Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Branding or Building: What to Prioritise for Nigerian Growth?

Transcript

Branding or Building: What to Prioritise for Nigerian Growth? · 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 look at my perspectives
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  on branding. What is branding?
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  When should you be branding? Who should be branding?
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  When should branding become your headache?
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  Those are the questions that we're going to look at today on
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  the podcast. Now, I'm making today's
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  recording at home so there will be noise in the background,
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  especially since the AEDC is misbehaving over here in Abuja.
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  So all my neighbors are blasting generator.
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  So that's where all the noise is going to come from.
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  Now, if you're tired of using business strategies that seem to
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  work in America and the UK but they fail every time you try it
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  in Nigeria, then this podcast is for you.
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  Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tava Shima Aidi,
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  and for years I've been bringing you practical, realistic and
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  relevant insights that gives results in the Nigerian market.
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  So if you're ready to stop wasting time on generic advice
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  and start growing your business the Nigerian way, then stay
• 0:58
  locked into the podcast and subscribe on Spotify, YouTube,
• 1:03
  Apple or any player of your choice.
• 1:05
  And if you'd love to connect, call, send me a text message or
• 1:09
  WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Again, today on the podcast, I
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  said we're going to be talking about my perspectives on
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  branding. Why?
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  Why are we doing that today? And the reason why we're doing
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  so is very simple. I'm currently talking to
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  Elizabeth, a listener of the podcast from Elite, is it Elite
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  Branding agency? So I can't remember the name of
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  her business, but I'm going to be talking about them in the
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  future. And of course, by the name of
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  the business, you know that she's involved in branding.
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  And from my conversations with her, not just her, but with
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  other people who are involved in brand, you know, you brand and
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  PR professionals. It looks like I've created a bit
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  of a misunderstanding because I seem to rag on branding a lot.
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  So there are lots of people who just assume I am anti branding
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  or I don't think branding works. Why?
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  I think branding is useless. So that's the reason why I'm
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  making today's podcast recording.
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  I want to set the record straight.
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  I don't think branding is useless.
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  In fact, I think branding is very, very useful.
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  However, branding is not useful when you are at the ID ideation
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  stage or at the traction stage. So I repeat, this is my real
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  perspective on branding. It's not so branding is useless.
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  The reason why I say when somebody comes and meet me, so
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  I'm figuring out my brown reason why I say look, calm down, pipe
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  down first is because worrying about brand when you're at the
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  ideation stage or traction stage, you're just wasting your
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  time. You're giving yourself a
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  distraction and I'm going to explain why in a few minutes.
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  So First off, when we say ideation, what do we mean?
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  We're trying to figure out what business should I be doing?
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  Then traction stages, you have figured out the business that
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  you're going to do. Now you're trying to figure out
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  is there any demand for this product or this service?
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  Do people even like what it is that I have to offer?
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  Now, when you are this early stage talking about branding, in
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  my own opinion, you're wasting your time.
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  Especially for most people, because this is precisely the
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  stage where they seem to spend the most time obsessing about
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  branding. It is when they're at the
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  beginning stage, what business should I do or when they are the
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  traction stage, do I have any customers?
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  They will now start figuring what is the font, what is the
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  logo, what is the colour, what is the positioning, what is the
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  this you're trying to figure out the branding.
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  Meanwhile you have not built anything substantial first.
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  So that is the reason why I say that when you're early, forget
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  all these branding talk when it comes to getting a business off
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  the ground, remember ideation stage and traction stage.
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  What am I going to be offering? What am I going to be selling?
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  What am I going to be exporting? What is going my business going
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  to be? And then traction stage, now
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  that I have decided how will I get my first 5 customers?
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  How will I get my first 10 to my customers even like me?
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  Are they happy? What is the adequate price that
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  I need to charge? How can I get people to come
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  back and buy again when these early things are your
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  preoccupation? When it comes to getting the
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  business off the ground, the only things you need to worry
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  about are #1 sales and then #2 achieving product market fit.
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  I repeat, early on when we're at the ideation stage, what am I
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  going to do? And then at the traction stage,
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  I have decided what I'm going to do now.
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  How can I get my first 5 customers, my first ten, my
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  first 15, my 1st 20? The only focus is sales and then
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  achieving product market fit. Well, OK.
