NEPA/AEDC Proofing Your Brand: Beyond Logo & Colour

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at branding theory versus practice. Again, today on the podcast, we're going to look at branding theory versus practice. And the reason why is because I think maybe last week when I was telling you guys about changes coming to the podcast, well, not really changes per say, you know, like I'm getting a new logo as in the podcast is getting a makeover basically. So on that podcast episode, I

think I spoke about the difference between what most Nigerians mean when they hear branding, which is colour, logo, websites, fonts, you know, stuff like that. And then practice the much more substantial theory of branding, which is that your brand is the sum total of all the experiences that your customers have when they interact with you. So it's not just what is the colour of your logo? So it's a combination of everything.

What is the colour of your logo? That's a brand. What kind of fonts do you use? That's a brand. Your material, is it embossed or be? Is it glossy? That's the brand. Your staff, are they rude? That's the brand. Your sales people, are they polite? That's a brand. Do you always deliver on time? That's a brand. Is it that, you know, send your customer? That's the brand. So those are some of the things that when I talk about over here on the podcast, when I talk about branding, you know, I try and tease out some of these things because too many of us Niger people, to be honest,

we're in love with colours, logos, websites, fonts and you know, the Instagram having a cohesive, what will I say? A cohesive, cohesive, how will I say now, you know, like everything is well put together and everything looks alright. So today on the podcast, branding theory versus practice. So I'm making today's recording at home. It just finished raining. So that's where you're going to hear some noise in the background, you know, some rumbling in the background and stuff like that.

Now if you're tired of looking for, you know, business strategies and tips and things like that, everything Jaws night, you know, America, UK, you know, stuff like that, but no good stuff for Nigeria, then welcome to the podcast. This is the show for you. I'm your host, Tavishima Ahidi and for years I've been dropping practical stuff here, realistic stuff, relevant stuff so that we can get results in the Nigerian market.

So if you are ready to stop listening to all that generic stuff that exists out there, you want to grow your business in Nigerian way, then stay locked in to this podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect, call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. All right, so like I said to the only show branding theory versus practice. So like I said, here in Niger,

lots of us think branding means colours, logos, websites, fonts. And the example that I used the last time was Napa or PHC and Power Holding Corporation or the more local entities, I mean the distribution companies, you know, ADC, Abuja Electricity distribution company, what again Lagos 1 is what is the EE distribution company? I mean EKDC, you know, Ebadon, you know, Plateau as in everywhere, we all have our own DC. So if you look at that organization, you know, former NEPA, PACNADC, all of them, if you look at their branding on point, their Twitter pages on point, OK, I haven't checked their Instagrams, websites, not bad.

The fonts, all good colours, nice logo, correct? Enter their offices, especially the Abuja offices, you know AC tight, see all the August cars, you know properly branded, you know looking all nice looking as in do they have a correct brand? You're damn right they have a good brand. When you call them on the phone that the automated something will say, oh your call is valuable to us, something, something, something. Because of that, we are audited by Deloitte to ensure customer service something so they have even gone to go and pay Deloitte International Consulting.

So from a theory perspective, branding on point. Meanwhile, let's look at the customer experience. I told you guys, somebody reached out to me and the guy was laughing, well, not really laughing per SE, but you know, he just said what are the odds that, you know, Independence Day, you know, every, every, what I mean while pass of Abuja, one whole week, no light, more than one week no water. Of course they didn't tell us before they you know, did all this.

So one week blackout, no public announcements, no WhatsApp messages. If I, when I tried to reach, I tried to call in customer care, they admitted that they had a problem with some of their computer systems. So they were backed up on WhatsApp messages. It was not getting through, you know, And of course they have that wonderful automated message whenever you try and call them. You know, your call is important to us, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, AEDC, valuing your Peace of Mind. Something, something, something, something. We take customer service seriously. We're audited by Deloitte, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they kept me on hold. Normally I would have caught the call, but you know, the VEX, seriously. So I hung on, I guess, how many minutes I hung on the phone 18 minutes and 18 seconds before somebody responded. I repeat, they kept me on hold 18 minutes and 18 seconds.

That's how long I was on the on the phone. Meanwhile, for those 18 minutes, they'll be repeating the same thing. Your call is important to us. We take customer service seriously. We are audited by Deloitte, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Your call is important to us. I sat there for 18 minutes listening to your call is important was in fact the other line for this episode. I wrote it. Wow, I was waiting on that call. Another thing is all that voice thing that they have there is really nice, real sweet.

They got professional voice actors to do it, you know, didn't they? They did. So now honest to consider one question. AEDC, NEPA, you know all of them, whatever. Do they have a good brand or not? I repeat, do they have a good brand or not? For those of you who think of branding as colour, logo, website, font, fonts, they have a good brand. If you look at the much more substantial theory around branding, ask yourself, does NEPA, PHEMADC, Echo, DC, Ibadon,

BDC, Just BDZ, All the BDC, so all the DC, do they have good brands or not? Now some of you will say, Tarishma, you're being all fair. Now you're picking a very, very extreme case to prove your point. And yeah, I will admit I am picking the extreme case. It's just that I'm trying to prove a point. When I go on all these brown things, most of us are not this bad. Most of us are not as bad as NEPA. Most of us are, you know, 5050.

