BRAND REVIEW: KELLOGG’S LONGEVITY
Most children born from the eighties can attest to the fact that they have tasted the popular Kellogg’s cornflakes. For some, it even became the quickest breakfast their mothers could fix before they dashed off to school while for others it became their favourite go-to cereal whenever they were hungry.
Whichever the case, it is an undeniable fact that the impact of the Kellogg’s brand has been felt by many people and also in many homes. The brand’s consistency for more 100years now has strengthened its relevance, establishing it as a leading brand globally.
For the last century, the Kellogg Company has done business under the trademark, Kellogg’s. This American multinational food-manufacturing company has its headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg’s is known for producing cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, and toaster pastries. Some of their most popular products that have become well-known brands include Corn Flakes, Keebler, and Cheez-It.
Follow through as we take a detailed ride through the rich qualities of this outstanding brand.
BRAND HISTORY
While trying to make granola, a breakfast food and snack food consisting of rolled oats, nuts, honey or other sweeteners, in 1898, W.K. Kellogg, and his brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, mistakenly altered the process and flaked wheat berry. Not relenting, W.K. continued to experiment until he flaked corn, which gave birth to what we now know as Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
Following his successful breakthrough, in 1906, W.K. Kellogg began his company, “Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company” and went ahead to hire 44 pioneering employees. Working closely with the founder, they created the first batch of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and fostered W.K.’s vision for great-tasting, better-for-you breakfast foods.
Kellogg’s, in 1914, took its first step towards expansion by introducing the flagship brand, Corn Flakes, to Canada. As time went by, the Kellogg Company spread its nourishing grains abroad, by commencing operations in countries like Australia, England, Mexico, Japan, India and etc.
In 1923, the Kellogg Company took another bold step and became the first in the food industry to hire a dietician, Mary Barber. Mary pioneered the Kellogg’s Home Economics Department and defined the roles different foods played in proper diets, thereby educating their consumers.
During the time the United States sunk into Depression, in 1930, W.K. Kellogg saw it as an opportunity to add value to more people with the campaign, “I’ll invest in people.” To achieve this, he created more shifts and hired new employees. He went on to start the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, whose mission — to help children realize their potential — is also in line with that of the Kellogg Company till date.
To increase its visibility, the company used the slogan “Kellogg’s puts more into your morning” on television shows on Saturday morning from 1968 to 1970.
As a result of spreading its grains, one of the soils it fell on is the Nigeria’s soil. Though it is yet to make huge harvest, the brand has gained tremendous recognition. On the 1st of December 2017, the joint venture of the reputable cereal maker, Kellogg’s and Singapore’s Tolaram Group, Kellogg’s-Tolaram Nigeria Limited, commissioned a 6 billion naira factory, with a capacity to produce 10,000 metric tonnes of cereals per year. This move has definitely put the Kellogg’s brand on another level since it can now produce its product here in Nigeria rather than importing it.
BRAND BELIEF
Having realised that breakfast is the most essential meal of the day, Kellogg’s has built its walls around this. “At Kellogg, we LOVE breakfast. To us it’s so much more than just a meal. We passionately believe in the power and promise that comes from eating the right breakfast. It’s the first fuel for our bodies—nourishing us for today, tomorrow and for life.”
BRAND VISION
From the simple and concise words, the company used to describe its vision, it is without a doubt the brand has established itself as an enriching brand, “To enrich and delight the world through foods and brands that matter.”
BRAND PURPOSE
Its purpose is simple but well defined, “Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive.”
BRAND VALUES
The company sees its values as its DNA which could be interpreted to mean what runs through the entire organisation. Their values serve as a guide for every business transaction, their interaction amongst themselves and with the communities where they work. Here is a quick rundown of their values;
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Passion
- Humility
- Simplicity
- Result
MARKET STRATEGY
In Nigeria the Kellogg’s brand leverages;
- Partnership with the local production company, Tolaram and its distribution subsidiary.
- Assets provided by its partnership to produce high quality, low cost products in the region
- Brand recognition in order to gain market share in the mid-range and value channels.
THE BRAND’S SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength
- It has an existing supply chain
- It has well-known and experienced partners, locally and globally
- It has experience in handling new markets
Weakness
- It has experienced low profit in recent years
- There has been a loss of market share to general mill
- New products must be developed to suit the Nigeria market.
Opportunities
- The Nigerian market is still an emerging one open to businesses of all kinds
- Landing new products would require low price
Threats
- As a foreign brand, a new product must be developed for the Nigeria market
- It has strong competitors like Nestle and Unilever.
- Its operation is capital intensive.
The company continues to uphold the values its founder, W.K. Kellogg, which was instilled over 100 years ago. Today their flaked corn is enjoyed in 180 countries around the world putting it ahead of its pairs in the snack food industry.