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  Apart from that, we also have to worry about achieving customer
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  loyalty because remember, the goal is people should not just
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  buy from us once, they should buy from us again and again.
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  And then they should also refer their friends, their family
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  members and their associates. So let's look at it that way.
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  When we're trying to get the business off the ground, the
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  things you should be paying attention to #1 sales #2
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  achieving product market fit #3 achieving customer loyalty.
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  So product market fit or traction just means is there any
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  demand for this product or this service?
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  Do people like this product or this service that I am selling?
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  How many people like it? Now, for the people who like it,
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  how many of them are willing to pay for it with the amount that
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  will make this thing worth my while?
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  Because it's possible that there's a demand for the product
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  or the service. Let's say you invent something
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  that is fantastic when it comes to cleaning sneakers.
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  Let's say you figured out that mothers in Nigeria have a
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  problem because you know, children have to get to school,
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  they need clean shoes. So they need a magic something
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  that can clean the shoes very well.
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  Now let's say you study the chemical engineering OAU or you
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  need Jaws. You've come up with something
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  that is really, really wonderful that once you just take it and
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  you apply it on the shoe, you soak it, the shoe will come out
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  clean one time, especially white shoe.
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  So you think that is the business.
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  You now start the business now, that kind of thing.
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  There will definitely be demand, ABI, because there are lots of
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  mothers who want their children to show up to school looking
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  sweet with their shoe clean, with their socks clean, looking
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  sharp. So yes, there will be demand.
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  But the question now becomes, are there enough Nigerian
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  mothers who worry about this thing and who are willing to pay
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  XYZ amount so that by the time I produce the chemical and I sell
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  the chemical, the profit that is there is enough for me to eat
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  shawarma, to buy Internet, to flex small and then maybe even,
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  you know, invest back into the business.
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  OK, So it should be the other way around, invest back into the
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  business first, then from the remaining, I'll not worry about
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  eating shawarma and then flexing.
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  So let's say there are enough mothers who worry about this
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  problem, but then they're only willing to pay 250 naira per
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  sachet. Meanwhile, for each sachet, you
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  actually need to be charging like 4:50 to make a healthy
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  margin. If in that case you really can't
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  sell it for 4:50, what people are trying to, what they're
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  willing to pay is 250 naira per sachet, then you have not
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  achieved product market fit because the number of people
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  that you found who are going to buy this thing won't buy it at
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  the price that will make sense to you.
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  So you can see how early on, in the beginning, these are the
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  things we should be paying attention to.
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  How can I achieve product market fit?
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  Is there a demand? Do people like it?
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  The people that like it, are they willing to pay for it?
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  The people that are willing to pay for it, are they willing to
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  pay an amount that will make sense to me?
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  So these are the things that we should be worried about in the
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  beginning. And we only do that by using the
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  ideas that we keep expressing over here on the podcast.
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  So this is our primary focus. Now, let's get back to the
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  branding. Now, when most people say brand
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  in Niger, this is what they mean.
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  They mean logo, they mean font, they mean packaging, you know.
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  So when most people say brand, that's what they mean.
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  So when Elizabeth of Elite Branding, when both of us hooked
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  up, that's the level that our conversation started on.
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  Because yes, I will admit, I will admit the logo that you
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  guys see now on YouTube, OK, Well, depending on when you
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  listen to this, if you are listening to this as at the 29th
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  of September in 2025, that logo that you're seeing now with
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  sales and marketing rating in black and then those swishy
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  washy colors all around it in orange, in black and in yellow.
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  To be honest, this is how I designed it at the time.
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  I heard that something came out, they call this in ChatGPT that
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  ChatGPT can do on this. I say you can do wonders.
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  I say yes, that's OK, let me download it.
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  So I downloaded ChatGPT. So I say let me try my hand.
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  I now entered ChatGPT. Dear ChatGPT, create a logo for
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  me that I can use as podcast art.
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  Use these colours red, orange and black.
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  By the way, the reason why I picked the red, orange and
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  black, it's just because the only profile photo that I had
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  taken at that time was me wearing a shirt that was red and
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  orange and black. So I say, anyhow, sure, the
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  column, the column was, it must blend.
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  So I now typed into ChatGPT and then I said for the logo, make
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  sure that sales and marketing is written prominently because I
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  wanted anybody who saw the logo and anybody who saw the podcast
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  that to immediately understand that those are the topics that I
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  talked about and I hit send. As I hit send, chargeability
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  gave me 5, I think was five options.