Even myself, I'm not perfect, but I used this extreme example just to illustrate one point. There's a proper way of how to think about the brand of your business. Those of you who are obsessed with colour, logo, websites, fonts, there's a whole lot more to it and I think you're better off paying attention to the much more substantive side of these things. What is the customer experience? How do you deal with customers when they interact with you?

Do they come over with a sour taste in their mouth? These are the things you ought to be paying attention to and another reason why also about that. My neighbor, she's about to put on her generator. You know, I told you that Nepal issues and her daughter is getting married tomorrow, poor woman. So, you know, nowadays now, so neighbors, everybody, I say neighbors, family members at home and you know, things like that and I feel sorry for them.

Imagine planning a wedding no like no other. Anyway, where was I? Anyway, so I was saying that is you're better off thinking about the brand in much more substantive terms. And another benefit of thinking about the actual practice, actual practice, not just theory or the much more substantive ideas behind branding is this. By the time you call the brand professional, you've been paying, if you have been paying attention to doing business,

right, any question that the brand professional asks you, you will have answers so that you can give them that they will now use to inform your brand. And that is precisely the exercise that I went through with Elizabeth and her firm Gaussian Media. I know in the older other episodes I said Elite, but that's because I think when I first, when we first started chatting and I checked her in LinkedIn handle, I think there was something there about Elite branding Agency or something like that.

So that's how I got it mixed up. But it actually is Goshen Media. Yeah, Goshen, like Redeem Church for those of you who are wondering. But no, she's not affiliated with Redeem Church. It's just the same, the same name. So it was like that because I have been paying attention to the substantial things, the cost of my experience. You know, how do I treat my customers, who are the kind of customers I'm trying to attract?

How do I treat listeners to the show? What are the kind of topics that I talk about when people get in touch with me? What are the kind of questions that I answer? Because I've been focused on that for the last five years. When Elizabeth and her crew sat me down to ask me questions so that they could come up with all these changes, come up with logo, come up with colour, come up with fonts. I had answers to give them, and that is what informed the design.

So in a couple of days, we've already agreed on the final designs. The new podcast cover is going to be up. Yeah. And everything looks nice and fancy. They did a good job. If I'm looking at what they did now is now I can see that truly, truly, truly. My old stuff was was was basic as in basic AF. Anyway, So yeah, changes coming to the partner, but don't worry, the changes that are coming are not substantial. Excuse me?

I'm still going to be answering the same kinds of questions that I did on the show in the past. We're still going to be talking to the same kind of people, still going to be answering the same kinds of questions, and I'm still going to be obsessed with the same kinds of issues on my core thesis that we all need to learn how to sell in order to improve our businesses and improve our personal lot in life. The core thesis is still there.

So we'll always be talking about sales. Always, especially personal selling because you can get good at branding, you can get good at positioning, you can get good at building sales. For now, get good at advertising. But last, last, you have to pick up the phone and talk to somebody. If you don't like answering phones anyhow, you have to pick up the keyboard. I respond to a WhatsApp message, respond to Adm, respond to an e-mail, any which way.

Eventually it all boils down to personal setting because one person must talk to somebody else. Especially for those of us in the SME space. So again, those of you who say, excuse me, I hate branding because I've got that comment from a few people. In fact, Elizabeth said it herself when we're about to start working together, he said, oh, I know you don't like branding. I said, oh, no, no, no, it's not like that was nice if I hate branding.

So I'm trying to qualify some of the ideas that I expressed over here on the podcast. You know, there's a proper way to think about branding and branding is a useful tool. What some of you are just too obsessed about it. By the way, one guy that I mentioned, I think now if you reach like 2 months, I say how far? Not guessing. I'm working on my brand. Guess what, guess guess if he had started, the answer is no, the guy hasn't started.

So before I met him, I'm working on my brand. While I met him while we're talking, I'm working on my brand. Two months later I'm working on my brand. Can you guys see how see how in real life this fascination with brand thing, it will stop you from getting started. Hope you guys can see I'm not making this stuff up. I see before I met the guy, I'm working on my brand. The day I was talking to the guy, I'm working on my brand.

Two months don't pass how far I'm working on my brand. Anyway, So what should never do? AEDC, all these kind of companies, Nigerian companies, If you're actually worried about your brand, what should you do? I really think you'd have more customer service professionals, more CX professionals, have more people on the phone. Don't let people wait for too long. Don't let your communication structure breakdown. Let people's messages and complaints get through.

Make sure we have shorter waiting times because problems go wherever. Lead day always. Then communicate downturns. Never. You know you guys should be communicating downturns. Your Twitter handle is nice and sweet, you know, so be using our sweet Twitter handle to be letting people know just coming in, just breaking. So, so, so feeder broken down between Ibadan and Lagos. Because of this, our engineers have been mobilized swiftly to start work.

