Mass marketing and target marketing are very important market penetration strategies. In this article, I shall analyze them in relation to the entertainment industry. The focus will be on Kocee, a Cameroonian based musician.
In recent times, there’s been this feud between Nigeria and the English Cameroon (NW & SW) in almost every aspect. But most especially in the entertainment industry in general as they both argue as to who should lead or better still who is leading. It is no gainsaying that this has actually created a lot of competition as well as creativity from artistes of both countries.
I remember back in 2022, when during a movie premiere in Douala, Cameroon movie producer Kang Quintus mounted the podium and had a verbal altercation with ace Nigerian actor Zack Orji. Quintus affirmed that Cameroon had nothing to learn from Nigeria but they must collaborate as equals.
What some pundits think about these marketing concepts
Some pundits believe that the Nigerian entertainment industry has a very huge influence over that of Cameroon. This is so because they think Cameroonian entertainers are losing originality in their contents by singing and acting and talking like Nigerians. We have seen an influx of Cameroonian entertainers establishing in the Nigerian market. We have the likes of 237TownCryer, Okawa Shaznay, etc.
Examples of mass marketing strategies
I remember two examples in my marketing course back then in the university shared with us by our lecturer.
Example 1:
The first one is about a company that wanted to penetrate the Middle East market. They used their brand that had portrayed enormous success in other countries. They invested a lot of money in making this product equally work in the Middle East. In their communication billboards, they captured a sweet scene of a family (mother, father and children) sitting together and sharing a delicious meal. The idea was to show unity. To their greatest dismay this star brand of theirs recorded a staggering failure. Astonished, they decided to carry out a research to ascertain the reason for this huge failure. The research findings indicated that it is not customary in the Middle East to find a family (mother, father and children) eating together. So this factor alone which this company neglected or didn’t understand, earned them huge sums of money in a failed market penetration investment. They were applying mass marketing strategy instead of target marketing.
Example 2:
The second example is about the one time famous ‘Bon Bon Acolisé’ by Tiger Brands (Chococam). This product did so well in other regions until it entered the Northern regions of Cameroon and failed.
Flabbergasted, they too engaged a marketing research study. It surprisingly revealed that the people in the Northern parts of Cameroon rejected this product because of the word ‘acolisé’. Their interpretation was that it contained alcohol. Being predominantly Muslims, they didn’t identify with it and the name of these sweets was changed to ‘Bon Bon Kola’ and its sales are magical. Another element of mass marketing.
Those two examples relate to the mass marketing concept of using one strategy for all markets as opposed to target marketing which is using unique strategies for each market.
Mass Marketing, Target Marketing
Now to Kocee’s ‘Credit Alert’. When you look at this project critically, you will understand that its main target is the Nigerian market. And it was perfectly executed to that gain, from its lyrics to its beats and accent. Kocee in this masterpiece pronounces ‘alert’ as ‘alart’, a typical Nigerian style. Remember that prior to the release of this song, there were videos of Kocee doing vox-pops. This was to know how popular he was in Nigeria. And I believe he was disappointed! According to the videos as a lot of Nigerians didn’t know him. So, how better could he have introduced himself into the giant market of the giants of Africa? If not in a giant manner like he did through Credit Alert?
Think about it
Look at this, I am not from Foumban and if I want the people of Foumban to listen to me, the smartest way is to use a native of Foumban and one that will catch the people’s attention. That’s the role of ace singer Patoranking on this project who dexterously delivered.
