11 WAYS CUSTOMERS RELATE WITH YOUR BRAND

branding and marketing company in Nigeria
In branding, there is something called relationship typology forms. It simply means the kind of relationship people have with their chosen brands.
Every customer has a particular form of relationship with your business, and understanding these forms of relationship will help you to be more intentional with your marketing and customer relationship management. These typology forms were originally identified and developed by Susan Fournier.
Different customers relate to your business in the following ways:
1. Arranged marriages
In this relationship, the customer is tied to your brand because of their attachment to someone else who is your customer. In other words, they will not be buying from you if not for their attachment to the person who buys from you. A good example is a man and his wife, he eats a particular brand of bread because of his wife and son. They love it so much, so he buys it more often than he buys his preferred bread brand. As a result, he is quick to go for his choice at the slightest excuse from the wife’s brand. Try not to give this set of customers a reason to jump off your brand.
2. Casual friends/Buddies
In this relationship, emotions are low, and no intimacy. The engagement with the brand is not very frequent and the expectation for reward is not so high. A good example is household items that we don’t use often and are not emotionally attached to, we just want the items to their job and we carry on with our lives. Dishwashing soaps, insecticides, sweeping brushes, etc.
3. Best friendships
There is a voluntary connection in this relationship and it lasts long because there are continued rewards. An example is sports equipment for fitness enthusiasts. It is the kind of connection sportspeople have with their sports apparel and gadgets.
4. Kinships
In this relationship, customers are tied to a brand due to family and lineage ties, not because of their own voluntary connection to the brand. In other words, customers inherited their choice from previous generations. Example: Many people use closeup toothpaste because that is what their family has always used for decades.
5. Flings
These are short-term and time-bound relationships. It comes with high emotional rewards but no commitment or strings attached.
Examples are the holiday of a lifetime to a dream destination and trial products.
6. Secret affairs
The emotional connection is high in this relationship that is often kept private because it is considered risky or unnecessary to expose to others.
Examples are undergarments, sex toys, etc
7. Committed partnerships
These are long term voluntary relationships that stick even through tough times. A good example is men and their beloved football team. Another example is when people fall in love with a particular brand of car. When people have such a relationship with your brand, they are understanding and tolerant when you are experiencing downtimes. They sympathize with you and wait for you to get it right knowing that it is not in your character to mess up or default in agreement. For example, due to the Covid19 situation, some parents contributed money to voluntarily support teachers in the school their kids attend.
8. Marriages of convenience
These are also long-term committed relationships but they are influenced by circumstance. A perfect example is when people buy things from a retail shop because their preferred choice is too far away. Some of your customers buy from you because their desire is not available or cannot be afforded. If you pay attention enough and serve them well, you can get some to switch and make you their primary choice.
9. Compartmentalized friendships
This pertains to relationships defined by situations with high socio-emotional rewards. An example is low-priced products from cosmetics to wears and more.
10. Courtships
These are temporal relationships on the way to a more committed partnership. Examples are baby diapers & wipes. Once the babies become toddlers, the relationship ends but the brand has other products for children. It is a similar thing with free trials and products, customers are courted by such means and when the trial period is over, there is a likelihood for a committed relationship because customers are hooked. Netflix does a great job with courting you.
11. Dependencies
In this relationship, customers are obsessed with the product or service and it is almost impossible to replace their choice. Examples are addictions; the products and services customers are addicted to. Cigarettes, skincare products, etc.
You should take a closer look at all the relationships above, identify the ones that apply to your business, and reposition your connection with customers accordingly. You will get more results from your small efforts. Being busy all the time is not enough, you need to keep aligning your efforts to the prevalent dynamics in your business. This means you really have to be observant of how customers relate with your business.

When you have a really good product or service but it seems the connection you want with customers is not happening, it may be that you are yet to identify the form of relationship they have with your brand. Identify the relationship, understand it very well, and position your brand accordingly from your sales strategy to marketing communications and so on.

