As operators in the global economy prepare for 2021, the Managing Director of Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Mrs Oyeyimika Adeboye, has urged business owners to focus more on consumer needs and satisfaction.
The first female to head the multinational food and beverage company in Nigeria, disclosed this at the United Bank for Africa Plc’s last Business Series for the year 2020, with the theme: “Understanding and Leveraging Consumer Behaviour for Business Growth in the Covid Era,” where she was guest speaker.
Adeboye, who spoke to a community of mostly business owners across the country during a virtual conference in Lagos, suggested that they should go into 2021 with the mindset that Covid-19 may be here with us, as they continue to stay safe in the course of their daily activities.
While she expressed the hope that the global economy would soon overcome the pandemic and its effects on businesses, she noted that the pandemic has really impacted negatively on economies, because it took many people and organizations, unaware.
She stressed the need for businesses to be creative and come up with innovative strategies to retain consumers and enjoy their loyalty, adding that this cannot be overemphasized.
She pointed out that businesses should know the spending pattern of their consumers because of changes in the needs of consumers caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. She noted that for many people, well-being has become a big deal whether in services or products.
“My advice is that you know your consumers and know them very well,” Adeboye counselled. “The consumer last year, is not thesame consumer today, and this is forcing us to rethink how to service consumers. People that were buying in cartons last year, are now buying in units.”
She said the experience from the pandemic has shown that e-commerce is going to be big in Nigeria, although it is still slow because 70 percent of businesses, especially, in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) space, are carried out in the open market.
“It will take a while, but it will change, because traditional trade will not just vanish,” Adeboye submitted. “But as we grow, more e-commerce trade will take shape.”