Written by Jennifer Chioma Amadi
Do you desire to build a lasting brand? We are very resourceful and can be of great help. Shoot us an email at wecare@mapemond.com.
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BUSINESS INSIGHT: MARKETING WITHOUT STRESS
Marketing could be quite a daunting task for most business people across the world. The thought of cooking up a convincing story for potential customers and clients, or going from street to street just to speak to sell their products or services, breaks beads of sweat in the faces of a good number of marketers. Regardless of the stress, marketing remains a necessity for any type of brand that wants visibility.
Now no matter how polished or good your idea, product or service is, if you can’t market it, it goes nowhere and only stays within the reach of your immediate circle. It is safe to say marketing is a means of spreading your business to a wider audience. The simple fact is, if you want more people to know what you sell, offer or the value you can create, marketing is unavoidable and inevitable.
“Marketing is an ongoing communications exchange with customers in a way that educates, informs and builds a relationship over time. The over time part is important because only over time can trust be created. With trust, a community builds organically around products and services and those customers become as excited about the products as you are — they become advocates, loyal evangelists, repeat customers and often, friends. Marketing is a really great way to identify what grabs people and gets them excited about your brand and give it to them, involve them in the process,” said Renee Blodgett – Chief Executive Officer/Founder, Magic Sauce Media
When clearly understood, marketing is not as hard as it seems. In plain terms, it is basically communicating what you do to a target audience with a goal to attain regular and loyal customers. To further simplify the concept of marketing, below are a few tips.
KNOW THE WHY BEHIND WHAT YOU DO
There are three questions you must ask yourself before you embark on your business voyage; why, what and how. In order to avoid wastage of resources, time, and efforts, these questions should be first dealt with. Basically the ‘why’ refers to the reason behind your business and seeks to answer why you started the business in the first place. The ‘what’ deals with the product or service you are rendering. The ‘what’ also addresses if you are meeting the needs of your customers. And the ‘how’ question figures the means through which you would reach the customers and clients.
However, most marketers often skip the first question why and immediately approach potential customers with what they offer. This is the reason behind the stutter when a customer tries to engage them. The reality is most people don’t know why they sell what they do!
Simon Sinek, author and marketing consultant, puts it clearly, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
It is of utmost importance for you as a business person to do your research and practically dig deep in order to know your target market thoroughly.
KNOW YOUR TARGET MARKET
Even though you wish everyone could patronise your business, the hard truth is not everyone can be your customer. You have to do a market survey and identify your target market if you want to hit your goal. When you don’t know your target market, you would keep missing your shots and eventually get frustrated.
LEVERAGE ON DIGITAL MARKETING
The digital era has made marketing easier than what it used to be. With digital platforms, entrepreneurs could get more customers in few days than they would in several months. Digital marketing is simply the use of the internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, display advertising and other channels to reach your target audience.
In contrast to the traditional marketing where one needs to go from person to person advertising their products or services, or setting up outdoor platforms, marketers and entrepreneurs can now be in the comfort of their homes and spread words about their business. Another advantage asides the ease it provides, digital marketing has a wider reach. Your business could be in Nigeria but you will be able to reach people all over the world.
Once you are clear on your why, what, and how, deploy the best possible means to reach your audience whether traditionally or digitally. Just ensure that you take strategic steps to put your business out there.
Written by Jennifer Chioma Amadi
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LOGO UNRAVEL: THE SPAR FIR
One of the most visited places in the city of Port Harcourt is SPAR. During the last festive season, there was a frightening mammoth crowd pressing in at the mall’s entry point, insistent on patronizing their services and products. It won’t be far-fetched to assume that 5 out of 100 persons in Port Harcourt patronized SPAR last Christmas. The building itself was crammed up with all caliber of people similar to the scenario as was reported in various SPAR outlets within the country. This shows the popularity and far reaching effects this brand has on its customers. In fact, it is now a household name in Nigeria, found on the lips of many regular shoppers.
Surprisingly, we discovered that SPAR is an old player in the retail industry with international operations since the last 86years. The company started out being called DESPAR which is a Dutch acronym for Door Eendrachtag Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig (In English meaning – “All benefits from joint co-operation”). This interpretation gives a summary of the SPAR brand story.
SPAR is a multinational firm which manages several individual retail stores and partners doing business under the SPAR brand name. It was founded in Netherlands by Adriaan van Well in 1932 on the premise that when marketers do business as individual entities they yield lesser results as compared to several individual wholesalers and retailers coming together in partnership to form a huge market network. They meet a wide range of consumers’ needs making very huge impacts by leveraging on the ensuing large customer base.
In 2009, SPAR International gave license to Artee Industries Limited to operate SPAR in Nigeria. SPAR stores in Nigeria are built on hypermarket retail format. Presently, SPAR is operating 10 stores across Port Harcourt, Abuja, Lagos, and Calabar accruing more than 34,000m2 of retail space, hence making it the largest chain of retail stores in Nigeria. They offer an ample variety of products in the class of Grocery, Fruits & Vegetables, Bakery, Butchery, Hot Meals, Wine & Spirits, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Consumer Electronics, Small Home Appliances, Laptops & Tablets, Mobile Phones, Perfumes, Watches and Jewelry.
