The annual TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA evaluation is a qualitative measurement of a brand’s ability to deliver on its promise to consumers. This evaluation is a non-financial assessment of the intrinsic value held by esteemed corporate brands. It checks consumer’s perceptions, their positivity or potential reservations towards a brand, and the consequential impact on its overall potency, which is now regarded as the brand’s strength.
In a market where brand wields substantial influence over both minds and market shares, organizations are strategically shifting their focal point from mere products and services to an important interplay between consumers and the value propositions extended to them. So, companies are continuously, sometimes even going to extraordinary lengths to promote, preserve, nurture, and when the need arises, fiercely defend their brand. The collective perception of a brand has ascended to an unprecedented level of significance in the market.
The term “brand” means far more than a mere label, logo, or colour scheme that distinguishes a company’s offerings. It includes a distinct and recognizable sentiment that these elements evoke – a subliminal meaning that echoes when the brand is mentioned or encountered amidst its contemporaries. A brand has gone beyond being a mere numerical representation on a balance sheet; its essence extends well beyond that.
Brand has seamlessly become a part of our daily existence – from the moment we awaken until we retire to our beds, influencing choices all the way. This significance is has become more prominent by the emergence of concepts like consumer awareness, differentiation, rationale for purchase, and the dynamic of the new global economy. In this modern outlook, the brand emerges as an essential protagonist that influencing perceptions and carving its niche.
Brand Beyond the Obvious
Evidently, the concept of a brand is beyond appealing television advertisements, the fancy showmanship at events, or the captivating experience centers and PoS scattered across various locations. These elements, though important for showing off the brand’s style, for marketing and advertising, they constitute only a fraction of what a brand truly represents.
It’s not overstatement that a brand is not merely a name, nor is it solely defined by the tangible products or services it comprises of. Some brand names may even be abstractive, seemingly detached from their offerings, yet they project an aura of substantial value and goodwill, captivating a diverse and expansive audience.
Interestingly, the influence of a brand extends beyond the bricks and moral and physical interactions. The online platforms, exemplified by most of the top brand websites, social media footprints, and online banners, extend the same feelings as in face-to-face encounters. So, either physical or virtual, the same feelings flow seamlessly across all touchpoints, creating a unified brand experience across board.
This collective effort serves as the necessary recipe, that is carefully put together to create the brand that is appealing, a phenomenon that ultimately result in brand equity. This is a stestament to a brand’s attraction, resonance, and worth. This is what has set these top brands apart from their competitors and made them a top pick in their industries.
The Essence of Brand
The brand is a combination of various elements that constitute the company’s identity – from products and services to aesthetics and feelings. It encompasses the emotions and sensations that consumers experience upon interacting with any facet of the company’s offerings.
The brand includes the people, products, culture, ethos, and content. All are meticulously crafted into an experience for the consumers. The brand is the value that the consumers have grown to trust and are placing. It is what the customers are really paying for. It is also what propels an organization ahead of its competitors.
It’s the Consumers Confidence
A brand build confidence, trust and expectation. It gives consumers a reliability, projecting the nature of products or services and serving as the reason for making purchasing decisions most of the times.
In the words Seth Godin, a globally acclaimed authority on the subject, who characterizes a brand as “a complex mixture of experience, feelings, and personality that kindles a passionate love and dedicated followership for the company” in the same vain also, entrepreneurial.com said “Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be”
Branding Vs Advertisement
Without mincing words, branding precedes advertisement. Regardless of the advertising war chest, without first cultivating the brand’s essence and effectively drive value proposition, the fruits of these efforts remain momentary at best. Advertisements serve as beacons guiding consumer choices, but it’s the brand that lays the foundation, enabling customers to rationalize the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of their buying decisions.
Branding objective and deep, while advertising is subjective. It emerges as the enduring ‘macro’ strategy, breathing life into the company’s identity, while advertising remains a ‘micro’ endeavor, transient in nature.
The many benefits of a Strong Brands
The benefits of a properly branded company, products or services will definitely reflect on its strength which is measurable by the equity it enjoys in forms of premium prices above others. It’s also the amount of goodwill it earned from being who it is. All these directly reflect on the bottom-line for all to see.
