The Consumer pt1

I have asked myself and fellow learned marketing gurus what defines a consumer? or who is categorized as a consumer? most of the definitions I get are related to something like this: A consumer is a person or group of people, such as a household, who are the final users of products or services. technically this does place me as a consumer, I tend to have a different view of who a consumer is as far as marketing is concern.

when we run our ads and promotions we target consumers to generate interest in what we are saying so as to be compelled to purchase the product we are talking about. I don't depend on ads and promotions to purchase, I take risks and eventually make judgment without influence. I sit to help position products and have then have a successful Cycle if not long one and help the products develop loyalty in the market.

There are certain aspects we need to look at when a product is out to be sold, the seller should have adequate know how of the product and can offer information about products. I will narrow my talk to Pepsi Products in Kenya. This is a second attempt to create presence in the market dominated by coke products. (Alvaro tried, i just dont know were they reached) The IMC adopted by coke is dominating and the products even children can identify and for that, the marketing team at coke has captured the market well. 

Pepsi is a dying giant, and my prayer is the sooner the marketing manager for Pepsi will realize better ways to have the product in house holds the better for the brand. Pepsi offers a huge variety of products, the range is amazing and from my experience with the products I would say this (my personal ratings) I prefer Mirinda Fruity to Black currant, I prefer Mountain dew to Sprite, I prefer Mirinda Orange to Fanta orange and the Diet Pepsi is much better than diet coke. In addition they have Lemon twist which is awesome with cocktails. The question is who knows this???

Mirinda Fruity logo

I have walked to a shop where I ( these are 5 different occasions) these are the pointers I saw and must be addressed:

1. There is no form of advertising to show Pepsi products are available 

2. we are in hot climate most of the time there are no coolers to serve me a cold Pepsi beverage

3. The shop attendant has no idea of the Pepsi products he is selling (5 different shops)

4. Competition products are well displayed in the branded coolers to serve the thirsty customer who needs that cold soft drink in the heat.

5. There is just 500ml plastics Bottles available there is no variety of the product at all in terms of quantity. 

These are the pointers i picked which would make a huge difference for a consumer product. There is negative differentiation and competition is seen to be doing well.

Lets come to the billboards done, first of all billboards are below the line marketing strategies, for a product which wants to take up the market share for Coke there is need to be much on the the above the line marketing strategies, the traditional methods - Radio, TV.....secondly the format of the artwork shows one product Pepsi Cola, and there are several other products in the market under Pepsi, why ignore them. This is pure cannibalizing the other products and they seem lost and out of place.

Pepsi Lemon Twist

These are some of the factors that will lead to product failure, not that the product is not good but the marketing techniques are killing it. what we are faced with each day are consumers and they need to know and identify with a product so that it can be well positioned in them. In my next posting The consumer 2 I will provide free tips on how to position a superior product with inferior marketing strategies used on in.

 Try Mirinda Fruity, its one great soft drink.