Knowing the relationship that applies to your business should guide you on whom to target, how to reach them, what to say, etc. Don’t leave your marketing and sales to chance, be intentional, and keep tweaking. Winning and retaining customers should not be a game of chance.

#DoBusinessBetter
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HANDLING PROBLEMATIC WORKERS FOR YOUR BRAND.

marketing and branding in nigeria

When we took over the management of a restaurant brand, most of the staff were problematic and gave the outgoing manager headache, particularly the cleaners and cooks.

Over ten months after, the same workers are mostly well behaved and improving daily. What changed? Leadership style. We will use a story to explain what we mean.

A few years ago we had a conversation with a restaurant owner who was frustrated by the attitude of her workers. When we inquired to know the grooming process for her employees, she revealed that they were trained by an international expert. We got further information and discovered what the problem was, the workers were trained with the standard template, not bad, but not enough.

These workers live in ghettos and slums. They fight to use the bathroom every morning. They even quarrel to empty their bowels. Then drama with yard people, keke driver, bus conductor that abused them that morning, and the underlying challenges of life they grapple with.

You cannot rework their attitude without addressing the underlying influences of their background. What works in Milan, Madrid, or Copenhagen, will not work the same way in Nigeria. You must adapt to local realities.

So for our restaurant client, we paid close attention to the background and environmental influences on the workers and gradually established a new way of relating to them.

One thing that provided this insight to us was a song by Phil Collins titled “both sides of the story”. In one line of the song, a ghetto kid with a gun grabbed a passerby by the shoulder and asked “would you respect me if I didn’t have this gun?”

We’ve had very personal experiences with three ghettos and could relate to that question, it is the same mindset behind most low cadre employees in businesses. They want to be respected, they want to be heard, they want to know that they matter, they don’t want to be trampled upon, that desire for dignity in humans is also in them.

When next you feel frustrated by your workers, also do a self-evaluation on yourself.

Do you treat them with disdain or respect?

Do you let them talk or you always hush them?

Do you pay attention to where they are coming from or it doesn’t concern you?

Their presence WILL rub off on your brand, it is a guarantee!

This matter is a major hindrance to the transition of many businesses into fabulous brands. You are putting in the effort but workers are messing things up, it is a real struggle and you have to find a way around it if you want to grow. Some of these workers are set in their ways and I advise for such, you work towards easing them out of your system.

We hope these perspectives will enable you to handle your workers better.

#DoBusinessBetter

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HOW BRAND BELIEF CAN TRANSFORM YOUR MARKETING

branding and marketing firm in Africa
Recently, we had a brief meeting with a client who wants us to handle marketing communications for their group of businesses. The client said something that got us musing about what we will be sharing in a jiffy. The client said, “I don’t want mere advertising. I want marketing communications”. We are delighted whenever a client makes that vital distinction. So today’s lesson is on marketing communications using the shoe brand called Camper.
Camper is a contemporary footwear brand from the island of Mallorca, Spain. Founded in 1975, it is a family business (of about four generations now) with a rich shoemaking heritage that it uses to create unique designs. As of 2011, over 6 million feet around the world wore Camper shoes for that season. On some of those feet, the left shoe and the right shoe didn’t match, such are the originality and playfulness with which the Camper brand invites the world to share its enthusiasm for that most ordinary and honest of human endeavours: WALKING.
branding and marketing firm in Africa

 Source: camper.com

We found the statement below on their website for their shoe collection called TWINS:
“Opposite yet Complementary. In 1988, we challenged the idea that shoes must be identical by designing a pair where the right shoe was different than the left. Since then, TWINS has been revisited each season through new typologies, treatments, and materials that continue to play with the idea of mismatched design.”
branding and marketing firm in Africa

