As new technologies evolve, businesses, individuals and governments are having opportunity of solving varied problems and providing needs. The new technologies are also increasing competition. Every business wants to be at the top and well positioned in front of the digital audience, who make decisions based on what they read, listened to and watched on different digital enabled platforms.
In this piece, our analyst examines Search Interest Competition, an emerging competition in the digital space being driven by Search Engine product of Google, Bing, Yahoo and other technology companies in the world.
The focus is on understanding how the competition is or not favouring selected cement brands in Nigeria in relation to their specific performance on the Nigerian Stock Exchange market. To the best of knowledge, this is the first piece in Nigeria that examines workability of Search Interest Competition. Our analyst studied the performance of Dangote, BUA and Elephant on Google Trends, a tool that normalised public search behaviour on the Internet through Google Search Engine. The performance of the brands on the Nigerian Stock Exchange between June 24 and July 2, 2021 was also factored into the analysis.
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In our analysis, we discovered that the volume of the Nigerian population interest in Dangote reduced its trade volume by 1%. It was minus 24.2% for the BUA cement. With 18.3%, Elephant performed better. This indicates that one unit of the population interest in the brand translated to over 18 units increase in its trade volume. We found a negative connection [-21%] of the population interest in Dangote cement with BUA cement, signifying that the more the population had interest in Dangote cement the less they had interest in BUA cement. With this insight, it could be said that the population prioritises Dangote brand more than the BUA brand. This is expected to manifest in the trade volume of Dangote brand during the period.
However, analysis suggests that Elephant brand competed favourably with the Dangote cement during the period as the connection analysis shows a 7.8% linkage, which indicates that the more the population had interest in Dangote, the more they had interest in Elephant cement. With this result, it is expected that two brands would have a significant increase in their trade volume during the period. Our analysis further indicates that the interest the population had in BUA cement accounted for 5.9% of its trade volume between June 24 and July 7, 2021. Elephant cement recorded 3.3%, while Dangote had less than 3%.
Some Premises That Support the Brands’ Performance in the Competition
While our analyst believes that there are other factors which could contribute to the performance of the brands, it is instructive to note that the brands made some strategic moves that could be linked with the outcomes of our analysis. For instance, Dangote cement successfully issued N50 billion bonds for expansion projects and others during the period of our analysis. It also partners with NCF on ecosystem restoration.
BUA cement debunked the rumour that it planned to increase price. “We are now aware that Dangote Cement has increased the price of its Cement (ex-factory) by N260 effective Monday, June 14, 2021. BUA is not a part of this increase and will not seek to increase the price of its cement (ex-factory) in the foreseeable future.
BUA therefore restates its earlier position communicated on April 24, 2021, that it will not join in any increase in the prices of Cement for the foreseeable future.” Divestment of over N1 billion from the BUA Cement Plc and donation of N230m infrastructure to relocated communities in Sokoto could also be potential factors.
