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Today on the podcast, we're going to look at my perspectives on branding. What is branding? When should you be branding? Who should be branding? When should branding become your headache? Those are the questions that we're going to look at today on the podcast. Now, I'm making today's recording at home so there will be noise in the background, especially since the AEDC is misbehaving over here in Abuja. So all my neighbors are blasting generator.
So that's where all the noise is going to come from. Now, if you're tired of using business strategies that seem to work in America and the UK but they fail every time you try it in Nigeria, then this podcast is for you. Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tava Shima Aidi, and for years I've been bringing you practical, realistic and relevant insights that gives results in the Nigerian market. So if you're ready to stop wasting time on generic advice and start growing your business the Nigerian way, then stay locked into the podcast and 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 me on 08064662140. Again, today on the podcast, I said we're going to be talking about my perspectives on branding. Why? Why are we doing that today? And the reason why we're doing so is very simple. I'm currently talking to Elizabeth, a listener of the podcast from Elite, is it Elite Branding agency? So I can't remember the name of her business, but I'm going to be talking about them in the future.
And of course, by the name of the business, you know that she's involved in branding. And from my conversations with her, not just her, but with other people who are involved in brand, you know, you brand and PR professionals. It looks like I've created a bit of a misunderstanding because I seem to rag on branding a lot. So there are lots of people who just assume I am anti branding or I don't think branding works. Why?
I think branding is useless. So that's the reason why I'm making today's podcast recording. I want to set the record straight. I don't think branding is useless. In fact, I think branding is very, very useful. However, branding is not useful when you are at the ID ideation stage or at the traction stage. So I repeat, this is my real perspective on branding. It's not so branding is useless. The reason why I say when somebody comes and meet me, so I'm figuring out my brown reason why I say look, calm down, pipe down first is because worrying about brand when you're at the ideation stage or traction stage, you're just wasting your time.
You're giving yourself a distraction and I'm going to explain why in a few minutes. So First off, when we say ideation, what do we mean? We're trying to figure out what business should I be doing? Then traction stages, you have figured out the business that you're going to do. Now you're trying to figure out is there any demand for this product or this service? Do people even like what it is that I have to offer? Now, when you are this early stage talking about branding, in my own opinion, you're wasting your time.
Especially for most people, because this is precisely the stage where they seem to spend the most time obsessing about branding. It is when they're at the beginning stage, what business should I do or when they are the traction stage, do I have any customers? They will now start figuring what is the font, what is the logo, what is the colour, what is the positioning, what is the this you're trying to figure out the branding.
Meanwhile you have not built anything substantial first. So that is the reason why I say that when you're early, forget all these branding talk when it comes to getting a business off the ground, remember ideation stage and traction stage. What am I going to be offering? What am I going to be selling? What am I going to be exporting? What is going my business going to be? And then traction stage, now that I have decided how will I
get my first 5 customers? How will I get my first 10 to my customers even like me? Are they happy? What is the adequate price that I need to charge? How can I get people to come back and buy again when these early things are your preoccupation? When it comes to getting the business off the ground, the only things you need to worry about are #1 sales and then #2 achieving product market fit. I repeat, early on when we're at the ideation stage, what am I
going to do? And then at the traction stage, I have decided what I'm going to do now. How can I get my first 5 customers, my first ten, my first 15, my 1st 20? The only focus is sales and then achieving product market fit. Well, OK. Apart from that, we also have to worry about achieving customer loyalty because remember, the goal is people should not just buy from us once, they should buy from us again and again. And then they should also refer their friends, their family members and their associates.
So let's look at it that way. When we're trying to get the business off the ground, the things you should be paying attention to #1 sales #2 achieving product market fit #3 achieving customer loyalty. So product market fit or traction just means is there any demand for this product or this service? Do people like this product or this service that I am selling? How many people like it? Now, for the people who like it, how many of them are willing to pay for it with the amount that will make this thing worth my while?
Because it's possible that there's a demand for the product or the service. Let's say you invent something that is fantastic when it comes to cleaning sneakers. Let's say you figured out that mothers in Nigeria have a problem because you know, children have to get to school, they need clean shoes. So they need a magic something that can clean the shoes very well. Now let's say you study the chemical engineering OAU or you need Jaws.
