The Myth of the Brand-First Business

Hello and welcome to the show. Today. I'm not in the audio booth, so I expect to hear some interruptions in the background. So with the apologies out of the way, let's head straight into the topic for today. OK, Today I'd like us to look at branding versus sales, which comes first. The reason why I want us to look at this today is because there's a problem in business circle business circles these days, and that's because most people my age are obsessed with brand when they want to start their business journey.

Everybody assumes I'm going to be in business. I'm going to be a doctor, I'm going to be a photographer, I'm going to be an architect, I'm going to be a consultant. So let me start with building my brand. That's one of the first things that I run into when I'm talking people. Everybody wants to start from the brand journey, but which comes first? Does branding truly come first? The problem with this whole theory of all, to get into business, let me start building my brand, is it doesn't reflect the trajectory of most businesses.

It doesn't show how most businesses actually grow. And so because of this, a lot of people my age and younger are ending up with a very flawed picture of business. You're ending up with a very erroneous idea about how business, how businesses grow, how businesses come about. Now, the reason why we end up with this flawed picture or this backwards picture is because of the stories and the brands that are celebrated in books and celebrated in media when some of us were kids.

So I want to take some of those stories and scrutinize them a little bit much more clearly. And then you're going to be able to see that even though your favorite businesses have evolved into mega brands, they didn't always start out as a mega brand. So let me repeat that in case you didn't get it. I want to take two very famous stories from when I was a little youth just to prove a point. That's for those of us who are of the same age that even though your favorite brands are currently mega brands, they didn't always start out as one.

The case study that I'm going to be looking at today, Remember, I'm talking about companies from my own generation. So you're not going to hear anything about Amazon or Facebook on this. So 2 of the mega stories from my own generation would be Coca-Cola and Nike. Coca-Cola, of course, is the soft drink. Back when we were kids, there was the advertising campaign. Coca-Cola is it in the 80s, Coca-Cola Teach the world to sing the Coca-Cola X mask Christmas campaigns, you know,

back when we were kids, you know, stuff like that. So Coca-Cola, the massive brand, because when those, when we were kids, you know, late 70s, early 80s and beyond, this is the kind of stuff that we saw. And so because of that, you know, we're now 40s, fifties, we're trying to start our businesses and we assume, oh, you know what, I'm going to build a mega brand because the businesses that were successful back when I was a kid, they were mega brands.

So Coca-Cola and then Nike. So of course, Nike every OK, no, not everyone now, people of a certain age, because I I don't live Nike is really raining these days by anyway, let me not go on go off into a strange rant. So but Nike, you know, 70s eighty kids were familiar with it. You know, the Just Do It campaign, the Michael Jordan endorsements, you know, the Air Force Ones, Tiger Woods endorsements, you know, and all the branding activity that went on then.

So for those of us who are born in late 70s, early 80s and beyond, we are familiar with businesses, successful businesses doing massive marketing campaigns and doing massive branding campaigns. And then we'll become adults and want to start businesses. And then we assume that that is how it has always been. I want to open my medicine practice. Let me start with massive marketing campaign. Let me start with massive branding campaign.

I want to open my law practice. Let me begin with massive marketing campaign. Let me begin with massive branding campaign. I'm about to become a wedding photographer. Let me begin with massive advertising campaign. Let me begin with massive branding campaign. But is this truly the case? And is this how these mega brands really began? I went online, I did bit of snooping around and I confirmed my hypothesis. Coca-Cola in the early days.

Oh, by the way, I haven't confirmed these from official sources. So after you're done listening to the podcast, please go and check, go online, you know, check Coca Cola's website or whatever, or maybe check Wikipedia and then confirm some of the stuff. Google it. So in the early days, the pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola, John Pemberton, if I got the name correctly, he invented it as a headache remedy. And then he started selling this thing to local pharmacies and was mixed with carbonated water.

Carbonated water. That's the, you know, that thing. You drink Fanta, you drink Coke, you drink Sprite and then you belch. That's just that's just carbon in the in the drink. So it mix everything together. Then according to the gist I found, Pemberton's friend Frank Robinson, who was also his bookkeeper, was the one who designed the logo. And anyway, let me just skip all of that since I haven't confirmed some of these things.

But basically the early marketing or getting Coca-Cola off the ground involved distributing samples to pharmacies. I repeat, taking a bottle, taking a sample, going from one pharmacy to another. If you're in Lagos or in Abuja, picture this, you go to popular street in Lagos, there are like 5 or 6 pharmacies there. That is what the people who are behind Coca-Cola, that is how they started. You enter this pharmacy, you try your luck, you come out, you enter the other pharmacy, you try your luck, you come out, you enter the other pharmacy and you try your luck.

