Empire Skills Academy

Trade Kings Brand

"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world" Joel A. Barker

"At Trade Kings, we create enduring, iconic and innovative products that enable people to enjoy their lives. Whether sharing memorable moments, bringing joy or simplifying lives. We combine our approach to product development and creation with our commitment to our consumers and the communities in which we operate. We want you to be as proud to use our products as we are to make them."

Trade Kings Group ,Trade Kings Group remains committed to "Improving Lives". From education, health and infrastructure to development value addition programs, employment creation and women's/ youth empowerment. A vision driven to build a better future.

See below Trade Kings' driving forces to the group's work and success. These areas of emphasis have steered the brand in the direction of prosperity;

1. Trade Kings Products
2. Strong Foundation of Coporate Citizenship
3. Value addition, Grower Programs and Local Supplier Partnerships
4. Trade Kings Foundation
5. Women's Youth Empowerment and Development

It is clear to see how branding in this context is a very important aspect to consider in making your business identifiable. Trade Kings has managed to come up with products that are a boost to the influence of the group. Whenever one thinks of good milk, or baking powder, or snacks for the kids, Big Tree Products, Yoyo Snacks and Dairy Gold Products, all Trade Kings products, through their affordable and quality products, the consumers are automatically "programmed" to get their day-to-day products from any of these. They have managed to build a trust relationship with consumers. After a catchy jingle advertising a product, the beaming of the Trade Kings banner at the end reassures the viewers of quality services and products.

Good branding will create a long lasting customer to business relationship, especially when quality service is assured. Trade Kings' vision is to 'improve lives at all levels by providing quality products affordably.' That's the identity they have created. That has allowed for their brand to be marketable to the extent of cross country.

"IF EVERYONE IS MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER, SUCCESS TAKES CARE OF ITSELF" - Henry Ford.

Henry Ford’s assembly line never would’ve happened without help. The CliffsNotes (paper) leave out CLARENCE AVERY, the lead developer; PETER MARTIN, the head of assembly; and CHARLES SORENSEN, Martin’s assistant. Although history—and the writing of Ayn Rand (the writer)—tends to favor the lone-wolf entrepreneur, it’s usually teams that actually get the job done. (Think SERGEY BRIN, LARRY PAGE and ERIC SCHMIDT at Google or Walt Disney with his brother ROY and the “NINE OLD MEN” ANIMATORS.)

This isn’t to say, "Mr. Ford, you didn’t build that." It’s to say, "you built it in large part because you built a good team and worked well within it."

Pull the thread....🧵🧵
Mathew Brown went to college for engineering and then co-founded a small hardware engineering firm with four partners in his native Ottawa, Canada. Brown thought he’d be an engineer forever, but life had other plans.

In May 2014, the business was tanking, with few contracts, few resources and trouble paying the rent on the basement office. “We all had a big investment in engineering—I personally had four years in college and five years working,” Brown says. “But as funds got tighter and opportunity slipped away, we finally decided that it was time for a major change. We started looking for other ways to make a business work. But we had no idea what direction to go in or how to do it.”

Brown had worked for a company that had a printing business. “It was kind of random,” he says, “but the five of us started talking about making signs, and we got this crazy idea to give away as many of them as we could” to win attention and generate interest as an initial marketing tactic.

It’s hardly surprising that many businesses jumped at the concept of free custom-made signs with delivery, a deal the engineering team advertised on the Canadian classified site Kijiji. More than 200 were created. “We really gambled. We used all the funds we had left from the engineering business to fulfill the orders,” Brown says. “We were kind of scared, but it was a really desperate move that amazingly enough paid off.”

No matter how big the risk or investment your team takes, the ability to look forward to something worth the risk is why you should be investing in your team.

WHY IS BRANDING SO IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS??🤔

Yalelo
"We grow our bream in the clear open waters of Lake Kariba in Zambia. Our cages are among the largest in Africa, providing an open environment for our fish to swim far and deep against natural lake currents. This environment produces a fish that is healthier and stronger, with a taste our customers have come to love. Our fish enjoy the very best diet formulation available based on locally-grown soy, maize, and wheat. Because Yalelo fish receive only the highest-quality balanced diet available, there is no mystery to what is on you plate."

