Building a successful brand requires creativity, originality – Maikori

A committee member of SURE-P (Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme) and founder/CEO, Chocolate City Group International, Audu Maikori, has advised that a great brand is propelled by originality, creativity, and a unique value proposition in order to survive in a crowded market.

Maikori, whose Chocolate City Group has promoted musical artistes such as MI, Brymo, Jesse Jagz, Ice Prince Zamani, and a host of others, to assume a top mind-share within the entertainment industry, said this while mentoring budding entrepreneurs at the July edition of The Sunday Brunch (TSB), a private club for intense intellectual exchange, open to young thinkers, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

While sharing his experience on how he built Chocolate City by leveraging on social media and other marketing strategies despite lack of a bank loan, he said businessmen should avoid recreating what was already offered by other brands in the marketplace.

He said great brands such as Nokia, Samsung, Nigerian musical artiste – Asa, and a host of others, have created a brand today because of their passion for originality, niche creation and filling a need for the consumer.

The co-founder, Guild of Artistes and Poets (GAP), said Chocolate City, which now has a presence in Kenya after its success in Nigeria, became the number one entertainment outfit by building a brand from the scratch in spite of big names like Kennis Music which had already created threatening top of mind brand awareness in the industry. Chocolate City succeeded because it created an entertainment package that was powered by a different business strategy, he said.

“It is not only about good music. It is about passion and value creation. We felt that the business of music is beyond playing it on CDs. Music business itself cannot succeed just by selling CDs so we had to create a brand, investing in our website, Facebook, Twitter and other social media.