Brand leadership through strategic communication

By Yinka Olaito in Nigeria.

 

Brand leadership is a great and enviable position every brand aspires. But as we know, there is a lot of difference between wishes and realities. If wishes are horses, every beggar will ride. Brand leadership is not a day journey. It entails a continuous hard work on the vision. To add to this, everyone in the brand leadership journey needs to hold their sides tight. Hard work may not be enough though, working smart, keen observation of market trend, raising optimistic and highly enthusiastic brand ambassadors will go a long way in making such a goal achievable.

Also important to the above is that each brand must acknowledge gaining market leadership needs begin with an indentify niche. There is nothing like general merchant market leadership anymore. That is if we assume there was a time that was correct.  A strong leadership in a niche paves way for line- extension later. Relevance begins with being known for something unique at the initial stage.

We also consider the fact that no brand is ever successful; reach the top without constantly re-evaluating the level of market knowledge at its disposal. It must also learn how to deliver service in a unique way through the internal audience who may be point of contact or otherwise with the brand. Doing the above may constitute foundational issues. We emphasised this because we understand many brands without meaningful result may say they have being doing these without getting to the market leadership status.

The missing leg we may identify is lack of strategic communication. Many brands may remain anonymous despite the fact they hold the potential to be top of the mind status just because they do not know how to engage strategic communication, exposure of the brand to relevant targets.

Communications is essential in any endeavour. Every brand needs an understanding of the best way to go before excelling. To enjoy full benefits of brand’s leadership through strategic communication, priority must be given to vital issues. So here are my thoughts today in no particular order.

Objective: some believe communication does not require objective. Just keep communicating and you will hit it. That amounts to waste of fund, resources, valuable time of people involved and the brand at large.

Identify the target: Even with good communication objective, if a brand does know who it should reach, that is disaster. Knowing the target sets the brand on its toe to study its target psycho analytics that will guide best channels.

Develop a strategy: In my own opinion, a strategy is a guide, a policy and outline of what to do and how to do it. It is common knowledge that many know where they want to be. That is not a major problem for many. How-to is the missing point in many instances. How –to requires a clear guideline that you lead to a progressive achievement of goal-becoming market leader.

Use right channels and communicate, communicate, communicate: The wheel of progress in brand leadership through strategic communication is in the ability to remain on the radar of the customers for a known solution. Inability to engage in communication process has accounted for why quacks will sometimes be known than the original. Many brands believe through silence, people will identify the real deal. If that happens, especially in today’s over-communicated world, it will be by sheer luck. Many potential great brands should observe great brands like Coca-cola. Have you ever wondered why such brands are still investing in strategic brand communication? Building and strengthened brand leadership position in the market place is the baseline. How has your brands being fairing despite your great potentials? Brands have no excuse today. If you really want to fly high, make a choice. They that walk, walk with many. They that run, run with a few and they that fly, fly alone. Your brand needs reappraisal of its communication strategy. Let me add, consistency in this makes the brand function better. Can you share a thought? The community values that.

 

Yinka Olaito is a certified Brand-PR, Social Media expert, Trainer and Public Speaker who has enjoyed corporate consulting business relationship with frontline Nigerian brands.

You can connect with me on any of the following platforms:

Facebook: Yinka olaito            Twitter:@pathfindernig        Skype: Yinkaolaito

E-mail:  yinka@yinkaolaito.com

 

This article was originally posted on Nigeria Business Communities

Are you interested in Market Research, Recruitment and Business Leads?

Join the Africa Business Panel, powered by Africa Business Communities.

www.africabusinesspanel.com.