TALKING POINT
Kiberiti Re-Branding , Eating Fare and the Pandemic ’ s View from Shakespeare ’ s Times
By Boniface Ngahu
In the last issue we looked at marketing platforms and how to apply them for getting strategy buy-in from internal and external implementers . One of the readers told me how WhatsApp has been an inspiring platform to many , as we grew up some nay Sayers would utter words such as , “ you will not turn out to be anyone of substance in future ”. This was normally said sarcastically to imply that one ’ s parents were wasting money paying school fees to educate their child .
Apparently , the future has turned out to be more promising than that prediction and thanks to Facebook , anyone can be an administrator of a WhatsApp ’ s group affirming the notion that everyone ’ s dreams are valid as Lupita said .
Kenyans Innovativeness Rated as A +
The theme of this current column reminds me of that of 2021 Marketing Society of Kenya ’ s Warrior Awards , ‘ seeing through the masks ”. Belated congratulations are in order to East Africa Breweries who emerged the overall winners .
While speaking during the Awards Gala held at a hall in Sarit Center , the marketing director of EABL mentioned that he has worked in Europe and Asia . He then said that in his work experience across the world he has never seen the level of innovativeness he has seen in Kenya in his previous postings . He gave an example of many times when he had received amazing proposals overnight after briefing marketing agencies or one of the team members at work in Kenya .
My interpretation of the above narrative was that Kenyan ’ s marketing innovativeness deserves an A + rating from a global scale . One of the best measures for innovation is speed to market where the best practice I know of is 30 days from idea conception to market which is similar to the gestation period of a rabbit . This innovativeness is also well demonstrated by Kenyan ’ s behaviors online with groups such as Kenyan ’ s On Twitter # KOT being a force to reckon with . Masking and social distancing has resulted to what we can term as “ irrelevant cues ” trending online
Am told that M-Pesa money transfer service has some kind of an escroll feature where a payment is only unlocked after specific performance in this case uber fare being paid after arrival of a guest to the sponsors chosen destination complicating the now infamous propensity to “ eat fare ”. due to lockdown boredom in search of a good cheer .
Kiberiti Re-Branding , Sexless Marriages Trends and Tipping Point
Recently , a sales lady from KOKO was called to our office for a pitch by a curious team that had just completed a project related to creating green jobs and transiting the country into a low carbon economy . The team was eager to buy and understand how the KOKO cooker that uses bio-ethanol fuel works . When it came to the point of lighting the cooker , the sales lady innocently requested for a kiberiti ( Swahili for match box ) from one of the ladies for the lighting demo . The lady resisted the idea cunningly ( blushing ) stating that she has never owned one to the surprise of the uninformed ones , a lively debate followed on why kiberiti was trending .
Given that my trend hunters always update me on such peculiar behaviors all eyes were on yours truly to explain the phenomenon . I first pretended not to know what it was all about but mentioned that I had noted that matchboxes were running out in retail outlets and gynecologists seemed to be the ones explaining to Netizens that they were being misinformed .
We also talked of a recent study indicating that Covid-19 has resulted into sexless marriages with nearly half ( 42 %) of respondents reporting being dissatisfied with their sex lives during covid compared
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