If you were asked to mention ten (10) indigenous renowned brands, could you? As you comb through the first set of options that pops-up in your head, you realize they are not indigenous and as you dig deeper, your options will be majorly limited to financial institutions and fin-tech companies. This is why we should know what it takes to building a successful brand in Nigeria (Africa at large).
It is no news that majority of Nigerian companies have poor branding which is due to several factors such as the poor ease of doing business in Nigeria, lack of knowledge and technical know-how, inadequate financial resources amongst others. Despite all these challenges, Nigeria has one of the fastest-growing SME sectors in the world. According to the IFC, the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector in Nigeria has about 50 million enterprises which account for over 50% of the total SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa.
This statistic shows that; there are several promising startups across various sectors with the potential to build a successful brand in Nigeria.
What exactly is a “brand”?
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.”
– Jeff Bezos
A brand isn’t just a recognizable name and logo that distinguishes you in a crowded market as the concept of a brand far transcends logo design and a business name (it includes your visual and verbal identity). A brand is simply defined as a customer’s overall perception of a business i.e. what a customer can say, feel and see about your business.
A brand generally comprises of the following aspects: visual aspect (logo, website, marketing materials and ads), corporate culture, customer service, environment (office or store), and so many more.
P.S: If you need help creating a memorable brand, you can always connect with Damilare Oyekanmi 😉
To create a successful brand, two key things are needed:
- Having and creating the right image (Positive Impression) and
- Uniqueness (Standing out).
Positive Impression + Standing Out = Brand Success
Tips to Help You in Building a Successful Brand in Nigeria
1. Do A Soul Search!
Discover the purpose of your brand!
In the words of the great philosopher and thought leader during his quest to understand the origin of the pandemic, The Indaboski Pahose quipped: “Who You? Who Born You? Where you from? Why do you exist?”. In like manner, you must ask yourself these questions; why does your business exist? What makes your business stand out from others? What problem(s) are you trying to solve?
Answers and ideas generated from these questions will form the basis of your branding. This point is crucial to the success of any brand as studies show that 50% of consumers worldwide now buy based on a company’s brand values and impact.
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it”
– Simon Sinek
2. Do Your Targeting
“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”
– Dita Von Teese
A key aspect of building a successful brand is the brand’s target audience. You can’t be everything to everyone hence it is important you always keep in mind who you are trying to reach. Having your target audience will help determine your branding and marketing campaigns. Once you have a defined target audience, the brand’s mission and message will be to meet the audience’ needs.
Determining your target audience means getting specific about the behaviours and lifestyle of your ideal customer. For example, an educational brand rather than just targeting students could focus on Senior Secondary Students or a capacity-building brand rather than just targeting professionals could target young professionals and recent graduates. Having a defined target audience gives a brand the competitive advantage as it ensures that your brand message comes across crystal clear to the intended recipient.
Factors to consider when determining your target audience include age, gender, location, income, education level, religion/culture etc.
When branding your business, start small and remember to focus on your target audience first. With time, your brand loyalty may grow enough to expand your reach. Indomie is primarily a children brand but it is well consumed by all age groups in Nigeria. Nike’s mission says: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” yet they add a footnote which says: “If you have a body, you are an athlete”.
3. Do Organic
“Team Naturalista” in the building!!!
Building a successful brand can be likened to Keeping natural hair; it is difficult, it takes time, but the result is worthwhile.
Develop your marketing campaigns organically and avoid the “relaxers” such as the purchase of followers, likes and accounts on social media pages, giveaways, ‘follow for follow trains’, retweet groups etc.
Developing a brand’s social presence organically for ultimate reach is a pain-staking process but worth it. Having followers who are genuinely interested in the brand and its product/service is the ultimate goal. Let’s face it; it makes no sense to have over 1.3k followers and yet the engagement on your average post has less than 10% of these followers. No serious potential client would be willing to patronize such a brand.
P.S: Even as team naturalista, we still rely on some conditioning agents such as hair conditioner to help with the combing of the hair. Hair conditioners in this context can be likened to Facebook ads or SEM to reach a wider audience.
4. Don’t Maltreat Your Employees
When you build a brand that works for your small business, you and your employees are the best advocates to market your brand because no one knows your brand better than you and your employees.
To run a successful brand, you need to treat your employees right. Several SMEs in Nigeria neglect this aspect (Employer branding) in branding and usually end up with a skewed brand. Imagine a brand promising financial security to its potential customers yet its employees have no access to such a financial instrument or an HMO that can’t provide health insurance for its employees. Sadly Ironic but true.
Furthermore, top brands naturally attract top talents because of the brand’s reputation as an employer, the value it offers to its employees and the work culture in general. Top talents and professionals are keen to work with brands such as KPMG, Deloitte, Paystack etc in Nigeria due to positive employer branding.
Treat your employees right and watch them treat your brand right.
5. Do Create Content
“Whatever you do, don’t stop creating content!”
– Damilare Oyekanmi
Times have changed. I mean, Eko Hotel & Suite is now offering food service delivery while Gucci is offering safety tips for the pandemic (na person wey dey alive dey wear Gucci).
The point is, in this digital age, regardless of what you sell, you must create content in the digital space. Either as text (blogs, quotes), videos, pictures, storytelling etc. If you teach or have a particular skill, you can create courses to reach out to wider audience. Just create content.
Create content that is pertinent to your brand and that resonates with your target audience. Always let your brand personality and unique brand voice be communicated through your contents. A good example is the entry of AS Roma football club into the Nigerian market with the use of pidgin and latest Nigerian slangs in their tweets, combining the Nigerian National team jersey to the AS Roma jersey.
Tell stories in your content. Tell customers succinctly who you are. Brand stories provide an opportunity to communicate on a human level and to make a direct emotional connection with your customers. An example is a Bertha Benz story I once saw on Twitter.
6. Do Your Customers Well
CUSTOMER IS KING!!!
We know this but we fail to act accordingly. The whole concept of branding is hinged on the customer’s perception of a business. You must ensure that every customer that encounters your brand receives value for money paid.
Customer’s review, perception and referrals can make or mar your business. Brand loyalty is developed through excellent customer service and an excellent value received in exchange for money paid. Brand loyalty is what differentiates a top brand from an ordinary one. Brand loyalty is why I would readily pick up a pack of Indomie Noodle from the store without batting an eye at a cheaper rival brand of the same product.
There is a growing culture of rude, proud and uncouth Instagram vendors; to be a successful brand you need to drop such attitude.
Do your customers well and when you fail to deliver on your word, go out of your way to ensure the customer’s satisfaction.
In 2008. I was just about to setup Urbanbaze. A client order T-shirt prints (total value: N12,000). We delivered. Then they ordered block pads (total value N120,000). I was writing my final exams in Ogbomosho so I outsourced it. Things went south. Ran to Lagos to fix it. Read Thread
– Oluyomi Ojo
7. Don’t Rush
I know the time is going TikTok but don’t rush!
The truth is, a successful brand is not built overnight. Building a successful brand can be likened to nurturing a child to adulthood; it takes time! To truly build a successful brand that will stand the test of time requires a lot of time.
Branding is a continuous process and its result is not always evident right from the onset. So, keep building, keep up with the ads, keep creating contents, stay creative and relevant, keep delivering great product and service. It will all come together.
To learn more about branding, download my free eBook: Business Branding 101
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Found this helpful. Illuminating. Great.