in Nigeria
One of the pitfalls of peak Milk was that they failed to Innovate, they grew Comfortable and before long other Milk brands came in and took sizeable shares of the Market
The most interesting Story was that of Cowbell, most Nigerians don't know that Cowbell is not a Nigerian Company, due to level of Market penetration Cowbell has achieved most people feel it is a Nigerian Company
When Cowbell came in Peak held up to 50% of the Market share, but Cowbell came with a different strategy
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Before Cowbell, Tea was mostly a Luxury as the Top Three brands then Coast, Carnation and Peak had costly products, but Cowbell burst the Bubble by packaging Milk in smaller sachets at an affordable rate.
So with just #3 one could get a cup of tea, Cowbell took the Market by Storm and also blazed the trail for 30 other Milk brands to follow. Peak also adopted the Sachet model Introduced by Cowbell
As of today, Peak cannot boast of 5% market share in the Milk Market
The rules of the Market are universal and one of the Universal rule of the Market is putting the Customers first, that is one of the things that made Whole Foods stand out
Whole Foods kept true to their Model of providing fresh organic food while others were pushing genetically modified foods into the Market, when people realized the dangers of Genetically Modified Foods, they flocked to Whole Foods
Even though Whole Foods sold Foodstuff that was more expensive, people still patronized them because they were sure of what they were buying
In the Market Price does not always matter as far as you care about the Consumers, this is mirrored perfectly by the Two examples I mentioned above
Cowbell took the Market by providing Cheaper products, Whole Foods products in Contrast were more expensive than that of the Competition but people still flocked to their Store
Another method brands use to penetrate the Market is preying on the emotions of the Consumers, and In my opinion no Company crushed that like Mercedes
Mercedes has already created the perception in the minds of the Consumer as a Luxury brand
When Mercedes wanted to penetrate the U.S market they met with stiff competition with Chrysler and Instead of doing the most popular thing being done by newer brands in the Market which is selling Cheaper, they swept the Market with an unpopular tactic
Mercedes pushed their SUV into the U.S Market and doubled their Price. The Mercedes SUV had similar features with that of Chrysler but doubling their price created a Perception of Superiority
People always attach Price tags with superiority, it does not matter whether the product has a similar cheaper substitute. Just like buying things, everything we do is to create a feeling and the feeling the Mercedes SUV created was that of superiority
Innovation in the Market is not Limited to Price, lowering the price of your product every time might just make you look like a copycat
You have to have the consumer in Mind and Find a way to satisfy their needs that your competitors are not addressing
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Spiegel's Cross
Evan Spiegel is one of the most stubborn business man I have encountered of Late, he is the CEO of Snap inc, the parent company of Snap Chat
Snap Chat has come a long way from an App that was just used to send pictures, there was a lot of buzz about it and most people felt that it will not hold
My favourite criticism about Snap Chat was guy who said that
Everything Snap Chat can do can easily be done with Text Message
How about the big Nokia? They refused to go android while others are. Now they are almost obsolete. It is just like the present crop of individuals that are skeptical about the growth of cryptocurrency. I saw a tweet of Larry Kim where he listed below as things that did not exist in 2007
🏘Airbnb
⏯Spotify
🚗Lyft
🤳Snapchat
📱Instagram
💬WhatsApp
📶LTE
💰BitCoin
🌇WeWork
But they are here and very useful, some of them would still need to innovate or face death in the future.
Information they said is power. If you are not informed you will be deformed. A lot of promising innovation would rather die with their outdated knowledge or way of doing things than in cooperate new ideas. The fear of New methods as being a challenging factor especially among Blacks.
Hello @danielola
It is very true that Information is power but Inaction also makes having Information useless.
And I don't agree that the fear of new methods is more prominent in Blacks, I believe that it is a Universal Problem.
@ogochukwu
Hello @greenrun
When it comes to Nokia and Blackberry i don't think that these Companies will break through again.
The biggest disconnect for brands is when they fail to acknowledge change and move towards it. They become too romantic of how they make their Money and fail to innovate.
Another reasons for this is that Companies place more emphasis on Profits and they usually refuse to innovate if it involves a resuction in Profits due to research and more workers, but they will eventually lose out on the Long run .
