Customers’ Value as Niche Strategy

In a top-notch positioning approach, the management of Intercontinental Distillers Limited (IDL) has refreshed its Teezers drink to give consumers more value as well as earning their loyalty. Raheem Akingbolu reports.

In a competitive market, where rival brands strive to win customers’ loyalty, innovation and clear understanding of what consumers want are key for positioning and sustainability of market leadership. Among other benefits, refreshing of products and brand extension give the brand fresh energy in the market and provide fresh opportunity for brand owners to attract new customers. It is believed that extension of frontiers stimulates brands’ need for growth in an ever-evolving market like Nigeria. After perhaps months of research and market survey, which culminated in the birth of a new set of flavours, the Intercontinental Distillers Limited (IDL), a leading player in the Nigerian Wine and Spirit industry, last week unveiled the new look of Teezers Sparkling Cocktail Drink and the new variants of the brand. The promoters of the brand also leveraged on the event to reward its distributors for the last business year. The company also during this distributors award The Head of Marketing at IDL, Mobolaji Alalade, captured the mood succinctly when he stated that the company has responded to the dynamic preferences of Nigeria’s vibrant and youthful population by introducing two new additions to Teezers Sparking Cocktail Drink range; Teezers Orange Flavour, designed for people seeking a zesty, refreshing citrus experience, embodies an invigorating source of energy with its vibrant colour, as well as Teezers Lemon and Ginger Flavour, a non-alcoholic option catering to non-drinkers and children, ensuring inclusivity across demographics.

According to Alalade, the revamp of Teezers Sparking Cocktail Drink includes an upgrade from the 300ml bottle to a trendy, convenient 400ml container. He pointed out that the brand label is now in a contemporary design, which resonates with the spirit of the new age. “Notably, the logo radiates an aura of elegance while embracing the brand’s youthful and fun-filled essence,” he stated.

He further added that the IDL launches a new Teezers Sparking Cocktail Drink marketing campaign ‘More Fun’ emphasing the need to increase the options for consumers as well as Teezers’ unique proposition as the Master of Fun.

The company’s Managing Director, Patrick Anegbe emphasizing the theme of the event “Beyond Limits” said, “it reflected the collective journey of surpassing boundaries and pushing the company, her brand and distributors to new heights.”

While admitting that the business environment has been turbulent over the years, he said IDL as a company also strived relentlessly in 2022 to tackle the challenges encountered head-on through strategic planning, operational efficiency and investment in technology.

“We have pioneered processes that empowered us to thrive in the face of adversity. To ensure more availability of our brands to our esteemed distributors in the future, we have invested heavily in capacity building. You will therefore start to notice improvement in supplies of our products from the beginning of next year, ”he said.

He attested to the fact that the company has invested in research and that it will continue to exhibit its strength in this direction to introduce new products developments and innovative activities to keep IDL brands above others in the Wines and Spirits industry in Nigeria and make doing business with the company more interesting.

To make the new products and existing ones achieve success in the market, the company has promised that IDL plans to activate fun – filled experiences for consumers at various leisure destinations and touch points throughout Nigeria.

To further push the new products and the existing ones, the company made a passionate appeal to its valued distributors to always ensure that they buy across the range of their brands whenever they make purchases. According to him, this will ensure improved growth and profitability for the businesses of the trade partners.

Strengthening Relationship with Consumers

The company, in line with global trends, rewarded some of its outstanding trade partners for their contribution to the growth of the business between 2022 and this year. All over the world, customer rewards and promotions have been identified as marketing strategies to reinforce existing relationships between organisations and customers who are global citizens resident in a locality. The primary reason is to ensure brand loyalty and generate profit.
Employment of these strategies by organisations is with understanding that consumer loyalty is pre-requisite for success in a highly competitive environment like the Nigerian market. But more important to customer reward and promotions is the drive of value and trust.

Organisations like IDL, one of the few manufacturers of Teezers and leading producers of sachet and PET bottled drinks in Nigeria, recognizes that promotions alone which are normally short-lived cannot continuously guarantee consumer loyalty, and have been able to fuse into this reward strategy value and trust schemes driven by consumer insight.

As said by experts, organisations cannot buy customer loyalty, it is earned. According to them, the value perception by the customer has a direct impact on the level of loyalty to the brand.

Speaking on the customer reward scheme, the Head of Sales, Hope Gbagi, explained that the 2023 Distributors’ Award, is a testament to commitment and excellence, celebrates the outstanding contributions of distributors who have demonstrated unparalleled dedication and achieved remarkable milestones in their service to IDL. For this year, the deserving awardees include Sunday Emmanuel, MD of Chubby Bros Enterprises; Yemisi Adewusi, MD of YTT Distributors Investment; Biola Adewuyi, MD of Biola AY Stores; and Dorothy Anegbe, MD of Ogbohu Enterprises who emerged the number one distributor of the company.

Earlier, the company’s Managing mirector pointed out that the event was a testament to the amazing partnership IDL shared and the impressive achievements it has accomplished together with the trade partners, in-spite of the unfavourable business environment in the country.

According to him, each and every one of the distributors have steadfastly navigated through challenges and persevered in the face of adversity. To this end, he added that the dedication and unwavering commitment of the distributors had uplifted the company’s business to new levels of excellence.

“Today, we embrace the theme “Beyond Limits” which perfectly reflects our collective journey of surpassing boundaries and pushing ourselves to new heights. Each and every one of you have steadfastly navigated through challenges and persevered in the face of adversity. Your dedication and unwavering commitment have uplifted our business to new levels of excellence,” he stated.

To be more specific, Anegbe pointed out that the Theme, “Beyond Limits” to distributors implies but not limited to; experiencing products that go beyond your expectation and experiencing opportunities in sales of both successful and new brands for the growth and success of your business.

In the same way, he stressed that for the management of the company, the theme implies; showcasing innovative products, strengthening customer loyalty and building long-term partnerships and highlighting the company’s commitment to continuous improvement and pushing limits.

At this point, he acknowledged some of the hurdles the company encountered on its path in the 2022 business year. Firstly, he listed the high cost of doing business as one of the most significant challenges IDL faced as a manufacturing company and partners.

He said, “Market conditions became increasingly unstable; prices of input materials continued to rise almost on a daily basis; energy cost went up due to high cost of diesel. The foreign exchange (FX) required for raw materials, equipment and spares was not readily available and our roads continued to remain in deplorable state, making movement of goods from one part of the country to another difficult and expensive,”

Despite the unfavourable business environment, the trade partners had to contend with in 2022, he reckoned that their performance at the end of the year was impressive, adding that it was indeed commendable and that his team is sincerely thankful to them all.