GOYA OLIVE OIL INTERVIEW
Recently the Marketing Manager of Ekulo Group of companies,
Mr. Emeka Oramadike spoke to some selected media houses on Goya Extra
Virgin Olive Oil, one of the premium brands of the company.
Goya extra Virgin Olive Oil is a brand that
comes from Spain.
The extra virgin there shows that it is the purest of the pure, gotten from the
first press of the oil, devoid of any additives; it is the best you can get. The
purity of the oil is what attracts most people who know it, especially in the
religious circle, to use it for anointing. It is just a way of expressing the
level of purity in the oil. It is not by accident. So it is the purest of the
pure and from the first press of the olive oil. Olive oil is of Mediterranean
origin. It is from Europe, around Spain,
Italy, Greece, within
that region, but it is used all over the world. It is an ancient oil with a
very long History of being used for a lot of things, but it is always attached
to purity-either for crowning of kings or for anointing and a whole lot of others.
QUESTION: Now that we are at it, can you break down for us the
nutritional benefits inherent in using Goya Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, beyond the
spiritual?
ORAMADIKE: One can look at the olive oil as the oil of life,
which is how I look at it, I take Olive oil everyday. It is an anti-oxidant, it
helps your heart, it helps to cleanse the blood vessels to make sure that you
do not have heart attacks. It is an unsaturated fat and it is very low in
cholesterol. It also lowers the level of the Lipoproteins. Thus it helps the
blood flow and also lowers the sugar level and the blood pressure. Palm oil and
other oils are very high in cholesterol. But this is oil that is very low in
cholesterol, an anti-oxidant without any side effects. So it is highly
recommended for people who are conscious of their health. If you look at
records of life expectancy, according to the United Nations, out of about 200
countries in the world, Nigeria
is about one hundred and eighty-something in the ranking. And our life
expectancy is about 51 years in the total. Our men are expected to live 49
years while women are expected to live 51 years. When you look at other
countries, Japan is about
82, Canada is 80, Germany is 79, Belgium
79, even some African countries are far up there before Nigeria. So you
see that people are not taking care o their health here, so we have to do
something.
This is not a new idea, but it is like nobody knows. So that is why
we are publicizing it, it is not only for religion, although it is quite
important for religion, like in my house, we call it oil of life, my children
know it as oil of God, but the health benefits are enormous. For instance,
daily intake of Olive oil helps soften your stool. Like those having something
like pile, it helps them, when your stool is smooth; the pile is not pushed
out. It also helps to smoothen and protect your skin from sun burn and the
exposure because it has Vitamin-E. It is just heavily loaded. We do not want to
go too academic in this thing but we just want to pass the message to our
people that this is just good oil for them, especially for those of them that
are conscious of their health. A lot of people are dying of heart attack. But
if you use Olive oil, you have a relief, you are sure of what you are taking.
Question: Is there a difference between Goya Olive oil and other
olive oils and prior to this time, people knew Goya Olive oil as oil for
spiritual purposes, how do you intend to communicate this to people, to change
the perception of consumers about Olive Oil?
ORAMADIKE: The distinguishing feature of Goya Olive oil is that
it is extra-virgin. Extra-Virgin is the first press, and it is the purest you
can get. It is made through the mechanical way like crushing it and extracting
the oil. Not using any form of chemical extract, or mixing it with anything.
And the seeds are picked specially, you know when you have a heap of Olive Oil
seeds, some can be wounded some could be spoilt and so many things. The
extra-virgin oil, is made from the selected extra fine ones. So it is the
virgin unadulterated.
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As for the communication, we saw
that it is getting to the point that this oil is meant for food that is why we
have to involve the media. And this is just the beginning, we are going to have
other ways, we are going to go to the wireless and we are going to go to the wireless.
We want people to know, we want people to benefit. What is in other countries
will not be strange to us. It is good that people know it as the oil of God,
but it is also good that people know that there are a lot of health advantages
that we can derive from the consumption of the Goya extra virgin olive oil.
