A brand is a bundle of values and benefits to customers and stakeholders. The main function of a brand is to give identity to a product, service, ideal, belief or even, personality and by so doing differentiate it from others. Brand name calls attention to it’s self and helps place a particular product in the mind of the consumers.
Evolution of Branding
Before the industrial revolution era when consumers were few and the producer enjoyed face-to-face relationship with them, brands were not known to exist in the real sense of the word. At that time majority of commodities especially beverages, foods and medicines were provided locally by the corner shop keeper, who knew all his clients personally and stocked everything he felt would be needed by them. There was no need to differentiate one tea from the other or one food item from another, as competition was absent and most of the items came straight from the farms and were not expected to be stored for another day’s business. But at the dawn of the industrial revolution mass production resulted in excess outputs and producers began to expand their markets. Also the purchaser became unduly separated from the producer. The demand of long channel meant that businesses had to find ways of not only preserving goods but also identifying them. This was the beginning of branding.
The Brand is not the Product
The question has often been asked whether a brand can exist without a product. The answer is a capital NO! But both concepts do not necessarily mean the same thing. The product is most often tangible, with a form and a function. It must have some physical manifestations including the package, the name, the logo, the trademark, associated colours, and much more. But the brand is intangible and exists largely in consumers' minds. Brands usually evolve from a conscious effort by the promoters to create, promote and perpetuate the name and all its attributes, benefits, values, culture and personality. This explains why a wrap of pounded yam at a local buka is not a brand even though it is a product. If this same pounded yam is packaged, and named Tantalizers pounded yam, it becomes a brand. In other words, the brand is more than the product.
The Brand Transition Challenge
One major challenge of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s reform agenda for the banking industry is how to create and manage a new identity for each of the emerging institutions. As new and bigger banks emerge, new identities will surface. As the financial aspects of the institutions are consolidated the corporate brands must also fuse into bigger and better elements. But creating and managing effective brands that truly connects is indeed a difficult activity; it is not something that happens by accident – it takes much research, planning and professionalism to develop and guide a brand to acceptance and success.
Basic Principles of Brand Transition
Brand transition follows a strategic course but the corporate communications manager must thread with caution from the stage of conception to promotion. Generally, the following steps were found to have worked worldwide, though not necessarily in this order.
a. Close the door to the past. Forget the setbacks that may have plagued the old brand(s). Focus on the positive achievements of the brand's forerunners and transfer the benefits of positive association to the new brand(s). It is necessary to create a new, desirable corporate identity.
b. Work towards brand equity. As the consolidation unfolds further, the main task facing brand or marketing communications managers will be how to create positive image and awareness of the new brands to endear them to customers. When this is done successfully brand equity would have been created for the banks involved. A brand enjoys equity if it comes to mind every time products or issues in that line of business comes up for consideration. The brand is so known that people now look at it as a generic rather than brand name. This is what has happened to maggi. To most Nigerians every seasoning cube is maggi, and every detergent is Omo.
c. Engage in Self-Worship. Put narcissism at the centre of your corporate promotions. It is important for every bank to glorify itself as much as possible to create and sustain a good impression. Creating a brand is like writing your autobiography. You can't afford to make yourself a villain. What you communicate regularly is what people begin to associate with you.
d. Embark on sponsorship - brands are easily promoted by associating them to popular events such as football, tennis, chess, and art exhibition. By paying to bring these events to the public, the brand benefits from positive association. One event that has risen in public significance in Nigeria is football, and banks that will identify with it and promote it will surely be in the good books of a large section of the public.
e. Use celebrity endorsements and personality approvals. Celebrity endorsement works on the principle of buy-in. That is, people buy into the organization because celebrities are associating with it, and not necessarily because the stars using the products are performing wonders. In most cases they don't even use the product. Celebrity endorsements will play more roles in popularizing the post consolidation bank brands in Nigeria.
f. Position the brand – Positioning is like renting a space in the customers mind and displaying your brand there. This could be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary positioning is deliberately planned and executed through integrated marketing communications strategies to put a brand where the creator or owner wants it to be.
Involuntary positioning on the other hand is not necessarily planned, but arises out of social interests, activities and perceptions. Unconsciously society's desire and expectations for certain goods or services makes brands in that category the preferred. Track record has positioned Japan as maker of the best electronics in the world. But in Nigeria, Taiwan stands for fake and sub-standard goods, contrary to the country's intentions. As banks compete on the bases of efficiency, customer service and the like, the unknown side of them will be unveiled.
Is Bank Consolidation the end of Local Bank Brands?
Even in the face of possible threat of extinction, some local bank brands will survive well into the new dispensation. Most of them will emerge from the ashes to become strong brands, with greater strength and equity that could make them graduate into global brands.
So far, there is evidence that some brands stand the chance of survival. Among these are First Bank, Union Bank, United Bank for Africa, Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, to name a few. But surviving the change is one thing, and being able to mould old skin and become renewed for fresh start is another. It all depends on what the emerging banks will do to create enabling environments to know their customers better, familiarize themselves with the needs of these customers, carter for their desires and establish strong emotional links with them. In addition, the surviving corporate brands will be those institutions that will effectively combine men and machines to deliver greater efficiency not only in service delivery but also in managing relationships and improving internal processes and procedures.
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