The latest entry of Al Grain Noodles into the Nigerian market has brought to 18 the total number of players in the noodles sub-sector.
But guess what! Just like in the banking sector where experts have not identified any clear difference among all the leading banks, there seems to be no clear distinction between noodles products in the Nigerian market. With similar packs, sizes and colour, ‘Indomie’, one of the most popular in the sector, has assumed a generic name for noodles among Nigerians.
Indomie, the first to enter the Nigerian noodles market in 1988, is the brand name for noodles product produced by De United Foods Industries Limited. It came with its unique packaging, size and colour.
Since then, all other noodles produced by other players have come in the same packaging without any radical departure from the Indomie style, especially in packaging and size if only to stand out from the others.
They also come in similar flavours such as onion, chicken and pepper. What is perhaps different is their strategy of TV commercials.
Among noodles in the market are Chiki noodles, Dangote noodles, Indomie, Golden Penny noodles, Honeywell noodles and Mimi noodles which has taken the market by storm with its exhilarating ‘Boom Sha-Sha’ campaign. There is also Sum Yun noodles among others.
An analyst links the similarity in the products to a lack of depth in creativity and innovation. Some of them enter the market to behave exactly like the successful brand and therefore they tend to copy without creating a marked difference.
Most of the noodles in the market have similar sachet packs and share the same colour combination. To make matters worse, they follow willy-nilly the packaging design Indomie introduced about 20 years ago.
The seemingly unchallenged leadership of Indomie by the other players in the market is attributed to what has been termed a copy-cat mentality (tagged ‘follow-follow mentality’ in the Nigerian parlance) without a radical passion to create a distinctive noodles brand that can stand on its own.
Drawing lessons from other subsets in the fast moving consumer group category, one needs to ask: How did Milo do it to stand separately in the beverage market without being enveloped by the mighty Bournvita?
It strategically fought its way to create Milo. Mimi Noodles by May & Baker which was taking on the leading brand was deepening its presence as it attempted to stand alone with its powerful Boom Sha-Sha campaign. But it could not sustain the momentum of the campaign.
There is a deep market for noodles in Nigeria. Experts say the market is worth over N64.4bn ($400m) and this is being deepened by the introduction of Al Grain Instant Noodles into the Nigerian market.
Euromonitor predicts that the sale of noodles is expected to continue to show strong growth “as noodles remain a convenient and quick way of eating, thus meeting the demand from time-stressed working people, including working parents, whose children are key consumers of such products.
“The category is expected to remain quite competitive, despite being dominated by one player – De-United Foods Industries” with 71 percent market share. Euromonitor recognises that many players are engaging in advertising and promotions to win over consumers, with product prices remaining cheap.
In the market as it stands, advertisement for one product could be advertisement for all and this explains why some brand owners don’t advertise but make sales. While some advertise, others have embarked on below-the-line marketing approaches. After all, noodle is noodle.
Dufil Prima Foods, has been tremendous in its research and development, a key reason why it continues to dominate the Nigerian noodles market.
“Despite having several flavours already in the market, the company extended the brand with the introduction of Indomie Box Noodles, said to be targeted at busy working class consumers.” It wants to maintain its lead.
Today, the noodles manufacturers employ more than 30,000 people directly with another 200,000 distributors engaged in its supply chain.
Beyond these, the noodles companies also have an almost endless list of suppliers like the flour milling companies, refineries, the palm oil plantations, packaging companies and carton manufacturers. If you put everything together, it’s a huge industry, says Deepark Singhal, the CEO of Dufil.
To compete strongly against leading brands in the noodles market and take up more market shares, the players need to be futuristic in building their brands through what experts called ‘innovative ideas’ which they say are always inconsistent with prevailing logic and beliefs.
“Therefore to innovate you must change others’ logic and beliefs.” Noodles need to stand out of the crowd and create their niche.
Daniel Obi
