The More Ghee, the Merrier!

With the revolution taking place, most companies have been exercising major cost reductions.

One of the controversial areas that is usually subject to internal arguments among marketing teams, are advertising budgets. Amidst crisis, one opinion would say that this is the time to advertise more than any time before. Money will be spent, but it'll create the needed awareness and brand recall levels among customers that would later translate into increased revenues.

Another opposing opinion would say, cut advertising budgets. Put all advertising prospects on hold for now. The market is instable, and no one knows what the future holds. Investing in advertising now is not gauranteed to generate any revenue, but is likely to translate into major losses. So let's just wait.

The latter scenario is exactly what happened the last couple of weeks in Egypt. TV ads reached minimim numbers, to the extent that TV series and programs were not as frequently interrupted with breaks for TV commercials as they used to prior to the revolution.

And so the companies waited. And waited. And suddenly some companies decided to come back with TV ads again. Having noticed this come back this past week, I decided to make a record of which sectors were being advertised for most. And guess who emerged as the number one product category most excessively advertised for last week...butter ghee!

Butter ghee, or "samna" as we call it in Egyptian, has been by far the star of TV ads last week. If we refer to an official record that captures the exact number of ads showed everyday, I might very well be wrong about ghee being the most advertised for category - percentage wise. But as an average viewer, to me, the number of times I switched on the TV and found a TV ad featuring an Egyptian brand of butter ghee all at different random times, were quite alot!

Now the conclusion I brought out of this very observation, is that the marketing people in each of the different ghee companies, must've thought this through very well before deciding to spend on so much advertising. Given that thought, I sort of visualized the kind of discussions that the different teams might've been having during their meeting, to invest or not invest in advertising. Again, I might be very wrong about all these thoughts that I imagined, but it sure was fun just picturing how they probably came about with such decision :)

Ok we're in a meeting room and the marketing teams start their brainstorming session by saying..."So Egyptians have their minds set on the revolution at the moment. But what comes to their minds right after that? Food! Egyptians love food! They find their joy in food, and percieve food as the cure for every single problem they may have. Feeling sad or unwell? Eat more and you'll feel better. Feeling happy? Celebrate and express your happiness through more food! What about the calories? Nah, they don't mind the calories at all! In fact the 'heavier' the food, the more fit you'll be! Calories, calories, calories...aha! Where more calories can you find than in our beloved, favorite and inseperable companion to all our food, butter ghee! Now is the time to make the Egyptian people happier than before. They're in a middle of a crisis. A revolution. They need us now than ever. And we've never fooled them, and have always been there at hard times. Now is the time to tell them that we're there in solidarity with them! Sign our new butter ghee campaign budget from our Finance team, and let's get this show started!"

Aaaw, I just love us Egyptians! :)