Branding in Nigeria

Had an interesting conversation with the creative director for the Nigerian office of one of the big global ad agencies on the weekend. He was bemoaning his clients for their lack of imagination, innovation or experimentation. I suggested that Nigeria, being a conservative society, might lead to timidity among his clients. He disagreed. He opined that many of his Nigerian (he's a Brit) friends are highly creative and dynamic outside of work hours, but in the office, the hierarchical organisational culture clamps itself down. This chimes with my experience, where innovation amongst the rank and file is not palated, let alone embraced. Apart from one or two exceptions, oga syndrome rules the roost. We are yet to see horizontalisation of organograms in the services sector. It will surely come.

Meanwhile, it seems to me that the mimetic nature of much culture here, reaching its zenith in Aso-Ebi, where women use the same fabric for a particular social occasion, leads to more emphasis placed on sameness rather than difference. If Company x does red squares in its corporate id and is successful, then so should we. Brand-as-differentiation does not get a look in. This is partly because Nigeria is such a customer gold-mine: the market is so under-penetrated in most consumer sectors that any half-baked brand with some random name and visual identity can make a killing. Again, this will change. What we need in the Nigerian brands of the future is localisation: a use of indigenous iconography, colour palettes, language. What we don't need is the emergence of a bland brandscape that despoils most urban spaces in the West.