Turn peculiar habits into business

Former Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph was criticised for saying that Kenyans have peculiar calling habits. The Safaricom public relation management tactics included one piece I read in their newsletter which explained that the Bible also states that “you are a peculiar people”.

My guess is that the calling habits included things like everyone calling on Friday, which would cause network congestion or flashing someone as a greeting with no intention to talk to them.

My guess is that Safaricom is successful today because of understanding those habits. The lesson here is that the trend is your friend. This is because just like a wave in the sea, those who ride on it have fun surfing while those who fight it can easily drown.

Recently, we had a discussion about Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore after he said that a Kenyan often fuels his car on his way to work and again on the way back.

The point of discussion was why he would be commenting about fuelling while we would expect him to be talking about calling. Maybe Safaricom is more than a communications company, we guessed, because most petrol stations accept M-Pesa payments, anyway.

One person, during the discussion, said that he saw a motorist using a jerrycan to fuel a Mercedes Benz C Class that had stalled. “My cousin,” someone else joined the debate, “fuels his fuel-guzzling Prado with a maximum of Sh1,000 every time.”

Perhaps some people believe that the ‘E’ on the fuel dashboards means ‘Enough’. During Budget Day, some Kenyans jokingly requested the Finance minister to make provision for fuel to be sold in sachets, especially for people driving a Vitz.

To leverage on the fuelling trend, many station attendants are trained to jaza (fill the tank) whenever they refuel. Rarely do they get to fill the tanks, but some motorists jokingly agree that they do so with the cash available.

This has resulted in another trend where attendants ask upfront, “How much?”

Fuelling habits

There was a joke about a man who stayed in Nairobi’s Eastlands and had to drop his new girlfriend in the more upmarket Karen area. He ran out of fuel.

When he stopped by the nearest petrol station, he handed Sh500 to the attendant who confidently asked him, Safaricom or Airtel? The implication was that in Karen, motorists are more likely to fill their fuel tanks and anyone offering Sh500 would only be buying airtime.

This could be the other reason Mr Collymore would comment confidently about fuelling habits.

What are the lessons? There is a need to understand your market segment to maximise on selling to each customer. There is also a need to train those who sell your products alongside others to offer your brand first before they offer others.

We also concluded that the newly rich take time to shed some habits.

There is what I call BOP loafing, where those who are not at the bottom of the pyramid go to BOP market places to enjoy what is available. These benefits include low prices as offered by some bars that, for example, sell beer at the recommended retail price.
They may also be looking for a bargain and variety, as would be the case for teens from rich families shopping for fashion items at the Toi second-hand clothes market in Kibera.

There is also “poorism”, which is the tourism of visiting poverty-stricken places like the Kibera slum; it is said to be “therapeutic”.

Don’t argue with peculiar habits. Instead, focus on the market needs.

The writer is the marketing director of SBO Research. E-mail: [email protected], Twitter @bngahu.