It is an incontrovertible fact that the Kings of the Soft Drinks market category are Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta,all bottled by Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), Pepsi-Cola and 7up,bottled by Seven-Up Nigeria until year 2000 when La Casera entered with boldness and surging razzmatazz to disrupt the market space.
For years,La Casera Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) ruled the throats and stomachs of many desirous Nigerians eager to quench their thirst while the bottlers,Classics Beverages (later took over by La Casera Company) smiled to the banks.
No doubt ,Nigerians excitingly glued on to the drink often taken with a popular sausage beef brand produced by a conglomerate.
Many years later,specifically 2015, La Casera began to lose its share of the market leadership as the financial fortunes of the producing company nose-dived while the consumers rejected the brand and the unfortunate news that the drink(La Casera), was allegedly dangerous to health began to spread like wildfire which the brand custodians could not quench.
At some point in the midst of the nose-diving scenario,it was alleged that the brand had a content that could be used to bleach the body as well as suitable for cleansing of bolts and nuts by road side auto- mechanics.
How did the brand custodians react to these mind-troubling stories? Many consumers till today are not aware of campaigns to discredit all these brand de-marketing and un-palatable stories.
Quite unpleasant was a recent consumer brand activation campaign embarked to engage the consuming public. To us at brandcampaign.com.ng,the campaign was a waste of energy and resources,why?
For some weeks,brandcampaign.com.com closely monitored the activation train, especially on Awolowo way,Ikeja,Lagos as well as Oregun-Oluyole bus stop. It was so disastrous as the target audience,the adults totally rejected the freely-offered drinks.
Rather than address the unsavoury Issue of the brand being dangerous for human consumption,what the custodians recently did was an event meant to unveil a repackaged La Casera Apple Drink as well as celebrate its dealers,distributors,consumers and stakeholders.
During the event,the Managing Director of La Casera Company,Mr Roland Ebelt quipped” La Casera Apple Drink in a 50cl bottle which still remains the standard and quality which La Casera is known for,now wears a new colourful and attractive look with real apple fruit indicating an increase in real apple at an affordable price”
At the same event,the Marketing Manager of La Casera Company,Mr Bello Yusuff also said”Today,we have come to witness the rebirth of our flagship brand, La Casera Apple Drink”.
The snag therefore is, what was the major challenge or trouble with the brand in recent years? Definitely,it was the’un- healthy content and not the bottle issue,so the brand custodians got this totally wrong.
In the words of Al Ries and Laura Ries in their book’The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding’ while writing on The Law Of Change,they wrote ” Customers are never wrong.That’s one of the many human traits that is so endearing and yet so frustrating from a branding point of view.When you try to tell customers that your brand is different than it used to be,they will reject your message”
It is therefore established from this writer’s point of view that with the recent adventures of the custodians of the troubled La Casera drink,the journey to recoup the lost image,market share and fortunes is still a very long one.
Written by: Akinwumi Dickson – Brand Campaign
