Business Branding Tips: How To Brand Your Business to Stand out In Nigeria

To brand your business in Nigeria is not an easy task. The goal of business branding is to conquer not only the consumer’s mind but also their heart. Branding your business defines you, your team, and your customers.

Building an exceptional brand is one of the most effective ways to outsmart your competitors. To achieve this, you need a well-mapped-out strategy that beats that of your competitors.

Table of Contents

So, what is the success of a brand in Nigeria?

The success of a brand goes far beyond the products it sells. Consumers unconsciously do not buy only products but also the brand’s ideals, values , and lifestyles.

Branding a business in a country like Nigeria requires strategies that build and maintain the “image” of a business. It helps a business to differentiate itself from its competition and retain its audience.

“Image” in this case does not refer to the logo of a business. It refers to how your audience’s feelings and expectations are nurtured and met through your brand.

Branding isn’t the same as advertising or marketing. These can only promote brand perception to the world. It is a task that requires time and effort; it can take years to achieve the personality you want to hold in the consumer’s mind.

How Do You Brand your Business in Nigeria?

Research

The first step in building a business brand in Nigeria is to perform extensive market research. Research is necessary to define your purpose and understand the dos and don’ts specific to that business. Every successful brand has a unique purpose that makes them different from its competitors. A purpose to fulfill to their audience and the general stakeholders.

When defining the purpose of a business and doing your research, you must consider the following:

Why must my business brand exist?
What will differentiate my brand from other brands?
What problem is my brand solving?
Why should my audience patronize me?

While doing research and discovering the purpose of your brand, you must have a clear understanding of the following elements:

Your target Audience

As a writer, I have my target audience while creating this content. They include emerging business owners, those planning to redefine their business brand, emerging business specialists, and brand designers. If you’re not in any of these categories, then you’re most likely in the wrong place.

The same should apply to you as you plan to brand your business brand. You must know your audience. It’s no secret that we all want different things, so don’t make the mistake of thinking you can speak to everyone.

Generally, you can’t focus on both babies and college students as a brand. Knowing how best to serve your audience is vital to creating a brand that people love.

Value proposition and competition

Know your value because you can’t create a brand different from your core value. Whatever your brand represents must align with your core business ideology and values. If your value about business is excellent, then your brand shouldn’t be far behind.

The difference between your business and your competition is the key to successful business branding. Observe your competitors, keep an eye on why they are successful, and learn about the branding techniques that are working for them. Then, craft your unique selling proposition to fill the gaps that are common to your competition.

Mission

At this point, you should know exactly what your company can offer to its audience. The mission is vital because it gives a clear and direct statement that describes your brand’s vision and goals.

Take, for example, a school with the motto, “Raising giant leaders.” Seeing or hearing this motto, you can easily imagine what the school represents, its value, and what it delivers. Your business’s mission statement is a way to explain your brand to anyone in an easy-to-understand manner.

Read also: Business reputation management for Nigerian Business owners

Create a visual identity

In the words of Paul Rand, “Visual design is your silent brand ambassador.” That is why you must not joke with this while branding a business because it is what identifies your brand anywhere.

The two visual elements that you must monitor and improve are:

Colour

This is a very vital part when you are building a business brand. Colour makes your brand identity attractive. It showcases you to the world. For example, the brand colour for the United Bank of Africa (UBA) is red, MTN is yellow, GLO is green, Airtel is red, and so on.

You may have heard of the psychology of colours. It simply emphasizes that each colour gives a specific idea and provokes certain feelings. When you are choosing colours for your brand, make sure it resonates with your brand’s mission.

You can have multiple colours, but one has to stand out enough that once anyone thinks of your business, that colour is the first to flash through their minds. The color red was not associated with Coca-Cola overnight. Facebook has its brand color, which is blue, and WhatsApp is green. This takes consistency and attention to detail.

Logo

The logo is the most recognized symbol of a brand. It appears in all aspects of your brand products and elements, from your website to your mobile app, business cards, and online advertisements. Make sure your logo communicates your brand name and vision to your audience wherever they see it.

Join us on WhatsApp to get access to free webinars on business growth, branding, and customer retention.

Create a communicative slogan

It is not only designs that bring a brand to life. A communicative slogan also carries the brand to life. For example, MTN’s motto is “Everywhere you go.” Without mentioning its name, everyone knows the brand that owns that phrase. Creating a slogan that is easy to remember makes it appear as though that particular phrase belongs only to your brand. That’s memorability in simple terms.

Advertising

Digital or physical advertisement is the most effective way to bring your brand to life and present it to the world. To convey your brand message to your audience in design, writing, audio, and video is to promote your brand and make yourself a household name.

Read also: Social media platforms you can use for advertising

In Conclusion

Branding a business is a long-term and continuous task that requires excellent strategic capacity, business skills, and capital.

Good business branding leaves an unforgettable memory in the minds of consumers. Therefore, you have to plan and execute correctly and with the utmost caution. A good brand is never forgotten, even when it has disappeared. No Nigerian of this generation can forget the early products of Nokia before Apple, Tecno, and itel dominated the communication industry. When you brand your business, you only stand to profit endlessly and in multiples.

Read also: How to build a successful small business in Nigeria

About Author

Olunlade Toluwalase Joshua

Olunlade Toluwalase Joshua is a Certified Content Writer, a Certified Computer Operator, and a Certified Copywriter. He is also a sexual puritan, a youth advocate, the Gospel's Voice.
He is passionate about the gospel and impacting lives with his writing skills and public speaking.

He guides youths to navigate the destructive and distracting hurdles on their path.
He is a reporter in a non-governmental Academic Organization called Aremu Oluwabrain Academy (AOA), the online Community of every Nigeria Student, to interact and get useful information.