You've come up with something that is really, really wonderful that once you just take it and you apply it on the shoe, you soak it, the shoe will come out clean one time, especially white shoe. So you think that is the business. You now start the business now, that kind of thing. There will definitely be demand, ABI, because there are lots of mothers who want their children to show up to school looking sweet with their shoe clean,
with their socks clean, looking sharp. So yes, there will be demand. But the question now becomes, are there enough Nigerian mothers who worry about this thing and who are willing to pay XYZ amount so that by the time I produce the chemical and I sell the chemical, the profit that is there is enough for me to eat shawarma, to buy Internet, to flex small and then maybe even, you know, invest back into the business. OK, So it should be the other way around, invest back into the business first, then from the remaining, I'll not worry about eating shawarma and then flexing.
So let's say there are enough mothers who worry about this problem, but then they're only willing to pay 250 naira per sachet. Meanwhile, for each sachet, you actually need to be charging like 4:50 to make a healthy margin. If in that case you really can't sell it for 4:50, what people are trying to, what they're willing to pay is 250 naira per sachet, then you have not achieved product market fit because the number of people that you found who are going to buy this thing won't buy it at the price that will make sense to you.
So you can see how early on, in the beginning, these are the things we should be paying attention to. How can I achieve product market fit? Is there a demand? Do people like it? The people that like it, are they willing to pay for it? The people that are willing to pay for it, are they willing to pay an amount that will make sense to me? So these are the things that we should be worried about in the beginning. And we only do that by using the ideas that we keep expressing over here on the podcast.
So this is our primary focus. Now, let's get back to the branding. Now, when most people say brand in Niger, this is what they mean. They mean logo, they mean font, they mean packaging, you know. So when most people say brand, that's what they mean. So when Elizabeth of Elite Branding, when both of us hooked up, that's the level that our conversation started on. Because yes, I will admit, I will admit the logo that you guys see now on YouTube, OK,
Well, depending on when you listen to this, if you are listening to this as at the 29th of September in 2025, that logo that you're seeing now with sales and marketing rating in black and then those swishy washy colors all around it in orange, in black and in yellow. To be honest, this is how I designed it at the time. I heard that something came out, they call this in ChatGPT that ChatGPT can do on this. I say you can do wonders.
I say yes, that's OK, let me download it. So I downloaded ChatGPT. So I say let me try my hand. I now entered ChatGPT. Dear ChatGPT, create a logo for me that I can use as podcast art. Use these colours red, orange and black. By the way, the reason why I picked the red, orange and black, it's just because the only profile photo that I had taken at that time was me wearing a shirt that was red and orange and black. So I say, anyhow, sure, the column, the column was, it must blend.
So I now typed into ChatGPT and then I said for the logo, make sure that sales and marketing is written prominently because I wanted anybody who saw the logo and anybody who saw the podcast that to immediately understand that those are the topics that I talked about and I hit send. As I hit send, chargeability gave me 5, I think was five options. The number one option, I just took it and used it. So if you're listening to this podcast on the 29th of September 2025 S anytime around that time,
that logo that you're seeing sales and marketing in black, then the other colors around red, orange, black, that is how that logo was born. So myself, I know that my design was just anyhow, anyhow, in fact, some people say it was crap, but I don't care if you feel this purpose at the beginning. So when Elizabeth and I started talking, excuse me, that is the level I wish we started talking. OK, what fonts are we talking about?
What colors are we talking about? You know all those sorts of things. So when most people say brand in Niger, that's what they mean. They mean logo, they mean font and they mean packaging. However, there is a much more substantial theory of brand. And when we say substantial, we mean going to the root, going to the substance. Now for people who are here to this fuller idea of brand, when they say brand, they mean the sum total of all the customers interactions with the business.
Let me repeat, for those people who believe in the much more substantial theory of brand, branding means every single time the customer interacts with your business, your business, what did they see, what did they feel? You know, what did they come away with? That is the brand. So let me put it this way, perfect. Since we're talking about Napa now, Napa is misbehaving in my estate. So everybody did blast generator. If you go on Nepal's website now AEDC, that's Abuja Electricity Distribution center, or let's say you're in Lagos, Echo Electricity Distribution center,
Ekecha Electricity distribution, you know, whichever part or you're in Plateau, you know Joss electricity distribution, go and check their website. You will see that the branding is on point. You will see that the logo is on point. You will see that the colors, they make sense. You will see that the website is designed smooth. Go and check out their Twitter. You see that their Twitter is on point, graphics on point. But then what is the quality of service that you are receiving,
especially those of us who pay for Band-Aid. So for the people who look at the popular idea of a brand which is logo front and parking, they will say now that NEPA has a correct brand and you would be correct because all the designs technically speaking are correct, all the designs are on point. But for those people who have a substantial theory of brand, who worry about the total of all the customers experiences with the business, they will say that never has a useless brand.