@ogochukwu
They really thought it was not a threat. They are already the market leader. Why worry, I'd admit I was a serious Nokia fan. Very faithful, but the very first day I used an Android, I found the Nokia's Symbian OS to be very lacking in features. That was the beginning of my move to Android. I later gave out my Symbian phone and it was Android phone all the way.
Companies that fail to innovate become obsolete
100% right on point
Hello @ogochukwu,
Adopt or become obsolete. I feel that this is a powerful message to anyone, whether they own a business, or are otherwise competing for an audience. Although it's always good to do what works, nothing works forever. Thank you again for your tale of peak, and how they ended up losing their hold on the milk market.
Mahalo,
@shello
Thanks for reading @shello
Always, you are a force to be reckoned with, and I always learn so much by reading your posts! c:
Not only is this post informative, it is also motivational.
First to start doesn't mean first to finish.
The market is not favorable to anyone who refuses to be updated with the current happenings in the society and anyone or any business that closes their ears to consumers.
One of such companies I see today is bittrex and poloniex. I've written several complaints to these two companies concerning some issues and up till now I can't still get my money back.
I think the issue of $7 withdrawal fees on bittrex is not good for the company. Last week I made up my mind to stop converting steem to bitcoin with bitrex, I now use bitshares and I even wrote about it in my blog.
fee is 0.001 BTC ($7)
Thats very true @samstickkz
The behaviour of Bittrex made me decide to stop using them. Thanks for even Mentioning it here I have been forgetting to download Bitshares tutorial videos.
I belive that BitShares is the Future of exchanges
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
@ogochukwu
I have enough videos about #bitshares
@samstickkz They should look into this withdrawal service charge fees. It used to be about $2.87, 19 days ago when I wrote this article How I Sold SBD For Naira (Nigerian Currency) Using Remitano Exchange
But with the increasing bitcoin's price, we may soon be looking at a double digit transaction fees (if the withdrawal service charge remained the same).
I'm not sure the owners of bittrex even use bittrex, else they would have noticed it.
Lol at not use. They are very much aware.
The ever popular st. Louis sugar.. :-D
Ever since I knew sugar, it has been St Louis.
For about 15years now nothing has changed, although I don't know there marketing strategy but they are still dominating
Hello @camzy
Thanks for pointing that out.
But I don't know about your Location but i believe that St. Loius has lost the Sugar Market in Nigeria to Dangote.
It has been up to two years Since I last saw St. Loius Sugar. Where do you stay BTW
@ogochukwu
Hmmm..
Really..?
I stay at Rivers state and nothing has changed in the sugar market.
It has been St. Louis since
Thats strange, it is like Market penetration for other brands have not reached a optimum level. St. Loius is no longer strong here in Enugu
Ohh..!
I see but not here in) p.h
Like the force of nature. Some things follow natural laws. The world of business is not an exception. Every business at some point go through three natural phases which are the growth, the maturity and the declining phase. How long a company stays in each of these stages is totally dependent on their strategic moves, the constant mission and vision pledge to their target audience and a whole lot of other factors.
What kills faster than the natural death is lack of innovation. That is, simply doing old things in a new way. Coca-Cola as example of a company in its maturity stage is still standing the test of time because of constant innovation and embedded uniqueness in its offering. But do you see a decline?
Thats very true @lemmybe
Just like Nature any business that fails to adapt will go into extinction.
Coca-Cola is a monster, they are constantly innovating. They recently started Coke Studio which is a massive move that will endear them to the younger and upcoming generation.
@ogochukwu
Just imagine. A company that came into existence in 1886. With that, I bet their existence is to perpetuity. As their focus and marketing strategy over the years has been some sort of offensive type. They plunge their head into the unclear and yet come out blazing the trail for their competitors. I will read up on the coke Studio you mentioned there. Good info, bro
I believe that Snapchat will be a thing of the past in two years personally but a lot of people really like it. Instagram makes a lot more sense to me personally and I do think it is interesting that Facebook paid a billion for it. I would say that was overpriced because it had no revenue at the time but in a way you could say they bought the brand and the current userbase and didn't want to try to recreate that.
But you are right..... these things can be obsolete real quick if you don't move fast.
Hello @brianphobos
The greatest challenge Snap Chat has now is coming up with an Feature Facebook Won't Copy.
Thanks for spending time on my blog. I appreciate.