MARKETING AFRICA MAL 18/17 mal 18:17 online | Page 17

Looking at the two slogans you can
tell that the two major competing
parties are competing on change
versus unity. In the campaign
execution NASA are talking of 10
million strong which is related to
the number of their targeted votes.
To counter the message Jubilee has
come up with the counter campaign
about 45 million strong which is
based on the whole population
cementing the togetherness message.
In politics and marketing you should
always claim the higher ground no
matter the odds staked against your
course. In traditional warfare the
person who had the highest hill was
very hard to beat.
Raila Tibim is a common phrase
but not many people understand
what “Tibim” means. To that end
Babu Awino who is running for a
MP position in Embakasi and a
long standing University of Nairobi
student leader explained as follows
“Tibim” is a Greek word that
was used by a Greek commander
Agothleus Deschelles during wars
to inspire, motivate and incite his
soldiers. The word “Tibim” is a
revolutionary word that is used in
different contexts to bring different
meanings.
Religiously the word “Tibim” is
used at the tail end of a prayer,
immediately after an “amen” to scare
away notorious Satan. Politically
the word Tibim is used to inspire
people to revolt against a dictatorial,
insensitive and inept regime. It pulls
individuals/citizens into action.
This cements the NASAs message
of change and portrays Jubilee
government as incompetent.
Romantically the word “Tibim” is
used by two love birds when they are
“tibimizing” each other so as to add
flavor to the whole process. To add
to that, in Marketing it can be used
to rally a sales team to a certain sales
call, say 10 billion Tibim.
Analytics Are King
Jubilee campaign team has
maintained the services of the
‘‘ In politics and marketing you should
always claim the higher ground no matter
the odds staked against your course. In
traditional warfare the person who had the
highest hill was very hard to beat.’’
analytics firm Cambridge Analytica
that they used in the last campaign.
The firm is also rumoured to have
been used by Trump and brexit
campaigns. They mine big amounts
of data to arrive at science based
decision.
This is an eye opener for marketers
to wake up and smell the coffee in
the big data. This is very useful in
creating the messages and testing
messages that appeal to people
at their default level. These are
messages that communicate without
being obvious.
Politics Of Unga
Recently the price maize flour
(unga) rose to Kshs. 140/=. The
unga is used in making one of the
Kenya’s most popular dishes ‘ugali’.
When the celebrated Kenyan actor
Lupita Nyong’o confessed in a TV
interview that she doesn’t know how
to cook ugali there was so much
uproar among Kenyans on Twitter
(KOT). It took the effort of Vogue
magazine to bring her back to her
Mum in Kenya to be shown how to
make ugali.
That said Jubilee Government
created a subsidy program to help
millers drop the price of unga to
Kshs. 90/=. Some citizens who
support the opposition couldn’t
believe that the price was brought
down genuinely. One such Kenyan
was my Uber driver who told me
that the unga is made from pop
corn, meaning that half will be lost
as you cook ugali with it.
Jubilee has used three colors: red,
yellow, and black. Red is the color
of passion, black is the color of the
people, and yellow is the color of
warmth and nourishment. The logo
with two folded hands suggests
togetherness or unity.
NASA’s logotype has five colors
showing more diversity and
aggressiveness. The logo has stars
and an arrow indicating the landing
at the Promised Land that the now
christened ‘Joshua’ is supposedly
leading the country to.
Era Of Anti-hero
One thing that should worry Jubilee
is the trend I would call anti-hero.
UHURUTO came to power while
they had cases at the ICC. While
someone with such a case may not
be the best person to vote for the
public judgment went their way. In
a France a man who married his
school teacher was voted to lead the
country. In West Africa we have seen
at least two one term presidents.
Trump won in America and Brexit
won in UK.
There is a wave of change happening
across the world. The only solace is
that Kenyans are peculiar people as
Michael Joseph said; they may not
necessarily go with the global flow.
That understanding has led to the
success of Safaricom the biggest
company in the region.
We can stop there to avoid the
problem of analysis paralysis but all
we can say is that, may the best team
win.
Boniface Ngahu is a seasoned
marketing research expert and runs the
Talking Point column in Marketing
Africa magazine. He is the Marketing
Director of SBO Research. You can
commune with him on this or related
matters via email at: BNgahu@
sboresearch.co.ke, or follow him on
Twitter @bngahu