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  The number one option, I just took it and used it.
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  So if you're listening to this podcast on the 29th of September
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  2025 S anytime around that time, that logo that you're seeing
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  sales and marketing in black, then the other colors around
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  red, orange, black, that is how that logo was born.
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  So myself, I know that my design was just anyhow, anyhow, in
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  fact, some people say it was crap, but I don't care if you
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  feel this purpose at the beginning.
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  So when Elizabeth and I started talking, excuse me, that is the
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  level I wish we started talking. OK, what fonts are we talking
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  about? What colors are we talking
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  about? You know all those sorts of
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  things. So when most people say brand in
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  Niger, that's what they mean. They mean logo, they mean font
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  and they mean packaging. However, there is a much more
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  substantial theory of brand. And when we say substantial, we
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  mean going to the root, going to the substance.
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  Now for people who are here to this fuller idea of brand, when
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  they say brand, they mean the sum total of all the customers
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  interactions with the business. Let me repeat, for those people
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  who believe in the much more substantial theory of brand,
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  branding means every single time the customer interacts with your
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  business, your business, what did they see, what did they
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  feel? You know, what did they come
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  away with? That is the brand.
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  So let me put it this way, perfect.
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  Since we're talking about Napa now, Napa is misbehaving in my
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  estate. So everybody did blast
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  generator. If you go on Nepal's website now
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  AEDC, that's Abuja Electricity Distribution center, or let's
• 12:49
  say you're in Lagos, Echo Electricity Distribution center,
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  Ekecha Electricity distribution, you know, whichever part or
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  you're in Plateau, you know Joss electricity distribution, go and
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  check their website. You will see that the branding
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  is on point. You will see that the logo is on
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  point. You will see that the colors,
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  they make sense. You will see that the website is
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  designed smooth. Go and check out their Twitter.
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  You see that their Twitter is on point, graphics on point.
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  But then what is the quality of service that you are receiving,
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  especially those of us who pay for Band-Aid.
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  So for the people who look at the popular idea of a brand
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  which is logo front and parking, they will say now that NEPA has
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  a correct brand and you would be correct because all the designs
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  technically speaking are correct, all the designs are on
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  point. But for those people who have a
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  substantial theory of brand, who worry about the total of all the
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  customers experiences with the business, they will say that
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  never has a useless brand. Because for those of us who
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  interact with it every day, what we know is we're paying three
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  times the amount of what we used to pay before.
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  But then 4050% of the time we don't even have the light.
• 14:09
  Then when you call customer care, you know we'll be call.
• 14:13
  When you send messages, nobody respond.
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  Do I acknowledge you? So in any words, you're on your
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  own. So people who have a much more
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  substantial theory of brand, who say NEPA has a crappy brand.
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  So that is a perfect example to show you the difference between
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  the popular idea of brand, which is logo, font, color, packaging,
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  and then the substantial theory of a brand.
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  Now, of course, for those of you who are listening to the
• 14:42
  podcast, you will know that the reason why I know these
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  perspectives is precisely because Muncie before she
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  retired was a marketing exec who studied who her MBA was in in
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  public relations with our specialty.
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  So that's why I know some of these things.
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  So we've looked at 2 perspectives now for branding,
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  the popular idea, logo, color, packaging, font, and then the
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  substantial theory of the brand. How do customers feel?
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  What is the impression that they come away with every single time
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  that they interact with this business?
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  So now bear that in mind when we're having this conversation.
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  By the way, hope you guys are noticing that in the beginning,
• 15:31
  those of you who obsessed with logo, with brand, you are
• 15:34
  usually thinking about logo color, font design, packaging,
• 15:42
  imagery. Please note, OK, hold attention
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  in your mind. Now look at me or look at my
• 15:51
  podcast. I admit in the beginning,
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  branding was poor, visual appeal was poor because how I came up
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  with it was I heard that they had invented something magical
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  Culture GBT and I went there and I used this thing to design the
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  logo. He gave me 5.
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  I just picked the very first one and I used it.
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  So yes, the branding was poor. But guess what?
• 16:19
  If you look at the substantial theory of a brand now when it
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  comes to the sum total of people's interactions with the
• 16:24
  business, you will see that when it comes to customer experience
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  or the user experience, on the other hand, I perform very well.
