Why taste is the new focus for soft drink markers in Nigeria

Taste is the new focus for carbonated beverage (soft drinks) makers in Nigeria as they are aggressively pushing out more flavours to entice consumers around the country.

Unlike before, the competition for market share was on price and quantity. But now, the narrative has changed with taste being the new niche and focus.

“The three things that Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) or drinks companies compete against are price, quantity and taste. For the price and quantity category, they are almost at par. So the next thing for them to focus on is taste due to consumers now tilting towards that,” Ayorinde Akinloye, consumer analyst at CSL Stockbrokers said.

Over the past four years, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) including soft drink makers have been competing for sales by increasing the quantity of their products without increasing prices due to weak consumer purchasing power.

The carbonated soft drink market commands a unique hold on the food and beverage sector in the Nigerian economy. In 2019, innovation centred on flavours as companies like Pepsico and Unilever introduced new ready-to-drink Lip tea drinks and Pepsico’s new flavours such as Pepsi Berry, Pepsi Lime and Pepsi Mango.

Last month, La Casera Apple introduced four new flavours called Bold Orange, Tropical, Bitter Lemon Extra and Ginger.

Ibrahim Ahmed, an inventory manager at Coca-Cola Nigeria, said the new trend made Coca-Cola reintroduce its flavoured Fanta Apple and Pineapple drink back into the market in January.

Nigeria’s fast-growing population brings with it a continuing demand for soft drinks, especially as the climate is quite hot. The country ranked fourth globally in the volume of soft drink sales recorded in 2016, according to Euromonitor International, a global market intelligence publisher.

Despite the huge popularity of the juice and drink market, the unique tasting appeals of carbonated soft drinks and their array of flavours have always been a strength other drinks cannot match.

“The soft drinks companies are in the phase of ‘let us spoil the consumers by giving them various alternatives’. At every point in time, companies try to ensure that consumers get what suits them at that point in time,” Abiola Gbemisola, a consumer analyst at Lagos-based investment firm, Chapel Hill Denham, said.

Gbemisola noted that the new development is not the case that consumption or purchasing power has improved but a way to ensure that consumers don’t move to their other competitors because of those flavours.