Erin O’Neill, in his 2015 LCCA blog article titled; the history of branding, stated that branding dated back to around 2000BC and was used to depict ownership. He gave examples of how farmers branded their cattle to distinguish them from other livestock and how craftsmen imprinted symbols onto their goods to signify their origins.
However, in today’s business world, full of innovation and competition, brand creation and management have taken different dimensions. Martin Roll, in his martinroll.com article titled; Strong brands are led by the CEO, stressed that brand building could be expensive, yet a necessary top-driven strategy that business leaders should adopt to grow and manage their businesses.
This led Dianna Games, in her 2013 Business Live article titled; Failure in Nigeria is often due to poor business strategies, to lament that Nigeria is a tough business operating environment and that it is necessary to learn how to work within its challenges to succeed. “Nigerian consumers are branding savvy. If they are going to pay higher prices for goods, they want global brands they recognise; brands that tap into their aspirations,” she wrote.
Nigeria’s branding challenges have made some business and brand strategists like Simeon Taiwo, Omobabinrin Osideko, Maple Dappa, Blessing Ifegwu, and others to advocate that every serious business leader should understand what business leadership and branding are about.
Business leadership and rudiments of branding
It is difficult to place a value on business leadership. Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, in their 2008 Harvard Business Review paper titled ‘Building a leadership brand’, stated that organisations with leadership brand take an ‘outside-in’ approach to executive development, and that they begin with a clear statement of what they want to be known for by customers and then link it with a required set of management skills.
Simeon Taiwo, the founder of Clarylife Global, a branding and web development agency based in Rivers State, who has worked with different brands defined business leadership as the ability to cast a solid vision for a business, accurately define its current realities and then inspire others to journey with you from there into that future you can see.
Omobabinrin Osideko, a chartered accountant with Crystal Edge Professional Services, who has also worked with a couple of brands stated that leadership is everywhere, adding that effective leadership is about influence that makes an organisation achieve growth and success.
Branding is simply the process of developing a distinctive name and identity for a product, service, individual or company. A brand’s name should not be mistaken with a trademark, which is the brand’s name or part of the brand’s name that is legally protected.
There are many types of branding. But, according to Simon Page College of Marketing, there are six major types, which are product, corporate, personal, co-branding, retail, and geographical branding.
Maple Dappa, Chief Consultant of Mapemond Limited, based in Rivers State, who has had stint with big brands also noted that building a brand runs deeper than just visual identity design (logo).
He further noted that making a business a brand gives it a life and personality of its own, and also defines and projects its uniqueness to attract the desired target customers.
Blessing Ifegwu, a ‘brandpreneur’ and CEO of Lucien Professional Services, based in Abia State, stressed that every business owner must know that a brand is a promise of transformation, and that branding positions the business leader as the right person for that transformation. She added that branding is a promise to take an ideal business client or target audience from a defined but uncomfortable state to a desired state.
Brand characteristics and why businesses need branding
According to Philip Kotler and others’ 2009 book titled ‘Principles of marketing’, brand identity may offer four levels of meaning, which are: attributes (labels the business wants to be associated with), benefits (emotional translation of the brand), values (attraction of customers who share the same values), and personality (helps in breeding long-time relationships with customers).
An article on Codecrater website titled ‘A brief history of branding and why you need it’, noted that the key components of every brand are visual identity, communication, awareness and loyalty. These components and their examples include: name (Apple), logo (Starbucks), tagline (McDonald’s “I’m loving’ it”), shapes (Volkswagon Beetle), graphics (the ribbon in Coca-Cola), colours (Ferrari red), sounds (NBC’s chime), scents (Chanel No. 5), tastes (KFC special recipe of 11 herbs and spices), movements (Lamborghini upwards motion of its’ car doors).
Taiwo noted that brand characteristics include, but not limited to, authenticity (people want to see that you are true to your market), uniqueness (you gain attention when you solve a unique problem), consistency (words and impact must match).
Osideko agreed with Taiwo’s stance, adding that consistency, integrity and quality of delivery are the major brand characteristics every business leader should know.
Mitchell Grant, in his 2020 article on brand management, stressed that it takes years to establish a brand, but when it fully occurs, it has to be maintained through innovation and creativity.
