Mon, 19 Jun 2017 09:38:17 +0000
By Sycorax T. Ndhlovu
| One day, when I was standing near market Tower in Lusaka’s Cha Cha Cha Road, like an old and experienced dog, I smelt a certain fragrant scent as I faced the east. I wondered which restaurant was activating my salivation with such a fragrant smell. |
Knowing that I was near Cairo Road where some powerful restaurants might exist; and were at a peak of operation as it was around lunch hour, I followed where the nice smell was coming from. Before I reached Cairo Road, I saw a reasonable many relatively young, middle-aged and elderly men and women dressed in various attires; among which were executive dressing coming out and going in a certain low standard looking structure.
As a writer; and not as a hungry person, my five senses were switched on; especially after smelling something good. I wanted to know where such males and females were entering and coming out from; and why.
Approaching where such people were entering and coming out, I saw some young men drinking some ‘hard stuff’ in a certain small compartment of the same place. Before entering the highly populated restaurant, I checked in my brown wallet to see if there was some money which I could use as a cover story while trying to learn what was happening in that place.
Luckily, I discovered that I had few K5 notes which I could use to buy a basic and cheap menu while observing what was really happening there.
‘How much is a plate of food here?’ I asked. ‘We have nshima and chicken, one piece is K15; two pieces is K25 and nshima and fish is K35;’ the lady said in Lusaka’s Chinyanja while glaring at me with relatively white inviting eyes and a nice smile on her think lips.
I quickly concluded that she was just practising effective customer service which is common in strategic marketing management; especially in a competitive business environment. Ignoring her effective customer service with that inviting smile and eyes, I just fished out K15 from my wallet; and gave this nice looking and smiling lady to serve me with one of such a dish.
As this lady was serving me, a female customer lady came to the serving area. Surprisingly, another stout, light in complexion lady of similar height swiftly came around with yet another seemingly refreshing and inviting smile to attend to this new customer.
Although I found a good number of people from different socio-cultural and professional backgrounds eating that restaurant; and many were finishing and going out, the same eating place appeared to be always full with different male and female customers from different socio-economic backgrounds.
The food was tasty with relatively good quantities and sizes of chicken, beef and fish pieces. The nshima and fish going at K35 was big enough that in other restaurants, the same menu would cost about K45 or so.
A similar observation was the case near Lusaka’s downtown. At this place, the restaurant was relatively small. It was also basic in appearance. But it attracts a lot of customers. At this downtown restaurant, the food is also tasty with a nice scent. The chicken meat was appetizingly brown dotted with fresh green vegetables. The price is just K10. The quantities of both nshima and relish were relatively so big that, unless ni vakubantu, one cannot ask for bemvula after buying a menu.
I wondered how such restaurants could attract such a constant huge number of customers than most of the powerful eating places in Lusaka.
Focus was on Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) [2005:515(Colin Gilligan and Richard M S Wilson eds] where it is stated that, second to product, price is in many ways one of the most visible; and for many organisations, it is the most controllable and flexible element of the marketing mix.
But CIM also stated that it is generally acknowledged that pricing decisions are among possibly the most difficult marketing managers are required to make(ibid).
Could this be because the workers of such a restaurant prepare fragrant and tasty foods while serving customers with nice smiles; or that the prices in such eating places were affordable to many people compared to the quantity, quality and price of the same food elsewhere? For those with some superstition, one could also ask: ‘Could it be that the owners of such restaurants are ‘mashonongo’ who attract a lot of customers through charms of some kind?’
Fed up with fallacies, and concentrating on what I learn from good reading culture, I discovered that the owners of such eating places might not necessarily be mashonongo per se; but that they use effective strategic marketing management skills even if they might have no academic degrees or professional qualifications.
What can be the magic for attracting many customer at a time? Analytically, it appears it is the quality of food and the affordable prices such eating places charge their customers.
Therefore, while you and I spend a lot of time studying business management and strategic marketing related programmes in or with some local and foreign universities, some female and some male Zambians learn and implement effective strategic marketing without spending huge sums of money and time in or with some training institutions. Such people seem to learn more by using their five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling/touching with some levels of imaginations and some creativity; then they beat stiff competition; and grab a huge market share from their competitors!
For instance, you and I might have learnt about Boston Consulting Group(BCG)’s survival or growth strategies of stars, cash cows, question marks and the dogs. One might have also learnt about Igor Ansoff’s strategic marketing from any good lesson or textbook on strategic marketing management.
Although some people have benefited highly from such lessons or textbook knowledge earned after many years of study, some people practice such business strategies effectively and profitably without spending a long time in a university at a relatively high cost.
This is not to say that training at a higher level in strategic business management or in strategic marketing management is useless; but saying while some people are effective and efficient in strategic marketing management after obtaining academic or professional qualifications in such fields; there are some who are equally effective and efficient and; therefore earning relatively good profits without acquiring such high formal qualifications!
The issue in this article is not why most highly formally educated people seem not to be effective in strategic business management compared to some who are lowly formally educated; but run businesses sustainably and profitably; but the issue is how is it that some businesses are able to sell the same quality and size or design of products at a relatively cheap price than others in the same locality?
And some male and female Zambians go to buy even from business outlets where prices are relatively higher than in relatively cheap sources of supplies. Even the same restaurants where some case studies have been drawn from, some are relatively too costly for majority Zambians while some are affordable to majority existing and potential customers.
Location and rental charges seem to contribute a lot to pricing of some products and some services. Off course, some products and some services in certain outlets are also deliberately priced highly to attract those who want to show their high status in society. Even if some people might know where relatively cheap products are found, such people might deliberately go to high class and costly business outlets to display their class in that society. It is perceived that some business places are for low class and poor people. And some businesses mistakenly or deliberately price their goods and services according to such customer perception and behaviour.
But why is it that some businesses sell the same size and same quality of products at a higher price than their competitors when it is argued that competition almost in every business is stiff where sales per day are relatively low?
One might conclude that it is either some business outlets want to unnecessarily maximize their profits, are taking advantage of most people’s ignorance of where to find relatively cheap and high quality products or that sources of supply of some businesses selling products at relatively higher prices than competitors are equally more expensive than where competitors source from.
Such a situation brings the importance of business intelligence in strategic marketing management while customers should gather enough information before buying something.
One senior manager of one of the supermarkets in Lusaka told this writer that his organisation uses strategic public relations (PR) with its suppliers and workers to ensure that prices of goods in such an outlet remain relatively constant and affordable to existing and potential customers despite some economic fluctuations; especially those related to inflation and devaluation of the Kwacha against internationally convertible currencies. This reveals that effective strategic marketing management includes effective and efficient management of the whole supply chain.
Probably those small restaurants and other small and medium scale enterprises(SMEs) in Lusaka and elsewhere are also managing their supply chain effectively and efficiently using strategic PR; even if such business owners have no academic degrees or low professional qualifications.
The author is a lecturer in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is also a trainer in Public Relations (PR) and in Local Governance. He is a reader in Business and marketing management.
For ideas and comments, contact:
Cell: 0977/0967 450151
E-mail: sycoraxtndhlovu@yahoo.co.uk
