Vaseline, Oja Oyingbo and the Nigerian market, by Simbo Olorunfemi

Na wa! I only just discovered that this ‘Vaseline’ Petroleum Jelly I bought weeks back is not actually Vaseline but Khushi Jelly.

Na wa! No, this is not a case of buyer’s remorse or a feeling that I had been short-changed. Contrary to that, it’s a feeling of satisfaction with the product that I had never been prompted to take a second look at the product.

Well, a case might be made for ‘passing-off’, which obviously triggered my picking it off the shelf without taking a second look.

Of course, we are familiar with the ‘creative manipulation’ often deployed to pass off ‘imitations’ as ‘originals’.

Back in the day, people fell into the trap of buying such knock-offs erroneously assumed as some of the popular brands.

They tweaked with brand names by replacing one letter of the word with another close one. I remember schoolmates only discovering in the hostel that they had bought the imitation and not the original.

Recently, I saw on the shelf in a store an ‘Oxfdrd’ mathematical set being passed off as ‘Oxford’ mathematical set, which was the market leader at a time, and renowned for quality and durability. As you can guess, Oxfdrd is no close at all to Oxford in terms of quality.

Well, back to my ‘Vaseline’, it reminds me of what I have been noticing in the market for some time – a retreat or disappearance by the big brands and a swift takeover of the gap by new, relatively unknown ‘ Nigerian’ and ‘foreign’ brands.

In the detergent powder space, gone are the days of dominance by Omo and Elephant, the brands I see these days are Viva (Nigeria) , Good Mama (Indonesia) and the likes. Same with many other products.

The point is, as some are making their exit, so also are others making their entry into the market. Some local companies and foreign entities are taking advantage of the vacuum created by the exit of some known names by either opening up new factories or expanding existing ones

Looks like the Nigerian market is like Oja Oyingbo, which to put it in the Nigerian parlance, no really send. As one door shuts, another opens.

Unilever might have closed, even if their Vaseline products are still in the market, but Khushi has stepped into the space, pushing its jelly into the market from Kano.

The product is not bad, truth be told.