Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / NEPA/AEDC Proofing Your Brand: Beyond Logo & Colour

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NEPA/AEDC Proofing Your Brand: Beyond Logo & Colour · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at branding
• 0:05
  theory versus practice. Again, today on the podcast,
• 0:09
  we're going to look at branding theory versus practice.
• 0:12
  And the reason why is because I think maybe last week when I was
• 0:17
  telling you guys about changes coming to the podcast, well, not
• 0:19
  really changes per say, you know, like I'm getting a new
• 0:22
  logo as in the podcast is getting a makeover basically.
• 0:25
  So on that podcast episode, I think I spoke about the
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  difference between what most Nigerians mean when they hear
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  branding, which is colour, logo, websites, fonts, you know, stuff
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  like that. And then practice the much more
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  substantial theory of branding, which is that your brand is the
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  sum total of all the experiences that your customers have when
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  they interact with you. So it's not just what is the
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  colour of your logo? So it's a combination of
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  everything. What is the colour of your logo?
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  That's a brand. What kind of fonts do you use?
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  That's a brand. Your material, is it embossed or
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  be? Is it glossy?
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  That's the brand. Your staff, are they rude?
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  That's the brand. Your sales people, are they
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  polite? That's a brand.
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  Do you always deliver on time? That's a brand.
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  Is it that, you know, send your customer?
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  That's the brand. So those are some of the things
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  that when I talk about over here on the podcast, when I talk
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  about branding, you know, I try and tease out some of these
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  things because too many of us Niger people, to be honest,
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  we're in love with colours, logos, websites, fonts and you
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  know, the Instagram having a cohesive, what will I say?
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  A cohesive, cohesive, how will I say now, you know, like
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  everything is well put together and everything looks alright.
• 1:48
  So today on the podcast, branding theory versus practice.
• 1:55
  So I'm making today's recording at home.
• 1:58
  It just finished raining. So that's where you're going to
• 2:00
  hear some noise in the background, you know, some
• 2:02
  rumbling in the background and stuff like that.
• 2:04
  Now if you're tired of looking for, you know, business
• 2:08
  strategies and tips and things like that, everything Jaws
• 2:10
  night, you know, America, UK, you know, stuff like that, but
• 2:14
  no good stuff for Nigeria, then welcome to the podcast.
• 2:17
  This is the show for you. I'm your host, Tavishima Ahidi
• 2:20
  and for years I've been dropping practical stuff here, realistic
• 2:23
  stuff, relevant stuff so that we can get results in the Nigerian
• 2:27
  market. So if you are ready to stop
• 2:31
  listening to all that generic stuff that exists out there, you
• 2:33
  want to grow your business in Nigerian way, then stay locked
• 2:36
  in to this podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube,
• 2:41
  Apple or any player of your choice.
• 2:43
  And if you'd love to connect, call, send me a text message or
• 2:46
  WhatsApp message on 08064662140. All right, so like I said to the
• 2:54
  only show branding theory versus practice.
• 2:59
  So like I said, here in Niger, lots of us think branding means
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  colours, logos, websites, fonts. And the example that I used the
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  last time was Napa or PHC and Power Holding Corporation or the
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  more local entities, I mean the distribution companies, you
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  know, ADC, Abuja Electricity distribution company, what again
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  Lagos 1 is what is the EE distribution company?
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  I mean EKDC, you know, Ebadon, you know, Plateau as in
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  everywhere, we all have our own DC.
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  So if you look at that organization, you know, former
• 3:41
  NEPA, PACNADC, all of them, if you look at their branding on
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  point, their Twitter pages on point, OK, I haven't checked
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  their Instagrams, websites, not bad.
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  The fonts, all good colours, nice logo, correct?
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  Enter their offices, especially the Abuja offices, you know AC
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  tight, see all the August cars, you know properly branded, you
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  know looking all nice looking as in do they have a correct brand?
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  You're damn right they have a good brand.
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  When you call them on the phone that the automated something
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  will say, oh your call is valuable to us, something,
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  something, something. Because of that, we are audited
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  by Deloitte to ensure customer service something so they have
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  even gone to go and pay Deloitte International Consulting.
