It is quite interesting to note that several companies are adopting new marketing tactics to remain afloat. This is because the business terrain has become highly competitive and the onus is on brands to create a differentiating edge.
Some years back, I had written on how some brands evolved new strategies to remain active in business. I focused specifically on Quick Service Restaurants QSR's and their marketing tactics.
Several years ago, QSR's are only dominant where elites and top notch individuals stay. This scenario has since changed and you can find a QSR within Oshodi, Agege metropolis and other remote areas.
This is one pro-active measure that QSR's took to outshine each other and gain customers' attention. I have always admired Al Ries and Jack Trout due to their indepth and incisive work on the marketing landscape. In the book, Marketing Warfare, the authors were of the view that marketing is not a single-sided process of serving the customer.
According to them, the true nature of marketing today is outwitting, out-flaunting and out fighting the competition. To them, marketing is war, where the enemy is your competitor and the ground to be won is the customer.
One may not totally agree with the authors on some issues but the truth is that their postulations are real and well-tested. While reading "Bottom- up Marketing" authored by the duo, it is their viewpoint that an organisation should find tactics that will work. The tactics is then built into a strategy.
I have also endeavored to analyze some tactics bring adopted by some brands and the rationale behind it. A major one that appealed to me is one of the notable QSR's, Sweet Sensation which deployed a tactic that defied some marketing logic.
The brand has an outlet on Akowonjo road for several years where it has clearly established its brand presence. Sweet Sensation actually started a hot race for competitors along the same route. It was later that Chicken Republic and KFC joined sweet sensation on the same route. What however shocked several people including myself was the establishment of another outlet by Sweet Sensation.
The new outlet had a strategic advantage as commuters descending the Dopemu Bridge had no choice but to behold the brand with its strategic location advantage. The tactic of the Sweet Sensation brand is actually in sync with the postulations of Alries and Jack Trout that the true nature marketing is to outfight competitions. Sweet Sensation has two strategically positioned outlets with 200 meters radius from each other.
This clearly showed that the brand retains more than half of the patronage to QSR's on the same route. This also aligns with the submission of the two marketing strategist that a sure tactic is to find a way to move into the customers mind first. Sweet sensation brand has carved a niche for itself as customers move from one of its outlets to the other when either has a large turnout of customers. I have observed this overtime and the tactic is working for the brand.
The Sweet Sensation brand would have definitely monitored the marketing trends to embark on a paradigm shift to not only influence the market but also dictate the pace. Brands concentrated its forces at very decisive points where the targeted mass audience is located.
