‘Why brands must create exciting customer experience’

In order for brands in the country to compete globally, it is imperative that they be made to create exciting, lasting experience in the minds of consumers through innovation. This was the view of the CEO of TOP 50 Brands Nigeria 2017, Mr. Taiwo Oluboyede, said while speaking at the unveiling of Nigeria’s Top 50 Brands.

Oluboyede noted that brand is about the consumer’s experience, adding, “Any brand can make promise. However, the real name or description of the brand in the mind of the audience is his or her experience. If consumers know a brand’s promise is empty, they will just scoff at the disconnect between the message and the actual customer experience.

“A promise delivered earns equity and continuous equity means brand healthiness, which ultimately sustains the company overtime. Regardless of your huge media budget, if you fail to deliver on the promise, your value depreciates and this affects the bottom-line. So, a brand must always find a way to sync its message to the customer experience.

“Brands are powerful drivers of choice and influence the decisions we make as consumers, employees, business decision makers, and investors. It has become one of the most valuable assets of a company. Strong brands create loyalty, help companies attract and retain talent, drive competitive advantage, and even reduce business risk.”

On Top 50 brands Nigeria 2017, he said they are brands that have been able to weather the storms in the past year, achieving growth in a recession, with better understanding of the market, have aggressively worked towards meeting the expectation of the very discerning consumers, delivering on their promises and many gaining equity in the midst of the difficult times.

“At Top 50 Brands Nigeria, we evaluate, rate and celebrate top corporate brands that have consistently maintained leadership positions in their categories, living up to their promises,” he said. “We use the Brand Strength Measurement (BSM), a specially designed model that takes basic, qualitative elements to determine brand valuation and strength. The model checks consumer’s knowledge of a brand, using the top on the mind survey. It’s largely observed that consumers were able to recall brands they relate with often, whose product/services they also use. The factors we considered were Brand Popularity: Category Leadership, Innovation: Quality Element: Online Engagement National Spread and Corporate Social Responsibility.”

50 per cent of the Top 50 brands are said to be home-grown, and, according to Oloyede, it is the highest number ever recorded since 2013, noting, “This shows an improvement in performance among home-grown brands, particularly in the midst of a troubling recession, which the country just got out from. Many of these brands have even spread to other African countries and beyond such as Dangote, GTBank, First Bank, Zenith, Gobacom, UBA, etc.”

Telecoms giant, MTN Nigeria, emerged as the most valuable in the annual rating with 80.4 point, a 7.1% reduction from the record 86.1 last year. Dangote is Most Valuable Nigerian Brand. It had a record jump among the top 10 brands, jumping five places to emerge the second position.

GTBank led the banking sector among the Nigerian brands. Channels Television and Shoprite made the list for the first time. Union Bank of Nigeria emerged the highest gainer this year, jumping 25 places to emerge on the 23rd position as opposed to its 45th last year. Other top gainers are Access Bank, which was in 24th places, and now on 16th position. Diamond bank also gained 19 places, now on the 27th position and Olam appreciated by 12 and emerged 38th position. Banking and Financial Services took 20 per cent of the top brands, amounting to 10 brands.

Consumers good had eight entries this year. Dufil Prima, makers of popular Indomie and Power oil, led the sector in this year’s rating, closely followed by Nestle. Food & Beverages had six entries, led by Coca-Cola Nigeria, which came second on the top 50 table. Conglomerate had six entries, the highest since 2013. Oil and gas category was led by Total. However, three of the six listed oil and gas brands in the top 50 table are Nigerian brands.