And that was how Coca-Cola began, from distributing samples to pharmacies, promoting the drink to pharmacies. Now let's look at Nike in the early days. Well, I can't confirm this information, so, you know, go on interwebs for yourself and go on check. So the names that I was able to find, Bill Bowman and a track coach, Phil Knight, then a third guy. What's the third guy's name anyway? Basically, they started off importing running shoes from Japan and how they got the show on the road was they started slinging shoes from Phil Knight's car trunk.

They will go to runners and track meet, they're going to running events and track meets and things like that. And then they will open the boots of Phil Knight's car and then they will start slinging shoes 1 by 1 by 1. So those of you who are in Lagos, in Abuja, I think we only have one stadium that I know of. But in Lagos, there's that stadium that is Adojo Alegba. And then there's another stadium at where again, I think in Lagos are like 3 or 4 stadiums, I

can't remember. It's been a while since I left Lagos. So think about it. These people import shoes from Japan and then what do they do? They would drive to national stadium, then they open the boot and then they start flogging the shoes. They start selling the shoes 1 by 1 by 1. Then when they finish at National Stadium and then they hear that OK, at the stadium in Nigeria, like maybe African National Scorp is playing or something like that.

They will now drive there, sharply open the back of the car and then start selling a shoe again, 1 by 1 by 1. And the whole thing was focused around building relationships with runners, trying to understand their needs and sales motions of selling 1 by 1 by 1. Now it is easier to tell the sexy stories about building the Coca-Cola brand and building the Nike brand. But The thing is these massive companies that we love and that we respect, again, people my age, I'm not talking about you,

you young bloods, because you young bloods. Yeah, I know you know Coke, but I'm not sure if you guys know Nike. So you can see that the early success was around strong sales and strong business development. That is what they used to differentiate themselves. That's what they used to get themselves on the road. So both people were trying to build relationships. They understood what's up. When you're going from one pharmacy, you try your luck,

another pharmacy you try your luck, another pharmacy you try your luck, you're building relationships. You have to because somebody might say no today. It doesn't mean that the person will say no forever more. So the fact that you try Pharmacy A on Monday doesn't mean that you can't come back next month and try your luck again. So they had to build relationships and they had to connect with on the Coca-Cola and how to connect with distributors and then on the Nike end, how to connect with runners, you know, understand and understand their needs.

Then of course, you know, marketing eventually will become important. The slogans would become important, the endorsements would become important, you know, so the Coca-Cola and the Santa Claus thing and, you know, their fancy advertisements. And then Nike with what's his name, that basketballer, the one that is bald is bald basketballer. This old guy Michael, Michael Jordan, you know, the Michael Jordan endorsement and all that.

So all those things would eventually become important. But in the beginning, Coca Cola's growth was a distribution play, pure distribution play. Funny thing is right now actually still is a distribution play. So they have NBC based in Lagos, making that their stuff in Alausa. And then you have a massive wholesalers driving their massive truck buy all the bottles of Coke and then go out and then try and sell it to distributors.

Distributors try and sell to middle men, middle men sell to retailers, retailers sell it to us. So it still is a distribution plate, but it started off as a distribution plate going from one pharmacy to another pharmacy. So the channel choice was really, really pivotal what to sell this thing, how we're going to do, we're going to go this thing through pharmacies. And then it was a very grassroots approach because it is walking leg by leg.

Enter this pharmacy, come out, enter the next pharmacy, come out, enter the other pharmacy, come out. This was prospecting, physical prospecting, going to somebody, visiting a pharmacy, visiting an office. This is how we started before the mega marketing campaigns and the mega branding campaigns, simply with Nike. In fact, Nike, you can't even say that was prospecting. That is just pure Hosking because you know, we see people like that in the city center.

You know, they do it in Lagos and they do it in Abuja. I'm not sure about other parts of the country. We see it all the time. Somebody would just drive somewhere, just park his car, open up and you know, before you know it, bring out shoe, bring out this, bring out that and then the guy is just selling his stuff from the car. If local government why these people called this would like to harass people for for all these levies.

What are they called again? And you, you know what I mean. Sure, you just open your boot, start selling your things. If you see local government people just throw everything inside your boot, close your car, zoom off. So that's what Nike them that's what they were doing. It's pure hustling, meeting people directly hustling market one-on-one before they had their huge corporate offices with air conditioner and we billion dollar advertising and with branding budgets.

