Chibuzo Ihegboro
In 2003 when the Nigerian market was first treated to the Beloxxi Biscuits flavour, it was announced in homes, offices, schools etc with free packs of a brand new product that arrived in UPS corporate envelopes.
Many called it the biscuit manna as most of the receivers didn’t know the source, but as they tasted the new product, they were encouraged to send numbers, addresses and contacts of people they know who in turn got the same packs later.
Beloxxi created a spiral of direct marketing and branding from the producer to the consumer and like magic it worked wonders in getting the product a niche market.
The attachment was to go to the shop “and look for the product I got free and buy.”
Because they all testified that the quality was great, the new product picked up from that good foundation and turned a brand overnight with its own sure market.
After the cream crackers rave for years, the Beloxxi Biscuits company added six more variants or flavours to the product range, after the last factory expansion. These new flavours belong to a class they call heavy or sweet biscuits.
This time, the company went back to its old tradition that worked and has in the past six weeks caused a stir in schools across six states and the Federal Capital Territory.
It’s been a rain of free biscuits that have made over 550,000 students and teachers happy and nourished their bodies too.
Everywhere the product arrived, school children went topsy-turvy with excitement and welcomed the free biscuit packs with so much joy.
As we spoke to the President/CEO of Beloxxi, Obi Ezeude, he said “it is the old Beloxxi wonder marketing that worked years ago and it is still working. We knew it must work when we started because we have proven it over time as the most efficacious marketing means.
We have got loads of messages, in fact over 200 of them from schools managers, teachers, friends and even the school children to our lines commending the company for the free biscuits. The story has been the same wherever they were distributed and we expect to do more. Some of the adults text to assure us that after the free packs, they have switched to the brand for their children and the children also persuade their parents to buy them “that biscuits I got free in school.”
In this first batch, we have reached Oyo, Kwara, Enugu, Anambra, Lagos, Ogun and the FCT. By the next batch, we extend to more states and schools until we cover the entire nation because our products are everywhere in Nigeria.
“By the time we are done with the project which has gone about 25% of the target, we would have overran the entire biscuits market with the consciousness of our fine product.
“Most of all, we don’t just distribute them to make people buy them, we make it the best quality anybody can. And our assurance to them is that as they go to the market subsequently to buy the flavours we send them free, the quality will be just the same. Those that have eaten our cream crackers from the beginning of the product in 2003 know that we have not lowered our standard in quality.
“These are products we make for our own people and we are traceable and cant send something of suspect quality to our own people. The products have been sent to the towns and villages of most the marketers, including my own place. So, beyond popularising the product, we use it as corporate responsibility to enrich the nutrition of Nigerian school children.”
