By Jesse Adeniji, Innovation & Branding Expert London U.K. · Last time I visited Naija, I went to the Alausa shopping mall. A few ha...
By Jesse Adeniji,
Innovation & Branding Expert
London U.K. ·
Last time I visited Naija, I went to the Alausa shopping mall. A few had boasted to me that 'we also get am'.
So armed with my branding and innovation mindset, of I went.
It's a reasonably big place. But there are no curated sitting arcades. Nobody had been kind enough to understand that walking leads to dehydration. And that it induces tiredness.
No consideration was given to less fit people, older citizens, women with pregnancies, the disabled, the medically unfit, e.t.c
Basic human dignity was traded. You could find a seat if you bought food from the fast food store, or pop to the bar for a pricey drink.
THAT WAS A PROPER DESIGN FAILURE. DON'T LET'S MENTION HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN.
And I have had a conversation with the kid brother who works in the design end of the property development business in Naija.
In other parts of the world, architectural businesses, construction firms, social and commercial property brands are the largest employers of the innovation management skillsets - Design Thinking, Service Design, Strategic Foresight, employing cutting-edge techniques of proven and experimental design methods.
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Now, the stores on parade. They are just bog standard in terms of pitching techniques.
We now have many advances in brick-and-mortar marketing - SENSORY MARKETING - Olfactory technique being the oldest.
All the stores on the British high street, the branded ones you would find in a mall, always have their SIGNATURE SCENT. I can tell the Holland and Barrett brand by walking blindfolded into their store.
If you are observant enough, you'd see that Hawes & Curtis stores have a different smell than Pink stores.
It's been known that people spend an average of $10 more on stores and products with familiar and pleasant olfactory stimulation.
Another in the list of sensory marketing is Music. What you hear, and how you hear it sets the mood and tones for a variety of human emotions - relaxation, contentment, peace, love, joy e.t.c which makes you concentrate on your shopping and make your decisions without stress.
A lot of the stores also have music consultants who help plan the general mood to encompass the seasons and festivities going on. Ever listened to the song selections in stores during February? It oozes of love and Xmas belches nostalgia.
(This is one area in which the music business in Nigeria might get new experts and income in the not too distant future).
Noticed Seasons as well. Heating in winter makes people crave the warmth of shopping malls and therefore make irrational decisions of picking up items they wouldn't have bothered with in the first instance.
(Same happens in hot periods where the conditioned air draws people in).
A lot of the time, Naija brand managers saddle the creative agencies with the job reserved for sensory marketing right inside the shops. Yes posters, radio spots and brilliant TVs are cool but they will not make me spend time in your stores if there's no branding plan for that.
And these will matter more in Nigeria with poor internet shopping infrastructure, the fad of the new shopping malls (getting less attention in Western countries due to the digital revolution), and the socialisation imperatives such malls always have on developing economies.
I have had a brief for Olfactory branding before from Nigeria. But the client only just wanted an off the shelf scent for a particular event.
Much as I tried to explain that strategic importance of developing a scent in tandem with the brand personality and developing it from scratch, which could also become a product, little was absorbed.
Yeah, i know we have to deal with the power issue and the shopping mall fad is still attracting the footfalls in great numbers just on the strength of the real estate, but hey, things develop real fast.
Give it a 5 year period and revisit the discourses then.
Brands that must 'stand their ground' in the battleground of the market place, must understand strategic foresight and co-shaping the future they want.
Last time I visited Naija, I went to the Alausa shopping mall. A few had boasted to me that 'we also get am'.
So armed with my branding and innovation mindset, of I went.
It's a reasonably big place. But there are no curated sitting arcades. Nobody had been kind enough to understand that walking leads to dehydration. And that it induces tiredness.
No consideration was given to less fit people, older citizens, women with pregnancies, the disabled, the medically unfit, e.t.c
Basic human dignity was traded. You could find a seat if you bought food from the fast food store, or pop to the bar for a pricey drink.
THAT WAS A PROPER DESIGN FAILURE. DON'T LET'S MENTION HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN.
And I have had a conversation with the kid brother who works in the design end of the property development business in Naija.
In other parts of the world, architectural businesses, construction firms, social and commercial property brands are the largest employers of the innovation management skillsets - Design Thinking, Service Design, Strategic Foresight, employing cutting-edge techniques of proven and experimental design methods.
---------
Now, the stores on parade. They are just bog standard in terms of pitching techniques.
We now have many advances in brick-and-mortar marketing - SENSORY MARKETING - Olfactory technique being the oldest.
All the stores on the British high street, the branded ones you would find in a mall, always have their SIGNATURE SCENT. I can tell the Holland and Barrett brand by walking blindfolded into their store.
If you are observant enough, you'd see that Hawes & Curtis stores have a different smell than Pink stores.
It's been known that people spend an average of $10 more on stores and products with familiar and pleasant olfactory stimulation.
Another in the list of sensory marketing is Music. What you hear, and how you hear it sets the mood and tones for a variety of human emotions - relaxation, contentment, peace, love, joy e.t.c which makes you concentrate on your shopping and make your decisions without stress.
A lot of the stores also have music consultants who help plan the general mood to encompass the seasons and festivities going on. Ever listened to the song selections in stores during February? It oozes of love and Xmas belches nostalgia.
(This is one area in which the music business in Nigeria might get new experts and income in the not too distant future).
Noticed Seasons as well. Heating in winter makes people crave the warmth of shopping malls and therefore make irrational decisions of picking up items they wouldn't have bothered with in the first instance.
(Same happens in hot periods where the conditioned air draws people in).
A lot of the time, Naija brand managers saddle the creative agencies with the job reserved for sensory marketing right inside the shops. Yes posters, radio spots and brilliant TVs are cool but they will not make me spend time in your stores if there's no branding plan for that.
And these will matter more in Nigeria with poor internet shopping infrastructure, the fad of the new shopping malls (getting less attention in Western countries due to the digital revolution), and the socialisation imperatives such malls always have on developing economies.
I have had a brief for Olfactory branding before from Nigeria. But the client only just wanted an off the shelf scent for a particular event.
Much as I tried to explain that strategic importance of developing a scent in tandem with the brand personality and developing it from scratch, which could also become a product, little was absorbed.
Yeah, i know we have to deal with the power issue and the shopping mall fad is still attracting the footfalls in great numbers just on the strength of the real estate, but hey, things develop real fast.
Give it a 5 year period and revisit the discourses then.
Brands that must 'stand their ground' in the battleground of the market place, must understand strategic foresight and co-shaping the future they want.
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