WE PRESENT MAPEMOND BUSINESS ACADEMY!
We realized that while sharing random business posts on social media was good for building the business acumen of Nigerian entrepreneurs, there was still a huge gap with easily accessible and well-structured business courses that will equip business owners to build bigger and better businesses.
After several months of doing the background work, we present to you MAPEMOND BUSINESS ACADEMY (Physical & Online options for all courses).
Discount currently applies to all courses for the next couple of days. We maintain a small class for physical classes, so book your seat right away!
#DoBusinessBetter
GRASPING THE RELATIONSHIP AND DIFFERENCE: BRANDING, MARKETING, AND SALES
THE BRAND TRIANGLE: THREE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF BRAND DEVELOPMENT
Written by Maple Dappa
For a triangle to be formed, three straight lines and points must be aligned together in the proper way. It’s the same in branding. There are three core cardinal points that must align for your brand to stand out and last long. They are People, Process, and Perception.
People
This is very crucial to the successful building of a brand because people will have to bring the vision alive. You cannot build a solid brand without the right people, the right welfare and the right leadership.
Who are the people involved with your brand from the management to your employees to your clients and customers?
How does the management relate with employees?
How do they build the team?
Are the employees true believers of the brands?
Will they grow with the brand?
How do you treat your customers?
Does your brand satisfy their needs, cravings and expectation?
Always remember that people are the foundation of every brand.
Process
This involves the following:
• Setting up your organizational structure
• Defining your vision for the brand and having a direction for the brand
• Strategies you employ
• Your brand belief
• How you share your brand story
• Documenting your journey
• Your operational procedures
Perception
In building your brand, you must never make the mistake of leaving the perception of your business to chance. This is because it is very detrimental to your brand. You have to intentionally create and push the right perception of your brand consistently.
Starting from your brand name which should be simple and relatable, to your logo, to your font styles, to your brand colours which should align with what your brand represents, to your marketing materials, stationery, to the kind of adverts you put out, to your graphics, to your website and your pages on social media.
You must use every avenue available to you to influence the right perception for your brand.
Is your brand a luxury brand? Then you should make sure everybody coming in contact with your brand think and feel that way.
Grasping these three essential elements of brand development will most certainly set you on the right course if your goal is to build a profitable, sustainable, and reputable brand.
#DoBusinessBetter
11 WAYS CUSTOMERS RELATE WITH YOUR BRAND
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.
FINDING THE SWEET SPOT FOR BRAND GROWTH.
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.
DEVELOPING AN INDEPENDENT SALES SYSTEM FOR YOUR BUSINESS
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.
NAMING YOUR BRAND RIGHT.
A brand name does not merely exist to reflect the idea of a business but to help in promoting and selling the brand to its target audience. If you have to keep explaining your brand name to people, you need to start thinking of another name. Your target audience should be able to connect with your brand name in some ways – pronouncing it, appeal, or nature of business.
You can use your business name as your brand name, but it is not a must. Therefore, if you have already registered your company and it is not suitable as the brand name, the company name can be different from the brand name. That is better than the continuous struggle to explain your name.
Think of the company Nestle and the brand names Milo, Nido, Goldenmorn, Purelife, Kitkat, Maggi, etc.
Think of the company Food Concept Limited and the brand name Chicken Republic.
There is the company Tech Premier Media Limited and the brand name Techpoint.ng
Think of the company Sundry Foods Limited and the brand name Kilimanjaro.
Think of the company Guaranty Trust Bank and the brand name 737.
Think of the company Transsion Limited and the brands Tecno and Infinix.
Same with Unilever and others.
Can you think of other examples? Service-based brands can also apply the same concept. It is important to mention that some companies become brands in themselves. However, our usage of the term “brand name” refers to the same thing as “trade name”, which means the name a company uses to promote itself to the market.
If your brand name is different from your registered company name, you will have to spend some money to trademark the brand name so that it belongs to you. By the way, even your company name is not really yours until you trademark it. In other words, the person who trademarks your company name has the proprietary right to the name even though the name is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Your brand name is part of your marketing, eliminate unnecessary hurdles with your naming. If you are looking at building something sustainable, get the naming of your brand right, and work towards protecting the name by all means necessary and possible.
