CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Firms have come to realize that one of their most

valuable assets is the brand name associated with

their products or services. In an increasing

changing world, individuals and businesses are

faced with more and more choices but have less and

less time to make those choices. The ability of a

brand to simplify consumer decision making, reduces

risk, and the set expectations is thus invaluable.

Building brands that deliver on that promise,

maintaining and enhancing the strength of those

brands, over time is a management imperative.

Brands when given due importance, have serious

implications on the business. It is adjudged to the

1

most powerful business tool of this century. Canon

(2005), once observed that, some brand names have

become so powerful that they have taken shadows of

other brands in the same product line. Example magi

are considered as a brand name for all seasonings,

omo for all detergents in Nigeria. Kotler and

Armstrong (2004), see a brand as a name, term,

symbol, or design or a combination of these,

intended to identify the goods or services of one

seller or group of sellers and to differentiate

them from those of other competitors. Technically

speaking them, whenever a marketer creates a new

name, logo, or symbol for a new product he or she

has created a brand, just like we have brands

bearing names of person’s in the society which

makes an individual different from others, it is

2

just the same thing as branding a product or

service. As people names are unique, so also a

brand name comes in different forms.

It is possible to say that any business that does

not imbibe the product and customer centricity

could have negative effect on its corporate

performance and also on the achievement of the

business goal and objectives. Because a product in

itself is only a product with little life and

attraction, but what make a product comes out and

acquire an appealing personality is the brand name

associated with it.

Firms that want to survive in the long run should

not only create a product but they should build

strong brands, because brand has become so strong

3

that today hardly any product goes out unbranded.

Even water is packaged in a branded container to

differentiate one water seller from another. Brand

building takes huge investments which in short run

seems wasteful but in the long run creates a

magnetic personality around the product that

enables it command a premium of long time success

for the organization and the product.

Some of the factors affecting the building of

brands as viewed by Charrantony and Malcon (1992)

include; failure to understand fully the meaning of

brand; it is critical to understand what customers

think and feels about a brand name and then plan

and implement marketing programs accordingly. Most

managers are convinced of the validity of marketing

4

actions based on a mistaken belief of what the

customer really wants. Secondly, failure to live up

to the brand promises. A brand is meant to b a

promise and commitment to consumers, too often,

that promise is broken through lack of finance or

lack of good management. Thirdly, failure to

support the brand adequately; creating and

maintaining brand knowledge structures require

marketing investment. Often many managers want to

get something for nothing by building brand equity

without a willingness to provide proper marketing

support and expecting the brand to remain strong

despite the lack of further investments.

Many Nigerian products are still not branded, while

it is also required that any product going into the

5

market must have a brand name, sign, term, mark,

symbol or all of these to distinguish it from those

of the competitors who are producing similar

products or services.

It is because of the above reason and more that

this essay seeks to investigate how branding can

affect sales turn over.

1.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE ESSAY

This study seeks to achieve the following

objectives.

To determine the extent to which branding

strategy have impacted on the sales turnover of

magi in Unilever.

6

To investigate the efficiency and level of

involvement of branding strategies of sales

turnover of magi in Unilever.

To proffer recommendations on the basis of

findings.

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF ESSAY

This research is of great significance to a whole

number of people like the marketing manager,

production manager and individual consumer; because

it is design to address how branding strategies can

boost sales turnover of goods especially magi by

Unilever Nigerian plc.

1.3 SCOPE OF ESSAY

This research is limited to distributors of

Unilever Kaduna through the three distributors of7

their goods in and around Kaduna, because Unilever

is one of the major producers of home care, and

personal care products with over 30 branded goods.

This research will focus greatly on Unilever

strategy on branding and how it affects the sales

turn over and the choice of the individual

consumer.

1.4 LIMITATION OF ESSAY

In the course of writing a comprehensive research

work, one is likely to encounter some certain

problems on the way; the problems being

encountered in the process of doing this research

are;

Insufficient relevant data in the school library:

most of the important data’s used by these

8

research are being accessed through the use of

external library regardless of the cost involved

in accessing them, this is because of the

unavailability of the required books in the

school libraries.

Unreliable internet access: the internet service

is not reliable, because there is little or no

assurance as to the stability of network to

download required data, one might spend a lot of

money and time with no substantial result due to

the weakness of service network in Nigeria.