Dappa emphasised that every business leader should leave no stone unturned in making their business a profitable, sustainable and reputable brand. He added that every business is on a journey, and branding empowers leaders to tell the story of that journey in creative ways, and brings others like customers, talents, and partners to journey with them. “The end goal is to constantly improve your bottom line while keeping your customers and team members happy in the relationship,” he said.
Ifegwu, on the other hand, stated that every business has a brand because people will always have a perception of it. She added that with a strong brand, every business gets seen, heard and paid. “Your ability to define and control your business perception through branding, determines if you’re going to get a sustainable inflow of income or not,” she said.
Brands merits and marketability
Beattie stated that a brand is considered among the intangible assets of a company whose value investors are difficult to put a number on. On the major merits of branding, he wrote, “The power of branding can help a company triumph in a price war, thrive in a recession, or simply grow operating margins and create shareholder value.”
Taiwo opined that there is no business without a brand, that there are only those who intentionally position and nurture their brands and those who do not. “The advantage is that a business with an intentional and nurtured brand can influence people’s perceptions and predict traction,” he added.
Osideko emphasised that a business with a brand has a better competitive advantage of increasing its credibility, sales and customer base. “It strengthens customer relationship and trust, and gives the business more exposure and visibility,” she said.
In their 2013 paper, Shirazi and others investigated the effect of brand identity on customer loyalty from a social identity perspective. They noted that a brand’s identity would be obsolete without an on-going brand communication. One of the ways business leaders can promote and market their brands is through the integrated marketing communications (IMC), whose five components include: advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, and public relations.
Dappa stated that marketing a brand is a function of telling the story of the brand to the right audience through the right channels. “It’s typically dependent on the brand’s objectives. The brand must have a core message communicated through multiple media channels as applicable to its target audience,” he added.
Ifegwu agreed with Dappa. She noted that company and personal influences matter, and that if people trust a business; it will be much easier for them to trust anything that comes from it. “Public relations and engaging in social impact campaigns come highly recommended as well. Build influence around yourself and your business, and it’ll rub off on your brand,” she said.
Brand-customer relationship and management
Good brand recognition can lead to trust, quality, sense of long-term security, and indicates that the business is serious about leaving a good impression. Another article on Investopedia titled ‘What impact does brand quality have on profit’, stated that, “When customers attach a level of quality or prestige to a brand, they perceive that brand’s products as being worth more than product’s by competitors.”
Taiwo emphasised that the hallmark of branding is to build trust and rapport that goes beyond just a transactional relationship. “When trust and reputation are built, customers become loyalists and happy ‘evangelists’ of such a business,” he added.
Osideko said, “People buy from a business they know, like and trust. This is exactly what branding does.”
Claire Holland, in her 2020 entreprenuer.com article titled ‘top signs your brand strategy is losing focus’, listed four major reasons why brands loss value, which are: forgetting why a particular brand and message are important; flooding the market with inconsistent messaging; visual brand appearing out-dated; and trying to boost sells by diversifying results in muddled branding messaging.
Furthermore, a 2019 Forbes article titled ‘Has your company brand lost its luster? Try these 14 tips’, advised that if a company’s brand is lacklustre, it should consider steps to refresh the public’s opinion of their business, adding that, “Focus on the people and the numbers will come. Focus on the employees and they’ll advocate for the brand.”
Most companies, in order to expand their brands, engage in brand extension. But Professor Kevin Keller of Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College, United States, warned that brand extension “can limit a brand to a narrower image, making it harder for customers to think about the brand in a more expensive way.”
Dappa noted that to maintain a brand requires proper systems and structures that will be binding on all stakeholders like a constitution. “The core pillar of a business brand is its ability to stick to the core and fundamental values, even as the business would have to keep changing and adapting to an ever-evolving market,” he added.
Ifegwu stated that for business leaders to sustain their brands they have to deliver on the defined promise, consistently stay focused to their target market, and showcase the ability to innovatively explore new ideas.
Finally, Marin Roll stressed that one has to be an excellent business leader and brand marketer with an international edge to manage a brand.
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