How Sachet Marketing Plays Out in Nigeria’s Volatile Economy

In February 2019, Eat’n’Go, the Nigerian franchisee of popular pizza maker Domino’s, introduced a miniature version of the pizza boxes the market was familiar with, for $1.50. Smaller in size and far cheaper than the medium-sized pizza which costs $9, this new version was designed to be affordable for everyone. Two years earlier, StarTimes, a Chinese satellite TV provider with a strong presence in Nigeria, had added daily and weekly subscriptions – with fewer channels – at 15 cents and 72 cents respectively, to its existing monthly option. Since 2015, Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has gone into recession twice and in that time, the naira has plummeted against the dollar, losing 70 percent of its value. That put the economy in a chokehold. But things could become even worse in the coming days. To cope with this reality, businesses are turning to sachet marketing as a strategy to stay in business. Scholars Rodolfo P. Ang and Joseph A. Sy-Changco of Ateneo de Manila University in The Philippines, define sachet marketing as “the effort to increase market penetration for one’s product by making it available in smaller, more affordable packs…a tool for penetrating the market at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” The trend is also playing out in Nigeria’s tech industry and influencing how more startups are thinking about product pricing.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA