A mother calls her child and says, “go and buy Maggi, the type we use o, don’t buy that useless one that made us purge the last time”, the child hurriedly ran straight to the malam down the street, and goes “aboki, give me Maggi knorr”, the malam too, without thinking twice, gives the child Knorr seasoning cube, the child then heads back home, hands the Knorr seasoning cube to her mother, then you finally expect the mother to be furious that the girl brought home Knorr, instead of Maggi, but instead she goes, good girl.
Moral of the story, Maggi has given itself a brand that has remained unbeaten.
Wait, a better example, 2017, Coca-Cola introduced 35cl pet bottle, and a lot of people said, they’ll lose customers to Pepsi-cola that was when Pepsi decided to make theirs 50cl. Pet bottle 100naira, Coca-Cola instead of trying to compete, its 50cl was at 150naira and 35cl at 100naira.
You would have thought they made the worst mistake but no, they are still leading in the market.
You should be getting my point now ????.
First and foremost, a unique brand can have a huge impact on your business by giving you a competitive advantage over your rivals and helping you acquire and retain customers at a much lower cost
In a world where new businesses (and therefore, new competitors) are springing up every day, both in the e-commerce world and retail stores, an established brand can be an invaluable asset in bringing customers back time after time and generating profit. Regardless of whether you’re investing time and effort into crafting a compelling brand or paying no attention to it whatsoever, your business still has a brand, just that, it might not be what you wanted, but it’s a brand, and it’s either good or bad.
By carefully building your brand through stories, relationships, marketing messages and visuals, you have the opportunity of shaping your customers’ expectations for your business and creating a unique bond that goes beyond the buying-selling relationship, it goes into their imaginations that nobody does what you do like you do what you do (a lot of you do, lol).
Branding is not an easy process, you need to carefully plan and have a unique approach. Normally, you should have your branding strategy ready before you launch your business or company to avoid working backwards to try and get your business aligned with customer expectation.
In branding, you need to
- Understand your customers: You have to know what they want; you need to know how they love to be attended to, I’m not saying read their minds, and I’m saying understand what they want. That way, they’ll know you are the right person for the job
- Refine customer experience : Just so you know clients that had a very good experience with your services will definitely come back, and not just come back, they tell someone anytime or every time they have the chance to, and if it’s a bad experience, they’ll not spare you too.
- A little giveaway won’t kill: yea, they’ve been good, a little gift or souvenirs to say thank you, won’t kill. Just so you know, someone that bought a cow, will appreciate if the leg of a goat is added as a thank you, in fact. So, don’t say they anything is too small, I’m not saying give matchbox o
- A nice logo, website and even packaging
Finally…
Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers.
Effective branding can result in higher sales of not only one product, but of other products associated with that brand
You have the power to build a good brand, what are you waiting for?
Compiled by Okikijesu Dolapo
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