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CHAPTER TWO

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the reader the theoretical

understanding of branding concept and will review

relevant literature written by different scholars

based on the meaning and importance associated with

branding a product.

2.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF BRANDING

Derrick (2006) traces the history of branding as

far back as 5000 years; he states that; branding

can be traced back to the existence of man.

Branding emerged as a significant area of emphasis

not only for companies and their product, but also

for municipalities, universities, other nonprofit

organization and even individuals, because anything

10

that has a name, mark or symbol can be said to be

branded. Branding became ubiquitous for example

proctor and gamble and other consumer product

companies began branding their product in earnest

in the mid-to-late 1800s. But more interestingly is

how far back in time branding goes. For instances,

companies that sold patented medicines and tobacco

began branding their product as early as the early

1800s. Around the same time, some fraternities and

sororities branded their pledges (literally) during

initiation rites as a form of identification and

bonding, a practice that has long since been

identified as hazing and therefore abandoned.

Derrick (2006) also states that between the 1600s

and 1800s, criminals were branded (again literally)

as a form of punishment and identification. For

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instance, in England they branded “s” on a person’s

cheek, while in France; they branded a “fleur de

lis” on the shoulder. As repugnant as it may be

today, slaves were also branded roughly during the

same time period to connote ownership. In the

1200s, England requires bread makers, gold smiths

and silver smiths to put their marks on goods,

primarily to insure honesty in measurement. In the

medieval times, printers also use marks as did

paper markers (water marks) and various other craft

guilds. Branding goes back far as 1300BC, when

potters mark were used on pottery and porcelain in

china, Greece, Rome and India. Branding of cattle

and life stock goes back as far as 2000BC. And

archaeologists have found evidence of advertising

among Babylonians dating back to 3000BC. So, how

12

far back does branding goes? At least 5000 years

because since its existence to man, he can have a

way of differentiating it from other things.

What is more interesting are the underlying needs

from which branding originated to ensure a strong

honesty to consumers and provide quality assurance

by indentifying sources of product ownership and

creating a way of re purchasing the product and

differentiation, as a form of identification and to

create emotional bonding. Interestingly, people

value brands for many of the same reasons as today.

Clearly history provides some insight and

perspective on modern day branding.

2.2 THEORIES OF BRANDING

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Various scholars have different opinion as to what

branding is all about. According to Kotler and

Amstrong (2001), a brand is essentially a sellers

promise to deliver a specific set of features,

benefit and services consistently to the buyer. The

best brand conveys a warranty of quality. He

further highlight that in considering branding the

following terms should be mentioned, brand name,

brand mark, trade mark and copy right.

Umerah (2003) is of the opinion that branding has

to do with the entire design of a product which

include both the intrinsic and extrinsic qualities

of a product that is the texture, color, names,

taste etc. brand is in fact the composite activity

in establishing brand mark, brand name, copy right

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and the like. He went further to say that, in the

absence of branding, there could be any better

described marketing situation than cognate

marketing. Also, those companies spent a lot of

money on branding with the sole aim of product

identification and differentiations by changing the

taste of customers as a result of making good sale.

According to mc Carthy and Perreaul (1990),

branding means the use of name, term, symbol or

design or a combination of these to indentify a

product. It includes the use of brand names, trade

mark and practically all other means of product

identification to diffentiate it from those of the

competitors. Branding may even extend to relating

brand to colors.

15

Carl, (1982) is of the opinion that branding as a

broad term is used to describe products

identification by word, name, symbol or design or

the combination of these. He went further to

expatiate that for the producer and customer to

distinguish his or her product or services from

other producers, this could be done by using; trade

mark, brand name, certification mark, copy right or

patent right.

Stanton and walker, (1997) says a brand is a name,

term, symbol, and or special design that are

intended to identify the goods and services of one

seller or group of sellers. A brand differentiates

one seller’s product from those of competitors. A

brand name consists of words, letters and or

16

numbers that can be vocalized. A brand mark is the

part of brand that appears in the form of symbol,

design or distinctive coloring or lettering. It is

recognized by sight but may not be expressed when a

person pronounces the brand name. Example gillete

is a brand name and its brand mark is the alligator

logo in its entire product.

According to Nwokoye, (2000) a product should be

given a unique brand name to distinguish it from

other goods offered to buyers. The name should be

distinctive and easy to pronounce and should

capture the essential product concept. The brand

name may be registered as a legal trade mark, thus

protecting it from being used by other competitors.

