STREETWISE MARKETING
OWN THE MARKET
NOT THE PRODUCT
By Evans Majeni
L
et’s face, the future of the
Dukawallas is over. In this
information age, your physical
location is immaterial. Unlike the
industrial age where Capital and
Labor was king, today all you need is
information about the market. More
precisely, you need to own that market.
The battle is no longer for shop floor
or shelf space, but space in the minds
of the consumer and if you must go
very far, own a space on the world
wide web. Brand positioning is the
new king.
Let’s take some quick examples. The
famed Adidas owns the sports shoe
industry. Anybody can manufacture
sports shoes and use the Adidas logo
to sell.
This implies that Adidas can stop
manufacturing today and still
remain in business - just appoint a
manufacturer to do the donkey work
with quality specifications and append
your logo on the final product and
bang, you are in business.
Locally, Bata owns the family shoe
market. Actually, going by their
quality, I have a sneaky feeling that
they long shipped their manufacturing
to China and not Limuru. Toyota also
took hostage of the saloon vehicle
‘‘Todays consumer is spoilt. They can
get everything on their palm top or
through the click of the mouse courtesy
of smart phones and Google. They have
redefined convenience. Your product or
service has to mesh with their lifestyle.
And they are time starved.
They cannot wait.’’
12 MAL 13/16 ISSUE
market in Africa.
With the market tightly under their
spell, these brands do not have to do
the actual manufacturing. All they
need to do is to allow others to do the
donkey work of manufacturing under
their brand. Its called franchising. But
there is more.
Apple is designed in California, US
and manufactured in China. Uber
does not own the vehicles or the
drivers yet they control the taxi market
world wide. Taxi veterans in Kenya
had to riot at the onslaught of Uber.
They discovered the futility of fighting
a losing battle, quietly coiled their tails
and joined the king.
All that Uber owns is an App that
controls the market not vehicles
and their drivers. Air bnb are also
gaining control of the world travel and
accommodation market by helping
share room occupancy through
another App.
Banks in Kenya initially sneered at
M-Pesa. Little did they know that this
small app would make them irrelevant.