Except in a monopoly, market leadership in any category of business is never attained as a birthright. Indeed, it is never an accidental occurrence or happenstance. Instead, market leadership is a strategic decision that must be planned for and excellently executed. To be sure, any brand can desire to be the market leader in its category but unless the wish is translated into sound actionable strategies, it will simply remain a wish.

Chi Limited, makers of Chivita Premium Fruit Juice, recently embarked on a campaign to reinforce its “100 per cent fruit juice content” as part of a carefully designed strategy to maintain and increase the top-of-the-mind awareness which the tagline has won for the brand among fruit juice lovers in the country. A careful examination of the campaign will reveal that it is a conscious strategic choice by Chi Limited on how it intends to compete in the market with its flagship brand - Chivita Premium Fruit Juice.

Keen industry observers of competition in the fruit juice category of the drinks market will remember that Chivita Premium Fruit Juice was introduced into the Nigerian market in 1985. But there is no doubt that the Chivita brand has attained market leadership in the fruit juice category of the fast moving goods sector following the introduction of100% juice content in 2003.

Placed in its proper context, the unassailable leadership of Chivita Premium Fruit Juice in the market today is a result of better understanding of consumer needs over competitors and opportunity meeting preparation. Obviously, managers of the Chivita Premium Fruit Juice brand are better visionaries than the competition. Managing for market leadership demands courage and boldness to tread where others are afraid to venture. Chi Limited was daring enough to chart new courses and risk operation in a developing economy like Nigeria where uncertainty is the only certainty.

Chivita’s success stands on three strategic pillars. The first pillar is the fruit juice itself. As thousands of customers have attested to, even in blind taste tests, Chivita Premium Fruit Juice is truly 100% fruit juice in content and contains no added sugar, no added preservative and no artificial colours and flavours. Chi Limited was able to deliver the product through massive investment in latest technology that helps to address the needs of a growing health-consciousness among Nigerian fruit juice consumers. Chivita Premium Fruit Juices are a rare blend of the best of Nigerian and imported fruit juices. It is a 100% Premium Fruit Juice product that has attained the status of market leader and has been awarded Super-brand status second year consecutively.

Secondly, in its quest to enrich the quality of its flagship brand with premium taste and quality, the new Chivita Premium Fruit Juice comes with a newer, more attractive pack designed to give more impact and to focus more on brand elements. Relying on consumer insights, the fruit juice is packaged in Tetra Pak elongated rectangular and easy-to-open formats that are a huge delight to consumers. The packs also enhance the taste of the fruit juice which comes in five variants of orange, pineapple, apple, orange-mango and duets of orange-pineapple. Consumers continue to choose Chivita Premium Fruit Juice because of its constituent and natural fruit taste. Chivita is thick and is readily available.

The third strategy adopted by Chi Limited was to have a functional campaign strategy to communicate the reality of the 100 per cent fruit juice content of its flagship brand to consumers. That way, the brand has been able to sustain its quality image and is more accessible to the generality of Nigerian consumers.

The company has also successfully positioned Chivita Premium Juice as a food product with local roots through its “Be Nigerian, Buy Nigerian” campaign. Because the fruit juice market is a peculiar market that is driven more by volume sales than price differentiation, availability at every point of purchase is critical to market leadership. The distribution network, built over 30 years, is able to match and even surpass that of competition in certain locations.

Only recently the brand came out tops ahead of rival brands like 5Alive in the maiden Generation Next survey awards, which is the largest brand preference study exploring the taste and preferences of at 15,000 youths accross the country.

Truly, Chivita Premium Fruit Juice’s success story is the result of a number of factors, namely: consistent high quality, good marketing support and a good understanding of the market and consumers, and of course, an enviable consumer loyalty. The story can only get more interesting in the years ahead for a brand that loves to do things in a big way.