DO YOU FEEL RELUCTANT SOMETIMES IN MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS? READ THIS!
There is a silent and internal conflict that we have noticed with some entrepreneurs.
On one hand, they want their business to grow in leaps and bounds and be known across the world.
And on the other hand, they don’t push their business enough like they should because there is the feeling of “should I be bragging about what I am doing?”, “shouldn’t somebody else do the talking of how good my product/service is?”, and so on.
It’s a conflict between market and social ethics.
In social ethics, you don’t blow your trumpet – this is why some people have concerns when donors at orphanages pose in pictures and broadcast it.
In market ethics, you blow the trumpet as loud as you can with support from customers’ testimonials – this is why some who have a default marketing mindset to pose in pictures at orphanages to let the world know their efforts and probably motivate others to also reach out.
We have left out the category of people who pose in pictures at orphanages just for show-off or clout.
In social ethics, it’s offensive if you offer money to a family that graciously showed you good hospitality when you visited. If you must give money, you disguise it as gift for the kids or something else but not as a reward for the hosting.
In market ethics, it’s irresponsible and wicked if you go to a dear friend’s restaurant to eat without the intention of paying for it or mentioning first that you don’t have money to pay at the moment.
Please, don’t stay quiet or modest about your business endeavour. Throw shame out of the window. Kick fear and timidity out of the door. We are not saying overhype it or promise what you cannot deliver. We are saying you should be more courageous, confident, and ready to talk about your business with every opportunity that you get.
Summary: There is nothing wrong with blowing your trumpet in business. Blow it or be blown out of business. It is called brand visibility and marketing, not boasting.
We hope this was insightful.
We are here if you need our support. Just send an email to wecare@mapemond.com
HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS BEYOND YOU
When it comes to small businesses on social media, the personal timelines of the owners have more content and engagement than the official pages.
We think this happens for several reasons that are understandable.
But we would like to remind you to note that you would need others to drive the entire social media bit someday while you focus on other things. So in whatever you are doing presently, do not neglect the official pages. We see many business owners not responding to comments on their official pages or responding days later.
If building a sustainable company brand out of the business is your desire, keep thinking about putting structured systems in place, think into the future, and put things in place in the bits you can gradually.
A question to ponder on,
Can someone take over the social media drive of your business and move it to a level beyond what you have been doing or at least keep it at the same level?
No matter the amazing results you are getting now, don’t stay stuck with self-employment modus operandi.
You can build something truly phenomenal. Go for it and make it last.
We are a voice from the future speaking to you.
If you need support to get it right, send us an email at wecare@mapemond.com
YOU NEED YOUR OWN MARKETING CHANNELS
Imagine that you own a salon and employed someone to help manage it while you focus on your 8-5.
The manager made a request for a dedicated smartphone that will be used for social media management and other communications with customers, but you said no, the manager should use her own phone. You want to avoid the cost of buying a phone.
Customers call the manager’s phone line directly. She takes images with her phone and puts them up on her Whatsapp status to market the salon, they chat with her, and engagement with customers is increasing.
She moves on eventually to another salon and each time your customers call or chats her up, she mentions that she is no longer with your salon but directs them there, most of them insist to use her new salon. They have gotten used to interacting with her and her phone line cannot be passed on to your new manager.
The cost of losing some of your customers is higher than buying a phone that was meant to be an asset to your business.
Employees will definitely have personal interactions with customers, but the business itself should have its own communication channels – Whatsapp, Telegram, Phone Lines, etc – and devices that will remain even when employees move on.
Take your communication channels seriously.
DID YOU FIND THIS CONTENT ENLIGHTENING?
If your answer is yes! then you will surely find our Telegram Community valuable to your business journey.
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The Benefits:
– Three free e-books by us
– Regular branding lessons
– Quick business clinic
– Case studies
– Referral bonuses
– Peer mentoring
– Debates (think tanks)
– Learning resources
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– Useful templates
– Special discounts
– Access to our events
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