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  So from a theory perspective, branding on point.
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  Meanwhile, let's look at the customer experience.
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  I told you guys, somebody reached out to me and the guy
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  was laughing, well, not really laughing per SE, but you know,
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  he just said what are the odds that, you know, Independence
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  Day, you know, every, every, what I mean while pass of Abuja,
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  one whole week, no light, more than one week no water.
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  Of course they didn't tell us before they you know, did all
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  this. So one week blackout, no public
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  announcements, no WhatsApp messages.
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  If I, when I tried to reach, I tried to call in customer care,
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  they admitted that they had a problem with some of their
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  computer systems. So they were backed up on
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  WhatsApp messages. It was not getting through, you
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  know, And of course they have that wonderful automated message
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  whenever you try and call them. You know, your call is important
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  to us, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, AEDC, valuing your Peace
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  of Mind. Something, something, something,
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  something. We take customer service
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  seriously. We're audited by Deloitte, blah,
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  blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they kept me on hold.
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  Normally I would have caught the call, but you know, the VEX,
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  seriously. So I hung on, I guess, how many
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  minutes I hung on the phone 18 minutes and 18 seconds before
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  somebody responded. I repeat, they kept me on hold
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  18 minutes and 18 seconds. That's how long I was on the on
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  the phone. Meanwhile, for those 18 minutes,
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  they'll be repeating the same thing.
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  Your call is important to us. We take customer service
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  seriously. We are audited by Deloitte,
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  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Your call is important to us.
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  I sat there for 18 minutes listening to your call is
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  important was in fact the other line for this episode.
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  I wrote it. Wow, I was waiting on that call.
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  Another thing is all that voice thing that they have there is
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  really nice, real sweet. They got professional voice
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  actors to do it, you know, didn't they?
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  They did. So now honest to consider one
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  question. AEDC, NEPA, you know all of
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  them, whatever. Do they have a good brand or
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  not? I repeat, do they have a good
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  brand or not? For those of you who think of
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  branding as colour, logo, website, font, fonts, they have
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  a good brand. If you look at the much more
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  substantial theory around branding, ask yourself, does
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  NEPA, PHEMADC, Echo, DC, Ibadon, BDC, Just BDZ, All the BDC, so
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  all the DC, do they have good brands or not?
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  Now some of you will say, Tarishma, you're being all fair.
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  Now you're picking a very, very extreme case to prove your
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  point. And yeah, I will admit I am
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  picking the extreme case. It's just that I'm trying to
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  prove a point. When I go on all these brown
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  things, most of us are not this bad.
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  Most of us are not as bad as NEPA.
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  Most of us are, you know, 5050. Even myself, I'm not perfect,
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  but I used this extreme example just to illustrate one point.
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  There's a proper way of how to think about the brand of your
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  business. Those of you who are obsessed
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  with colour, logo, websites, fonts, there's a whole lot more
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  to it and I think you're better off paying attention to the much
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  more substantive side of these things.
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  What is the customer experience? How do you deal with customers
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  when they interact with you? Do they come over with a sour
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  taste in their mouth? These are the things you ought
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  to be paying attention to and another reason why also about
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  that. My neighbor, she's about to put
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  on her generator. You know, I told you that Nepal
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  issues and her daughter is getting married tomorrow, poor
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  woman. So, you know, nowadays now, so
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  neighbors, everybody, I say neighbors, family members at
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  home and you know, things like that and I feel sorry for them.
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  Imagine planning a wedding no like no other.
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  Anyway, where was I? Anyway, so I was saying that is
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  you're better off thinking about the brand in much more
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  substantive terms. And another benefit of thinking
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  about the actual practice, actual practice, not just theory
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  or the much more substantive ideas behind branding is this.
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  By the time you call the brand professional, you've been
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  paying, if you have been paying attention to doing business,
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  right, any question that the brand professional asks you, you
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  will have answers so that you can give them that they will now
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  use to inform your brand. And that is precisely the
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  exercise that I went through with Elizabeth and her firm
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  Gaussian Media. I know in the older other
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  episodes I said Elite, but that's because I think when I
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  first, when we first started chatting and I checked her in
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  LinkedIn handle, I think there was something there about Elite
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  branding Agency or something like that.