Source: Camper.com

Camper cares about SLOWNESS – it promotes the notion of the ‘WALKING SOCIETY’. It abhors the trend towards speed in modern life, as exemplified by brands like McDonald’s and Nike. Instead, it invites us to slow down and take in the wonderful world around us, assuming we haven’t lost our capacity for the appreciation of the simple joys on offer. For Camper, putting one foot in front of the other isn’t just a means of locomotion; it is one of the defining characteristics of our bipedal species, a reminder of our connection with the history behind us and the earth beneath us.
“Contact earth” is one of Camper’s much-repeated marketing themes. The brand name Camper means “Peasant” in Catalan. And for Camper, the brand name represents the Peasant Way of Life – austerity, simplicity, and discretion, which is reflected in the design rhetoric of the shoes, communicated on the website, the give-away booklets at their stores, and so on.
You may want to stop here and read from the beginning again, thinking about your own business this time.
What kind of brand do you want to build?
What is the story and heritage you are creating for the brand?
How long will you do mere hustle?
No matter the size of your business, you can start putting these perspectives into place.
In a fast-paced world, Camper is talking about slowness and has built a very successful global brand. That is what branding is about – to truly be unique in what you do. Making your business have its own life, purpose, and why it exists makes the difference in your marketing.
Don’t just tell your target audience to buy, tell them what you are about, and they will fall in love with what you are selling. When was the last time Coke told you about beverage? It is mostly about happiness and friendships.
Remember our lesson on “big idea”. Camper is another reminder of why you need one. Define what makes you unique, articulate how it relates to humanity or something of essential concern, then communicate it as much as you can. It is a game-changer.
Did you pick a lesson?
If yes, leave a comment and share it with others.We can build amazing brands in Africa, one step at a time.

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HARNESSING THE POWER OF BRAND IDEOLOGY.

branding and marketing firm in Africa

In your effort to market your business, one of the things you can do to gain better visibility and attract your desired target audience is to have what is called a big idea.

A big idea is commonly used for marketing campaigns. Every professional marketing campaign you see has a big idea that drives it whether it is expressly communicated or not. However, a big idea is also used to engineer and drive your entire business or organization.

We all love Nike’s “JUST DO IT”, that is a big idea in itself derived from “Nike pushes your athletic boundaries beyond what you thought was possible, so you can win on your own terms”.

Unilever’s Omo and Persil ran a marketing campaign themed “DIRT IS GOOD” and it was derived from the ideology named “Modern Parenting” which submits that children learn more about their environment and things as they explore their curiosity and mess their clothes up. Therefore, let the children play and as they get dirty, Omo helps you make the clothes clean again.

Because our businesses are often set up for survival, we dismiss these things, but the foreign brands make billions with it from our own pockets. Even in survival mode, you will survive better if you sell better.

Lately, a lot of people are talking about Burna boy in relation to his positioning in the music industry beyond Nigeria. Burna boy is entrenching a strong ideology into his brand that has to do with the African narrative. It gives him access to a far wider audience and makes him hard to ignore even if you don’t enjoy his music or like his personality. Remember Wakanda? The ideology weaved into the narrative, though fictional, was magical.

Once you articulate a significant ideology into your brand – something that affects the story, existence, history, aspirations, desires, or challenges of a people (your target market), your brand immediately begins to stand out from the lot. There are so many bakers out there, not a problem, but WHY do YOU bake? What is it about your own cake business that makes it different from all others? It may not even be about cakes directly, but that thing that drives you internally each day. Capture it, articulate it, and communicate it.

Defining a simple ideology for your business will enable you to get better results with your small efforts.

Through your big idea, you craft strong messages that resonate with your target market and you grow a loyal tribe of customers.

Through your big idea, you attract team members who want more than just a monthly salary. They want to be a part of something remarkable.

Through your big idea, you become more purpose-driven.

Your vision and mission statements (if you have) will stop being fancy statements you display on your walls or wherever.

We can build amazing brands in Africa.
Let’s keep doing it from our small corners of the continent.
We can do better against all odds.

