“..power goes out, the buzz of Oke-Arin comes alive..”
Where should an international FMCG start-up looking to test the pulse of an earthy consumer culture in Lagos begin?
In a market where less than 1% of retail occurs in formal outlets, it made sense for Brett Levine after some prior research to visit Oke Arin Market(it translates as “Up the Middle” market), one of a few open markets that dot the landscape across Isale-Eko, located on Lagos Island.
Oke Arin has a trading buzz similar to that of Billingsate Fish Market near Canary Wharf in London. The difference between Billingsgate Fish Market and Oke Arin Market has to do with applied legislation, the role of the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance and voluntary social behaviour governing wholesale markets in London and Lagos. This is a matter for another narrative.
Billingsgate’s visceral identity is of a pungent variety which I experienced in the wee hours of an April morning this year. Crucially sea-food sourcing is what attracts punters. Oke Arin on the other hand is a live demonstration of entrepreneurial fervour choc-a-bloc filled out with diversity, colour, humanity, haggling and concept of personal space non-existent. Within this picture well known international grocery brands, livestock, vegetables and fresh foods are in a constant state of ‘haggle-flux’ between merchants, street-smart traders, wholesalers and domestic use buyers.
As a destination it has been an important grocery trip for Lagosians who buy both in bulk and on impulse for everything from fabrics, dried goods, conserves, baby formula, wine, dairy, fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.
A number of the fast moving consumer goods at Oke Arin are imported. Some of these are reliant on established companies such as UK companies
operating in Nigeria (PZ Cussons, for one) and start-ups such as Golden Pride Export UK Ltd (GPE) building distributive partnerships at Oke Arin Market.
Moments in the life Brett Levine @ Oke Arin Market, seeing things in perspective.
“ one minute I am in a car park suited, walking through the market down a rut alley. It is humid amidst the hustle and bustle then power goes out, an amplified silence overshadows busy feet shuffling in various directions, before diesel generators rev to an orchestrated start. At this point I quickly came to expect the unexpected. There are lots of unknowns and risks. We are focusing on this opportunity, there is a lot of work to do.
This experience is in contrast to my visit to Shop-rite, Game, Park & Shop and some other ‘modern trading’ retail spaces in Lagos. I am getting a pulse for what makes our distributor at Oke Arin tick, what ticks the boxes at ‘modern traders’ and what customers value most. What kind of international product, marketed in what kind of way, is attractive in the Oke Arin context? What resonates with an Oke Arin consumer and what doesn’t? Food for thought.
Lights are back, generator noise is turned down in volume. I am sitting on a three legged stool. But it really does not matter as I chuckle at the fact that here I am wearing a suit, my skin glazed to a glow by humidity and face drenched in sweat beads. I am handed a bottle of ice cold water.
Dress code for another time mentally noted I realise this is the first of more visits to West Africa. By the time you are reading this piece I would have been to Accra and back to Enfield.”
Does climate where people live affect their behaviour? It highly likely influences everything from social etiquette, extended family dynamics, human interest priorities, belief systems and peoples’ preferences. Together climate and things it might influence become relevant in terms of perceptions people have of consumer products as experiences in different parts of the world.
“With Nigerian consumers being surrounded by such rapid change in a global culture, it’s really important to be modern and progressive and stay connected with a Nigerian identity,” — Chris Stagg General Manager Innovation @ Diageo on ‘Orijin Herbs Drink’ (pictured below), made in Nigeria by Diageo.
To establish a West Africa foot print, I would argue that it brings long term dividends to invest in new product development for localized experiences, right at the planning stage. At the moment a distributive partnership is helping GPE to clock on to consumer habits, values and social mores across select cities in West Africa.
“..after my visit to the Guinness Factory in Lagos in a country with a certain perception I wrapped up my visit with a different view. They have a pioneering attitude, embracing their African connection — brewing with Maize and Sorghum to suit the African palette. I say to myself we can do this but we have to learn about the volume market. We need customers to embrace our products as brands they can trust” — Brett Levine.
In the long term localized experiences and deeper market knowledge are likely to drive value proposition, product development, brand communication and an evolving business model.
“We have done it, Unilever and Nestlé have done it, If you want to encash, you have to produce locally. Otherwise you’re just a container business.” — Deepak Singhal, managing director of Dufil Prima Foods Nigeria ( Manufacturer of the Indomie brand of noodles)
“We have a global network of manufacturers, we are developing our distribution development network. When the switch is flicked we want to be established in the market. Either I need a product development facility that makes kidney beans that is highly localized and trusted or we develop our local distribution logistics to service demand from people who love red kidney beans” — Brett Levine.
In the long term how might a ‘design to value’ frame-work for making critical trade-off decisions between product mix attributes, costs, development effort, “value beyond product”, local distribution logistics and price look like?
We were far away from Oke Arin in Enfield informally evaluating potential packaging design for value propositions, customer (and distributor) benefits inherent in GPE’s mix of products, to determine the mix of product attributes that might maximize perceived customer (and distributor) value in Lagos, Accra, Port-Harcourt or Abuja.
But then again how might we test for perceived customer value in Lagos, Accra, Port-Harcourt or Abuja?
Prototyping multiple solutions to learn as much about the technical feasibility of locally resonant features as early and at the lowest cost possible is in Brett’s long term thinking. In this scenario product development teams kicks-off with exploratory work to identify which locally resonant ideas are culturally relevant. Development time, technical risk, creative skills, production skills and manufacturing complexity could all be considered when assessing the relative effort required to conceptualize, validate, detail and pilot each idea.
Is it far fetched to consider bringing in the buzz of Oke Arin into early stages of the product development life-cycle, to determine an effective prototyping approach for stimulating ‘market’ development?
“…to truly explore how packaging can extend the brand experience into a valuable service for the customer. This is crucial territory for marketers to explore and claim, as consumers become more resistant to traditional forms of advertising and media channels. FMCG brands will have to work increasingly hard to reach, and then engage consumers, and to do so they will need to start offering real value above and beyond the product they’re selling…” — Shannon Keegan.