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  So that's how I got it mixed up. But it actually is Goshen Media.
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  Yeah, Goshen, like Redeem Church for those of you who are
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  wondering. But no, she's not affiliated
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  with Redeem Church. It's just the same, the same
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  name. So it was like that because I
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  have been paying attention to the substantial things, the cost
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  of my experience. You know, how do I treat my
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  customers, who are the kind of customers I'm trying to attract?
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  How do I treat listeners to the show?
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  What are the kind of topics that I talk about when people get in
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  touch with me? What are the kind of questions
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  that I answer? Because I've been focused on
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  that for the last five years. When Elizabeth and her crew sat
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  me down to ask me questions so that they could come up with all
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  these changes, come up with logo, come up with colour, come
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  up with fonts. I had answers to give them, and
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  that is what informed the design.
• 11:02
  So in a couple of days, we've already agreed on the final
• 11:05
  designs. The new podcast cover is going
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  to be up. Yeah.
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  And everything looks nice and fancy.
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  They did a good job. If I'm looking at what they did
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  now is now I can see that truly, truly, truly.
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  My old stuff was was was basic as in basic AF.
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  Anyway, So yeah, changes coming to the partner, but don't worry,
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  the changes that are coming are not substantial.
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  Excuse me? I'm still going to be answering
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  the same kinds of questions that I did on the show in the past.
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  We're still going to be talking to the same kind of people,
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  still going to be answering the same kinds of questions, and I'm
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  still going to be obsessed with the same kinds of issues on my
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  core thesis that we all need to learn how to sell in order to
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  improve our businesses and improve our personal lot in
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  life. The core thesis is still there.
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  So we'll always be talking about sales.
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  Always, especially personal selling because you can get good
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  at branding, you can get good at positioning, you can get good at
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  building sales. For now, get good at
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  advertising. But last, last, you have to pick
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  up the phone and talk to somebody.
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  If you don't like answering phones anyhow, you have to pick
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  up the keyboard. I respond to a WhatsApp message,
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  respond to Adm, respond to an e-mail, any which way.
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  Eventually it all boils down to personal setting because one
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  person must talk to somebody else.
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  Especially for those of us in the SME space.
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  So again, those of you who say, excuse me, I hate branding
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  because I've got that comment from a few people.
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  In fact, Elizabeth said it herself when we're about to
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  start working together, he said, oh, I know you don't like
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  branding. I said, oh, no, no, no, it's not
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  like that was nice if I hate branding.
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  So I'm trying to qualify some of the ideas that I expressed over
• 13:00
  here on the podcast. You know, there's a proper way
• 13:02
  to think about branding and branding is a useful tool.
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  What some of you are just too obsessed about it.
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  By the way, one guy that I mentioned, I think now if you
• 13:11
  reach like 2 months, I say how far?
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  Not guessing. I'm working on my brand.
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  Guess what, guess guess if he had started, the answer is no,
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  the guy hasn't started. So before I met him, I'm working
• 13:22
  on my brand. While I met him while we're
• 13:24
  talking, I'm working on my brand.
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  Two months later I'm working on my brand.
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  Can you guys see how see how in real life this fascination with
• 13:32
  brand thing, it will stop you from getting started.
• 13:35
  Hope you guys can see I'm not making this stuff up.
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  I see before I met the guy, I'm working on my brand.
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  The day I was talking to the guy, I'm working on my brand.
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  Two months don't pass how far I'm working on my brand.
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  Anyway, So what should never do? AEDC, all these kind of
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  companies, Nigerian companies, If you're actually worried about
• 14:02
  your brand, what should you do? I really think you'd have more
• 14:07
  customer service professionals, more CX professionals, have more
• 14:10
  people on the phone. Don't let people wait for too
• 14:12
  long. Don't let your communication
• 14:13
  structure breakdown. Let people's messages and
• 14:16
  complaints get through. Make sure we have shorter
• 14:19
  waiting times because problems go wherever.