DoBusinessBetter

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WHAT WE OBSERVED AT FIFI’S FOOD HOUSE.

marketing and branding company in Nigeria

A few weeks ago, we spent some time with the CEO of Fifi’s Food House, Onimim Fifi Karibo, at her kitchen hub in the city of Port Harcourt where she treaded us to a three-course meal. While we sat in her office, we noticed her people were at work preparing the meal. At some point, a customer called to order a meal, Fifi was still with us all the while as her people brought the message that the meal was ready. Evidently, she had taught her people how to prepare the meals the same way she does.

About a year ago, Mapemond had multiple training jobs at the same time for various clients. We delegated different team members to each of the training and they all did a great job. One of the training had about a hundred and fifty participants and it was handled by a Staff, not our principal.

Even if you are a one-man business, for now, develop the consciousness of raising others to do what you do because you cannot keep doing it all by yourself and you cannot be everywhere at the same time. Yes, some people you train will disappear without first giving value to the system that raised them, but that is not a valid excuse to not raise others at all.

Some people you train will falter and make mistakes, especially if you have the traits of a perfectionist, but be patient with the grooming process and they will become well-primed. Instead of finding reasons and justification to do it all by yourself all the time, fight those excuses and raise your army unless you are fine with being a one-man business perpetually.

If your dream is to build an amazing brand, you cannot escape building people, against all odds.

Build your people. And trust them with the work.

#DoBusinessBetter

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YOUR BRAND NEEDS A MENU!

branding and marketing company in Africa
A menu is a tool that greatly improves the sales process for a food business. Customers glance through to see what is on offer and what the prices are, it aids them to decide what options to settle for and they know the cost implication as well. In some restaurants, there are combinations of the food options and each one has its price stated. Recently, Chicken Republic introduced the combo of chips, chicken, and shawarma. It’s been selling out steadily.

Your business may not be a food business but it also needs a menu to improve your sales process. It is popularly called a price catalog for your products/services. You will find it very helpful especially if you struggle with pricing and negotiations. Create packages for your services and state the prices alongside deliverables for each package, it makes it easier for customers to make a decision.
You can even structure your packages according to the category of customers – individuals, SMEs, enterprise, and so on. It is based on this you can also easily tweak your packages to create special offers, discount sales, etc.
Let’s say you provide social media marketing services, create package options, and attach a price to each. This may not apply to all businesses, but give it a thought. Whatever business you are into, just ask yourself how you can create a menu that makes it easy for your customers to pick a choice plus price. You are more likely to close a deal if you have a menu for your products and services. Providing options make it easier for customers to make a choice.
If your business is online, you can have it as a PDF document that you share when you get inquiries. You could also create e-flyers for each service option alongside price/deliverables and share on your business pages on social media if displaying price favours your business.
And of course, you need to also structure your services/products and prices. Just as restaurants review their prices, you can also review yours.
Your product or service is like food to customers, offer them a menu.
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FINDING THE SWEET SPOT FOR BRAND GROWTH.

branding and marketing company in Africa
If you focus on building your business the right way, your brand growth will happen rapidly once you finally hit the spot where your value proposition and pricing perfectly matches the right target market.
When you see those brands that “suddenly” blow up, it isn’t magic, they have most likely hit that sweet spot. The NGN900 food pack at Chicken Republic was that kind of sweet spot. Market Square bread hit the spot. It could be a particular service or product. It could be more.

Don’t insist on your own ideas, ask yourself:

What is the market craving?
What will make the market flow like rushing waters in your direction?

Keep exploring!
One day at a time.

It may be costing you money, but consider it as an investment in ‘research and development’. You will recover the money at the snap of your fingers when you hit that spot.