A brand name offers the customer something they can

17

identify, recall and verbalize when next they need

the generic product or when recommending a

particular product or service to somebody else.

Branding a product adds significantly to the

manufacturing cost, it is perhaps the case that

since the output is without much difficulty, the

typical Nigerian producers consider branding

unnecessarily. Yet it must be stressed that

branding etches a firm’s product image in the mind

of the consumer and lays the ground work for mass

marketing of the product and creating a successful

but nameless product is making a great error that

should be corrected immediately.

Mandel, (1981) is of the opinion that branding is

based on promise that the marketers want consumers

18

to buy a product, they have to be distinguished it

from other version or similar products in the

market.

2.3 CURRENT RESEARCH

Branding has become so strong that today hardly do

you find any product that goes into the market

unbranded. Even water is packaged in branded

containers to differentiate one water seller to the

other. Branding takes huge investments in a modern

firm that in the short run seems wasteful but in

the long run creates a magnetic personality around

the product that enables it command a premium.

Branding or brand building as a foundation is

captured by Kotler and Armstrong, (2008; 232) to

include four principal dimensions namely;

19

1.Brand positioning

2.Brand name selection

3.Brand sponsorship

4.Brand development

1.BRAND POSITIONING

Marketers need to position their brands clearly in

targeting customers minds. This can be done at

any of the three levels,

Attribute

Benefit

Beliefs and values

A brand can be positioned on product attribute for

example marketers of Mercedes can talk about

Mercedes attributes as being expensive and durable.

20

Over the years they advertise it as being

engineered like no other car in the world. However

the customer may not be much interested in the

attribute but what the attribute can do for them.

A brand is also positioned by linking its name with

desirable benefits. Guinness stout for example, are

associated with strength and obviously when taken,

it translate into functional and emotional belief.

Successful brand positioning on benefits are Volvo

(safety), Fedex (guaranteed overnight delivery) and

Lexus motors (quality)

2.BRAND NAME SELECTION

A good name can add greatly to a product success,

such a name communicates a great deal. This can

create brand name awareness and brand image

21

recognition. In general, an effective brand name

should suggest something about the product benefits

and quality. It should be easy to pronounce,

recognize and remember, be distinctive in some

ways, and can be easily translated to other

languages and still gives it’s exert meaning.

Ideally, a brand name should communicate to

customers the major benefit of the firm product. As

consumers become aware of the brand name, they

begin to associate it with specific product

benefits. A good brand name should include the

following;

It should suggest something about the products

benefits and qualities. Example; beauty rest

marts, bug spray clean.

22

It should be short and easy to pronounce,

recognize and remember like; key soap, peak milk

and Macleans.

The brand name should be distinctive like, Lexus

cars, Kodax films, Nivea soap, star magi and Klin

wash.

It should be extendable in other categories.

Example is the guarantee trust bank that is into

oil and gas, banking and insurance.

A brand should be capable of registration and

legal protection. A brand name cannot be

registered if it infringes on an existing brand

name.

3.BRAND SPONSORSHIP

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A brand sponsorship has options; either a product

may be launched as a manufacturer’s brand (or

national brand) as when Kellogy and apple sell

their output under their own manufacturer’s brand

name. Or the manufacturer may sell to researchers

who give it a private brand name, other market

license brands. Finally, two companies can join

forces and co brands a product.

A. MANUFACTURERS BRAND; it is sponsored by the

manufacturer of the product. The manufacturer is

responsible for the products quality and

marketing. Many firms like Sony, Gillette and

Nokia uses manufacturers brand for their product.

B.DISTRIBUTORS BRAND; it is sponsored by

distributor such as a wholesaler or a retailer.

24

Although the manufacturers name may be indicated

somewhere on the brand label, the distributor is

responsible for the products quality and

marketing. Example is the Nigerian oil industry

that is floated with a lot of distributor’s brand

name such as: Mobil oil, AP oil and Texaco oil.

These are ordinary oil distributors but their

brand names features prominently in the oil

industry.

C.LICENCED BRAND; most manufacturers take years and

spend millions to create their own brand names.

