Shift or Sink - by Godwin Erite

Theodore Levitt’s ghost moves through Lagos traffic. His 1960 lesson on Marketing Myopia, that fatal obsession with products instead of evolving needs, it’s no longer theory. It’s reality, right here, right now. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) tricycles hum past petrol stations like messengers from the future. Their drivers count savings, not losses. Meanwhile, electric bikes and tricycles slip silently into our streets, while charging hubs will pop up soon at petroleum stations smart enough to follow the trend beside them. Petrol is no longer king- it’s slowly becoming the emergency option. The brutal economics:- Middle-class families now calculate CNG conversion ROI - Companies like Glovo and Chow Deck now prefer electric bikes, no hard feelings, just business interest.-Smart stations now offer "CNG pumps" alongside PSM, and who knows, electric charging may be added soon. Levitt once warned that the railroad industry failed because it thought it was in the train business, not the transportation business. Hollywood faltered by focusing on movies instead of storytelling. And now, fuel giants must wake up: You’re not in the petrol business. You’re in the energy business. But here's the problem: human nature clings to the familiar. Like candle makers resisting the light bulb, some market leaders are stuck in functional pride while the market has already moved on. Today’s battle will no longer be won with better engines or cheaper oil. That war of functionality has already been lost. Now, the playing field has shifted. The fight is on branding, perception, and positioning. If your product isn’t the cheapest or the most innovative, it must mean something. It must stand for something, although this isn't an assurance of survival.Because customers are no longer just buying utility, they’re buying belief, emotion, and trust in a better alternative. Filling stations, automakers, and oil brands adapt or vanish. This shift isn’t coming. It’s here. We've seen this movie before: ✓ Nokia dominated hardware but lost the ecosystem war ✓ Blockbuster mastered video rentals but missed streaming ✓ Petrol stations may soon regret not becoming "energy hubs" The wind has changed. The smart are already sailing. The rest? They're waiting for a tide that’s not coming back. As for me, I’m curiously waiting for a time when the automobile will have all 3 energy sources as options.

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