"Using only the best feed available on the African continent keeps our fish healthy and gives a great clean taste! We place our fish on ice from the moment of harvest and deliver nation-wide using a fleet of refrigerated trucks. Our commitment to cold chain integrity guarantees our customers with a traceable and reliable quality they can depend on. Yalelo, loosely translated as “today’s fish”, reminds our customers daily that we are fastest growing producer of fresh fish on the continent!"

Fresh fish is one of Zambia's loved kind of relish. It's a seasonal meat to find and thus making it all the more on high demand. People want to eat fish even when it seems to be out of season and this is where Yalelo aced the branding test. Building a sustainable brand is not only about an eye catchy logo or caption. Your brand is your identity. In a Razorfish study in 2021, it's reported that about 67% of people buy from a brand that identifies with a "good" or encouraging mission, vision or purpose. They said it makes them feel like their promoting more good in society. See below Yalelo's vision, mission and practices;

Their Vision
"To become a regional aquaculture powerhouse, by sustainably developing regionwide fish protein resources."

Their Mission
"To stabilize regional food security by sustainably producing an abundant and accessible protein that keeps families happy and healthy."

Their Community
"Empowering communities and contributing to their long-term social, economic, and infrastructural development is an investment in the company’s future and provides a solid foundation for future success."

Their Practices
"Yalelo’s efficient, scalable, and sustainable aquaculture practices ease the pressure from decades of over-fishing. Being an environmentally friendly fishery and sustainable aquaculture farm is an important aspect of Yalelo’s process.

Working with local authorities and the government Yalelo has set commitments that address environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and traceability. By doing so, we can preserve our waters and fish for future generations."

Not only is the company aware of consumers love for tasty fish, they know the customers would love to have that kind of fish on their plate. This is why sustainable fishing methods become their identity marker and a decision influencer. Consumers are convinced they will be able to have the best fish all year round and still feel like they're promoting sustainability. Who wouldn't want to purchase a few kg's of fish from Yalelo Fish?!

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BUILDING A TEAM FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Tricia Naddaff, President of Management Research Group, a leadership specialist: “When teams interact, they create a new, stronger entity. There’s nothing better than a new and enthusiastic team that, on a shoestring budget, tries to do something that’s never been done before. They have to be agile, to deal with complexity, to stay centered when everything goes to hell—and they have to be able to pull everything together anyway.”

Naddaff says the best teams are “courageous observers of themselves,” relentlessly weighing strengths and weaknesses. “The self-awareness piece is huge,” she says. Among pitfalls, she cites jumping into a work team without a clear idea of goals or a time frame and plowing ahead when a course correction is clearly needed. Her nominee for the perfect work team is L.L. BEAN’S leadership under CEO LEON GORMAN because “they so believed in the brand,” she says. Gorman, who died at 80 in 2015, was the grandson of the company’s founder, but he was no caretaker. There was one troubled retail store and 100 employees when Gorman took over in 1967; credited with pushing his ultra-loyal team into “customer-first” policies and online selling, the soft-spoken executive left a multichannel empire with 5,200 employees and $1.5 billion in annual sales.

Pull the thread 🧵🧵
When Philip Krim and four friends—Neil Parikh, T. Luke Sherwin, Gabriel Flateman and Jeff Chapin—got together in their Manhattan co-working space in early 2013, they were battle-scarred from startups that didn’t quite jell. They wanted to find a product with a traditional model they could disrupt the way that Uber transformed the taxi business or Craigslist took classified ads online.

They explored mattresses because Krim had sold mail-order bedding out of his dorm room at the University of Texas a decade before. That business, the Merrick Group, reached $10 million in annual sales before Krim turned to other pursuits. The group agreed that the mattress idea still had bounce.

“Sure, a lot of people were forming tech companies, but a lot of other people were trying to get healthier,” Parikh says, “and not much was being done on how to improve sleep. Also, buying a mattress was a terrible experience, being harassed by people working on commission can be like buying a used car. We decided a brand that had helping people sleep better at its core would succeed.” That led them to start Casper, a mattress firm that eased customer pain points on shopping, delivery and sleep comfort.

The team members brought different skills to the table, Parikh says, and their disparate backgrounds proved advantageous. Krim was the mattress expert, but Sherwin—a friend of Parikh at Brown University who came to Casper after a stint at shopper marketing specialist Saatchi & Saatchi X—knew how to build a brand that could resonate with the public. Flateman, a music student in college, had veered into web design, so he took charge of the online presence; he’s now chief technology officer. Chapin was the stylist, with nine-plus years in human-centered design at IDEO, the $130 million firm that Fast Company describes as “the go-to firm for both American and foreign companies looking to cure their innovation anaemia.”

