By Victoria Olaoluwa
The brand, though an intangible asset, has been described as the most valuable asset of a corporate organisation. It has become a critical driver of choice that influences consumer’s decisions.
Report of the 2020 edition of the annual brand evaluation in Nigeria has just been published. Nigerian owned brands had impressive outing and were very prominent, particular among the top10 in the annual brand league table.
One of the significant outcomes of the report is Globacom’s emergence as the Most Popular corporate brand in Nigeria 2020.
According to the report from Top 50 Brands Nigeria, a brand and marketing research firm, as published on their website, Glo as it is fondly called, achieved a whopping 89 percent mentions in the Top of the Mind (TOM) survey (a test of respondent’s knowledge, affinity and ability to recall brand names) This outcome places Globacom ahead of competitors and other popular brands like MTN, GTBank, Dangote, Coca-Cola Nigeria, First Bank, UBA, etc in terms of popularity.
As stated in the report, “Top of the Mind brands are the most remembered or easily recalled brand names. They are the ones that get customers excited and participate in their marketing. This has earned them an increasing mind share over time”.
More startling is the fact that 78 percent of respondents chose Globacom as number one among the top 10 brands they could recall, (even though this wasn’t mentioned as a factor during the exercise). And 11 percent of the respondents mentioned Globacom among their top 10, adding up to 89 percent. An indication of strong visual cue and popularity that the Glo brand enjoys.
At the second place is Dangote group, another proudly Nigerian brand. Dangote came top in this popularity survey last year.
MTN Nigeria emerged third, Coca-Cola is fourth, while GTBank emerged the 5th most popular.
Others among the top 10 are Nestle Nigeria, Airtel, Dufil Prima Foods (makers of Indomie), Nigerian Breweries and Sevenup Bottling Company, on 6th to 10 positions respectively.
Having Nigerian brands topping this list is very significant in many ways. It shows a very high level confidence, acceptability and affinity with home grown brands by Nigerians. It indicate that these brands are not just favorably competing with multinationals in the country, but taking the lead in consumer’s perception and many times, market share.
Furthermore, it also means that in the midst of the seemingly uncertainties and several negative press, locally made brands are not letting down. The sheer number of Nigerian brands topping the tables, many of which are within 3 decades old, is an indication that Nigerian businesses are really thriving. Globacom is still less than 2 decades.
Overall, 45 percent, that is an equivalent of 27 of the 60 most popular brands in Nigeria 2020 are Nigerian, while 33 are multinational.
Justifying this accomplishment, HKLM the branding and design agency that conceptualised Glo’s original name, positioning, identity and visual language in 2003 said, “Glo’s brand communication celebrates every aspect of Nigerian culture, including sponsoring the national football team, the Super Eagles; the nation’s football premier league, celebrating the Nobel Laureate for Literature, Wole Soyinka; and featuring a multitude of Nigerian musicians, actors and comedians in marketing communications to showcase Nigeria’s rich cultural diversity. Its popularity shouldn’t be a surprise.”
In the same vein, Bunmi Oke, CEO, Ladybird Advertising, former President of Association of Advertising Agency of Nigeria, AAAN and former council member of APCON said “For close to two decades, Globacom has been a prominent part of the Nigeria space. They have been relentless in their support for Nigerian arts and sport; about the 2 most engaging human activities. They have many of the prominent faces and celebrities as brand ambassadors, strategic partnership and sponsorship of the most popular cultural festivals across the country, having the World heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua on their endorsement list etc. These are strategic brand positionings which are sure to positively affect mindshare. They are a well-known face, give it to them. I believe they earned it”
In his own contribution, Charles Jenarius of Globacom said “Brand building is an art as well as a science. In Glo, we ensure that both these aspects receive equal importance and focus. And when this is practiced consistently and relentlessly, 365 days in a year, there is no limit to what heights can be scaled. It is both gratifying and fulfilling, for the team, that today Glo is being rated as the most popular brand in Nigeria
It is a historical fact that Globacom, with many firsts in its 17 years of operation introduced the per-second billing in Nigerian telecoms, allowing cheaper call rates and increased patronage. Glo was the first operator in Africa to launch 2.5G network which enabled the convergence of voice, data and multimedia technologies. The first to launch a nationwide 4G LTE network in 2016 among others.
Globacom has also contributed to boosting broadband connectivity in Nigeria by building and launching an international submarine cable, Glo 1. It was the first time a company would single-handedly implement such a massive undersea project in Africa