TALKING POINT
Lessons From Mr.
Wamama In Kilimani
Mums
By Boniface Ngahu
In Wamama, Stupidity
Meets Raw Demand with Kilimani Mums one of the biggest
facebook group in town with hundreds
thousands of followers.
In an era where common sense is not so
common it is possible for stupid ideas
to thrive. We have also highlighted
previously in this column out of 20 stupid
ideas, one will change the world. This is
the main reason we keep spotting stupid
ideas because we don’t know the one out
of 20 that will change the world. When
you look at your world and the whole
universe the ideas may come closer home
and change your world which increases the
possibility of a life changing phenomenon
being ‘stupid’. One of the reasons we have chosen to
extract lessons from Wamama is because
he has not yet reached the critical mass
to attract corporates in advertising but he
has the attention of discerning Kilimani
Mums.
Some people have argued that we have
an attention span of a goldfish which
means common things may not get our
attention. Enters Wamama aka Tajiri
Mfalme a social media celebrity popular
The trend has been that when someone
gets popular in social media corporates
follow with intentions of leveraging on
the trending person or topic. Think of the
likes of Githeri Man who captured the
online audience with his githeri munching
behavior during Kenya’s general elections.
This has not yet really happened for
Wamama, his randy semi naked dance
moves that makes him irresistible to his
online audience may mean that the brand
linkage has not clicked with brands keen
A look at his comments online with thou-
sands and hundreds of likes and comments
respectfully suggest that he has an out of
this world sense of humor and practical
jokes. He has also partnered with a come-
dian meaning that he could find a future
in comedy. This gave us the silver lining we
were looking for. The lesson here is that com-
mon wisdom has been that the youth want
brands to entertain them, the older audience
may not state it but the requirement applies
to them too.
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to ride on top trends. Still, I think with
some good execution a clever brand can
milk some relevance from this online
sensation.
Recently, Wamama landed from Middle
East where he works to a romping welcome
by his Kilimani Mums admirers some of
whom were at the Airport to receive him.
One of them a leading digital marketing
lady was at the airport with instructions to
others to keep off because she was going
to live with the guy and eventually marry
him.
One surprise is that after he got to the
city he was living with another man who
hosted him and apparently bought for him
several classy suits and jeans but not with
the ‘fiancée’. This tells you that the guy
has not been dressing so smartly, he was
usually in oversize shoes, colored clothes
and mismatched suits.
One is left to wonder what is so crowd
pulling about this celebrity, his stage name
Tajiri Bae suggests he is rich but clearly
he is not, but the ‘Bae’ gets my attention
to keep exploring. When I asked my cool
hunters about this guy, interestingly only
the slightly older ones had an idea the
younger ones were clueless. On showing
them his picture they didn’t rate him
highly on the aesthetics department.
Our strengths based approach in this
column had to keep exploring the
nugdets of wisdom to extract from this
phenomenon. We got the breakthrough on
finding reports that when he announced
that he was leaving the over 400,000
members strong Kilimani Mums group on
facebook, hundreds of his fans expressed
their love for him pleading with him not
to leave leading to his new fame as the
most loved man in Kenya on Facebook.
A look at his comments online with
thousands and hundreds of likes and
comments respectfully suggest that he
has an out of this world sense of humor
and practical jokes.
He has also partnered with a comedian
meaning that he could find a future in
comedy. This gave us the silver lining
we were looking for. The lesson here is
that common wisdom has been that the
youth want brands to entertain them, the
older audience may not state it but the
requirement applies to them too.
Be Kind To All, Avoid
Discriminating And Be
Authentic
His fans also argue that he does not
discrimate as he always starts his posts
with the statement, Habari ya wamama?
A Swahili salutation to all Kilimani
mums. They also say they love him
because he is authentic or real, he does
not fear being judged. He often posts
his raw photos in not so appealing attire,
cheap village home and receding hairline.
The VW Beetle ‘Ugly” campaign comes
to mind which we often take to mean
that in marketing and life when you
admit a negative your audience gives you
the positives. We can also take a note
from the emerging trend on poor-ism, a
growing form of tourism where the rich
visit the poor in slums and rural areas for
the therapeutic effect and as a reminder
that there are people with worse problems
than yours.
From the dating book, the audience in
reference has been known to have an eye
for the lame duck. The ‘woiyee’ (mercy)
points mean that a brand could strive to
make the target a hero in basic situations
and not necessarily in posh situations that
appear too aspirational. Still, Wamamas
real name is Enosh Owino but he uses
the name Wamama to be more relevant
to his audience.
Good Targeting: ‘Team
Mafisi’ Officials See Little
Competition In Wamama
White spaces are the best for identifying
new markets to target for an innovation.
These are markets that are not well served
by your current or competitors portfolio in
the market. These are also sweet spots in
the market with adequate spending power
and felt or unfelt needs that would give the
new product instant market acceptance
upon launch.
According to Team Mafisi, a common
reference to players aptly named after
the hyena for their predatory acumen,
Wamama is targeting a group they are
not very focused on. In some Youtube
video Wamama is seen with some of the
‘Officials’ of team mafisi in a place called
Mwihoko. They receive him positively
and acknowledge his target in Kilimani
mums cannot be found in Mwihoko.
They stopped some young hotie to test his
interest which he clearly states she is not
his type especially because of her youthful
age.
Male Underwear Statistics
and Insights Reveal
Why Sexy Clothes Lose
Relevance
Here we are going to use US statistics
where over 70% of male underwear is
bought by their women. Other insights
suggest that after the discovery of the
contraceptive pills, the sale of men’s
underwear went down, apparently men
didn’t have to put their best foot forward
in the fashion department to get dates.
The Hollywood trends also have effect on
male underwear sales, during the Great
Depression, the then world sexiest man
dropped his undershirt and the sales
of male undershirts fell by 40%. The
penetrating insight is that Hollywood
was credited for having inspired the world
with great content to get out of the great
depression.
The fact that Kilimani Mums are
impressed by Wamama with not so sexy
dressing means that our economy should
be getting out of the woods soon with
women being more willing to spend in
making their men to look good which is
one of the best indicators of an improving
economy as President Uhuru stated in his
recent State of the Nation Address. There
is a full logic about it which is a story for
another day. Probably, the worst times are
behind us and most importantly fortune
favours the brave. Remember, the trend is
your friend.
Boniface Ngahu is a Market
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