• 14:22
  Lead day always. Then communicate downturns.
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  Never. You know you guys should be
• 14:32
  communicating downturns. Your Twitter handle is nice and
• 14:35
  sweet, you know, so be using our sweet Twitter handle to be
• 14:39
  letting people know just coming in, just breaking.
• 14:43
  So, so, so feeder broken down between Ibadan and Lagos.
• 14:47
  Because of this, our engineers have been mobilized swiftly to
• 14:50
  start work. We are thinking that it will
• 14:52
  take like 76 hours for the problem to be resolved.
• 14:56
  Put it out there now. You know, Nigeria, we always
• 14:58
  like to you know, people who screen grab, retweet, you know,
• 15:02
  stuff like that. The news will go round
• 15:05
  practically communicable. People let people know what's
• 15:07
  up. Business people listening to
• 15:11
  this, let your customers know what's up.
• 15:13
  Sometimes the reason why is your why your customers they vex is
• 15:16
  because you're not saying anything.
• 15:19
  You told that the delivery was going to be there in 2 weeks. 2
• 15:22
  weeks was September 11th. Now it is September 23rd.
• 15:26
  They have not had anything. Of course, the girl with a vex.
• 15:31
  Of course you'll be seriously vexed because you didn't say
• 15:34
  anything. The moment you know there's
• 15:37
  going to be a problem, let her know what's up.
• 15:40
  Oh, Madam, we promised you September 11th.
• 15:43
  I'm terribly sorry this thing happened.
• 15:45
  This thing happened. Looks like there's going to be a
• 15:47
  delay. Please, Madam, do not be
• 15:50
  disappointed. It's looking like we might have
• 15:54
  your delivery there by September 23rd.
• 15:57
  Not later than September 23rd. Now.
• 16:00
  She was new Vex. It's just that the formal
• 16:03
  vaccine where you didn't say anything is much much much much
• 16:07
  greater than the one where you initially told us September
• 16:11
  11th. But then by September 6th,
• 16:13
  September 5th, when you knew that was problem, you called
• 16:15
  her, you told her it's not September 23rd the Vex won't be
• 16:19
  as big. Lots of times that's the reason
• 16:22
  why customers does the Vex anyhow.
• 16:26
  So just like ADC, NEPA, Echo, DC, Ebadon, BDC, Jos, DC, you
• 16:32
  know, all the distribution companies, just like how they
• 16:34
  should proactively communicate, we should also proactively
• 16:37
  communicate with our customers. Thank you very much for the
• 16:40
  order. We received the transfer.
• 16:43
  Your order is now being processed.
• 16:45
  Good morning, Sir. Your order has been processed.
• 16:47
  It's being delivered. It's on his way to you right now
• 16:49
  in Maiduguri. Sorry Sir, through no fault of
• 16:54
  ours, your order has been delayed because local gas, local
• 16:58
  council, government at the border stopped your order.
• 17:01
  We are sending agents now to go and sort out the issues.
• 17:04
  Please expect delivery to be 5 days later.
• 17:07
  You know, be updating people, let people know also also.
• 17:14
  What else? Anyway, let me just leave it
• 17:17
  like that because when it comes to these things, we can keep on
• 17:19
  talking on and on and on and on, but how it affects we business
• 17:25
  owners is very simple. Can you see that the things that
• 17:30
  Napa or not, these big companies, the things that they
• 17:32
  need to do, they're seriously preoccupied about their brand is
• 17:36
  to do all the substantive things and not waste millions and
• 17:39
  millions of naira in contracts for logo and website and
• 17:43
  everything. And it's the same thing for you
• 17:44
  too. So right now, if you cannot
• 17:47
  afford to have a branding professional, you know, someone
• 17:51
  like Elizabeth to come and look at your stuff, it's OK.
• 17:55
  But don't think because of that you can't start.
• 17:58
  As I'm telling you right now, somebody sent me a message
• 18:00
  today, Person wants to be guy wants to do mobile gadgets, you
• 18:05
  know, phones, computers, those sorts of things.
• 18:09
  You know, he doesn't have money for branding a CSE registration.