While you are tweaking and finding where that sweet spot is for your brand, remember to keep putting systems and structures in place that can handle the rapid growth.
#DoBusinessBetter
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INSIGHTS ON STRUCTURING YOUR BUSINESS.

structuring your business

We came across a Facebook post suggesting that certain businesses perform better when they are unstructured compared to when they are structured. The person asserted that a renowned Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, is struggling ever since she became structured, but that is quite a baseless assertion without specific indices or metrics to measure the performance of her business. The argument had so many holes in it, we didn’t even know which one to address or ignore, but our take away was that many people do not understand what structure means.

Here are some insights on structuring your business:

1. Structuring does not mean leaving your product-market fit. If you were doing very well by selling food to Tricycle Drivers and then you go build a gigantic edifice with air conditioners in the name of structuring, you are just burying your business alive. The drivers won’t follow you but will switch to another option.

2. Structuring does not mean leaving what is working and going to experiment with the unknown. If Linda Ikeji leaves what has been working for her to new terrain, she may struggle before getting it right again, if she does.

3. Structuring does not mean you stop innovating. If you become relaxed simply because you got structured, you will lose out. The more structured you become, the more you have to be on your toes innovating.

4. Structuring does not mean fancy offices and glam. It is not about “I have arrived”, you will be pushed over to the sideline.

5. Structuring is about becoming BETTER ORGANIZED as the business grows gradually. When a bukka woman teaches her daughter to cook the meals as well, it is structuring. When she teaches her Son how to go buy foodstuff from the market, it is structuring. When she keeps proper inventory of the foodstuff to check them against daily sales to ensure there is no theft or unrecorded debts to customers, it is structuring. When she can take a break and business is still ongoing, it is structuring. The list goes on.

6. Structuring is about creating systems and processes, no matter how basic. You cannot seek a serious business loan with your personal account, you need to open a business bank account and that requires BVN, a registered business, Tax identification, etc.

Our investor at Mapemond asked us, “what if I die, what will happen to my investment in your company?” our answer was all around systems, processes and ultimately, structuring.

You cannot desire to be another Dangote, Otedola, Elumelu, Jason Njoku, Ibukun Awosika, and all these people and not be thinking in terms of structure over time.

Davido and WizKid will direct you to their managers if you want to do business with them, even personal brands have their own approach to structuring. That is why they create DMW, Mavin Records, and the likes.

We have to break the fetters and manacles holding us spellbound to the hustle and survival mentality while thinking that we can build a big business by staying unstructured and evading FIRS and the rest perpetually.

Conglomerate this…,
Global Ventures that…
International Empire…

All the fancy desires will not happen by mere wishes, you have to build structures diligently and consistently for several years.

If your clients’ work will be on hold because you have malaria, your business is an endangered specie.

We don’t like to think about it, but what if you die? What happens to the monies you collected from people? Pending salaries? Etc?

Please share this, let’s empower more entrepreneurs with the right knowledge.

If you think otherwise, then this post is not for you.

We wish you well in your endeavors.

#DoBusinessBetter

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DEVELOPING AN INDEPENDENT SALES SYSTEM FOR YOUR BUSINESS

selling your business
Creating a system that guarantees sales without your direct personal effort is tough, and takes time. It’s a lot easier to sell through personal efforts, especially if you’re courageous, vocal, and have an audience.
We understand that even personal selling isn’t easy for a lot of people, but that is an opportunity for you to go right on to creating professional pages for your business. It will require more work than using your personal timeline or selling to your personal network, as it hides your shyness while you develop the boldness to drive visibility for the business with consistency, good content, and appealing offerings.
You may have to cut down spending on some things to gather money to run well-thought-out adverts that will build visibility for your business pages to complement organic growth.
If you are stuck on your personal social media timeline, here is a thought to ponder on:
Blessed are those whose business is approaching a time when sales will be made without personal posts on social media, for they shall know sustainable growth.
As time goes on, you will need to leverage everything at your disposal to make sales, as you also work towards building a system around your sales that isn’t wholly dependent on your direct personal efforts.  You will get tired sometime soon.
Some quick tips:
– Create a Google business page and run it actively.
– Get a website that suits your business and build visibility (a blog section with relevant topics people search often helps)
– Depending on your business, create a store page on Flutterwave or Paystack.
– Get official phone/WhatsApp numbers and an email address for your business, separate from your personal ones.
– Prepare marketing communication materials with VERY clear and precise messages. Distribute it strategically to where your target customers are.
– Create something free that will attract your target audience for them to WILLINGLY give you their contact details (don’t abuse it PLEASE).
– As your customer base grows, start building front -desk officers with well-trained personnel.
– For more tips, contact us for proper consultation. wecare@mapemond.com
Think systems. Build structures. One day at a time.
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A REVIEW ON MOST DOMINANT BRANDS IN AFRICA.

