In the 90s, a restaurant existed in Port Harcourt called Martinique. Customers loved the place, I remember my excitement then as a secondary school student each time I accompanied the driver to go get food there for our school director.
Few days ago, I passed right in front of Martinique and the memories of over two decades flooded my mind, so unusual from all other times I have passed there. The name is still hanging there, I guess they still operate skeletally, but the building is dilapidated and the Martinique of the 90s is no more, it died in the 2000s.
Frankly, I am not so sure what happened with Martinique, could have been managerial issues or anything outside of what I think. Perhaps, a research work will someday lead me to finding out the details.
I spent some moment to think about it, and I started remembering several other profitable businesses that couldn't make the transition to become great brands. We take branding for granted until it is too late, at best we only do visual identity creation alongside packaging and think we have branded, but we only scratched the surface.
Martinique can be excused because in their time branding wasn't a common business topic in Nigeria, but what will be your own excuse in this present times? Please take branding more seriously, it helps you define the essence of your venture beyond making profits and gives you a better chance at building something that will last. It's never too early or late to build a brand.