Because for those of us who interact with it every day, what we know is we're paying three times the amount of what we used to pay before. But then 4050% of the time we don't even have the light. Then when you call customer care, you know we'll be call. When you send messages, nobody respond. Do I acknowledge you? So in any words, you're on your own. So people who have a much more substantial theory of brand, who say NEPA has a crappy brand.
So that is a perfect example to show you the difference between the popular idea of brand, which is logo, font, color, packaging, and then the substantial theory of a brand. Now, of course, for those of you who are listening to the podcast, you will know that the reason why I know these perspectives is precisely because Muncie before she retired was a marketing exec who studied who her MBA was in in public relations with our specialty.
So that's why I know some of these things. So we've looked at 2 perspectives now for branding, the popular idea, logo, color, packaging, font, and then the substantial theory of the brand. How do customers feel? What is the impression that they come away with every single time that they interact with this business? So now bear that in mind when we're having this conversation. By the way, hope you guys are noticing that in the beginning,
those of you who obsessed with logo, with brand, you are usually thinking about logo color, font design, packaging, imagery. Please note, OK, hold attention in your mind. Now look at me or look at my podcast. I admit in the beginning, branding was poor, visual appeal was poor because how I came up with it was I heard that they had invented something magical Culture GBT and I went there and I used this thing to design the logo.
He gave me 5. I just picked the very first one and I used it. So yes, the branding was poor. But guess what? If you look at the substantial theory of a brand now when it comes to the sum total of people's interactions with the business, you will see that when it comes to customer experience or the user experience, on the other hand, I perform very well. People listen to the podcast, they like what they hear, they find it relatable, they find it practical.
So they subscribe and then they come back and then they tell other people to subscribe as well. And that's the reason why we've been able to grow to over 3400 and something subscribers on Spotify alone. That's the only place where I can track how many subscribers I have. I don't know how to find out how many subscribers I have on on Apple iTunes and all the other places. So Spotify alone, I've crossed that three key now 3000 mark clear cover up.
Now, the reason why that is possible is because if you're looking at a substantial theory of brand now, the customer experience, the user experience is on point, is on par. People, they feel me, even though the popular idea of brand logo, font, packaging, everything, even though on that level 0 useless. So in fact, there's some people, excuse me, Elizabeth is one of them who said that the first time she saw the podcast, I was like, she saw the logo and she was like, hi, could you say,
well, he's the only one I found. Let me try it. When she now tried it, she was happy with what she had. So yes, I've heard that from some people before, from people who say, oh boy, who designed this name for you? Now back to the tension I was talking about because I was worried about substance from the beginning, my message being resonating with people, talking about things that are particular and relevant to the Nigerian market.
You will see that the customer experience, the user experience actually turned up being on point. And because it was on point and because I've got something substantial going now that Elizabeth has come into my life as a podcast listener, by the way, these are the kind of podcast listeners I like. People who come up and say, I love your podcast. I think we can do this better. So those of you who come into my life and say that I love you guys, you by getting something from the podcast, you're also trying to move my ministry forward.
I like it. Or like people who listen to the podcast, they like the value that they get from the podcast and then they reach out to me. And then they're even trying to take from me the small that I have. They're even trying to take whether as people that are asking for financial assistance or people that are asking for mentorship. Like, come on. There's over 1200 episodes right here on this feed. I'm already giving you guys a lot.
Do you think you somehow that when you because I give my phone number at the beginning, at the end of every episode ending is some other when you finally holler at your boy, you're even trying to collect the small coins that I have. Come on now. Nothing. No. Makes sense. We reach out to me, have your questions, have your queries, have your comments. Yeah, I'll respond. I'll answer to as many of them as I can, but if you're not going to be telling me how I'm going to grow this podcast, or if you're not going to be investing in me, let this thing move forward.
Or if it's not a paid engagement or paid coaching consulting, then don't call me up trying to see how you collect the small coins I already have transferring other people's life. It's something I keep saying that people don't get. If you're somebody who is a taker every single time, people you know, people see you do. You know, they'll dodge you if they see you coming left, they'll go right. If you try calling, they will ignore.
