There is a sentence Nigerian marketers should probably print and put in every strategy room.
“When a consumer wakes up, they are not thinking about your brand. They are thinking about a job to be done.”
Seyi Adeoye, CEO of Pierrine Consulting, made the point at the inaugural New Pour Summit 2026 while speaking to beverage-industry executives in Nairobi.
It sounds obvious. Most useful marketing ideas do after somebody says them clearly.
But a surprising amount of marketing still works in the opposite direction. A company begins with itself: we need to grow Brand X, launch Product Y, get more awareness. Then the customer is brought into the room after the objective has already been decided.
Adeoye’s argument flips the sequence. Start with the life the customer is already living.
Nobody Wakes Up Wanting to Help Your Brand Hit Target
A consumer wakes up thirsty, tired, late for work, trying to impress somebody, looking for something cold with lunch or trying to avoid sugar.
The brand enters somewhere inside those situations. That is the job.
The marketer’s mistake is assuming category labels describe competition well enough. A soft drink does not only compete with another soft drink. At lunch it may compete with water. At breakfast it may compete with tea or coffee. The occasion redraws the category.
This Is Why Consumer Research Gets Wasted
Companies often conduct research after they already know what they want the answer to be. The product is built. The launch date is fixed. The budget is approved. Then research is asked to explain how to persuade consumers.
That is not consumer-led strategy. That is confirmation with a questionnaire.
“Affordable” Is Not a Consumer Insight
Almost every category is dealing with pressure on household budgets. Brands respond with smaller packs, discounts and more-for-less claims.
Sometimes that is exactly what the consumer needs. But “Nigerians want affordable products” is not much of an insight.
The useful question is what affordability allows the consumer to continue doing: maintain a routine, give children a treat, participate in an occasion or keep a little indulgence inside a difficult month.
The Brand Has to Earn Its Way Into the Occasion
Marketers love saying consumers are loyal. Often, consumers are loyal to outcomes.
If another product solves the same job better, cheaper or more conveniently, the brand relationship can disappear quickly.
This is why positioning must answer more than “what are we?” It needs to answer: When should somebody choose us?
TL;DR
Seyi Adeoye’s New Pour Summit argument is simple: consumers begin with needs and occasions, not brands.
Do not begin with “How do we make people choose our brand?” Begin with “What is the person trying to accomplish, and why should our brand have a role?”
The consumer is not thinking about your marketing target. They are thinking about their life. Your brand has to earn its way into it.
SoroSoke.
Source: drinkabl.media, New Pour Summit 2026 coverage.