Past Future Marketing!

These young people whom you so much ignore or abuse with lame marketing strategies, are the same adults that you will desire to consumer your products and services in years to follow. Ignoring them may be very suicidal, but participating in their worlds, will go a long way to ensure your future success. It’s going to be very difficult for Zimbank to convince me to open a Savings account for my children when they are in their teens, because of the neglect they gave me when they left me hanging concerning the KidiBANK Club ™.

If there is one thing that will surely happen, is that tomorrow will always come! It is important for Marketers to understand this small little issue. Futuristic marketing can be defined as the act of deliberately getting involved with young people, with your brands and products, willing to adjust them and/or stop their lives, in an effort to systematically imprint yourselves in the hearts and minds of these fresh ones, knowing that their purchasing power also extend into the homes and communities they come from. Futuristic marketing has a double edged aspect to it. It calls for you to focus on the future, using strategies that will also attract the current generation of consumers (the young person’s parent) by default.

A good example of futuristic marketing is St Elmo’s “Wednesdays, Children Eat Free!” promotion. I have seen many families flock into this restaurant on Wednesday evening for dinner. This imprints “Good Food, Good Restaurant, Good Family Time” in the young person’s heart, at the same time retaining the same memory on the parent’s heart. The family will always eat there, at the same time the child will never want to go to any other restaurant “when they grow up”, other than “ST ELMO’S”, a “pure saint” in their eyes.

Futuristic marketing is not limited to brand, product, service, enterprise or institution. Have you ever asked yourself why Zimbabwean children of these days are no longer fascinated with the “Agricultural Show” or the “Trade Fair”? These two brands have lost their futuristic touch in their marketing. Imagine the impression these children will have the following year or two, to come. No matter what you do, or how you do it, never forget your tomorrow, which consists of consumers, who are the young ones of today. As the saying goes, “catch them while they are young”.

Dairiboard 1980s Milk Promotion – “I like the crocodile milk better”
“its time to go home”, I’d exclaim, just after I hear the bell ring at 12:30pm, in 1985, at Avondale Infant School, in grade 2. The most special thing was not going home, or getting out of class, but what I was to collect outside the classroom door. I loved to drink crocodile milk. Yes, crocodiles produce milk! If you tell me otherwise, I deem you insane, because each morning I got a packet of crocodile milk from Dairiboard. Sometimes I would drink chicken milk, but was very loyal to crocodile milk. Ever since then I have not stopped drinking or eating any milky product from Dairiboard.

This promotion that Dairiboard did has left an indelible loyalty mark in my heart, that I find it difficult to buy “Dorking” milky products, even though their yoghurt seems healthier. Dorking is good, but my natural instinct when in a supermarket is to “grab” a Dairiboard product, without thought or fear of price. No matter how cheap other products are, I will just take Dairiboard products. Call me addicted, but they were there for me when I needed them – my years of unfathomable imagination. As a seven year old child, my imagination was enriched, and my heart allured toward Dairiboard at the same time.

Shingi the Nut Case
Since the turn of the century, Zimbabwean Tourism has never been the same. I have watched a man, whom I would term a “nut case”. Shingi Munyeza is a nut case, because he is the only Hotelier who realised the power of Generation Xtreme ™, and managed to transform two Hotel companies with unique branding concepts and cultures. Nut case is not an insult, but a Generation Xtreme ™ phrase meaning “creative genius”.

Cresta Lodge evolved in his era. The Cresta brand even more. Did you know that the Cresta brand was well known in the Generation Xtreme ™ circles during Shingi’s era, than it is known now? Go to your archives and look at his marketing and advertising. I believe a great number of Cresta’s clients were lured during the Shingi era.

His “insanity” (higher level of creative genius) got worse when he moved to Zimsun. He went “family”. Notice that Zimsun is all about “Family Holiday”. They have many packages, discounts, specials and privileges, all centred on Family. Look at how their logo became even simpler than what it was. Everyone in the family can easily identify with it. I shall not mention the advertising, the new look of the Hotels and Resorts.

An interesting example of Shingi’s branding success is “The Crowne Plaza”. Before he came, “Monomutapa” did not allow anyone wearing “Jeans” to enter into their Hotel, except those coming out of their Taxis or Tour Buses. How thick can one get? I remember one time I was refused entry when my aunt was taking us for lunch at Christmas. From that day on, I was an enemy of their cause, making sure I tell people of my ordeal. I was extremely touched when in 2004 I went to The Crowne Plaza dressed in a tracksuit and slops for a drink. I was treated like a king. Since then, I occasionally pass through just to look at the place. I even took photos of the new look.

I tell you this, there are many families trafficking the Zimsun doors because of their new branding concepts. Their marketing has become simple, only because they addressed the most important thing about business – their brand. One would wonder where I would go for my honeymoon…That’s EASY! Or where I would take my children out?

AIT, “the manufacturer of ATEC PCs”
It was September 2003 when one of my mentors asked me to get him a PC. I opened the Herald Classifieds and saw the ATEC advert under an AIT advert. The AIT logo was not new to me, I identified with it. Even though the same computer was a bit cheaper at Creative Computer (who were also close to where we were based then), I chose AIT.

Ever since 2003, until 2006, AIT has been selling the ATEC brand computer as though they manufactured it. AIT Distribution is without a doubt the market leader in PC distribution in Harare. How did they achieve this, even under the nose of serious contenders like Creative, Riotex, and other young dynamic IT companies?

2003, in Zimbabwe is well known for a mushrooming of Internet Cafes, Phone Shops, DVD Replication, Recording Studios, Supermarkets, and Typing Services; all who needed PCs. AIT was well placed, well priced, and most of all, well marketed. Their logo sold more PCs than any sales team could do. The AIT brand (represented by the logo), was not only in Newspapers or Billboards, but at the most convenient and strategic location – The “Maxibooth” Phone booth. I then understood why I chose AIT over Creative that day.

Thousands of young people traffic the Maxibooths, being effective marketing for the AIT brand. When one goes into QuickNEasy ™ Cafes, they are greeted by the ATEC PC. By the time young entrepreneurs saw the AIT ATEC advert, their minds are transferred back to the Maxibooths, where they spoke for hours with their loved ones, and friends. Maxibooth helped build a loyalty in the hearts of the young people that has resulted in their investment in AIT’s “version” of ATEC.
Dairiboard, Zimsun and AIT have their concepts of Future Marketing right. Dairiboard, made a good name for itself in my generation’s hearts using a simple idea “crocodile milk for me everyday”, Zimsun “family” and Unilever presents the right message to its consumers about their products.