• 18:12
  That's what's holding him back. He really thinks that is what is
• 18:16
  holding him back because he doesn't have money for CSE
• 18:18
  registration and he doesn't have money to pay for branding and
• 18:22
  local designs. That's not what's holding you
• 18:24
  back. It's not you're afraid of a
• 18:26
  bunch of stuff. I'm not quite sure what you're
• 18:28
  afraid of, but all you need to do is to go out and start
• 18:32
  talking to people and sell a bunch of phones.
• 18:34
  From the small profit you make, you be able to pull aside some
• 18:36
  coins and then you talk to your cousin who just finished from
• 18:39
  law school and you give him something.
• 18:43
  With that, you'll be able to help you sort out CAC.
• 18:45
  That is one thing that is now. Then continue to sell your
• 18:48
  phones from the small, small, small, small coins that you
• 18:51
  gather. You can now go and call somebody
• 18:53
  to do your branding thing is not important to you.
• 18:56
  Well, trust me, if you're listening to this podcast now
• 18:59
  and you really think the reason why you haven't started your
• 19:01
  business is, excuse me, because you don't have money for CAC
• 19:06
  registration and you don't have money for branding.
• 19:10
  I don't mean to be rude, but you're telling yourself a lie.
• 19:12
  There's something else that you're afraid of.
• 19:14
  Maybe you're afraid of talking to strangers.
• 19:16
  Maybe you don't think you can really do it.
• 19:19
  Maybe I'll become a graphic designer.
• 19:21
  Maybe you really think you know, you don't have the skills to do
• 19:23
  graphic designs. There's some other thing you're
• 19:25
  afraid of. There's no branding that's
• 19:27
  holding you back and there's no CAC registration that's holding
• 19:30
  you back. And you forgive me that this is
• 19:33
  another rambling episode. I really shouldn't be doing
• 19:36
  this. You know, when something happens
• 19:38
  and I just vex and I come and just vomit on you guys.
• 19:41
  So I shouldn't really be doing that.
• 19:42
  But anyway, that's pretty much what I want to talk about.
• 19:47
  Oh, by the way, the best thing, after being kept on the phone
• 19:50
  for 18 minutes and 18 seconds after we finished talking and
• 19:54
  after the babe could not give me any helpful information, that's
• 19:57
  what she told me. She told me, kindly end the
• 19:59
  call. I love the way Nigerians talk.
• 20:03
  Kindly end the call. Does anything there sound kind
• 20:06
  to you? Does anything there sound
• 20:10
  empathetic to you? That's what the babes said.
• 20:11
  Kindly end this call. I said Jack Nigerians, I have a
• 20:15
  way with words but I like it. I like it.
• 20:17
  So maybe one day too when I'm vexing with somebody on the
• 20:19
  call, I said look, you know what bro, kindly end this call.
• 20:24
  It's a nice one. It's a nice way of being cut and
• 20:28
  rude and you know to the point without saying anything rude
• 20:31
  because if you look at the words that she used, kindly end the
• 20:34
  call. It's nothing bad when we that's
• 20:36
  how the interaction ended. Anyway, poor girl.
• 20:40
  I really hope they increase their salary because I'm sure
• 20:42
  lots of people have called to shout on her that day.
• 20:45
  Anyway, let me stop doing therapy over here.
• 20:47
  So that's it and that's all. Remember if you'd love to
• 20:49
  connect, you can call, send me a text message when I want that
• 20:52
  message on 08064662140. And if you're ready for more
• 20:59
  realistic stuff, tips, tricks, strategies, things are working
• 21:03
  in the Nigerian market, then you are in the right place.
• 21:06
  Because in this very feed where you're listening to this
• 21:08
  podcast, whether you're on YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher,
• 21:12
  whoever you are, we have over 1000 episodes, over 1200
• 21:18
  episodes. So keep listening, keep
• 21:23
  scrolling, keep listening, keep binging, keep taking notes, keep
• 21:27
  applying. There are people who are
• 21:28
  applying and they're getting results and that could be you
• 21:31
  too. So thanks for your time and
• 21:33
  attention. I will see you guys soon.