Have you ever taught about the difference between a brand and a product? Just imagine you are the owner of this business with a product called Congo Meat. It is spiced, fried, goes very well with spicy pepper spread and is hawked from street to street on your head.
If you (consumer) are not on that street at that moment, then you wont have your spiced Congo Meat. If you are the health-conscious type, then you will not want to compete with dust and flies for a taste of the spicy Congo Meat. Congo Meat competes with lungs, canda (cow skin), soya (beef steak) and roadside pork. This means that Congo Meat wont be making waves around the world but will remain an on-the-spot street product.
What if your Congo Meat was Nina’s Slow Boys? Then it will be the most recognizable locally made but consumed-worldwide packaged snails that you can order at the comfort of your home.
So what is the difference between a product and a brand?
This is a very complex topic. When looked at just like a sentence, it seems there is no difference. When you dig deeper, you will notice there is a big difference. This difference is what most entrepreneurs in Cameroon and Africa at large find it difficult to make. That’s why I have decided to make a post on this topic.
You want a Brand
I may need to eat snails but I will personally want that from Nina’s Slow Boys. In this case, snail is the product which I can get anywhere by walking the street or going to the market to buy. But I have decided I want Nina’s Slow Boys.
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Nina’s Slow Boys is a brand in this case. Something comes in to play now, emotion. I want Nina’s Slow Boys because of the unique experience and from how it makes me feel. I feel Nina’s Slow Boys is tasty, healthy, makes me feel satisfied after eating it. I want it because of how it makes me feel.
You need a Product
This may be making some sense now. Products in this sense are equal to each other. They both fulfill a specific need. Snail is a product and fulfills the same needs as Nina’s Slow Boys. What then makes Nina’s Slow Boys different from Congo Meat which anybody can hawk around the streets? The difference comes in the brand and how it has uniquely changed the feeling of the consumer.
A lot has been put into the few paragraphs above. In a nutshell, a product is an item that has been made ready for sale in the market while a brand is what distinguishes a product from other products in the market. If you have a product in the market, it’s now time for you to make it a brand. Stop confusing it for a brand.
At OpenHub, we make people want your product. You create a product, we make a brand out of it. Get in touch with us if you want your brand to shine.
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