So I guess I've overflowed it. So let me just bring this episode to a close. All you people who are trying to start something, you know, you know, brand, brand, brand, brand, you know, what's going to be my logo, What's going to be my caller? What's going to be my this, what's going to be my that all this branding decision. See, I'm not saying branding is not important too because you guys should hear what I'm saying in context because I've pointed out time and time again, like mom, she was a marketing communications professional, her MBA was in public relations, and she ended up as APR and brand specialist.

So branding is something I grew up around. But The thing is, people are paying attention to branding without paying attention to the substantive issues. And that's the reason why a lot of us are suffering. So branding is important, but The thing is, the people you respect, your favorite businesses, do not begin as a brand. Even if you check Dangote. I'm guessing I'll go and do the research itself so I can make a podcast episode about that.

I'm willing to bed my grandmother's teeth. That for Dangote was also similar as well that before the Brangote brand became a thing, he probably was hustling one or two things, prospecting, You know, let me meet this person, Let me see if I can hook up this, let me hook up that. Let me see what I can arrange. You know, one-on-one grass roots. Go and see somebody. Go shake your hand, go have a conversation. I'll be surprised if that's how the whole thing started.

I don't think this Dangote brand just drop from the sky like that. So your favorite business is not begin as brands. These people started going to the street. They were walking on the streets, they were going to the market. They were talking to people one after another. They were trying to validate the business idea. This is my drink that is supposed to cure cold, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is it any good? Let's go to the pharmacy.

OK, people are drinking this thing, but it's not really to cure cold. They're drinking it because it gives them a good time or it gives them energy or whatever the market research was at the time for Coca-Cola. But first of all, they're trying to validate the business idea and walk on the sales channels. Do people like this thing? Is somebody willing to pay for it? OK, people are. So what's the best way that we're going to sell this thing?

Then after they got money and the business going, they not have money for massive marketing and then for branding. So if you're starting out, please do not join every all these people who are fascinated with a brand. But again, I say branding is important, but I'm just saying let's not put the cap before the horse. You don't start with the brand. The brand is something that you end with and the brand is something that evolves organically over time.

So if you're starting out, instead of calling up your best friend and saying who do you know that is good at branding? Let the person give me logo, let the person give me colour, let the person give me website, let the person give me letterhead, you know, and all of this, first of all, start at level of market validation. Is this a product or a service that people even want? Can I sell a bunch of these things to be sure that it is even going to work in the first place?

Is that product market fit? Do people like this thing? Are people demanding this thing? Try and answer that question 1st. And I've said it time and time again on the podcast that the way you solve the market validation challenge or the product market fit challenge is actually go out into the market and try and do some sales motion, try and sell some stuff. If you talk to 10 people and it looks like eight people snap it up, they're like, oh, OK, OK,

we're making progress. There's room here. Well, if you talk to 10 people, eight people snap it up, but the, the amount of the amount of toasting, the amount of selling was too much, then maybe you might think, well, there's demand or more distress involved in this thing. Maybe it's not the stress that I want to, this is not the kind of stress I want to insert into my life at this stage, but set out and try and answer these questions.

So first of all, we're starting off with market validation, product, market feed. We're trying to see, do people like this thing? Do people want it? Can I sell a bunch of stuff #2 Now that we've figured out that people want a bunch of stuff, we're going to try and see what selling channels should we optimize on what's going to work best. Then we're also going to try and come up with the selling framework. The reason why we need a selling framework is this.

In the beginning, Coca-Cola boys that went from pharmacy to pharmacy. Eventually when this thing works, you need to hire other people that will start going from pharmacy to pharmacy on your behalf. This is where selling framework comes in. If you have a well established framework, when you're now hiring the next person that is going to start going from pharmacy to pharmacy, you'll be able to tell the person that, look, this is the sales channels we're doing, we're doing distributorship.