Amazingly, even when most persons aren’t aware of the business and historical facts surrounding this retail brand, they could readily recognize the brand’s logo on any item and on Ads most especially due to its constant appearance on the brands packaging materials. SPAR’s visual identity as concerns its logo, has over the years communicated the brand’s story, essence, and culture as it is proven through the successes recorded by the brand in the business world. Currently SPAR which started as one single Dutch store has over 12,770 stores in over 45 countries on four continents; meeting the needs of over 13.5 million consumers every day. Join us as we delve into the brand story of its simple but unique logo.
HISTORY OF THE LOGO
In 1932, at the inception of the organization, the symbol chosen to represent the brand and give it an identity in the hearts of its customers was the Christmas tree. Amazingly, the brands name “DE SPAR” means “The Fir” also known as the Christmas fir tree. The logo had the fir tree symbol centered boldly and the brand’s name written at its base. The debut logo also had a Dutch inscription “Koopen bijde De Spar is Sparen Bijde koop” meaning buying at the De spar is saving on buying. Eight years later, the Dutch inscription taken off but the rest of the design left as it were. To emphasize consistency in branding and identity, SPAR maintained the same logo design in all its stores worldwide.
In the late 1940s, the brands name was abbreviated from DESPAR to SPAR and so the existing logo was modified to capture this change. As years went by, other modifications in the design was made. This time, the fir tree symbol was resized to fit within the red circular band.
Increasing its Europe presence and entering into Africa and Asia, triggered the need for a more sophisticated logo to enhance its marketing strategy. So in 1968, the logo which is currently in use and can be seen in SPAR’s outlets and packaging material was introduced. The fir tree symbol had a refined outlook like an arrowhead enclosed within a green circular band and also having the SPAR element scripted within a red block base.
LOGO SPECIFICATIONS
Logo Description
SPAR runs its business under four (4) store formats – SPAR, SPAR Express, EUROSPAR supermarket and INTERSPAR Hypermarket – and each of these store formats has its brand logo.
The SPAR Express logo communicates the identity of the SPAR Express store format which is to provide service and products to on-the-go shoppers in petrol stations, airports, railways and city centres. It has the smallest sales area.
The SPAR logo has the original design format and thus represents the parent brand. It is used in communications describing the retail firm as an organization having several partners. This brand comes after the Express logo in sales area and accommodates products that satisfy consumers’ needs on daily basis.
EUROSPAR logo describes the EUROSPAR Supermarket brand which has a larger sales area than the earlier mentioned store formats. This Supermarket format is designed to cover items and purchases of consumers on weekly basis and thus caters for more needs than the earlier mentioned brands.
INTERSPAR Hypermarket logo represents SPARs biggest store format – the Hypermarket brand. This brand has the largest sales area of more than 3000m2. It was established to meet a wider range of consumer’s needs than all its other store formats. Its purpose is for it to be a one-stop shop for consumers.
Logotype colour specification
An excerpt from the Spars online logo manual says:
“The area outside the symbol and the name style is an integral part of SPAR’s identity and should always remain white.
The logotype is printed in two colours on a white background and it is critical to SPAR’s identity that the colours are interpreted correctly and consistently. The green symbol is (Pantone Matching System) 356 while the red name carrier PMS 185.
Also, the identity should always be printed onto a white background”.
LOGO MEANING
Symbol meaning
The logo encapsulates the symbol of fir tree which stands for ‘SPAR” in Dutch. The fir is popular for its Christmas tree species. Christmas is a festive season of celebration, shopping and gift unraveling. Hence, the fir Christmas tree symbolizes same. We also know that SPAR is an abbreviated Dutch acronym for DESPAR meaning “All benefit from joint co-operation” and this describes the SPAR concept.
The fir symbol also takes the shape of an arrow head signifying force, direction, movement, power and direction, speed, accelerating growth rates and expansion of SPAR in the retail industry.
Colours meaning
The logo has both Red and Green colours. The green colour which is the colour of the fir tree signifies; life, growth of the business, freshness of its food retail products and services. Red has always been an attractive and captivating colour. It represents excitement, passion, energy and has a strong effect on human metabolism and stimulates appetite hence drawing customers to the brand.
Written By Rejoice Emmanuel
Do you need an expressive logo for your brand? We would love to work with you. Shoot an email to wecare@mapemond.com
BRAND REVIEW: PEAK MILK, STILL LEADING
Brands choose to tell their stories any way they please but the ones that stand out are those who tell stories that resonate with the communities they serve. For sixty years plus now PEAK MILK has maintained the story of Africa through its symbolic pic story and visual identity elements of the palm tree, locals in a canoe, trade interaction with merchants, and so on.