• 16:34
  People listen to the podcast, they like what they hear, they
• 16:37
  find it relatable, they find it practical.
• 16:39
  So they subscribe and then they come back and then they tell
• 16:43
  other people to subscribe as well.
• 16:44
  And that's the reason why we've been able to grow to over 3400
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  and something subscribers on Spotify alone.
• 16:55
  That's the only place where I can track how many subscribers I
• 16:57
  have. I don't know how to find out how
• 16:59
  many subscribers I have on on Apple iTunes and all the other
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  places. So Spotify alone, I've crossed
• 17:09
  that three key now 3000 mark clear cover up.
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  Now, the reason why that is possible is because if you're
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  looking at a substantial theory of brand now, the customer
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  experience, the user experience is on point, is on par.
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  People, they feel me, even though the popular idea of brand
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  logo, font, packaging, everything, even though on that
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  level 0 useless. So in fact, there's some people,
• 17:39
  excuse me, Elizabeth is one of them who said that the first
• 17:42
  time she saw the podcast, I was like, she saw the logo and she
• 17:46
  was like, hi, could you say, well, he's the only one I found.
• 17:50
  Let me try it. When she now tried it, she was
• 17:53
  happy with what she had. So yes, I've heard that from
• 17:56
  some people before, from people who say, oh boy, who designed
• 17:59
  this name for you? Now back to the tension I was
• 18:05
  talking about because I was worried about substance from the
• 18:10
  beginning, my message being resonating with people, talking
• 18:20
  about things that are particular and relevant to the Nigerian
• 18:23
  market. You will see that the customer
• 18:25
  experience, the user experience actually turned up being on
• 18:28
  point. And because it was on point and
• 18:33
  because I've got something substantial going now that
• 18:37
  Elizabeth has come into my life as a podcast listener, by the
• 18:39
  way, these are the kind of podcast listeners I like.
• 18:42
  People who come up and say, I love your podcast.
• 18:44
  I think we can do this better. So those of you who come into my
• 18:47
  life and say that I love you guys, you by getting something
• 18:51
  from the podcast, you're also trying to move my ministry
• 18:53
  forward. I like it.
• 18:56
  Or like people who listen to the podcast, they like the value
• 18:59
  that they get from the podcast and then they reach out to me.
• 19:02
  And then they're even trying to take from me the small that I
• 19:06
  have. They're even trying to take
• 19:09
  whether as people that are asking for financial assistance
• 19:11
  or people that are asking for mentorship.
• 19:13
  Like, come on. There's over 1200 episodes right
• 19:19
  here on this feed. I'm already giving you guys a
• 19:21
  lot. Do you think you somehow that
• 19:24
  when you because I give my phone number at the beginning, at the
• 19:27
  end of every episode ending is some other when you finally
• 19:30
  holler at your boy, you're even trying to collect the small
• 19:32
  coins that I have. Come on now.
• 19:34
  Nothing. No.
• 19:34
  Makes sense. We reach out to me, have your
• 19:38
  questions, have your queries, have your comments.
• 19:40
  Yeah, I'll respond. I'll answer to as many of them
• 19:43
  as I can, but if you're not going to be telling me how I'm
• 19:48
  going to grow this podcast, or if you're not going to be
• 19:49
  investing in me, let this thing move forward.
• 19:52
  Or if it's not a paid engagement or paid coaching consulting,
• 19:59
  then don't call me up trying to see how you collect the small
• 20:02
  coins I already have transferring other people's
• 20:07
  life. It's something I keep saying
• 20:09
  that people don't get. If you're somebody who is a
• 20:11
  taker every single time, people you know, people see you do.
• 20:15
  You know, they'll dodge you if they see you coming left,
• 20:18
  they'll go right. If you try calling, they will
• 20:21
  ignore. They will busy the call because
• 20:24
  you know that this guy is a taker.
• 20:26
  So don't be a taker anyway. So now that Elizabeth has come
• 20:31
  into my life, when I say into my life, I mean on the business
• 20:34
  level, because, you know, I'm married and, you know, I'm not
• 20:39
  like Ned Walker because, you know, I don't have money for
• 20:42
  second wife yet. So when I say he's in my life, I
• 20:45
  mean on a business level. So now that Elizabeth is in my
• 20:48
  life now, we can now have productive conversations about
• 20:54
  fonts, about color, about all kinds of things, precisely
• 20:58
  because I have built something substantial.
