Despite competition, adulteration of products and unbalanced state of the economy, some companies still gain their stands in the business world, perhaps, after the failure of some other companies, their names were never forgotten.  In the quest to know the secret to the success of these companies, ANUOLUWA BABALOLA examines the essence of marketing strategy in branding products to become a household name.

Becoming a household name is beyond having all the ‘marketing naira’ to spend; it is more about finding new and exciting ways to engage consumers in meaningful conversations and, thus, allowing them to spread the word and become brand ambassadors themselves.

 Experts have described branding as what successful organisations have in common and a way to thrive in keeping a product in the market for a particular time as a household product, thereby, branding the product in the heart of the people to become an essential commodity they continue to clamour for. Little wonder even after some companies failed, their names were never forgotten.

“Brand must look for ways to constantly engage consumers in order to increase its share of mind and awareness among them. We live in a new consumer age, where consumers are more empowered than any other generation of consumers ever; brands can be made or marred by today’s consumers. Word of Mouth is key to brand building as Bill Bernbach, the advertising legend who founded Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) worldwide, noted, "Word of mouth is the most powerful medium of all."

Mr Fred Akinmuyisitan, a strategist at a leading marketing communications consultancy in Lagos, said, “Good advertising cannot sell a bad product. It will only make the flaws more obvious. A brand seeking to be a household name must be a good product first and on the product development end, the product must be good enough and be of reasonable quality.”

Basically, marketing strategy is one of, or all, the ploys, plans, patterns, perspectives, or positions, a brand takes to meet the fundamental goal of increasing sales and achieving competitive advantage.

While speaking with Dr Gbenga Elegbe, an advertising lecturer in the department of communication and language art, University of Ibadan, on marketing strategy, he likened it to the use of the 4Ps (product, place, price and promotion) in getting to the peak success of an organisation, if handled properly.

Research, as the key towards starting a successful business, has also been viewed as pertinent to the practice of 4Ps. “The problem of majority companies in Nigeria is that they don’t invest in research, go to United State of America and Europe, companies invest in research. Research is used to check the effectiveness of each strategy; to discover if the product is good, whether people like the product or not, whether the price is commensurate to the quality of the product or not, whether the network of distribution is right or otherwise, whether the promotional strategy is effective in promoting the product and bringing the product to the heart of the people or not and you cannot do this without research.

“It is quite unfortunate the way we handle things in Nigeria, a shoddy way; we just think we can overlook some issues. Research is very important. Look at mobile networks today, they carry out a lot of research; they would want to find out if people are using various handsets and how to improve on the quality for consumers to purchase them. Research is not only limited to university; organisation also can conduct research. Marketing strategy is zero without research,” he said.

Still speaking on marketing strategy, Mr Akinmuyisitan, said, “Every brand has a strategy, which largely depends on the category in which it plays and the forces shaping that category. 

“Some mainstream brands decide to have flanker brands, so as to ward off competition from their master brand, for instance, Omo and Sunlight, Bournvita and Richoco, among other; while some brands also compete based on price, although, this is largely a defective strategy as it makes the product commoditised; Glo has maintained a price-based, competitive strategy over the years as its market-entry strategy of per-second billing and its other price-based promos have always been common with them.

“Also, some brands take a position, a way in which they want to maintain a constant tonality; MTN has a sort of high-achiever-status positioning in the hearts of many consumers. Some organisations, as well, adopt some form of niche strategy, preferring to own a portion of the market while some brands intentionally choose to appeal to certain demographics. GTBank and Etisalat are obvious leaders in their various sectors in terms of their connection and relevance to the youth market.”

Talking about a company without the practice of branding, Dr Elegbe said, “They could lose sales; there are some products that we can’t remember again, but some products are being rebranded now; they are just bringing them in a new way. Look at Heineken, we are having them in cans now, they had to redesign it for people to accept it. If you don’t plan a good marketing strategy, there could be loss of product.”   

Furthermore, he added that when the 4Ps are applied effectively and continuously, the product would be branded in the hearts of the people, sales would be constant and profit would be enhanced.

“Formerly, when people want to buy toothpaste, they say, I want to buy Macline; they’ve branded Macline to the extent that people think toothpastes’ name was Macline. Look at Maggie, everybody say I want to buy Maggie, they thought Maggie was the name for all the spices, whereas Maggie is different from Royco, Knorr, among others, but most people are saying Maggie because they’ve branded it in their hearts.”

For development to occur, there could be a sign of backwardness; which implies that for the smooth running of a business, the management has a price to pay and with marketing strategy, Dr Elegbe said, “What it would cost any organisation is research and continuous promotion; one thing that is constant is that the consumers are there for you to market to, but don’t presume the consumers because their taste would change from time to time, which means they respond to new information and a good organisation would realise that there are competitors and you have to keep on promoting and redesigning your product and then update your network. If some distribution channels are no more effective, you close those ones and explore another opportunity that could enhance product sales.

“The reason while some other products like Indomie still survive considering competition is that they are operating a good marketing strategy; with Indomie, we have several flavours and sizes alongside stickers in each pack; some children crave more for Indomie because of the added value ‘stickers’, those are improvement of product and it could enhance marketing strategy. Right now, Indomie is promoting a lot of children programmes through the media, they are doing a lot of funfair and as they continue, they would establish the product more in the hearts of the people.

“With Maggie, they are engaging in cooking competition, which would keep up branding the product in the hearts of the people. Also with Maltina, there is ‘Maltina dance all’ a dancing competition. So, any organisation that practises such would keep the product moving in peoples' hearts.

Akinmuyisitan, however, noted that brands are built intentionally and not accidentally. Thus, brand owners must make a commitment to consistently carve a niche for themselves by developing Unique Selling Propositions (USP) that can stand their brands out. Becoming a household name involves finding a need before even developing a product that meets such needs, and not the other way round.