However, some companies license names or symbols

previously created by other manufacturers names

of well known celebrities like comedians,

musicians, artist, or characters from popular

movies like the Harry potter, James bond, Robot

25

cop, The ring, Spider man, are used by others for

a fee that will be paid to those that have

licensed name. Those names are put on things like

clothing’s, children lunch boxes, bags, women

fashion wears, toys, buildings, electronics and

furniture’s.

D.CO- BRAND; This is a type of branding that occurs

when two established brand names of different

companies are used of different companies are

used on the same product. Co brand offers much

more advantage. Because each brand dominates in a

different category, the combine brand creates

broader consumer appeal and greater brand equity.

Example of a co brand by the Ge, General Electric

and the Culligan to develop its water by Culligan

profile performance refrigerator with a build in

26

culligan water filtration system, Sony and

Ericson, are different companies that come

together in the making of quality phones, D&G

Dolce and Gabbana are two different designers in

clothing, cosmetics and fittings, but co brand to

produce more efficient and classical goods that

will attract a large share of the market.

4.BRAND DEVELOPMENT

A firm can apply any of three options in developing

brands. It can introduce; the line extension, brand

extension or the new brides

- The line extension: this has to do with

introducing additional items in the same product

category under the same brand name.

27

- Brand extension: this has to do with extending a

current brand to anew or modified products in a

new category.

- New brands: this method of branding is created

when a company has a new product for which none

of the company’s current brand names is

appropriate.

2.4 THE IMPACT OF BRANDING ON SALES

Boon and Kurtz, (1998: 224) states that the

recognition of various brand names influences many

of buyers decisions about which product to buy.

Perhaps you choose Colgate tooth paste over crest

or Nivea soap into your cart instead of other

brands that you are not familiar with. A person

28

going into a super market wishing to buy a soft

drink is more likely to pick the product that he is

familiar with, like coke or Pepsi without much

thought.

They went further to state that marketers now

recognized the potential power of brand name and

its influence on consumer buying behavior, on

creating and protecting a strong identity for

products. Because buyers respond to branding by

making repeat purchases of the same products since

they identify the product with the name. For

example if you have a brand that you know and

trust, it helps you make choices faster and more

easily. Another good example is just like the magi

by Unilever nig plc, because of the branded

29

packaging n the packs of the Maggi which makes it

attractive to consumers to buy, and because they

have knowledge about that particular product. That

particular pack has attracted the customer to buy

the product. Brands achieve widely varying consumer

familiarity and acceptance, while a boating

enthusiast may insist on a Johnson out board motor;

the same consumer might show little loyalty to

particular brand, In other products category such

as chocolate. Marketers measure brand loyalty in 3

stages; brand recognition, brand preference and

brand insistence.

Brand recognition is a company’s first objective

for newly introduced products. Marketers begin

promoting new products by trying to make them

30

familiar to the public. Advertising offers one way

to increase consumer aareness and sales of a

brand, other strategies include offering free

samples or discount coupons for purchases, once

consumer have used a product, seen its advertised

or notice it in stores, to him/her it have move

from the unknown to the known category and this

increases the probability that consumers will

purchase it.

Brand reference is a stage that the consumer relies

on previous experience with the product when they

choose it over competitors product if its

available. For example, general motors’ recognizes

the importance of brand preference for Saturn

line. After establishing the Saturn brand I is the

low price car market, general motors’ introduce

31

midsized cars to prevent its primarily younger

buyers from shopping else here as they are

established long term relationship with families.

Brand insistence leads consumers to refuse to

accept alternatives and to search for the desired

products. A product at this stage has achieved a

monopoly position with its consumers. Although

many firms try to establish brand insistence, few

achieve this ambitious goal. Only the most

exclusive specialty goods attain with large

segment of the total market.

Buntic, (2002:196) is of the opinion that the one

thing that everyone has in common is we are all

consumers; we all buy. Every day, from daily small

purchase like news papers, morning coffee, to big

32

monthly or yearly purchases, such as televisions or

cars and what influences a buyers decision on what

and where to buy is the products name, taste and

preferences but with all the competition that a

buyer have in purchasing power, it is often small

differences in the products that influences the

buyers decision in selecting a product.

He went further to state that any rational buyer

walking into a shop to buy a drink, he is more

likely to reach for a familiar brand such a coca

cola, sprite or pepsi. The reason is that the buyer

is familiar with those brands he trusts them. If a

buyer recognizes a company’s name, logo, or choose

the products based on his familiarities, the choice

he/she makes is based on the recognition of that

33

brand either by name or logo that he/she is

familiar with, and that choice directly increases

the sales of that product.