With its rich creamy taste, Peak Milk has continued to live up to its name, and has gained the reputation of the number one brand in the dairy industry in Nigeria. Over the years, the brand has been recognised for its quality and leadership in the market. These remarkable attributes piqued our interest to do a review on this legendary brand. Sail with us to the wonderland of this iconic dairy brand.
BRAND HISTORY
While most people seem to know the product, only a few are familiar with the company behind the brand, Friesland Campina. The company which was founded from two great Dutch dairy companies, Friesland Foods and Campina, began its journey in the dairy industry in 1871.
Friesland Campina is a company birthed from a rich history. From its name Friesland which is a region in the north of the Netherlands characterised by the green meadows, blue skies, many lakes and splendid Frisian dairy herds and then Campina is also a wooded region of grasslands and meadows in the south of the Netherlands, it can be perceived that the company is a product of the Netherland culture.
The global company is well rooted in the culture and commerce of the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.
Way back in 1954, while Nigeria was still under the British colony, Friesland Campina sailed its way from Netherlands through several oceans to Nigeria. Having surveyed and seen the potentials in the Nigerian market, the company introduced its first brand, Peak Milk. Since then the dairy product has evolved and has maintained a strong leader position.
However it was not until April 1973 the company was incorporated as West Africa Milk Company (WAMCO) and finally commenced operation in 1975 making it an affiliate of Royal Friesland Campina of the Netherlands. Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria has its headquarters located in Ikeja Industrial Area of Lagos and is recorded to be one of the largest dairy cooperative in the world. Since it began operations in Nigeria it has made extensive distribution to all the states.
With its strong influence, the company continues to retain its leadership in the production, processing, packaging, marketing, and distribution of its dairy products in Nigeria. In 2015, it was recorded to have made a turnover of twelve billion
BRAND EVOLUTION
At the inception, Peak Milk was seen as product for wealthy people and couldn’t be afforded by the common man. Knowing what they stood to lose with the rising of other milk brands, the company adjusted its product in order to accommodate everyone. This led to the introduction of different sizes even down to sachets.
BRAND VISION
The company behind Peak Milk ties its vision to the purpose they refer to as nourishing by nature. This stands for better nutrition for the world, a good living for farmers, now and for generations to come.
BRAND MISSION STATEMENT
From its mission statement, Nourishing Nigeria with Quality Dairy Nutrition, it is obvious the brand is driven by the need to nourish its consumers.
BRAND STRATEGY
The strategy behind this exceptional brand is quite straight to the point which is to add value; from its nutrition, to nature, to both young and old people, to consumers and customers, to citizen and down to the society. This value adding mind-set has been transferred to all their employees worldwide.
The company has broken down its plan into the following;
- Win with nutrition
- Serve the 24/7 consumer and customer
- Lead with sustainability
- Elevate our essentials
BRAND CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS
Most recently, the brand has been running a campaign it named PECADOMO which is an acronym for ‘Peak Can Do More’. The idea is to gain new markets by highlighting several other things that the milk product can be used asides regular usage
Peak Milk is one brand that has made a strong impression in Nigeria with its involvement and commitment to nation building and community development. Severally in the past it has supported charity projects, schools and communities through its corporate citizenship programme which kicked off in 2004.
The programme has seen the commissioning of over 41 solar boreholes, supported over 18 public secondary schools amongst many other projects.
With a well mapped out and structured brand like Peak, we can bank on the fact that it will be here for more years to come and may probably still be leading the dairy industry here in Nigeria. It points to the need to build a brand that transcends the founders.
Key Takeaway: Regardless of its leadership position in the market, PEAK is not relenting in its drive to remain a relevant, readily available and trustworthy brand. This is a vital lessons for beginners and the likes, do not allow your successes stop you from pushing the boundaries and frontiers.
Written by Jennifer Chioma Amadi
Do you need help in gaining better distribution or visibility for your brand? We are your guys! Shoot an email to wecare@mapemond.com
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BUSINESS INSIGHT: PEPSI MARKETING STUNT – THE COLA TRUCE
For decades, Pepsi has been Coca Cola’s arch-rival in the beverage industry. Having been in the market since 1886, long before Pepsi’s birth in 1893, Coca Cola can be said to be on the leading edge. With this lead, Pepsi and other related brands continue to be on their toes to meet up and outshine the iconic brand.
Over the years the competition between Coke and Pepsi has been fierce and consistent with each brand coming up with different strategies to remain at the top and gain more consumers. This could be observed in their constant innovative moves, from ads to their products and also their sponsorship programs.
In a bid to get more attention, Pepsi took advantage of the Atlanta Super Bowl game, which it was sponsoring for the first time, to make some strategic chess moves. For the first time, Pepsi took over Atlanta which is popularly referred to as Coke’s town, since the brand was born there and its headquarters is also located there. The city was painted blue as opposed to when its opponent Coke used to paint it red during their period of sponsorship.