• 21:00
  And we have been getting feedback from people who listen
• 21:04
  to the show and for people who pay for my coaching services and
• 21:08
  who pay for my consulting services, who pay for my
• 21:10
  speaking services. So I actually have actual
• 21:13
  feedback to give her answers. So if she wants to design logo
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  and she says OK, who are your listeners?
• 21:20
  Are they predominantly male or female?
• 21:23
  Are they predominantly young, middle-aged or old?
• 21:26
  Where do they live? In which part of Nigeria or
• 21:29
  which part of the globe or whatever?
• 21:31
  What kind of topics do they find interesting?
• 21:33
  I can be giving her all the info back that she uses to design the
• 21:37
  logo because I paid attention to the substance first, because I
• 21:42
  paid attention to traction first.
• 21:46
  So back to this example of somebody who creates this magic
• 21:49
  thing that can help you to make your children's shoes and socks
• 21:57
  very, very clean. If in the beginning you're
• 22:00
  worried about sales and traction.
• 22:02
  How many people can I sell this thing to?
• 22:07
  Can I get them to pay for it at an amount that makes sense to
• 22:12
  me? By the time you run this thing
• 22:14
  for a while, 2-3 months, and you get some qualitative data
• 22:19
  because you're having conversations with people.
• 22:21
  When it now comes down to the actual brand design and the
• 22:26
  designer starts asking you questions, you will have
• 22:29
  information that you can give them and they'll be able to
• 22:35
  design the right brand that is for you.
• 22:37
  In other words, this whole thing about branding, don't do brand
• 22:41
  at the beginning, don't waste your time.
• 22:44
  Start figure out traction, figure out product market fit.
• 22:48
  By the time you have moved forward small, you have acquired
• 22:50
  one or two people a hair. Now you can start worrying about
• 22:53
  branding because you have all the information that you now
• 22:57
  need to design your brand. The vital information that you
• 23:03
  need when it comes to design your brand, first of all is ICP
• 23:06
  your ideal customer profile. Who is your ideal audience?
• 23:11
  If your ideal audience are girls age between 12 and 18, the color
• 23:16
  that you select will be different.
• 23:18
  If your ideal audience is men aged 62 to 84, you see, but some
• 23:27
  of you at the start of your business journey, you will be
• 23:29
  designing logo and brand based on what you like.
• 23:34
  The reason why you're designing based on what you like or what
• 23:36
  you think pretty is because you do not know that you're supposed
• 23:39
  to be designing this thing around an intended audience.
• 23:44
  But in the beginning, when you don't have an attendance or an
• 23:47
  intended audience, how else you design it?
• 23:51
  You design it based on what you think looks nice, which is why
• 23:53
  lots of you, you go and register the business name.
• 23:56
  Next thing you pay for the branding and the website.
• 23:58
  You design everything just like that.
• 24:00
  How did you arrive on all those things?
• 24:01
  How? Just based on what you like?
• 24:05
  What if what you like is not what your ideal customer likes,
• 24:09
  which is not about you? So ideal customer, the ideal
• 24:16
  audience, who are they? Also, you should know something
• 24:19
  about the buying cycle. Is this the kind of thing that
• 24:22
  people buy regularly? Quick, quick, quick.
• 24:24
  Like say this miracle shoe cleaner, now that you're selling
• 24:27
  at a 459 per sachet, is this something that people are buying
• 24:31
  every week, every month? Is it something that people buy
• 24:34
  once a year? Is it a luxury something?
• 24:38
  Is it a simple something? This is all the background
• 24:43
  information that you need on your customer, on your buying
• 24:45
  habits, on your industry before you now determine colors and
• 24:49
  fonts and designs. And that's the reason why for
• 24:52
  construction company, as far as I know, there's no construction
• 24:55
  company that their logo and everything is pink.
• 25:02
  Think about it is a construction company.
• 25:04
  You have men sweating on site, you have all those big engines
• 25:08
  and everything and the people that are buying those services
• 25:11
  are who, you know, high net worth individuals or local
• 25:15
  government, municipalities or federal government or you know,
• 25:18
  something. So if you're going to put bubble
• 25:21
  gum pink there in the branding color, I think no one makes
• 25:24
  sense. It will make sense.