They will busy the call because you know that this guy is a taker. So don't be a taker anyway. So now that Elizabeth has come into my life, when I say into my life, I mean on the business level, because, you know, I'm married and, you know, I'm not like Ned Walker because, you know, I don't have money for second wife yet. So when I say he's in my life, I mean on a business level. So now that Elizabeth is in my life now, we can now have productive conversations about fonts, about color, about all kinds of things, precisely because I have built something substantial.
And we have been getting feedback from people who listen to the show and for people who pay for my coaching services and who pay for my consulting services, who pay for my speaking services. So I actually have actual feedback to give her answers. So if she wants to design logo and she says OK, who are your listeners? Are they predominantly male or female? Are they predominantly young, middle-aged or old? Where do they live?
In which part of Nigeria or which part of the globe or whatever? What kind of topics do they find interesting? I can be giving her all the info back that she uses to design the logo because I paid attention to the substance first, because I paid attention to traction first. So back to this example of somebody who creates this magic thing that can help you to make your children's shoes and socks very, very clean. If in the beginning you're worried about sales and traction.
How many people can I sell this thing to? Can I get them to pay for it at an amount that makes sense to me? By the time you run this thing for a while, 2-3 months, and you get some qualitative data because you're having conversations with people. When it now comes down to the actual brand design and the designer starts asking you questions, you will have information that you can give them and they'll be able to design the right brand that is for you.
In other words, this whole thing about branding, don't do brand at the beginning, don't waste your time. Start figure out traction, figure out product market fit. By the time you have moved forward small, you have acquired one or two people a hair. Now you can start worrying about branding because you have all the information that you now need to design your brand. The vital information that you need when it comes to design your brand, first of all is ICP
your ideal customer profile. Who is your ideal audience? If your ideal audience are girls age between 12 and 18, the color that you select will be different. If your ideal audience is men aged 62 to 84, you see, but some of you at the start of your business journey, you will be designing logo and brand based on what you like. The reason why you're designing based on what you like or what you think pretty is because you do not know that you're supposed to be designing this thing around an intended audience.
But in the beginning, when you don't have an attendance or an intended audience, how else you design it? You design it based on what you think looks nice, which is why lots of you, you go and register the business name. Next thing you pay for the branding and the website. You design everything just like that. How did you arrive on all those things? How? Just based on what you like? What if what you like is not what your ideal customer likes,
which is not about you? So ideal customer, the ideal audience, who are they? Also, you should know something about the buying cycle. Is this the kind of thing that people buy regularly? Quick, quick, quick. Like say this miracle shoe cleaner, now that you're selling at a 459 per sachet, is this something that people are buying every week, every month? Is it something that people buy once a year? Is it a luxury something?
Is it a simple something? This is all the background information that you need on your customer, on your buying habits, on your industry before you now determine colors and fonts and designs. And that's the reason why for construction company, as far as I know, there's no construction company that their logo and everything is pink. Think about it is a construction company. You have men sweating on site, you have all those big engines and everything and the people that are buying those services are who, you know, high net worth individuals or local government, municipalities or federal government or you know,
something. So if you're going to put bubble gum pink there in the branding color, I think no one makes sense. It will make sense. So wait, don't fuss about branding in the beginning. Start sales, product market fees, traction. Is there demand for this thing? Do people like it? How many people like it? Are they the ones rushing me or using me that's chasing them? Do people pay well for this thing? Who are the kind of people that like this thing?
How do they use this thing? How often do they use this thing? What are the needs that this thing is meeting? When you now have traction and you've built something substantial, now you can worry about brand. So the longest story of this thing that I'm trying to say is for those of you who are branding professionals, please do not think, excuse me, do not think. I don't. I don't value you guys. I reach you guys. I reach you guys very, very well.
I just think that a lot of you coming too soon. Relax. When somebody comes, I meet you and the person cannot answer all these basic questions. You're asking who is your target audience? Who's your ideal this? Who's your ideal that? Don't just collect the person's money, you collect the money, you design something that works, then the person will start business and then clearly the brand is not going to be ideal for what actually evolves.