Asides the billboards Pepsi mounted in strategic areas with taglines like, “Look Who’s in Town for Super Bowl LIII”, announcing their arrival, the brand brought the statue of its founder Caleb Bradham to Atlanta’s World of Coca Cola right next to the statue of Coke’s founder John S. Pemberton. The statue was positioned in such a way it looked as though the two founders were clinking their glasses in celebration.
This move may have been a demonstration of Pepsi’s idea of the cola truce initiative or part of their plan to get more attention thereby creating more visibility for its brand.
This however didn’t seem to have moved the Coca Cola team as there was no response from their side. Reacting to this, Pepsi took what they perceived was a cold reception from Coca Cola to Twitter.
Flipping the awkward situation around, Pepsi informed the public about their Charity plan which was to donate food to the needy from every tweet with the hashtags #ColaTruce and #Share2Donate. This new strategy seem to have worked and must have endeared them in the hearts of more people as they were able to donate meals to 130k people through United Ways of Greater Atlanta, a platform for community development.
Now drawing away from all the drama, one insight we can glean from Pepsi’s relentless spirit is, if one business strategy fails, try another approach even if it means putting up a show. In the end, you just never can tell which of the strategies would yield the desired result and eventually put your brand in the mouths and eyes of people.
Written by Jennifer Chioma Amadi
Need help with creating winning business strategies? We are here to help. Shoot us an email at wecare@mapemond.com
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LOGO UNRAVEL: THE TOYOTA IDENTITY
One of the famous and oldest automobile brands in the world which stands out for the quality, durable and reliable vehicles they create is Toyota. Established in 1933 by the Toyoda family as a subsidiary of the Toyoda Automatic Loom works, they started out producing automatic loom works and textiles before diversifying into automobile production with the production of the model AA passenger car in 1936. Headquartered in Toyota city, Aichi Japan, earliest productions were directed by the founder’s son, Kiichiro Toyoda and the company was named after the family’s name – TOYODA.
However, it was later renamed TOYOTA in 1936 after a competition which had 27,000 design entries was held in that effect. The design entry bearing the Toyota name was chosen and the TOYOTA brand incorporated as the company’s name. This was because whilst Toyoda took 10 Japanese strokes to write, Toyota took 8 strokes which in Japanese culture signify luck and good fortune.
Remarkably, the Toyota brand was introduced into the Nigerian automobile market 32 years after it was founded through various distributing outlets. Later on Toyota (Nigeria) Limited was incorporated as the sole distributor of the Toyota Motor Corporation.
The Toyota brand has over the years endeared themselves to the heart of their customers especially through its visual identity system specifically the well-known Toyota 3-ellipses logo. This has contributed greatly to the successes recorded by the Toyota brand. As little children we could remember playing with this emblem on our parents Toyota cars. This article aims to unravel the wonder behind this globally recognized logo.
HISTORY OF THE LOGO
The debut logo was designed in 1935 bearing the company’s name as at the time – TOYODA. It had the shape of an octagon with the TOYODA inscribed in bold uppercase red font. This was seen on the AA model car and G1 truck produced in 1936.
With the renaming of its name from TOYODA to TOYOTA, a new logo was designed to capture this effect. However, this new design had TOYOTA transcribed into Japanese language and centered in a red circular background.
After about 10 years later, the logo design was further re-designed. This time, it had the brand name inscribed in English language; scripted similarly with “Times New Roman” in a bold uppercase black font colour.
Later on, the succeeding logo font was modified using the “Bold Toyota Type” font and inscribed in black font colour.
This font colour was later changed into an attractive red colour which is today known as the Toyota Red. This had a captivating feel, attracting more customers to the brand.
Conclusively, the well-known 3-ellipes logo was introduced at the 50th anniversary of Toyota Motors Corporation on the 2nd of October, 1989. The previous red logo element was added to the 3-ellipses emblem forming one of the most popular automobile logo in the world today seen on all Toyota vehicles. Subsequent years have seen various modifications in typography, colour, staging platform and visual dimensions being made to the Toyota logo.
As part of showing their value and enthusiasm in promoting their visibility and acceptance, Toyota has a website exclusively dedicated to provide detailed information on their Visual Identity System (VIS) covering these six core elements – logos, tagline, typography, photography styles, colour palette and design layouts. Certainly, their visual identity matters a great to them, like it should be for every other brand.
TOYOTA LOGO SPECIFICATIONS
Logo Description
Toyota Motors Corporation is visually identified using any of these 3 logo types: (i) the Toyota Brand logo (ii) the Let’s Go Places logo and (iii) the Vehicle logo.
