The top 10% of earners are responsible for 50% of consumer spending. Targeting peasants is a loser’s game - generally.
A guy with a small high end club in Kilimani/Westlands usually outperforms another guy selling keg to many peasants in Githurai. Wenye BND now have like 4 high end clubs and they are is still growing (the manhattan, ciel, BND Kiambu Rd, and BND Kileleshwa). The same goes for restaurants. Big Square/Java/Artcaffe etc have scaled by targeting the top 10% of earners, not the mass market.
Most businesses target the bottom 90%. The competition there is cut-throat. Meanwhile, brands like LC Waikiki, CJ’s etc target the top 10% and mint money hand over fist. Heck, even mom and pop businesses in the upper middle class areas make a killing. Kuna carwash mimi huenda pale Kileleshwa at Willow Garden where they charge Ksh 800 to do exactly the same thing I get charged Ksh 250 for in the estates. Note that the carwash is always busy because almost everyone there has a vehicle. So they are charging a premium and the demand is still very high. Did I mention that you won’t have a proper meal in any of those restaurants without 1.5k minimum? Most Kenyans can’t afford to shell 1.5k for lunch regularly so they understand their market very well. Meanwhile mtu wa kibanda targeting 300 peasants with 100 per plate ataishi hapo na madeni za watu wa mjengo.
Obviously mtu huanza chini. But experience has shown me that the smart move is almost always to scale towards the higher end market (top 10%'ers) not the general public. Hata watu wa wines and spirits can confess that ukitaka kuuza mizinga (especially deliveries) just target the upper middle class.
hapo kwa experience has shown you…what experience? umesoma sana but you lack practical life experience. you’re always talking about big figures, hadi tumechoka na wewe
I’m not an office drone like you. I am a shareholder in businesses and I sit on their boards so I get the information firsthand. Not everyone speaks out of their asses like you do.
Nike earned $5.7 billion in net profit in 2024. Dior earned $14 billion in net profit in the same year!! Nike targets the mass market. Dior targets the upper middle class and elite.
In the same year, Adidas reported a net profit of $1.39 billion compared to $5 billion reported by Hermes. Do you see the trend there? Selling more items doesn’t always mean you earn bigger profits.
I will say this though. There are some exceptions e.g FMCG products and other basic goods where more customers equals more consumption and there is very limited differentiation between the lower market segment and the upper market segment. For example, it doesn’t matter how rich you are, you can only drive one car at a time. In that situation, targeting the mass market with petrol stations and supermarkets is the smart move.
In our local town (town is an exaggeration) there are several supermarkets, because thee plan for the town wasn’t done properly, there are issues with parking. Only one supermarket, a bit out of the way, has parking. All other supermarkets ukienda, lazima Kuna foleni, but mostly it’s one or two items. Ile iko na parking there is hardly a queue but almost everyone has a trolley. They double the sales of those in town supermarkets yet the prices are almost the same
Exactly. That one supermarket is convenient for car owners (parking), but inconvenient for people without cars (a bit out of the way). Whoever owns that supermarket has no competition. All the remaining supermarkets in your town are competing for 50% of the spending from the bottom 90% without cars.
These are rookie figures compared to what’s spent in the security sector. The trick is in getting some kind of foot in the door, and gaining the interest of a basic politician.
There’s actually a minimum requirement for number of available car parks per so and so customers. This can be seen in a surprisingly well-planned Nakuru city on the upper western sides, but the usual fare on the Eastern sides. Small wonder the governor of this county has been AFK for 2 years now.. and unreliable water, despite being within viewing distance of the 1 foot deep lake.
