It is the most powerful meeting that I have been part of. It had only 10 people in attendance. For the Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), there was the most powerful man in the Company, the most powerful man in Coca-Cola Africa, the most powerful man in the (Nigeria and Equatorial Africa) Division, the Head of the Nigerian Franchise and the Country Marketing Director. On the Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) side, there was the most powerful man in the company, the most powerful man in the Division, the Nigerian MD, the Commercial Director and yours sincerely.
We were discussing the Nigerian Business, issues we were dealing with and the key initiatives that we needed approvals for. Now, we were discussing the Juice Segment.
Months earlier, we (The CCH Commercial Director and I) had conducted a strategic review of the Juice segment and came up with these key headlines.
• With 5Alive, we had once almost dominated the Juice Business with a high of 43% market share in a very fragmented market. Chi was a distant second with less than 20%.
• Now, Chi was pulling ahead, and our Market Share was tapering.
• What Changed was that Chi was innovating ahead of us.
• We had lagged in innovation with:
o Only multi/blended flavours (which Chi had),
o No mono flavours (which Chi had),
o No 100% juice offering (which Chi had),
o With only 8 SKUs (and later only 6) vs Chi that had about 28 SKUs at that point.
• We had also lagged in investment in Brand Building and Consumer Engagement
• The issues were so clear that the solutions were easy to come up with
o Introduce mono flavours
o Innovate the Juice Offerings (have offering across the range: Flavoured, Pulps, Squash, Nectars and 100% juice)
o Introduce appropriate packs for different consumers and for the identified occasions (kids, single serves, sharing packs, etc)
o Refresh the 5Alive Brand
o Put Marketing investment behind the new brand (we included targeted initiatives)
This powerful gathering was now considering that Report. Our recommendations were unanimously and enthusiastically accepted. We were applauded for a great job. We were ready to roar!
There was just one small matter to be resolved. What would be the Brand name of this Mono Juice we were going to introduce?
You see, 5Alive as a Brand name could only be applied to a blended juice brand… and containing 5 Flavours (or so we thought). For a mono-juice brand, 5Alive wouldn’t fly. (This view eventually changed and 5Alive is now being used on mono flavours)
So, what would be the name of this Mono Juice?
There were 2, only 2, options on the table. The Coca-Cola Company team preferred “Minute Maid”. This was the Brand name for Mono Flavours across Coca-Cola Africa. The Coca-Cola Hellenic team preferred “Cappy” which was the Brand name for Mono Juices across every other Coca-Cola Hellenic Market. Both Minute Maid and Cappy were brands of TCCC.
Being in that meeting was a privilege. I spoke only when I was scheduled to speak or when I was called upon to speak. Especially so because (at this time, I had returned from TCCC to CCH, and) my views aligned with that of the TCCC team. My view turned on two issues. We shared creative materials with Coca-Cola Africa and not with our Coca-Cola Hellenic sisters). Minute Maid had also percolated into Nigeria and was certainly better known. My career with the system would have practically ended that day if I had opened my mouth to express those views.
The discussions were decorous, but the positions, hard. We took more time discussing the name than we took presenting and adopting the Juice report/recommendations. Watching that debate was surreal because nothing about the positions taken was objective. Everyone was in lockstep with the positions of their team.
To me, any name would have been okay at that point. We were losing shares; we were losing the juice segment. In my mischievous mind, I shouted “Call it Amita. Just let’s go do it!”
How was the matter resolved? It was kicked down the road. The most powerful people in the system decided to bring in a research team from the UK to research and study which name would be preferred by Nigerians.
That research report would come back 6 months later containing a lot of gibberish and little insights. It would take another 2 years before Cappy was launched in Nigeria. By then, I (and more than 50% of those in that meeting) had left the system.
This was the irony. Everyone in and at that meeting knew that the name of our Mono Juice was going to be Cappy. Not because it was the better name, but because (at that time) whatever CCH wanted, CCH eventually got. Yet, we wasted 2 years… and still got it wrong big time. By the time the issue of name was resolved, most of the other recommendations had been forgotten or their rationale lost (we now had Pharaohs who did not know Joseph). Most of what we recommended, and that the most powerful people in the system approved were never implemented.
Chi Limited, like Bigi later, didn’t have those kinds of issues. They went from Concept to market in months. They innovated aggressively. Overtime, they became the dominant juice player in Nigeria with Coca-Cola almost becoming a fringe player. To get back into the game, TCCC had to go through the very expensive route of acquiring Chi Limited.
Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon story in the world of big business. There lies the opportunity for the insurgent.