The Brand logo is used to represent the parent brand and is also used when more than one Toyota product is advertised. In addition, it appears where the slogan (tagline) is used as a headline in a publication. Still, it is not used were the vehicle logo appears.
The vehicle logo is used when marketing a particular Toyota vehicle. Some of Toyota’s vehicle brand includes; Corolla, Camry, Sienna, TACOMA, RAV4, Highlander, 4RUNNER, SEQUOIA, TUNDRA, C-HR, Land Cruiser, Avalon etc. This logo however, is not used alongside other logos or elements.
The Let’s Go Places Logo conveys the brand essence and culture. It is not used without the staging platform when used as a logo. Also, it comes in three forms; the horizontal stacked, horizontal and vertical.
Logo Elements
Toyota logos comprises of 3 elements: (i) the typography i.e. font size, font style etc., (ii) the Toyota symbol and (iii) the staging platform which could also be called the background fill.
Size measurements
The minimum size that the Toyota logo can be reduced to – in both Print and Digital – is 9mm and 24 pixels respectively. This also tells the minimum height that the staging platform can be. In addition, on publications, all logo designs carry a little clear space around them. This clear space is measured in X unit. This is derived by dividing the staging platform into 6 rows and 6 columns. Each cell represents X unit. Two units (2X) of this measurement tell the amount of space that is left both horizontally and vertically around the logo design in a communication.
Typography
Toyota’s logo font style is the ‘Bold Toyota type font’. The Font colour could be black or red depending on the background of the publication whilst size and space dimensions are stipulated in Toyota’s VIS manual.
Colour
When the staging platform is in Toyota Red and the typography in black, the logo is placed on a light or white background while when the staging platform is on a dark publication background, the typography becomes white but the staging platform remains red. The Toyota VIS makes provisions for 1-colour designs with no other colours apart from black, red and white.
Logo Colour Palette
Toyota colour palette comprises of Red, White and Black with the primary colour as Red. Red represents energy, visibility, passion, excitement and the Toyota taste for adventure. White stands for clarity showing Toyota’s sincerity in creating an impressionable product to its customers.
MEANING OF THE LOGO
The Logo Symbol
According to online sources, the two inner intercepting ellipses in the Toyota symbol represents the unification of the hearts of Toyota customers with the heart of Toyota products while the largest oval encapsulating the inner ellipses, represents the world embracing Toyota. The background space in the Toyota symbol spells Toyota’s technological advancement and the boundless opportunities ahead of them.
Also, in another explanation, the two inner ovals that overlap to form a “T” stand for Toyota and the centered oval forms the shape of a steering wheel which represents the Toyota vehicle itself.
Furthermore, recent discoveries shows that upon a closer look at the Toyota 3-ellipses symbol, it is seen that all the letters that spell the word TOYOTA are found in it.
INCORRECT USE OF TOYOTA LOGO
In order to maintain consistency and encourage sustained brand awareness, Toyota advocates for the correct use of their logos on all communication platforms. Some possible misuse of Toyota logos are:
- Using the 3-D logo in brand communications
- Changing the logo colour
- Distorting the shape of the logo shape
- Filling up the staging platform with an image
- Adding a shadow to the logo
- Altering the logo artwork
- Changing the shape of the staging platform
- Using the logo within text
- Changing the logo typography style
- Changing the type size or colour of the tagline.
There is obviously more to a logo beyond – it preserves a brand’s history, tells its story, and expresses its culture in ways unique to the brand alone. We hope you found this insightful for your own brand?
Written by Rejoice Emmanuel
Do you need an expressive logo for your brand? We would love to work with you. Shoot an email to wecare@mapemond.com
LOGO UNRAVEL: THE BIG ELEPHANT
Beyond the obvious fact that a logo becomes a company’s identity, it can also be referred to as the custodian of a brand’s history and culture. It reminds both the staff and customers the journey the brand has travelled so far and the milestones it has accomplished over the years.
With its historical attributes, the FirstBank logo can be seen as a symbol holding so much more than what meets the eyes. To the common man it may look like a simple blend of elements and colours but to those who work behind the scenes, its meaning is deeper.
THE LOGO JOURNEY
Being one of the oldest banks in Nigeria since 1894, FirstBank’s identity has become a household symbol and is one that is easily recognisable by all. It has earned itself a grand reputation for consistency and as a result has gained a huge popularity to the point anytime one sees an emblem with an elephant inscribed on it, one of the first thoughts that crosses the mind is the FirstBank brand.
With many decades gone by and as a way of commemorating the brand’s 120th year anniversary, they felt the necessity to redesign their legendary logo in order to reflect the new strategic direction the company was taking. The bank unveiled their new identity in January 27th, 2014, informing the general public about their new brand position.
THE LOGO ICON
The African Elephant
One icon that has always been associated with the FirstBank logo is the famous African elephant. For the brand, this icon symbolises their strength and growth. It is also an indicator that the brand is a leader in the financial industry. With this single icon, the bank has continued to earn respect and visibility.