Kotler and Amstrong, (2004:291) states that as a

company’s major enduring asset a brand needs to be

carefully managed so that its value does not

depreciate. Branding offers some contemporary

perspective on enduring brand leadership. Brand

equity is reinforced by marketing actions that

consistently convey the meaning of the brand to

consumers in terms of;

1.What product the brand name represents; what core

benefit it supplies; and what need it satisfies as

well as,

34

2.How the brand name makes those products superior,

strong, favourable, and unique. Brand associations

should exist in the mind of the consumers, like

nivea products is one of the Europeans strongest

brand, they have now expanded their scope from

skin cream brand to a skin care and personal care

brands, though carefully designed and implemented

brand extensions reinforcing the nivea brand

promises of mile, gentle, and caring broader

arena.

Kotler and keller, (2006;276), viewed brand

valuation as the job of estimating the total

financial value that brand name generates from the

sales of a product bearing that particular brand

name. Certain companies base on their growth on

35

acquiring rich brand portfolios. Example is nestle

company that has acquired a strong root in the

market and high sales rate in many countries of the

world by using different names for a particular

product in different countries with products like

rowntree in U.K carnation and Stouffer in U.S

buitoni perugina in Italy, and perrier selling in

France. This makes nestle one of the world largest

food companies. Also the world most valueable

brands that generate high sales globally include:

coca cola, micro soft, Disney, Mcdonalds, Nokia,

Toyota and Marlboro. With these well known

companies brands brand value is typically over one

half of the toatal company market capitalization.

36

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter summarizes the finding of the

research, draw conclusions and makes

recommendations based on the research findings.

3.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Based on the research conducted, it had been found

that branding strategies have significant impact on

the sales of convenience goods, and that any

attempt to temper with the brand name, symbol,

package or any of the product features can cause a

serious effect on the sale of that product if not

handled correct.

In line with the important findings of this

research also the following findings were made.37

First it is found that consumers are now familiar

with branded products and for this reason they only

buy base on brand names, if then follows that any

product going into the market unbranded is more

likely to be rejected by consumers.

Secondly, consumers now buy a product based on the

familiarity with the brand name.

Thirdly, pricing policy affects the brand name of a

product and any attempt to temper with the price

may result to loosing of consumer. Also, brand name

needs to be supported with strong marketing policy

that will continue to live the standard of the

brand name among its competitors.

3.2 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the research findings, a conclusion can be

drawn that a brand can only achieve the desired

38

level of sales if its supported with the right name

and effective promotional activity, also the

research has concluded that;

The brand name of a product is what generates the

required sales of a product and have to be updated

to suit changes n consumers taste, technology,

culture of the people, economic and political or

legal, it should be support with the right

marketing activity like advert, personal selling or

promotions. Also, companies should give frequent

check to understand what their customers think and

feel about their product name; price and quality

because they are the most important factors that

can directly affect the sales of a product.

Finally, this research has concluded that consumers

can only recognize a product through its features

39

like name, symbol, term, logo, quality, packaging,

trade mark etc.

3.3 RECOMMENDATIONS

This research recommends that a brand name should

be given a proper consideration with strong

marketing support through updating the brand name

to suit to change in fashion and taste of

consumers. Also the price of a product should be

affordable to consumers, so as to capture a large

share of the market. The research also offers the

following recommendations.

1.First, From top, middle and down of the lower

level of the organization should know and

understand the power that a brand name have on

product sale and the weakness, strength and how

40

consumers think about their products based on the

brand names.

2.Secondly, companies should update their brand

names to see if the brand name can wave out if

not updated.

3.Thirdly, the pricing policy should not be too

high or too low, because if it is too high

consumers may switch to similar competitors

product with a lower price and if it is too low,

the product may not be able to compete. Also

companies must give a careful consideration on

certain factors like brand name, price, quality,

packaging, logo, symbol, trade mark and anything

that can be used to differentiate a product from

its similar competitor’s product should be

41

carefully managed and updated when the need

arises.

42

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Derrick, I. (2006). “Early History of Branding”

from http:// www.history of brandlearly/com .22

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Kotler, P & Armstrong, G. (2001). Principles of

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