And then the client ends up being angry with you that you designed something rubbish. But you you'll be saying when I designed what you told me to design, the fault was yours. Mr. Branding specialist, Madam Branding specialist, you didn't ask them the right questions. You didn't ask them, OK, all these things you're telling me, what are you basing it on? Are you basing it on idea as per I think this is what my customers will like or is it that you actually in the last year have done business with 25
clients and out of the 25 clients, you know 18 of them told you this or 15 of them told you that. So branding very, very good, very, very good, very, very good. But branding is not the first thing that you do when you're going into a business traction sales, product market feed. That is the first thing you do when you get into business. Now, I normally don't like to do this, but let me go ahead and say it anyway because there's one guy now I was talking to and I already told him to his face.
So let me say here again on the podcast, I told him, oh boy, how far now the guy said, I'm coming, I'm working on my brand. And so we had the conversation. So I'm going to say it again case there's anybody else who's listening who's in the same boat. If anybody asks you a boy how far your answer should not be. I'm working on my brand my friend. Just get started. You have decided this is what you're going to do. Stop working on your brand.
Start looking for your first 5 customers. Start looking for your first ten. You've done 10. Start looking for your next 10. Looking for your next 15. Get things going, get some traction. When you have traction, now you can sit down. Start saying, you know what, let me be conscious about my brand. So long and short for those of you who've been listening from day one, despite the fact that my brand in quote was designed on an amateur level just by using ChatGPT.
Thank you very much for listening and thank you very much for being a part of this journey so far. But with the way the conversations are going with Elizabeth, excuse me, there are going to be some changes. So excuse me, I had a busy day making lots of phone calls, so my voice is tired. So there's going to be some changes on the podcast. The topics we talk about still be the same. The questions that we answer will still be the same.
The focus of the podcast will still be the same, but the colours will be different, noticeably different, Much, much better because now I have a professional who is designing things. If I want you to see it, the difference would be clear if I once I showed my brother the mock up, my brother took screenshot side by side and then he now showed me. It is then that I knew how terrible the old logo was. And I say, Oh yeah, that was that was terrible.
That was terrible. So there will be some changes in logo, there will be some changes in font, there will be some changes in design, there will be some changes in color, there will be some changes in packaging. But substantially everything is still going to remain the same. And this is how most people should be thinking about it when they're thinking about branding. If I had wasted all my time in the beginning, worried, what about the branding?
What about the front? What about the positioning? What about the logo? What about this? I would have ended up like all these people who say you talk to them in general. They say, Oh yeah, I'm going to go into the sneaker business. If I really agreed. The sneakers I don't want to sell. You know me them in April. So boy, how far now the show I'm coming. I'm working on my brand. You decided in January I'm going to be sending sneakers.
Excuse me, then somebody meets you in April. Is that how far you say I'm still working on my brand. So excuse me, still working on my brand four months later. That is the kind of thing that I don't want people to fall into. And that's the reason why I say anytime I meet somebody who says I'm working on my brand, I say, you know what? Chill fest, chill fest. Before we get to this branding thing, how many customers did you do you have?
When did you start? How many customers have you serviced? OK, what's the plan for getting the next 5, for getting the next 10? What are the problems that you're facing so far in marketing for the 20 customers that you've had? How many people came to buy from you? Again, from those that bought again, how many referrals? How many referrals did we get? That's the reason why when you guys reach out, these are the questions we start asking 1 by 1
by 1. So that's it. That's my own real perspective when it comes to branding. So branding people, I rate you, I respect you, I value your contributions. If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking to Elizabeth. So that you guys do a very good job. Just stop collecting people's money at the beginning, collect their money in the middle when they've actually got some traction. That's the way that you branding people will even get more business for yourselves.
And that is when you stop quarreling with your clients. Because I hear it all the time. Somebody says I designed a logo for the customer. The customer is not happy when I look at it. I will say that here, the logo, the design actually is sweet 100%. But unfortunately, it's not a matter of whether this thing is sweet according to my eye or according to your eye. It is whether the brand, the everything, the logo, the design, the everything you designed when it is helping that person to achieve the results that they want.
And as far as they're concerned, it was not helping them retrieve their results. Then they think the logo is rubbish. And you know what they say now customer is always right. I don't believe that by the way, but you understand what I'm trying to say. Anyway, let me bring it to a close here. It was already 30 minutes. So that's it. And that's all. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp on 08064662140.
And if you're ready for more realistic or more relevant strategies for the Nigerian market, then you're in luck because like I said, we have over 1000 episodes of Practical Insights right here in this feed where you're currently listening to. All you have to do is Scroll down and keep binging on the content, keep binging on the archives. I'll see you soon.