Though this element was retained, there were some slight modifications to its appearance which were made to communicate the evolution the bank was going through in order to remain relevant in the financial sector.
- A Raised Head – While the elephant in the old logo had a straight face, the new logo bears an elephant with a raised head. This they indicated was a way to reassure their customers about their commitment no matter the challenge. It is a promise that says they will face any financial challenge with their head held high.
- A Raised Foot – The raised foot in the new logo is a reminder that they will always put their best foot forward for their customers.
THE LOGO COLOURS
Deep Blue
From a lighter shade of blue to a deep blue colour, the FirstBank logo took on a new feel. The deep blue colour signifies a heritage of trust and distinction. The colour also represents their brand principles of momentum, innovation and evolution. These principles ensure that the bank strives to continuously develop solutions.
Gold
One significant change in the new logo was the infusion of gold. This rich colour represents a promise to set the gold standard of value and excellence in their services as a financial establishment.
LOGO IMPACT
Through its logo the brand has continued to fulfil the promise it made to its customers which is to always deliver the ultimate gold standard of value and excellence. Merely viewing the logo reminds their customers and partners about their position as one of the first and leading brands in the banking field.
The logo, images, fonts, patterns, icons, colours, symbols, words, all combine to visually communicate the brand’s corporate identity and brand language. The colours are also a reflection of the brand’s personality and their tone of voice towards their customers.
Written by Jennifer Chioma Amadi
Do you need a logo that sets your company apart? We can help you design a unique logo. Reach out to us at wecare@mapemond.com
BUSINESS INSIGHT: TAKE ADVERTISING MORE SERIOUSLY
Right from 4000BC, advertising has been one major strategic approach used by most successful businesses to put words out to the public about their products or services. Even though ancient business people didn’t have as much options as the modern entrepreneurs do currently, they made sure they used the materials at their disposal.
Using a material called Papyrus which is similar to a thick paper, the Egyptians, ancient Greece and ancient Rome created sales messages to advertise their products. While in continents like Asia, Africa and South America, business folks utilised walls and rocks to drive home sales through wall or rock paintings.
It must have been such a relief for most companies as more forms of advertising began to spring forth from the eighteenth century when the very first advertisement appeared on an England’s weekly newspaper. Then the 1920s came jiggling with lines of adverts in homes and offices through radio. It went visual in the 1950s as businesses leveraged on commercial television advertisement. To further create more advertising ease in the 1990s, one of the best medium was born, the internet. All these have evolved to what is now known as the modern advertisement.
While the evolution took place, more attractive advertising approaches emerged as well with the likes of Thomas J. Barratt, who is referred to as the father of modern advertisement, spearheading advertising campaigns which included the use of slogans, images and catchy phrases. As usual the aim was to conceive more people about the products and services of a company but beyond that they wanted to leave a lasting image in the minds of customers.
With the rise of more modern media that has further enhanced advertising such as social media, websites, blogs and even text messages, the present day entrepreneur has a wider door of opportunities to take advantage of in order to make more sales and gain a larger customer base. It’s now left for business owners to utilise all the options in front of them. The good news is there are many options that will enable companies spread word about what they can offer through their products and services.
Whether it is words imprinted on a newspaper or magazine, or maybe a jingle blaring out from a radio speaker, or visuals showcased on the television screen, or a billboard standing firmly with persuasive words, or the more advanced social media popping up graphics designs; all can be used to communicate to prospective clients what they stand to gain when they patronise a particular brand.
Now even though the goal of advertising most of the time is to make more people patronise a company’s commodities. However, whatsoever a company’s target is, when it comes to advertising, the first thing should be to promote the brand’s qualities to their existing customers and prospective ones. In view of building a lasting brand, the aim should be to convince the minds of potential customers that certain traits which they need and have been searching for are associated with a company’s products and services.
Despite the fact that advertisement is a sure way to attracting more customers, most times companies get the concept of advertising wrong by trying to give out too many information at once and in the end fail at their attempt. So here are some tips that could help any company increase its visibility in the eyes of clients.
- Choose and deliver the most important message, resist the temptation of reeling out all your services and products
- Try to inform and educate prospective customers and even existing ones about the quality of a brand or a new product released by the brand.
- Be known for a particular word or phrase; for example Peak, “it’s in you” and Nike, “just do it”
- Use of celebrities; in our present time whatever a celebrity does or buys becomes the new trend.
There is a lot to advertising that can give any business the much awaited results they have longed for. Leverage on advertisement and begin to get the desired attention.
Written by Jennifer Chioma Amadi Need help with drafting advert scripts? We can help you create one suitable for any type of business you do. Shoot us an email at wecare@mapemond.com
- Published in Marketing
GROWING YOUR BUSINESS EVEN WITHOUT SUFFICIENT CAPITAL
A couple of months ago, we conducted a market research for a client that manufactures and distributes a product which falls within the category of Fast Moving Consumer Goods [FMCGs]. Their target was to push their product into same league as global brands with a strong national presence in Nigeria.
