BRANDING

BRANDING.
When you visit a dairy or livestock farm where there are lots of cattle grazing together on the same field, you will notice that these cattle bear certain marks on them. Because of the need to identify which cattle belong to whom, we have the need for each rearer to identify his own cattle. Some mark their own with colours and others stamp something on their cows. The process of giving you own “cow” a unique identity is branding.
Branding is naming or identifying. Every proper noun can be a brand. Any word in the English language that can be used to name a person; place or thing is good enough for branding. In marketing, branding is owning a word in people’s mind. When a company or product is branded, usually when you mention a particular word, that product, company or place immediately comes into people’s mind. There are thousands of words in the English language; Infact we can coin new words. But once one word can be identified with you, what ever your field is, you are branded. For us as business people, the power of branding lies in its ability to influence purchasing behaviour.
You can be branded for many things. Criminals can be branded. Even Judas Iscariot in the bible is a brand. But it is a brand that cannot sell. How many people have you met who named their children Judas? But we name our children Jude. Both names have the same meaning.
The whole world knows that at least 95% of our income in the country comes from crude oil. The unfortunate thing is that even though we own and produce the crude, we do not really determine its price. The world has since left where we are. The world does not thrive anymore on only mineral resource on the ground; it now thrives on mental resources.
I read an article written as part of a series on the transition agenda, in one of our national dailies. The article was on Nigeria and the I.T revolution. The author wrote something that struck me; “what it will take our country twenty years to earn in foreign exchange through sale of crude oil; we can earn in nine months through information technology”. We need to move ahead to develop other products and services for export.
Whatever can be named can be branded. This suggests that YOU can be a brand. Think about it. Are there specific names around the world you can remember right now that will bring specific ideas to your mind? Absolutely yes. Olusegun Obasanjo, Bill Gates, Michael dell, Nelson Mandela- all these names are brands. For the young person who wants to go into politics, the first thing you need to do is to brand yourself. You must understand that there is no outstanding generality. It is when you specialize that you are recognized. When you call your name as a politician, something must come to our minds. There must be a cause for which you are alive; something you believe in or a particular problem you have chosen to take out in this country. That is where to start from. If you are a student on campus, you should be known for something. When you hear “Steven Spielberg”, you know what that means. That is an awesome name in the movie industry. When you say “Disney”, you are talking about creative entertainment. In creating a niche for yourself, you should know a little bit about everything, but you should still be known for one thing. In your company, there should be many things you do well but there should be something you exceptionally well, for which you are known.
It is our turn to give the world first class brand from this country. There is a dire need for us to build an innovative society. A society that does not accept its problems or needs as God’s given. A society that recognizes and rewards ingenuity. Within the range of the faculty of our imagination ideas that can solve our problems. If we experience heat, we need to design cooling systems. If we experience diseases, we need to begin to research drugs that can take care of such diseases. If we have problems moving around, we need to create means of transportation. Whatever the problem is, it is time to begin to provide solutions. We need acceleration in our rate of innovation.
One of the challenges we have in our financial system is the fact that there are barriers between people who make products and those who need them. There is something called the velocity of money. It is the speed at which money moves. In our country, the movement of money is quite slow. The way we have design our financial system; we do not behave like people who need to make a lot of money.
For example, if I live at one end of Lagos, I open my newspaper and I see the advert for a product that is offered by a company on Victoria Island, until I go there, I may not be able to get the product. In other parts of the world, all you need do is just pick your phone, dial a tool free number and you have bought the good. You just give then your name, your credit card number and the date of expiry of the credit card. Tell them what you want to buy and it will come to you by mail. But here, we do too many things manually. One of the factors responsible for low life expectancy here is the fact that we believe in physical exertion and complexities. Life should be simpler. We should be able to log on the internet and buy things. That’s what they do now in other parts of the world. Of course the level of trust in our society is low, but it was once ideal. That is a problem that should be solved through innovative leadership.
Now I have some simple principles I want to list. They are basic principles for successful branding.
Be the first, the leader or the original in your category. Whatever you are doing, don’t do exactly what somebody else has done or is doing the way they have done it. You will not make much impact that way. Do what others have been doing, but have a slight edge. There are many car manufacturers but when Mercedes came on, it clearly defined itself as producers of prestige cars. That was a new category. So, in the category of prestige cars, Mercedes claims to be the first. If you can claim to be the original, it would pay you. For example, in the production of Cola drinks, Coca Cola claims to be the original.
Get as much publicity as you can for a start. I don’t mean advertising, I mean exposure. Especially the kind you get without having to pay much. This includes being featured in newspapers, on TV, or radio programs. That is how some of the most successful brands in the world go about it. They don’t necessarily spend the large amount of money in projecting their products; just befriend a journalist, an editor or a reporter you know. Or contract a Public Relations Consultant. There are companies in this country that always have one story or the other about them in the newspaper. That is publicity. Get as much of it as possible for a start. Again, if you can, get the help of a Public Relations Consultant, it will be of great help. Before you talk to an advert agency, talk to a Public Relations Officer. They are the ones who know just about all the reporters from all the newspaper houses and they can easily package how you get there.
Take advantage of the opportunities around you. Do not give any excuse for mediocrity. Your company or product is a candle that is lit; don’t hide it under a basket.