Find out about “Naija” –
Naija – Numerous Blue Chip companies inside Nigeria, operating in diverse spheres such as Manufacturing, Telecoms, Financial, Consumer services, are cropping up with fresh concepts that could put them ahead of their competition.
The post-Independent epoch (1960 till date) offers witnessed the continuous increase of companies both nearby and International into the advertising arena, eager to compete inside the Nigerian open market Shining. An annual event was held to determine which companies’ products/services thrived the most in the Nigerian Marketplace.
Naija – Their performances were ranked by the profits posted throughout the Companies Annual General Conferences. A few who started the competition at its inception are still in contention for the golden reward, while their counterparts have fallen along the wayside.
Your competitors to dominate the Nigerian market has grown more challenging along with each passing year, and companies have deployed numerous marketing strategies “in and from the box” in a bid of stealing the market.
Naija – For example, the regular utilization of promos by companies tempting customers to purchase their products as well as ultimately winning whooping financial rewards and an array of convenience prizes, game shows/lottery, wherever juicy monetary packages tend to be up for grabs by customers who else participate and obey fixed instructions have become rampant.
These types of ‘over flogged marketing strategies’ have propelled a few to appear towards the direction of the stars (especially those in the Amusement circuit) to invoke some Sales- Reload needed to drive them far ahead of their particular competitors.
In the public’s eyes, celebrities are seen as a rare, unique breed of Homosapiens who move about having an aura of greatness. Still, they have the golden touch effective at transforming the ordinary into extraordinary within a splitting second inside their respective chosen career.
Naija – These people possess the power to keep types eyes riveted on them, igniting the star-struck symptoms on their fans. They very quickly stir up excitement from the crowd with some cringing their very own necks, much to the nerve fibers discomfort, in a bid to help catch a glimpse of these.
This phenomenon is best explained during live concerts carried out by famous artists once the crowd goes into a craze, with the babes, of course, shouting their names(if they are guys) and shouting “I Really like You X,” amazingly losing tears, and sometimes passing out or even nearly passing out at the slightest physical contact with the stars or perhaps.
Naija – The posters of these excellent men and women who wield the financial wands in their fingers are kissed and spoken to by their followers who have them hung within a corner of their rooms, and also dream endlessly about how great they could have been together, claim their undying love to them, adoring, idolizing them, therefore provoking the good Lord to jealousy.
Cause of their popularity, celebrities naturally influence consumers to swap loyalty to the supported brands and make such advertisements linger continually into their memory data banks.
On the broader pedestal, stars such as James Earl Jones backed “CNN,” Catherine Zeta- Smith, “Elizabeth Arden,” and Coke have continually used Worldwide top rated footballers and histrion to promote its brand.
Naija – Within Nigeria, the concept of using celebrities to promote various brands visited its lowest ebb just before 2007. Advertising companies within the payroll of competitor companies delightfully used “Unknown faces” to try and lure prospective customers into purchasing the products becoming projected or maintaining clients loyalty or initiate a new cross carpeting to the technique displayed products, through the Electric media(dominantly TV).
4 EXPLANATIONS WHY CELEBRITIES WERE HARDLY UTILIZED TO PROMOTE BRANDS BACK IN THE TIMES
1 . IGNORANCE: Most Marketing practitioners were not conversant using the concept of using celebrities to advertise the brands. They were employed to promote and display their clients’ products to be able to viewers, which they did. These were not deeply involved in any marketing strategy to outperform brands from rival businesses.
2 . INDIFFERENCE: A few had been somewhat indifferent, adopted a lackadaisical approach to the concept, given that they believed that the use of celebs did not affect the high-quality output of the adverts developed, so why bother using them?
3 . UNWILLINGNESS TO SPEND: Most Customers were unwilling to pay the actual fees required to engage the expertise of the celebrities to promote the particular brands in the advert (which was not as expensive as compared to what obtains today).
Naija – Just a few consented to the soliciting along with eventual use of celebrities like the now-defunct Universal Belief in Bank (UTB advert: Main Zebrudaya and Jegede with the New masquerade TV series fame), Visine eye drops (Regina Askia), Morning fresh (Bimbo Oloyede), Panadol ( Ovuleria, Alpena in the TV series of the New masquerade), New Hippo Blue detergent (Chief Zebrudaya, Samanja)
4 . LOW COMPETITION: A handful of companies with opponents producing brands in the same sector existed. In the 80’s we had 2 known rival brands of items drawn from different spheres about, e.g., Detergents “Omo in addition to Elephant Blue,” Soaps “Lux and “Cussons Imperial leather,” Soft drinks “Coke and Pepsi,” Cars “Peugeot and Volkswagen.”
Naija – On the other hand, a few companies generated unchallenged brands such as Okin biscuits, Top Milk, Maltina, Robb, Thermocool fridge/freezers.
Naija – The game has now transformed with Companies eagerly separating with cash to ensure that superstars are effectively used for marketing their brands via typically the electronic media (still prevailing TV) based on its extensive viewership base, and in some cases often the Print media is also utilized.