All five were New Yorkers—two of them roommates—so the team knew about the problem of manhandling mattresses up the stairs in fifth-floor walkups. And that led to a breakthrough idea they all endorsed: a boxed, compressed mattress that could be easily carried up steps, around corners and through doorways. Shipped in a 41-by-21-by-20-inch box, the mattresses come in six sizes weighing 44 to 91 pounds and can fit in the trunk of a cab.

It took a while to figure out how to fit big mattresses into small spaces, but the team did its homework. When suppliers were lined up and the product launched, the reaction was immediate. “We generated $1 million in revenue in our first 28 days, blowing past all our expectations and projections,” Krim says. Casper made its first-year revenue estimate in the first month.

The mattresses, which have a latex layer over memory foam, earn good reviews from buyers, but the product’s jack-in-the-box qualities clearly appeal, too: YouTube has numerous customer-posted unboxing videos for Casper mattresses. When released, the mattress slowly expands with gentle hissing. (The sound of profitable teamwork, Casper folks might say.)

It is said that "One man is not enough to achieve something significant, it requires a team". If you're going to leave with anything at the end of this, know your team to know how to build your structure based on their skill sets to enhance the attainment of the goal.

CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

A guide for small businesses

Many business people regard a customer complaint as a negative experience. However, if your business handles
complaints properly, previously unhappy customers may start singing your praises. Consider a complaint as one
of the best opportunities you have to show your commitment to creating another satisfied customer. Customer
loyalty is one of the biggest assets a business has; fight for this loyalty - be passionate about it!
Complaints should be handled sympathetically and promptly. Some businesses believe that if they don’t receive
many complaints, their customers must be satisfied. Wrong! Only a few customers will complain to you. The
majority will not return to your business and will tell others of their bad experience.

WHY SHOULD YOUR BUSINESS WELCOME COMPLAINTS?
Some published statistics say that:
• a typical business hears from only 4% of its dissatisfied customers; the other 96% just go quietly away and
91% of them will never come back;
• a typical dissatisfied customer tells more than 8 people about his or her problem;
• 7 out of 10 complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint favourably.

HANDLING COMPLAINTS
Try putting the following points into practice:
• Set up a complaints handling system and train your staff to handle complaints well;
• Make it easy for customers to lodge a complaint;
• Welcome customer complaints and deal with complaints promptly.



Adapted from a Consumer Affairs Factsheet by the Australian Department of Justice Northern Territory Government

IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT: THE STORY OF COCA-COLA
Sometimes modifying the product is not such a good idea

In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing the recipe for its famous cola-flavored drink. It was called "New Coke" — and the public hated it.

The company received over 1,000 angry calls per day until, 79 days later, it made another announcement: the original recipe would return as "Coca-Cola Classic." And the public was happy again.

Some may find it surprising that a slight recipe change resulted in such a huge backlash. But the world loves Coca-Cola. And it has for a long time.

It all started in the US state of Georgia in 1886, with a pharmacist named John Pemberton.

Pemberton made a syrup containing extracts of the kola nut, which has a lot of caffeine, and co***ne from the coca leaf — although the co***ne was removed and replaced with non-narcotic coca extracts in 1903.

Pemberton took his syrup to Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta, where it was mixed with carbonated water and sold as a fountain drink for five cents a glass.

Frank Robinson, Pemberton's business partner, thought of the name "Coca-Cola," and wrote it down in the handwriting we still know as the company's famous logo.

Pemberton didn't live long enough to see how successful his invention would be. Shortly before his death in 1888, he sold his recipe to Asa Griggs Candler, also a pharmacist.

Candler focused on advertising the drink, increasing its sales significantly. In 1892, along with Robinson, his brother, and two others, he incorporated the company.

By 1895, Coca-Cola was being sold in every part of the US — and the introduction of large-scale bottling in 1899 allowed it to reach even more customers.

The 20th century saw rapid growth for the company, under new leadership from Ernest Woodruff, who bought it in 1919.

In the 1960s, the company even started releasing new drinks, including Fanta and Sprite.

Today, Coca-Cola is one of the most successful and recognized brands in the world — and Coca-Cola Classic remains the company's most popular drink, with around 2.2 billion servings sold daily, the company's website says.

article by Chiara Leone-Ganado.

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