Paschal Oparada
The Nigerian soft drink market space is getting tighter as new brands are in hot pursuit to take on big brands including Coca Cola and Pepsi – the entrenched ones.
Bigi Cola and its sister variants, made by Rite Foods, are not just competing for Nigerians’ taste buds but are striking the right chords in the market.
Aside from being identified recently as one of the biggest polluters of the environment, Bigi, one of the soft drinks in Nigeria is jostling for a greater market share – and it is getting it.
The brand is etching itself on the consciousness of consumers in Nigeria.
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Market research shows that the brand is ranked among the three most sought after in Nigeria behind Coca Cola and Pepsi, all big and known names in the industry.
Data from Google Trends shows that Bigi is catching up behind Pepsi and Coca-Cola as it gains popularity in states like Lagos, Rivers and Kano.
In Lagos, about 26 per cent are talking about Bigi, according to data from Google Trends.
In Rivers, Bigi’s popularity is almost at par with Pepsi’s as the two brands jostle for market share in the state. Pepsi and Coca-Cola are slightly ahead of Bigi with Pepsi leading by 30 per cent, Coca-Cola 28 per cent and Bigi 24 per cent.
The company is also a big player in the sausage industry. It manufactures sausages like Bigi sausage and rite sausage.
“Our company is a major player in the sausage segment of the food industry and is gradually gaining market share in the soft drinks and energy drinks’ segment of the beverage industry in Nigeria,” the company said.
The Bigi romance
Consumers find Bigi attractive on so many levels. The PET bottle comes in big PET bottle as the name suggests and it is very affordable, despite its bigness.
“When you take it, you don’t miss the other ones that much, as the taste comes very close to the ones you are used to, ” Ayodele Oke said.
“The only thing is that some people feel that since it is neither Pepsi nor Coke, you are still missing something. Personally, I don’t feel so,” he said.
It is not unusual to see Bigi and its variants at big and high gatherings such as weddings, replacing the ubiquitous Coke and Pepsi.
The romance with Bigi fills a big void as other known brands have spiked in price.
The brand may be forcing others to rethink their marketing and pricing strategy as part of the factors attracting consumers to it is price and size.
Even though the bigger brands have tried to play on price and size like Pepsi, which added extra 20 per cent to its PET content and Coke introducing what it calls ‘Solo’, consumers believe they do not come anywhere near Bigi in size.
Oke said Bigi is not something you take to fill a void. It is something you take because it is available, affordable and serves the same purpose.
The disguise of the brand as the others is also strategic. You would almost mistake it for either Coke or Pepsi as the Bigi Cola comes in black and the label also disguised as the old players.
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Recently, it added a new variant, Bigi Chapman, which has become an instant hit in the market. Bigi Chapman has now become the rave of the moment.
The company’s aggressive marketing strategy is also responsible for its success. Some of the variants like Apple, Lemon, and Bigi Tropical, are strategically designed to counter Coke Zero and excite consumers’ taste buds.
Bigi started in Nigeria in 2008 but the company was started by Ananos-Jeri family, Ayacucho in Peru and later moved to the country’s capital, Lima.
It also has a presence in Madrid, Spain.