Question: Goya oil was known as a spiritual sacred product, now
you want to reduce it to an oil for cooking, is it not going to affect sales
and perception of the oil? Also the bottles are too small and expensive, don’t
you think it will be too expensive as cooking oil for poor people to afford?
ORAMADIKE: let us take the issue of perception first, the
perception of Goya Olive oil as a holy oil is only a way people try to explain
their appreciation of the purity of the oil. But we want people to know that
apart from religious reasons, in advanced world, people use olive oil for
cooking. It is meant for healthy living.
Coming to the issue of costs, we
have tried as much as possible over the years to keep the costs at a level
people can afford. And you know its like when you say that education is
expensive, you must remember that illiteracy is more dangerous. This is
something that will keep you alive, If you now know that this is something that
will safeguard the life of yourself and your family, and the cost is not up to
what we use to make our hair that we wash of after a week, it then makes sense
for you not to ignore it. Also the idea of making it available in many sizes is
so that it can be affordable to as many people as possible. So that those who
can buy the three litres can buy, those who can buy the two litres can buy,
those who can buy the 500ML, 300ML, etc can buy. So that is how we try to
accommodate everybody, to make sure that you can go and buy a bottle of Goya
Olive oil that is intact, not going to buy from somebody that will mix some
strange thing and give you to go and use as olive oil. What is good may not
always be very cheap. If we look at the cost of medical treatment and the cost
of this olive oil, we still believe that it is not so much for one to use
Question: Who is the target market?
ORAMADIKE: The target market is everybody; look at what we are
saying about life expectancy. Our life is very important but people take it for
granted and that is as a result of ignorance. It’s just like when people choose
to buy clothes rather than send their children to school. So we want people to
redirect their priorities. So my dear, it is not too expensive if you have to
spend 200 naira to buy a bottle of oil that will preserve your life, rather
than going to overseas for medical treatment, infact most people cannot even
afford to go to overseas, if we do not look it this way, we will not realize
that we are in an alarming situation.
Question: what are the
unique selling points that Goya Olive oil has over other coking oils when it is
used for cooking and what unique qualities does it confer on your cooking when
its is used for cooking?
ORAMADIKE: the major selling point that Goya oil has is that it
is healthy oil for cooking. You are not getting too much cholesterol like you
have in palm oil and all other kinds of oil vegetable oil, eg groundnut oil,
cottonseed oil and the rest of the oils. You are sure that what you are eating
is healthy. When it is Olive Oil, it is healthy, that is what we are telling
people, that you are having oil that will save and prolong your life, oil that
will reduce your chance of having heart attack, something that will reduce
cholesterol, something that will keep your blood level low. That is the major
thing we are telling people that is the oil of God that this is the oil of
life. That is the major selling point.
The second thing is that the oil is
very tasty, my wife uses it, when you use it to cook, the aroma is beautiful.
If you have not used it, you will not understand what we are talking about, try
it in your house, you will see what I am talking about.
Question: Goya used to be known as a spiritual oil, now that
you are bringing it down to a cooking oil, what measures are you putting in
place to ensure that this oil is not going to be faked?
ORAMADIKE: The major
questions are, do we have fakes and what are we doing about it? We are aware
that there are fakes, it is a common phenomenon in our part of the world,
everything that is good comes in both original and fake. Now what are we doing?
This very meeting is part of the campaign, to tell people, look, be careful
about what you are buying. When you go to the market they will ask you, do you
want number one or number two? Goya Olive oil is one, when they ask you do you
want number two, what they are selling is fake, and anyone they tell you is
number two is the fake one. Most of the times, they are in plastic bottles,
that is four cornered. They go to buy vegetable oil, and package it and call it
Goya oil. The easiest way to know is when you go to the market, ask them if
they have number two. If they say that they have, just know that it is fake.