Some of the noticeable benefits of Top Brands are:
- Higher Level of Recognition and Differentiation
In a highly competitive market where customers are bombarded everywhere, where some can even claim what they are not, a strong visual cue has proved to be a key factor for distinction and also a strong differentiator. When a customer is able to easily recognize a brand’s colour, theme, logo, slogans etc., it strikes a strong chord in the mind and most likely help choice decisions. This familiarity engenders trust and influences choices, empowering consumers to opt for the known entity, guided by its resonant qualities. From something simple and minimalistic to something wild and eye-popping, a good brand will always be recognized in a sea of others, particularly when it evokes positive vibes.
- Fostering Unswerving Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is the natural consequence of a consistently positive experience, satisfaction derived from a company’s products, and the perceived value of a strong brand. This is based on personal experience with a company. Loyal customers who most often become fans would often accept a product or services as better than competitors. It is natural for consumer to patronize the brands they are loyal to, regardless of the premium it might attract above competitors.
Brands with loyal following are those that build consistently positive customer experience. research by Accenture on consumer loyalty shows that 57 percent of consumers spend more on brands or providers to which they are loyal.
Loyal customers have greater chance of repeated patronage also, which is more profitable for businesses. They look forward to your next product release and earnestly follow for product updates and new releases. Apple, Nike, Microsoft and some others premium brands have enjoyed this higher level of loyalty, where customers become ‘fanatically’ attached, such that they would keep vigil for days, just for the bragging right and media attention of being the first to get a new iPhone. Loyal customer would even give excuses in case of some defects. It’s that good.
- Forging a Formidable Competitive Edge
The brand at its core is a company’s competitive edge, that defines it within modern complex marketplace. The aura of recognition, which is earn by brand acceptance, engenders a huge benefit over others and a distinctive quality that sets the company apart. Brand recognition, fortified by unwavering awareness will result in a company’s influence among its counterparts.
- Brand Equity
Among the important benefit of building a strong and vibrant brand is the equity, a vital ingredient that enable the brand for premium pricing and paves the avenue for sustained growth. Much more than this, the brand equity also enables a long-term growth. By leveraging on the value of your brand, it becomes easier and cheaper to add new products or services and people will be more willing to try the new products. This also helps in new market and geography.
- Attraction for Top Talent
Strong brands would naturally attraction the best of talents. Everybody want to be with the talk of the town guy. This also attracts influencers, Content creators, concept builders and right marketers. When a business has effective branding in place, it is hard for people not to notice and want to associate. Attracting these kinds of people increases the brand’s creative powerhouse. Thes collaborations with the right people can go a long way to promote your brand and drive your digital presence which has become most essential for every strong brands. This ultimately helps to reach an even larger audience because people trust the recommendations of their favorite influencers and content creators.
- It Erodes Price Sensitivity
You ever really wanted something and didn’t mind the cost? That’s what a strong brand does. When people love a brand, they’re willing to pay a bit extra because they know they’re getting something special. It’s like saying, “I just have to have it, regardless!”
So, next time you see a brand you love, remember, it’s not just a name or a logo. It’s a promise, a feeling, and a vibe that makes you want to be a part of it. Brands are like the coolest friends you have, they make life more exciting!
- Help to Reduce Advertisement Cost And Comes with Higher Reach.
When a brand is well-established and reputable, customers are more likely to trust it and take its advertising messages seriously. It means that the company can spend less on advertising to get the same results as you would with a weaker brand. For example, Apple is a brand that is known for its high quality and innovative products. When Apple announces a new product, customers are eager to buy it, even without seeing a lot of advertising. This is because they trust Apple and know that its products are worth the investment.
When people are familiar with your brand and trust it, they are more likely to be persuaded by your advertising messages. They are also more likely to remember your advertisement and associate it with your brand.
Brand is Simply Powerful
The brand as it has been posited, is arguably one of the ‘most powerful & versatile business tool ever invented’. It helps to sustain the company and its products in the long run.
As has been severally advised. It’s the first thing to do at formative stage of a company, before products or services are released.
The brand building process, which is done entirely with the target audience in mind, combine your personality’s ability, weakness and basically helps in answering vital questions of who, what, where, when, competitors, vision and mission etc. This becomes a guide if the vision seems blurry at some points along the way.
