Winning customers isn’t enough: win the market instead

Protect your market from competition

Jan 28, 2025

I have a confession to make – I used to love instant coffee. I believed that Nescafé Gold was delicious.

Please, tell no one.

In my communist childhood, we didn’t have good coffee. My mom bought green coffee beans somewhere and roasted them herself.

We had cafés, sure—but the coffee there was a murky brown sludge with a sharp smell and a sour bite.

And when the regime collapsed, and products from the West flooded the country, we saw our first cans of Nescafé. That brown powder dissolved in hot water tasted like a sip of heaven.

Instant coffee stayed popular for many years. It was cheap, easy to make, and felt like a small luxury.

But if you see someone drinking instant coffee these days, you just know – they can’t afford anything better.

The same thing that makes your products successful today could be why they fail tomorrow.

A Chinese smartphone maker dominates the African market thanks to its customer-focused strategy. Will it hold its ground against the iPhone?

Chinese Smartphones for African Users

I bet you’ve never heard of such brands as Techno Mobile, Camon, Infinix Mobility, Itel Mobile, Oraimo, etc. But millions of Africans use these brands every day.

They all belong to a single company: Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co.

Transsion, known as the “King of Africa” on the continent, overtook Samsung and Apple as the largest mobile phone maker there as far back as 2018.

Bloomberg reports:

“Transsion stunned industry observers by leaping to No. 4 on research firm IDC’s global rankings of smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2024, with 85% year-over-year growth in shipment volume. Although the company has since dropped to No. 6, it’s clear the window is now open to capitalize on its long game.”

Transsion is a very customer-centric company. Its strategy entails offering African users features that they really need, such as:

– Multiple slots for SIM cards

– Camera sensors that improve photo captures of darker skin tones

– Robust audio modules – locals like to use their phones as music speakers

But the most important feature is that these smartphones are affordable – many cost less than $150.

Smartphone shipments in Africa in 2024 were growing, Bloomberg reports. And this is both an opportunity and a challenge for Transsion.

The more smartphones Africans buy, the more attractive this market becomes for Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo, and even Apple.

“As people get wealthier, they want more technology and higher-quality phones,” an unnamed Bloomberg’s source at the company says. “Some would still rather buy a secondhand iPhone than a new Tecno.”

If all you give your customers is a low price, all they give you is their cash.

Competitive Advantage vs. Market Creation

As we’ve already discussed before, nine characteristics define any market:

Target customers
Customer needs
Customer value (value businesses create for customers) vs Customer trade-off (what customers have to accept to receive the value).
Ways to monetize customer value
Sources of captured value
Place of purchase
Time of purchase
Occasion
Experience

Transsion understands its customers on the continent very well and offers them features they like – above all, low prices. It’s the company’s strong competitive advantage.

When I was 18, Nescafé also provided us with what we needed at the time – an affordable yet ‘Western’ product. But then, many coffee drinkers decided that it was too ‘cheap.’

The time may come when Africans also decide that Techno and Camon feel too ‘cheap.’

Transsion can protect its market in Africa only if it finds a way to change other characteristics – as long as locals like these changes. It needs a new strategy.

– Build a new product, and you’ll forget about competition for years.

– Ignite a new market, and you’ll forget about competition for decades.

– Learn to ignite new markets, and you’ll forget about it forever.

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