Effective brand building is key to business growth, says Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka

As part of the activities for Customer Service Week, General Manager, Enterprise Marketing MTN Nigeria, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka spoke to customers on the importance of building a strong brand for business growth. The event, which was held on Wednesday, 6 October 2021 was a virtual customer engagement forum, organised by MTN for customers and had over 200 participants in attendance. 

Customer Service Week is an annual event dedicated to celebrating customers and serves as an opportunity to renew dedication to service excellence. It reinforces the belief that customers are at the center of the success stories of organisations and brands must express their commitment to continuously show appreciation to them while motivating and rewarding the service representatives who render support behind the scenes.

Onyinye spoke on the topic: ‘Brand Positioning, A Strategy for Increased Sales’ and emphasized the need for business owners to pay more attention to brand-building activities. Citing a report from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, (SMEDAN) which statistically states that in Nigeria, one in every household has an entrepreneur or a business owner, she established the need for business owners to be properly positioned. 

She charged entrepreneurs on the need to take branding seriously regardless of business size because branding is a strong, critical, and tangible asset for businesses. She encouraged businesses to design their offerings with the goal to create a unique impression in the minds of consumers. This makes the business desirable and will ultimately lead to sustainable growth.

Onyinye further enumerated the steps to building a formidable brand to be an understanding of what the consumers want, an understanding of what the business is capable of, and an understanding of how each competitor is positioning their brand. 

She concluded with a charge for business owners to identify gaps in the market and leverage those gaps to effectively position their brand and communicate appropriately.