Where Are The Great Nigerian Brands?

I was reviewing my lecture notes and thought to write this piece on the making of great brands. Besides making memorable impressions on consumers, branding is important because it enables your audience know what to expect from you both now and into the future. That is why the importance of branding in marketing cannot be over emphasized. 

There are many tactics used to develop a brand, ranging from advertising, customer service, promotional merchandise, reputation, to experiential and alternative marketing strategies. However, it is important how these strategies are deployed as the extent to which a brand is able to reach and connect with her audience plays a very important role in building the brand. 

So, how do we transcend from being a regular (classic) brand to modern (great) brand? In recent times, there have been trends that tend to make the transition a little more challenging e.g the growth of own label or private brands. We have also seen a general decline in brand loyalty due to products becoming virtually vague (indistinguishable). Customers’ price awareness and growth of sales promotions are trends that continued to challenge the ability to create great brands. Products just seem to be commoditized. Consumers just focus on what is in it for them on a minute by minute, day to day basis, no loyalty at all.

As marketers, how can we solve this problem?

We know that a brand needs to effectively communicate its value to her audience, plainly stating its functional benefits. However, if you stop here, it only makes you just a classic brand. To attain the status of a modern brand, you must connect with your audience at an emotional level. Modern brands are built through strategy, creativity and agility. This is where to be – a modern brand is what is commonly referred to as a Great brand.

It takes time to build a great brand. “I walked through a hardware store last night and I came across 50 brands I didn’t know existed,” says Scott Bedbury. “They may be great products, but they’re not great brands.”

So what is a great brand? It’s not always the biggest, the most profitable or the most well-known even though one could argue that you would need to hit those three mountaintops to be considered ‘great’.

Though size and profitability matter, great brands always have these four things in common. They are:

1.    Authentic. They are true to themselves, do not try to ‘pretend’ and can bear close examination.

2.    Distinctive. They are originators not imitators, they do not look, feel or behave like everyone else and they have unique elements

3.    Compelling. They are not just ‘interesting’, they are ‘compelling’. They tell stories which engage and make us ‘feel’ something

4.     Finally, they are excellent. Great brands provide products or services of real excellence. You can’t claim great brand status without the bedrock of excellence

Great or modern brands evolve over a period of time. Building such brands call for deliberate efforts all through the evolution. We must invest in understanding how great and modern brands evolve. Great brands are more than the logo or advertising campaigns your audiences see you run. They create emotional connections with the audience. They have great ideas that are differentiated and ownable. They also have rational and emotional components, are consistent yet flexible and always strive to create unique experiences.

“Brands are no longer products or services, but the communities of people that surround those products and services” - Patrick Hanlon. Today’s consumers or audiences actually prefer experiences over the products themselves.

Could I ask you to share your thoughts on any Nigerian brand you consider to be a 'great brand' and let’s keep the discussion going. My students and I are on a journey to evolve an African / Nigerian brand development and communication model.