It is said Kenyans don’t like their things, they don’t like their country, music, films, food, products, etc., and that’s why they consume a lot of foreign products. Right now, Kenyans are binge-watching the ‘Polygamist’ and making it a big thing in our country. I am not sure if a South African knows a show like ‘Single Kiasi’, which is equally good.
We are quite the consumers of everything. Kenyans, my father’s generation made a music genre like Lingala quite big. The biggest Lingala stars, like Koffi Olomide and Franco, made their careers in Kenya. So, we have foreign brands finding a market in Kenya with ease, it is either that we are a good market or we don’t like our stuff and would rather buy foreign.
I don’t want to be biased and say Kenyans are just consumers and every brand in Kenya is big because of Kenya. Some brands in Kenya, like KFC, Nike, Adidas, and whatever else, are big in any other country. I think even Uber, Apple Iphones etc are big in Kenya.
I don’t want to say we have the inability to innovate something of our own that we can like and be apart of. We also export coffee, athletes, and engineers to the Middle East etc.
I am looking at small, peculiar brands that are radically penetrating the Kenyan Market. These are products we can also make here, and we have made here, but it seems we still prefer foreign stuff.
Sometimes we make good music that crosses borders, we make good beers like Tuskers that cross borders, and we breed talent that wins Oscars etc.
So, let’s look at these Brands:
The Polygamist and Amapiano.
This is a television show that has swept the airwaves in the past few days, it is a south African tv series making everyone glued to the screens. It is like Jacob’s Cross but now with Netflix, it is all over. When Jacob’s Cross aired many years ago, Netflix was not yet a thing.
The polygamist is fun and a bit provocative, but it is nothing extraordinary; it is a bit raw, like most South African TV series. I have seen a couple South African TV series, and they tend to be quite hilarious with a very dry sense of humour, so it seems we are getting hooked to them. Even their Amapiano genre is quite big with our local audiences.
Soju Spirit
I didn’t expect a South Korean spirit to have the whole city in a chokehold. I was just in a supermarket queue a few minutes ago, and I strike a conversation with a lady holding this drink in her hand, and I asked her what kind of drink that is. She told me it is a South Korean brand that is currently flying off the shelves.
The funny thing is that a South Korean TV series ‘Squid Game’ also used to be big here a few years back. I told you we like foreign content and beers more than our own.
This is not the first foreign drink to be big in Kenya. Konyagi is a Tanzanian drink big in Kenya. 7Up is another Tanzanian soda big here. And I also recall seeing a friend with a can of German beer in his house. He was even selling them.
How did these drinks and foodstuffs become so big here? I have just finished eating a pack of Korie rice from Tanzania at my house. It is sweeter than any Kenyan rice I have ever eaten. The Ahero rice comes closer, though, even the rice from my village tastes so nice so that is up for debate.
The shawarma from Arab land and smocha or pasua used to be a Ugandan thing for a long time. The Ugandans call it Rolex.
Pour Conclure
We are a very good market with peculiar buying habits as I discussed in freakonomics part 1. I once worked for a loaning app as a writer, and I noticed the executives were white and in Poland. I asked them why they chose Kenya, and all they could say was, “it is a good market, you will know when you join us that it is a good market”. Indeed, it is a nice market.
The app is quite popular nowadays. In fact, most of these mobile loaning apps are foreign; only Mshwari is Kenyan. The rest are managed from abroad.
Anyway, may we also grow to like our own or also create products we come to love. Winning the Kenyan market is not easy, and if you do and you are a foreign brand, you must be doing something right.
I hope Tusker beer does well abroad. I hope our cigarettes are smoked in the UK, just the same way they drink our coffee and tea.
What makes a brand penetrate a market is a combination of many things, from its flava, marketing strategy (segmentation, tonality, pricing, packaging etc). You can’t really explain why Coca-Cola is big in Kenya, and Pepsi is not; Pepsi is bigger in Nigeria. You can’t explain why bread is consumed more in Nigeria than kenya et al.
In regards to the Polygamist, I bet you can tell why it is big in Kenya. Kenyan men, or rather African men, are polygamists. All my grandpas had at least 3 wives. That means I have a lot of cousins. Our father’s generation, being more educated and careful with family planning, had only one wife, but at least kept a few mistresses out there.
To the polygamists!
Slade
