STREETWISE MARKETING
Strategy: Case To
Abandon Or Keep
By Evans Majeni
M
ike Tyson, the former
world heavy weight
champion famously
remarked that every boxer has a
plan until you are punched on the
face. It’s only then that everything
goes haywire. In our case, every
marketer has a strategy until you
hit the market place and confront
the harsh terrain replicate with cut
throat competition.
A friend, armed with terminal benefits
came to me with a proposal to start an
exclusive high-end bus company plying
the Nairobi Kisumu route. He knew
exactly what the market wanted and
designed his product accordingly.
We talked endlessly about the target
group, the boisterous Luo community who
wanted nothing but the best of services. To
serve this niche, his bus company would
have WIFI, charging ports, reclining seats
and serve light snacks along the way just
like they do in airplanes. the veterans at the station who dictate the
rules. Reality check.
This particular bus chain would be boarded
on the right side of the city and not the
infamous rowdy Machakos bus terminus
also christened Machakos airport. His
staff will be in uniform preferably suits
and ties with name tags to boot. Evidently, the market place is a mad house.
The meticulous boardroom plans are easily
overrun whenever the rubber meets the
road. Unfortunately, its marketers who are
tasked with the unenviable responsibility
of making a success of these lofty
boardroom plans at the market place.
The company was to comply with all the
traffic requirements and never part with
a bribe to the hungry traffic policemen.
Should any of his buses be caught in any
transgression, his lawyers would take up
the matter in court. Everything above
board. No hunky punky business. This was
going to be a brand to be revered. I loved
the proposal.
Needless to emphasize, as I write this piece,
the single bus, not a chain as envisioned, is
deep in the murky grounds of Machakos
Airport scavenging for passengers just like
the many others before it. And you can
bet, his bus is not doing any better than
Mike Tyson, the former world heavy weight
champion famously remarked that every boxer
has a plan until you are punched on the face. It’s
only then that everything goes haywire. In our
case, every marketer has a strategy until you hit
the market place and confront the harsh terrain
replicate with cut throat competition.
06 MAL21/17 ISSUE
It is normal to abandon these plans
midway and go with the flow. I have seen
extreme cases where one ventured into a
Fashion house only to end up selling used
clothes and groceries. A dramatic one was
a friend, an IT consultant who ended up
running a butchery at his premises after
several false starts on his consultancy.
It is called succumbing to market
undercurrents.
Kencell, a mobile telecommunication
company envisioned a market where a
phone would be a status symbol. They
targeted the upper middle class. In
any case, phones and airtime were too
expensive for the common man.
Their rival Safaricom took the opposite
route. They knew that although mobile
phones were expensive at the beginning,
communication was a basic need to
eWveryone. Their strategy was therefore
to target the mass market and try as much
as possible to breakdown the expensive
service to manageable units for the
common consumer.