Also Goya is in Glass bottles, it is only the three liters that is in a metal
canister. We use this opportunity to thank NAFDAC. They have helped us so much;
the police men have also helped us so much in trying to apprehend the fakers,
those who do not want Nigerians to live long. They will bottle inferior quality
vegetable oil and sell to people to drink as olive oil. It is wickedness, so we
are aware of this. So we are asking you pressmen to please come to our aid,
help us, help NAFDAC, to tell people that Goya is one. If they tell you that
there is a number two, tell them that it is a lie. Goya is in small bottles,
anyone in plastic bottle is fake.
Question: Apart from the bottle, is there any
distinguishing feature between the fake and the original?
ORAMADIKE: The distinguishing feature is in the taste and the
unfortunate thing is that by the time you taste, you have already bought. But
we are working on it, we are going to have some security seals. Right now we do
not want to confuse the public; we just want to go on with this campaign until
we have a security system that will block the prevalence of fakes. Our people
are very smart, if you announce it to the press now, before you have finished,
the fakers have gotten what you want to do. But we are concerned about the
brand and we are also concerned about the people. Our priority is not just to
make money, but also to safeguard lives. We do not want people to be drinking
vegetable oil in the name of Olive oil. People should also know that EKULO is
the sole importer and distributor of Goya in Nigeria. The original is in bottle,
but the fakes are also in bottle, but the fact is that the fakers know
themselves. Now they are becoming afraid because we are using NAFDAC and the
police and some market organizations to chase them and all the original ones
have NAFDAC number.
Question: The movement from the pulpit to the kitchen is going
to be a challenging one because of people’s perceptions of this oil as being
meant for spiritual purposes, are you organizing experiential strategies to
enable people connect with this change faster?
ORAMADIKE: we are organizing campaign and jingles. But then you
know that habit issues are not issues that you enforce, they are what people
adapt to over time. We are also having so many interviews in the print media,
we are disseminating information in church bulletins, and we are trying to
educate people on the dual purpose of Goya as being good for both spiritual and
nutritional purposes. We also educate people on the health benefits of cooking
with Olive oil, and with time, we will also get into cooking and we try some
other forms of experimentation, but for now, we want to tell the story, we want
to inform the people, through print, through radio, through television, and
through the outdoor, we are just coming up gradually but we believe that over
time, people are conscious of their life, that is why people go to India, go to
America, London and so on, for their health. So when they know that so when
they know that it is better to cook with this oil and you are healthy, it will
help us to change our attitude.
Question: moving Goya
from the pulpit to the kitchen is going to create demands as a result of
increased consumption, what measures are you putting in place to ensure
availability?
ORAMADIKE: we assure health and life loving Nigerians that Goya
extra virgin Olive oil will be available. It is our business to make sure and
we will make all the necessary provisions to make sure that it is available and
also that it is within the reach of every Nigerian, and that that will not in
any way push up price. We assure people that it is going to be available and
that it will not push up price. We have the logistics that can do it. We assure
our customers that it will not be scarce.
Question: which partnerships are you putting in place, because
whether you like it or not, this product as a consumable, is going to be meant
for the A-B class, before it transcends. These people have their own hangouts,
places where they go to eat and unwind. Which partnerships are you forming with
some big hotels that will directly leverage on their size and prominence to
sell this product?
ORAMADIKE: we have sent letters, infact we have a marketing
department that is handling that. It is not only hotels; we also make sure that
it is in chain supermarkets in the country, not only the oil, the olive seed
also you can find them in big shops. So we do not think that that is going to
pose a problem because we are already working on that. They serve it in most
hotels, it is a delicacy that if you request for Olive oil, they will use it to
prepare some dishes for you. We are there already, it is not a problem, we
appreciate the reactions of Nigerians.
CONTACT: Anne Welsh |
Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation, Chairperson, Tel: +44(0)207-786-6724, Mob:
+44(0)778-964-2092, Email: chair@olusegunobasanjofoundation.org ; For
further information, plus photo and video content: Toby Burnham | Made
In Africa Foundation, Tel: +44(0)7990-555-290, toby@tbcomms.com
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