brands in africa

We read a post on Facebook that got our attention. It was written by the Co-Founder of Gidi Cakes, Daniel Adeniyi.

It is about Africa’s Top 100 Brands for 2020. The study done by Brand Africa showed that majority of the dominant brands in Africa are not local brands. In fact, in 27 countries that were surveyed, only 3 as shown below had a local brand in their number one spot:

1. Zimbabwe (Econet)

2. Zambia (Trade Kings)

3. Tanzania (Azam)

The leading brands in Nigeria are not Nigerian. Like the Gidi Cakes Co-Founder rightly submitted, most Nigerian businesses are not brand conscious. The study also showed that the leading media brands in Africa are not local – BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. Only seven local media brands made the list of the 25 most dominant media brands in Africa.

Out of the 100 most dominant brands in Africa,

#1 to #6 are foreign brands.

#7 is the South African owned MTN.

#8 to #14 are foreign brands.

#15 is Nigerian owned Dangote (I did an unofficial corporate internship with them)

#16 to #27 are foreign brands.

#28 is Nigerian owned Globacom

#29 to #35 are foreign brands

#36 is South African owned DSTV

#37 to #45 are foreign brands

#46 is Nigerian owned Nasco (Mapemond shall be visiting them for a research project)

#47 to #49 are foreign brands

#50 is South African owned Shoprite

So 44 foreign brands and 6 African brands in the top 50 of the list. You may think that more African brands will feature in the second half of the list, but that is not the case. The second list of 50 also features 44 foreign brands and 6 African brands – Star, Tiger, Jumia (some persons argue that it is not African), Tusker, Clover, and Maltina. In conclusion, 88 foreign brands and 12 local brands in total!

You can see the list here: VIEW THE REPORT

Let’s bring it closer home. A related study of the top 25 African brands showed only 4 Nigerian brands – Dangote, Glo, Jumia, and Star.

These stats don’t surprise us one bit because in our branding and marketing work, we have loads of insights and experiences that support this survey even though there could be a variance.

There is the assertion that “Africans don’t like local”, but that is not exactly the case in our opinion. Branding is such a powerful aspect of business that is being underrated by most businesses both big and small. The businesses that take branding seriously will be at the top of the market regardless of where they originate from and as we can see, foreign brands don’t joke with branding at all.

For example, out of 100 restaurants in Nigeria, the ones that take branding in its true sense most seriously will emerge the most dominant.

If you are a fashion designer, baker, or whatever you are into, the more seriously you take branding (in its true sense beyond logo design down into strategy, culture, marketing communications, etc), the higher you will climb on the chart of leading businesses in your sector or industry. And you must not have billions to spend, it begins from being intentional and consistent.

If you would like to take a deep dive into the subject of branding, there are articles here for you: MAPEMOND BLOG

We are cooking a lot of webinars, Instagram live sessions, Facebook Room conversations, and more on the subject of branding. Leave a comment on this post if you would like to be notified when it is time.

Don’t downplay your business. At whatever level you are, consider your business as a brand and build it with that consciousness. It yields far more results than casual business and hustle.

#DoBusinessBetter

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