• 25:28
  So wait, don't fuss about branding in the beginning.
• 25:33
  Start sales, product market fees, traction.
• 25:40
  Is there demand for this thing? Do people like it?
• 25:43
  How many people like it? Are they the ones rushing me or
• 25:47
  using me that's chasing them? Do people pay well for this
• 25:51
  thing? Who are the kind of people that
• 25:55
  like this thing? How do they use this thing?
• 25:58
  How often do they use this thing?
• 26:00
  What are the needs that this thing is meeting?
• 26:04
  When you now have traction and you've built something
• 26:09
  substantial, now you can worry about brand.
• 26:13
  So the longest story of this thing that I'm trying to say is
• 26:16
  for those of you who are branding professionals, please
• 26:18
  do not think, excuse me, do not think.
• 26:21
  I don't. I don't value you guys.
• 26:25
  I reach you guys. I reach you guys very, very
• 26:27
  well. I just think that a lot of you
• 26:30
  coming too soon. Relax.
• 26:33
  When somebody comes, I meet you and the person cannot answer all
• 26:35
  these basic questions. You're asking who is your target
• 26:37
  audience? Who's your ideal this?
• 26:38
  Who's your ideal that? Don't just collect the person's
• 26:41
  money, you collect the money, you design something that works,
• 26:46
  then the person will start business and then clearly the
• 26:49
  brand is not going to be ideal for what actually evolves.
• 26:54
  And then the client ends up being angry with you that you
• 26:56
  designed something rubbish. But you you'll be saying when I
• 26:59
  designed what you told me to design, the fault was yours.
• 27:02
  Mr. Branding specialist, Madam Branding specialist, you didn't
• 27:06
  ask them the right questions. You didn't ask them, OK, all
• 27:09
  these things you're telling me, what are you basing it on?
• 27:14
  Are you basing it on idea as per I think this is what my
• 27:17
  customers will like or is it that you actually in the last
• 27:21
  year have done business with 25 clients and out of the 25
• 27:25
  clients, you know 18 of them told you this or 15 of them told
• 27:28
  you that. So branding very, very good,
• 27:32
  very, very good, very, very good.
• 27:34
  But branding is not the first thing that you do when you're
• 27:37
  going into a business traction sales, product market feed.
• 27:43
  That is the first thing you do when you get into business.
• 27:46
  Now, I normally don't like to do this, but let me go ahead and
• 27:52
  say it anyway because there's one guy now I was talking to and
• 27:54
  I already told him to his face. So let me say here again on the
• 27:57
  podcast, I told him, oh boy, how far now the guy said, I'm
• 28:01
  coming, I'm working on my brand. And so we had the conversation.
• 28:05
  So I'm going to say it again case there's anybody else who's
• 28:09
  listening who's in the same boat.
• 28:12
  If anybody asks you a boy how far your answer should not be.
• 28:15
  I'm working on my brand my friend.
• 28:18
  Just get started. You have decided this is what
• 28:23
  you're going to do. Stop working on your brand.
• 28:26
  Start looking for your first 5 customers.
• 28:29
  Start looking for your first ten.
• 28:31
  You've done 10. Start looking for your next 10.
• 28:33
  Looking for your next 15. Get things going, get some
• 28:37
  traction. When you have traction, now you
• 28:41
  can sit down. Start saying, you know what, let
• 28:43
  me be conscious about my brand. So long and short for those of
• 28:51
  you who've been listening from day one, despite the fact that
• 28:55
  my brand in quote was designed on an amateur level just by
• 29:00
  using ChatGPT. Thank you very much for
• 29:03
  listening and thank you very much for being a part of this
• 29:06
  journey so far. But with the way the
• 29:10
  conversations are going with Elizabeth, excuse me, there are
• 29:13
  going to be some changes. So excuse me, I had a busy day
• 29:19
  making lots of phone calls, so my voice is tired.
• 29:23
  So there's going to be some changes on the podcast.
• 29:27
  The topics we talk about still be the same.
• 29:31
  The questions that we answer will still be the same.