We are thinking that it will take like 76 hours for the problem to be resolved. Put it out there now. You know, Nigeria, we always like to you know, people who screen grab, retweet, you know, stuff like that. The news will go round practically communicable. People let people know what's up. Business people listening to this, let your customers know what's up. Sometimes the reason why is your why your customers they vex is because you're not saying anything.

You told that the delivery was going to be there in 2 weeks. 2 weeks was September 11th. Now it is September 23rd. They have not had anything. Of course, the girl with a vex. Of course you'll be seriously vexed because you didn't say anything. The moment you know there's going to be a problem, let her know what's up. Oh, Madam, we promised you September 11th. I'm terribly sorry this thing happened. This thing happened.

Looks like there's going to be a delay. Please, Madam, do not be disappointed. It's looking like we might have your delivery there by September 23rd. Not later than September 23rd. Now. She was new Vex. It's just that the formal vaccine where you didn't say anything is much much much much greater than the one where you initially told us September 11th. But then by September 6th, September 5th, when you knew that was problem, you called her, you told her it's not September 23rd the Vex won't be as big.

Lots of times that's the reason why customers does the Vex anyhow. So just like ADC, NEPA, Echo, DC, Ebadon, BDC, Jos, DC, you know, all the distribution companies, just like how they should proactively communicate, we should also proactively communicate with our customers. Thank you very much for the order. We received the transfer. Your order is now being processed. Good morning, Sir. Your order has been processed. It's being delivered.

It's on his way to you right now in Maiduguri. Sorry Sir, through no fault of ours, your order has been delayed because local gas, local council, government at the border stopped your order. We are sending agents now to go and sort out the issues. Please expect delivery to be 5 days later. You know, be updating people, let people know also also. What else? Anyway, let me just leave it like that because when it comes to these things, we can keep on talking on and on and on and on,

but how it affects we business owners is very simple. Can you see that the things that Napa or not, these big companies, the things that they need to do, they're seriously preoccupied about their brand is to do all the substantive things and not waste millions and millions of naira in contracts for logo and website and everything. And it's the same thing for you too. So right now, if you cannot afford to have a branding professional, you know, someone like Elizabeth to come and look at your stuff, it's OK.

But don't think because of that you can't start. As I'm telling you right now, somebody sent me a message today, Person wants to be guy wants to do mobile gadgets, you know, phones, computers, those sorts of things. You know, he doesn't have money for branding a CSE registration. That's what's holding him back. He really thinks that is what is holding him back because he doesn't have money for CSE registration and he doesn't have money to pay for branding and local designs.

That's not what's holding you back. It's not you're afraid of a bunch of stuff. I'm not quite sure what you're afraid of, but all you need to do is to go out and start talking to people and sell a bunch of phones. From the small profit you make, you be able to pull aside some coins and then you talk to your cousin who just finished from law school and you give him something. With that, you'll be able to help you sort out CAC.

That is one thing that is now. Then continue to sell your phones from the small, small, small, small coins that you gather. You can now go and call somebody to do your branding thing is not important to you. Well, trust me, if you're listening to this podcast now and you really think the reason why you haven't started your business is, excuse me, because you don't have money for CAC registration and you don't have money for branding.

I don't mean to be rude, but you're telling yourself a lie. There's something else that you're afraid of. Maybe you're afraid of talking to strangers. Maybe you don't think you can really do it. Maybe I'll become a graphic designer. Maybe you really think you know, you don't have the skills to do graphic designs. There's some other thing you're afraid of. There's no branding that's holding you back and there's no CAC registration that's holding you back.

And you forgive me that this is another rambling episode. I really shouldn't be doing this. You know, when something happens and I just vex and I come and just vomit on you guys. So I shouldn't really be doing that. But anyway, that's pretty much what I want to talk about. Oh, by the way, the best thing, after being kept on the phone for 18 minutes and 18 seconds after we finished talking and after the babe could not give me any helpful information, that's what she told me.

She told me, kindly end the call. I love the way Nigerians talk. Kindly end the call. Does anything there sound kind to you? Does anything there sound empathetic to you? That's what the babes said. Kindly end this call. I said Jack Nigerians, I have a way with words but I like it. I like it. So maybe one day too when I'm vexing with somebody on the call, I said look, you know what bro, kindly end this call. It's a nice one.

It's a nice way of being cut and rude and you know to the point without saying anything rude because if you look at the words that she used, kindly end the call. It's nothing bad when we that's how the interaction ended. Anyway, poor girl. I really hope they increase their salary because I'm sure lots of people have called to shout on her that day. Anyway, let me stop doing therapy over here. So that's it and that's all.

Remember if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message when I want that message on 08064662140. And if you're ready for more realistic stuff, tips, tricks, strategies, things are working in the Nigerian market, then you are in the right place. Because in this very feed where you're listening to this podcast, whether you're on YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, whoever you are, we have over 1000 episodes, over 1200

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