By Felicia Nwosu

It was an insightful and thought-provoking gathering of brand specialists and experts as Kantar announced the launch of its strategic consulting practice in Nigeria, aimed at bringing a new dimension of strategic insight to the brand growth story.

Ivan Moroke, the CEO, South Africa Kantar, during his session harped on the need for brands to make meaningful difference in the life of consumers by crafting Unique Value Proposition (UVP).

“Which of the brands in your personal life are you prepared to pay a bit more for? If you are prepared to pay for that, I can challenge you on that because it is different. But we’ve got a brand girl in South Africa. She always says there’s a difference between different and meaningful differences. She says, “if you are different without meaning, you are just weird”. I think it applies to brands as much as it applies to people. You are just a strange individual if you are just different without valuable meaning. You must be different with purpose. The meaning behind this is simply that, the difference is the rocket pool that does growth.

The Kantar boss also explained how Kantar leverages insights to shape brand’s growth across the continent with its diverse portfolios of business strategies which include consulting practice used in positioning brands with a valuable market difference in an ever-changing market environment that demands agility.

“We want to be an indispensable brand partner for you. What that means is, before you make any marketing decision, our vision is to say, we can help you achieve that. We are in a brand planning stage; we are in a business process. We are like that in East Africa, in South Africa, and that’s how we are here. We’ve been talking about how Nestlé has rationalized products in the market. This is what portfolio strategy is. That’s what we specialize in. And we’ve done phenomenal work with Nestlé across the world on geo-portfolio strategy.

“Sometimes, all you might need is category insights. Where is the category going? What are the kind of things we should be looking at or we should be worried about? That’s what we specialize in. If you are not innovating, you are going backwards, period. It doesn’t matter what category you are in. Because if you think about it, and regardless of your sector, have you realized how your competition is changing? Sometimes, you don’t even see them where they are coming from. Different people are offering different things, which is why they are coming with different innovations.”

He also emphasised the importance of being innovative to revolutionise products with new definitions of value for consumers’ general acceptance irrespective of price.

“Disruption is one of them, but we’ve made a study about disruption. That’s what makes the difference. And it’s based on data about 20%. It’s like shaking things up. Brands that do that get 80% in the way. There’s always a misnomer with marketers. They think the only way to be a bit of a disruptor is to be fintech. It’s not true. There’s a difference between being a disruptor and being a challenger brand. For example, if you think about Apple, it’s is not a challenger brand. That’s a main, big brand. But it’s different, right? It’s disruptive in terms of what they try to do and how they communicate it.”

Moroke pointed out that successful brands are not only meaningfully different but also relevant and always strive to create positive changes in society by tackling impactful and meaningful social issues that align with their ethos by focusing on climate change, racial injustice, poverty, war, sustainability and several others.

“What does insight mean for innovation? What does it mean for the position of your brand? It’s about pricing and segmentation. That’s what we specialize in. We do those strategies and it is about creating value. There are different ways we can create value; we can do it with our shareholders, and you can measure some acquisitions, cost cutting, so the problem with that is not sustainable. The only sustainable growth of value is demand-led value. It’s what consumers want. If you can create value by absolutely creating demand from consumers, then it’s far much more sustainable. And that’s what we are passionate about.”

The in-person exclusive event which held at Marriott hotel, Ikeja was themed: “Brands of Tomorrow Making Growth Real”. It showcased Kantar’s blueprint for sustainable brand growth for winning marketers where diverse speakers discuss how to turn insights into actionable strategic plans to achieve results and outcomes that accelerate brands’ growth.