At Sheraton Hotel and Suite, Ikeja, brand managers, public relations officers, entrepreneurs and key stakeholders gathered to learn, interact, and be awarded for their hard work, on Wednesday, March 29.
The event, Africa’s 100 Most Valuable Brand and Award, had the theme: Creating African Global Brands: Imperatives for Building Globally Competitive Brands.
The award is a consumer-led survey that establishes Brands preferences across the continent, and showcases their achievement to the African Audience.
It is conducted by the Editorial Board of The African Brands Magazine.
Declaring the event open, chairman of the occasion, Professor, Ohenhen commended the organisers for bringing such a summit in a time like this where the nation seems to have been losing its worth in the global world.
According to him, entrepreneurs, employees and stakeholders are paying more attention to internalisation than globalization.
He said it is important for them to begin to pay more than a cursory attention to ensuring that their products are global in their presentations and not just internalisation.
He said: ”if you internalise your product, it does not mean that your product is globalise. If it is internalise, that means we can find it here and there or in any part of the world but that does not guarantee the quality of the product. The fact that it is found every other place does not mean that it is acceptable. It is not global.”
He explained that for it to be acceptable, it has to be globalise, that is, even when it is found in some local place in Nigeria, or outside, its content and quality will be acceptable all over the world.
”What makes a brand global is meeting up with global standards. It is important that we begin to look at the way to make our products more standard so that Africa can begin to wipe out that negative image and replace it with a very positive image that we can begin to sell our products and our people,” he said.
Speaking on the theme, Creating African Global Brands: Imperatives for Building Globally Competitive Brands, he said pushing the African Brands to a global stage is very critical to putting African Brands to a global map because the brands happen to make the African continent.
According to him, without the continent being made a brand in the first instance there is no way you can deliver a brand that can stand the test of time on the global map because you cannot give what you do not have.
He explained that it is important that whatever brands that is coming out of the continent is global in content and standards so it can be acceptable in other parts of the world otherwise it will de market the continent.
“Mind you, we already have a lot of issues that have the capacity to demarket products that come from Africa because of the background issues, corruptions, sharp practices which the developed world has a mindset about the African continent. So we will be playing into their hands if we don’t come out with goods that are not global in content.”
He urged brand managers to desist from corruptions, avoid cutting corners, have a positive image and make sure that what is sold is standard.
He added that a brand ambassador is the stoppage where the buyer reaches and can’t go beyond it because he has not gotten a first impression from the ambassador. “The person selling must be a brand, his organisation must be a brand so that at the end of the day it will be a good brand selling a good brand.”
Standing out as brands, he said, entrepreneurs need to be looking for one extra thing to stand out.
According to him, one percent extra will make your delivery extraordinary. ”if there is nothing special about your product, it won’t get noticed,”
He said such qualities as relevance, distinctiveness, and constituency make a brand strong.
According to the don, “a brand must have something that differentiates its product from another.
He said ‘Relevance’ should not come out from you, it should be from someone else’s contribution from a past experience.
Ohehen, however, identified perception as one of the major challenges of brands, noting that a product is affected by the way people see it.
“The perception may be wrong, but the product carries a name. The way the world sees us determines the worth they give us; hence, brand managers must work on their perception to build a strong brand,” he advised.
Commenting on issues in the Nigeria business environment, he said technology is the cutting edge.
He advocated for investment in artificial intelligence, (AI) for businesses to flow and grow, disclosing that entrepreneurs in Africa must grow fast enough to meet up with that.
He said overseas, the future is already here while in Africa, we are still grasping with the past.
Prof Ohenhen said: “If In Africa we are still grasping with the past, that means there is a big problem. Now the fourth industrial revolution is already here in developed countries but, here we are still grasping with the past of the second and the third revolution.”
Managing Director, Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, (LASAA), Prince Adedamola Docemo, said the event is imperative for building global competitive platforms for brands.
Docemo, noted that Lagos State has done many activities and functions that will portray the brands of Lagos in Nigeria, Africa and around the world, adding that the sector is giving platforms for brands to showcase what they have so that they can be competitive all around the world.
He told participants that Lagos state government by creating a position where payments can be splitted, is making businesses in the state more conducive.
He said the summit, which is to recognise 100 most valuable brands in Africa, has a growing impact on the African economy.
“We have done the evaluation of brands that have immensely contributed through their values to the development of African continent all the brands are here for unveiling in the magazine of the African Brands and of course it has a growing impact in the development of the African economy.
“The summit is a continuous exercise. As an organization we will continue to value brands that have demonstrated customers satisfaction and have also leave to their brand policy in Africa,” he said.
Awards were presented to Valuable brands in Africa, among them, Revan Bank, Sterling Bank PLC, Rebber Perfecta Ltd, Linkspic, NOI Polls Ltd, Mediafuse Dentsu Nigeria, Fenchurch Group, Lx Africa Group, Red Star Express Plc, Clinic Healthcare.
Others were, Sundry Foods Ltd, Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, Pay-day-hub, Boulos Enterprise Ltd, First Option Support Services, and Waw Colour Detergent.
