Over the Holidays, I was having a solo lunch in a popular buka on Ogudu road (Lagos), when I noticed a couple relishing their Amala, Ewedu and Gbegiri. The man had some enticing ‘orishirishi’ garnishing and almost escaping from his bowl. The lady had Tilapia fish in hers. They were each enjoying their food with a 50cl PET bottle of Coca-Cola. They looked like they were in heaven.
Then my thoughts wandered and went into a reverie.
You see, as common as it now is to see people enjoying their traditional Nigerian Meals with Coca-Cola (and now with other drinks), it was not always so.
It is a relatively recent culture. It was not an evolution of taste that brought it about. It was not an outcome that was either ineluctable or inexorable. We desired it and strategised to make it happen and assiduously worked it out. We taught Nigeria to do it.
Before then, it was okay to have Coca-Cola with pastries and other snacks, maybe rice and other foods that were typically not prepared at home. You would typically not even find Coca-Cola in joints where only local foods were sold. People didn’t just have their pounded yam and equsi with Coca-Cola. It was not done. The drink of choice was Water in any presentation.
Then we decided to implement the “Coke with Food” initiative. The “Coca-Cola with Food” strategy was not original to Nigeria. It had been tried, tested and proven in other Markets and was ‘imported’ to Nigeria as a best practice. It was one of the pillars of Occasion Based Marketing (which Coca-Cola drove heavily at that time… and I believe they should still be driving).
As it happens with a lot of imported ‘best practices’, in its first incarnation, “Coke and Food” was “implemented as received”. It was neither rethought from first principles nor properly domesticated. The implementation consisted essentially of signage and premium materials placed in the outlets. I do not have a recollection that there was any ATL support. It did not have a champion. We didn’t synergise the strategy on/with both sides of the isle (Coca-Cola and NBC). How this happened is another story on its own… and I may tell it someday. Of course, the result was tepid, at best.
In its 2nd iteration, we bought the idea but discarded almost every other ‘imported’ components of “Coke with Food”. Whatever foreign component that we implemented was incidental and done only because it suited our plans. We took the main idea, picked ‘hotchpotched’ insights from successful implementations from other climes and integrated them with local insights to develop a cohesive and locally grounded plan.
There was, however, even something deeper that was driving us.
We were men on a mission. We had been given marching orders to double Volumes in 5 years. This was a tall order, but it drove and motivated us.
Coca-Cola tracks frequency of consumption: those who drank a bottle Yearly, Monthly, Weekly or Daily. We understood that if we could get these categories of drinkers to ‘climb the ladder’, we would double volumes overnight. This was a very simple but by no means easy proposition.
There was actually a conceptual way to achieve this.
Nigeria had historically been “an immediate consumption” market. That is, people mostly bought only when they wanted to consume. Deferred Consumption was almost non-existent. People were not buying to drink later. People were not buying to keep at home. Most of us can easily recall the days of “lo – ma lo” when children were sent to ‘buy’ a drink for a guest.
To step change consumption, we needed people to buy for deferred consumption. The beauty of buying for deferred consumption is that it brought “availability within arm’s reach of desire”. We knew that if we could get people to buy Coke into their homes, they will drink more. Once Coke is at home, you will have it with food, with snacks, while watching football or Telemundo, for any reason, and at times for no reason.
The challenge was how to get Coke into homes. We tried many things like “Fuel in the Tank, Coke in the Boot” with Gas Stations and a host of other programs. We never cracked it.
We consoled ourselves that it was because we (at that time) didn’t have a “deferred consumption” packs (essentially one-way packs) that made shopping for the home convenient.
This was until we came upon this intuitive insight:
“If we could create the ‘occasion’ at home, we would get Coke into the home”.
In essence, if people would learn how to eat “Pounded Yam and Egusi” with a Cold Bottle of Coke at home (which is a kind of ‘occasion’), then they would somehow get Coke into the homes.
Then the question became “How were we going to get them to learn to eat “Pounded Yam and Egusi” with a Cold Bottle of Coke?”
The plan we developed was counterintuitive but simple. It was based on a single insight.
“If we could help people have the “out-of-Home” replica of their home experiences differently, they may bring those new experiences into their homes”
In other words, what are the foods that folks enjoy at home that they also enjoy out-of-home? Can we teach them a different way to enjoy their ‘home’ food out-of-home, expecting that they will carry that behaviour into the home?
We believed this could be done. So, we developed and implemented a detailed multi-year HORECA (Eating and Drinking channels) based plan. Our Channel strategy was focused and specific. We focused on Bukas, Restaurants and QSRs (Fast Foods). Even these were further cascaded. For example, Bukas were broken down into Gold, Silver and Bronze to target the class of Buka and the consumers that come there more specifically. We implemented a pack strategy that made certain that we had the right pack for the right customer in the right outlet and we also drove Ice-Cold availability in those outlets. (It was a common sight to see our Glass Door Refrigerators filled with only 50cl Glass Coke in Bukas). We supported with POS Materials that vividly depicted Coke and Local Foods together. We had these in the main local languages in the places where those languages were dominant. We provided Outlet Activation premiums like Table Mats, Aprons, Trays, Drinking Glasses, Straw Holders and their likes. We ran tactical promotions to drive engagement and trial. We ran a strong and sustained locally relevant ATL Campaign to support the initiative. Very importantly, we had a project Champion.
By the way, whatever you see any brand doing today “with food” ultimately got inspiration from what we implemented very successfully.
As we expected, more and more, people started ‘adapting to and adopting’ the new combo and tastes, perceptions and attitudes began to shift. A new culture was birthing…
…The rest, as they say, is history.