• 29:34
  The focus of the podcast will still be the same, but the
• 29:38
  colours will be different, noticeably different, Much, much
• 29:42
  better because now I have a professional who is designing
• 29:46
  things. If I want you to see it, the
• 29:49
  difference would be clear if I once I showed my brother the
• 29:51
  mock up, my brother took screenshot side by side and then
• 29:55
  he now showed me. It is then that I knew how
• 29:58
  terrible the old logo was. And I say, Oh yeah, that was
• 30:01
  that was terrible. That was terrible.
• 30:04
  So there will be some changes in logo, there will be some changes
• 30:08
  in font, there will be some changes in design, there will be
• 30:12
  some changes in color, there will be some changes in
• 30:15
  packaging. But substantially everything is
• 30:19
  still going to remain the same. And this is how most people
• 30:25
  should be thinking about it when they're thinking about branding.
• 30:28
  If I had wasted all my time in the beginning, worried, what
• 30:32
  about the branding? What about the front?
• 30:34
  What about the positioning? What about the logo?
• 30:37
  What about this? I would have ended up like all
• 30:39
  these people who say you talk to them in general.
• 30:42
  They say, Oh yeah, I'm going to go into the sneaker business.
• 30:45
  If I really agreed. The sneakers I don't want to
• 30:47
  sell. You know me them in April.
• 30:50
  So boy, how far now the show I'm coming.
• 30:52
  I'm working on my brand. You decided in January I'm going
• 30:56
  to be sending sneakers. Excuse me, then somebody meets
• 31:01
  you in April. Is that how far you say I'm
• 31:02
  still working on my brand. So excuse me, still working on
• 31:06
  my brand four months later. That is the kind of thing that I
• 31:11
  don't want people to fall into. And that's the reason why I say
• 31:14
  anytime I meet somebody who says I'm working on my brand, I say,
• 31:16
  you know what? Chill fest, chill fest.
• 31:18
  Before we get to this branding thing, how many customers did
• 31:21
  you do you have? When did you start?
• 31:24
  How many customers have you serviced?
• 31:26
  OK, what's the plan for getting the next 5, for getting the next
• 31:29
  10? What are the problems that
• 31:31
  you're facing so far in marketing for the 20 customers
• 31:34
  that you've had? How many people came to buy from
• 31:36
  you? Again, from those that bought
• 31:38
  again, how many referrals? How many referrals did we get?
• 31:42
  That's the reason why when you guys reach out, these are the
• 31:45
  questions we start asking 1 by 1 by 1.
• 31:51
  So that's it. That's my own real perspective
• 31:54
  when it comes to branding. So branding people, I rate you,
• 31:58
  I respect you, I value your contributions.
• 32:00
  If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking to Elizabeth.
• 32:05
  So that you guys do a very good job.
• 32:08
  Just stop collecting people's money at the beginning, collect
• 32:11
  their money in the middle when they've actually got some
• 32:14
  traction. That's the way that you branding
• 32:16
  people will even get more business for yourselves.
• 32:19
  And that is when you stop quarreling with your clients.
• 32:21
  Because I hear it all the time. Somebody says I designed a logo
• 32:25
  for the customer. The customer is not happy when I
• 32:27
  look at it. I will say that here, the logo,
• 32:30
  the design actually is sweet 100%.
• 32:34
  But unfortunately, it's not a matter of whether this thing is
• 32:36
  sweet according to my eye or according to your eye.
• 32:39
  It is whether the brand, the everything, the logo, the
• 32:43
  design, the everything you designed when it is helping that
• 32:46
  person to achieve the results that they want.
• 32:49
  And as far as they're concerned, it was not helping them retrieve
• 32:52
  their results. Then they think the logo is
• 32:55
  rubbish. And you know what they say now
• 32:56
  customer is always right. I don't believe that by the way,
• 33:01
  but you understand what I'm trying to say.
• 33:04
  Anyway, let me bring it to a close here.
• 33:05
  It was already 30 minutes. So that's it.
• 33:09
  And that's all. Remember, if you'd love to
• 33:11
  connect, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp on
• 33:14
  08064662140. And if you're ready for more
• 33:20
  realistic or more relevant strategies for the Nigerian
• 33:22
  market, then you're in luck because like I said, we have
• 33:26
  over 1000 episodes of Practical Insights right here in this feed
• 33:30
  where you're currently listening to.
• 33:32
  All you have to do is Scroll down and keep binging on the
• 33:35
  content, keep binging on the archives.
• 33:37
  I'll see you soon.