The research was focused on Port Harcourt and the drag net captured three LGAs in Rivers State; Obio-Akpor, Phalga and Eleme. That means every neighbourhood in Port Harcourt was captured. Now, this is the interesting part!
Our client is chasing the bigger players and what that means is that they have been slicing off the market share of the big players just by penetrating the south-south market deeply. However, within the smaller neighbourhoods, especially in Abuloma, we noticed that a much smaller company was slicing off our client’s own market share by penetrating deeply into the Abuloma market and other neighborhoods.
So what’s the point?
Most small businesses and startups lack the financial muscle and operational capacity to give the big players a run for their money. Instead of just dreaming of the day you will square up with the big players and possibly beat them, you can actually focus your limited resources and energy on carving a niche for yourself.
What’s your lowest hanging fruit?
One neighbourhood after another, Habib Yoghurt now has a strong presence in most Nigerian cities including Port Harcourt. If it is one store you can get, give a razor sharp focus to it and penetrate the immediate market deeply, it generates revenue to keep you afloat and also gives you the much needed traction with which you can eventually lure investors and even expand. Before you get your 1000 subscribers, focus on the first 100 and before that, focus on the first 10. Scale down your operations to the barest minimum that your resources can carry. It’s called a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
By all means, find that one street, neighborhood, company, demographic, etc and penetrate it DEEPLY. Be an underdog, and if you don’t have the privilege of a bird’s eye view, capitalize on the privilege of a worm’s eye view. It’s luring to want to flesh out your full vision at once, but building up in milestones is more sustainable than trying to do it all at once.
Think about it. What has been the most rewarding source of revenue for you? Focus on it and penetrate that market deeply. You don’t have plenty seeds to scatter, why cut your only seed into several pieces?
Written by Maple Dappa
If you need help in any area, we are here to provide custom solutions. Let’s hear from you, send an email to wecare@mapemond.com and you could get a Free Brand Audit!
#BuildYourBrand #TheRightWay
A BEAUTIFUL SPOT THAT DIDN’T DESERVE A SECOND VISIT
Starting a business is one thing, building a business that not only stands the test of time but leaves lasting positive impressions on your clients, is another. My colleagues and I went out for some drinks at a new spot one of us had discovered; we decided it will be great to give it a shot. We all got there and sat back to take in the space; cool spot, great brand name. They took it up a notch by incorporating the name in their choice of materials for the interior design. Ingenious! The attendants were all smartly dressed in lovely branded T-shirts and the setting had a lovely rooftop view.
Generally, they had ticked off a few boxes on my list of what a great brand should be, but in a few minutes I was forced to rethink my review. More than 20minutes after our arrival, no attendant had come to take our order and efforts to call their attention were futile. So much for a great space, hmmm!
Eventually, we caught the attention of one of the attendants and a plain, ill-crafted menu was given to us. We expected that a menu befitting the space and design flow will be presented, but it was a mere A4 sheet with black print. No lamination, no art, nothing!
Anyway, we placed our orders but were gobsmacked at the cluelessness of the attendant when one of us had a few questions about the meal she intended to order. The platter of surprises was far from full as they kept serving more disappointments. After the stipulated time that they gave for our meals to be ready, we neither saw Chinaware nor silver cutlery and none of the waiters had the courtesy to apologize for the delay or affirm the food was getting prepared. After a prolonged wait, the food was served and it took complaints from us to elicit an apology from the attendant, who obviously had little or no training or knowledge on the rudiments of customer service.
Though the meal and ambience were wonderful, we had definitely struck off coming back to the establishment neither were we going to recommend it to anyone we knew. We were put-off by the poor service and nonchalant employees so much that we had no good reviews to put up. What’s the point in this?
At times, people think once you have a building with aesthetics and can afford some labour, your business is set. Not so! Branding a business goes beyond the buildings, aesthetics and employing people who wear uniforms; a distinct personality has to be created for your business in every way possible. Though the establishment in our aforementioned story had a desirable ambience (first impression), the services failed to portray a good ‘personality’ (character and conduct). If they had paid some attention to adequately training their staff to understand the importance of quality service as well as the vision, mission and core values, maybe the outcome would have been different.
Once the basics are addressed, your business will be sure-footed on its way to becoming a brand in every ramification; from name to service delivery. Once your customers are pleased with what your brand offers, ALOHA! to awesome reviews and customers that know your worth and will gladly pay for your services while they invite others to drink from the fountain of your proven brand!
If you will remember one thing, it is this;
Branding begins its journey from internal coordination before it gets to external communications.
Written by Kosisochukwu Ikeme
Do you need help to make branding give you better results? Then send us an email via wecare@mapemond.com
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