We're only going to pharmacies and these are the kind of pharmacies we go to. Don't go to these kind of pharmacies because these tertiary pharmacy, they're not going to, our customers are not there. Go to this kind of pharmacies that are in VI or go to this kind of pharmacy that are on Lagos Island or go to this kind of pharmacy that can, you know, on and on. So that's why this stage is important. Figure out the sales channel,

figure out the selling framework because eventually you're going to amass a team and you need to be able to direct your sales team accordingly so that they can sell well on your behalf. When you get the sales team, then the next step is going to be scaling your sales efforts. Scaling just means multiplying. Before it was you and your friend. We're from pharmacy to pharmacy. That's how you people started. If you don't have 5 people going pharmacy to pharmacy, then I

mean obviously two people going to pharmacy, pharmacy to pharmacy are making progress. You hire 1010 people, those same people who take your selling methodology and your framework work to sell on your behalf. That is multiplying the effort. That is scaling the effort. That is what scale means in the primary sense. Well, of course, you know when we start talking tech, tech ideas anyway, for now, when you hear scale, that's just what it means.

Scale just means multiplying efforts from scaling. You're going to get stable cash flows, you're going to get customers and stuff like that. Now from those steady customers and from that market, sorry, I said market from those steady customers and from, from those profits. Now that is where you're going to be able to get the money to start doing massive advertising, massive marketing, massive branding. These things don't come cheap.

Those of you who are looking for branding specialist, you want somebody to design logo for you, You want the person to design letterhead for you. You want the person to build website for you. You want the person to build branding guide and everything for you. But you only want to pay the person 50K. Come on, wake up. Be realistic here. Be realistic. These things cost money. This is how you're going to be able to afford it.

By starting off with marketing validation, establishing the selling framework, getting your sales channels, scaling on your efforts, getting customers, getting stable cash flows. Then you'll now be able to pay for it. So that if the person says OK or guy, I've looked at everything, this package that we're going to design for you, everything is going to be 400 K. Then you will have the 400 K to pay the person instead of trying to get solid branding output,

but you want to pay the person 50K. Please, let's get realistic here. By the way, I don't sell branding services, so I'm not angry that, you know, you guys are mispricing me or something, just in case you get the wrong idea. So that's it pretty much. Or another thing, when you start off this way, like Coca-Cola or Nike on the streets, talking to people, going to somebody's office, trying to sell things directly from your boot, you get a sense of who your customer is.

You get a sense of what it is they like, what it is that they don't like, and you're going to get all the data that you need that will inform your brand. So when the Nike people just do it, blah, blah, blah, you know, all that jazz, all that stuff. The reason why they're able to get the thing right is because they are there in National Stadium or, you know, Joey Legba or whatever. They're talking directly to people. So when the branding team sits down and they say, look, we're going to build the brand around this, around this, around that,

it is not guess work. It is because they know and they've been interacting with customers one-on-one or on the Coca-Cola end, they've been interacting with distributors one-on-one. They know what it is that the distributors like. They know what it is that the final customer likes. And that is also another reason why I say that we need to take this approach so that eventually, when you do have enough money and you call a branding person in to say, Oh yeah, let's manufacture something, let's work on the brand, you'll be able to tell the branding person that, OK,

these are my customers, this is who I target. This is how they like to be treated. This is how they like to be talked to. And with that information, you guys will now select the right colours, the right logos, the right fonts, have the right philosophy behind, you know, designing your website or whatever, you know, all the fancy stuff that you branding people have to do. So that's also the reason why I say we should put the sales thing before the brand thing because actually the sales thing will give you the money that you can use to build the brand and also give you the data that you need to build the brand.

Instead of doing all this, guess what that happens where you call the branding person. First, you create the logo, you come up with market positioning, you say you want to do luxury luxury, and then you hit the market, but the clients that you're servicing clearly are not luxury. And then there's that mismatch. Your positioning, your logo, your everything screams luxury, but meanwhile you're dealing with everyday Joe, So sorry,

Joe's and Janet, let me be. What's that word? Let me make it equal here. Anyway, this episode doesn't have to be a long one. Bottom line is if you'd like to get out of your brand obsession, trying to start up your small and medium scale business, or if you want to see how you can integrate good sales practices with your brand, then reach out to me and connect. My phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. If you're going to buzz direct no Allah, it's no problem.

If you're going to call on LinkedIn, however, please send a message ahead of time because there are too many fraudsters on WhatsApp. I don't know what is going on, so send me a message first. Heard you on the podcast blah blah blah. Would love to chat. We'll ping back and forth and then we'll hop in a phone call and then you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayedi, I'm the host of the show. Look at the link.

We're currently listening to this episode. If you're on YouTube, it's bottom left. You see my name there. Boldly highlight it, copy it, paste it in LinkedIn. My profile will come up, send me a connection request, and we could be vibing in another 24 to 48 hours. So thank you very much for your time. And what do I even say again? Anyway, thank you very much for your time. I'll catch you guys tomorrow.