Barely three months after winning two awards at the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Awards for Marketing Excellence held at the Federal Palace Hotel and Casino, Lagos, Maltina, a premium malt brand from the stable of Nigerian Breweries Plc, has won yet another award.
The brand was picked as the “Most Trusted Brand” for 2013 by Brandhealth, a research agency dedicated to brands and their bonding with consumers. The research which cut across many sectors was carried out to determine the brands that bond most with consumers in terms of usage, awareness, loyalty, relevance, esteem and availability for consumption.
Instituted in 2010, the “Most Trusted Brand” award is an innovative mechanism of opening up channels of dialogue between consumers and the brands in the Nigerian marketplace. It is arrived at solely through research and surveys.
Unveiling the results of the survey, Mr. Emmanuel Udowima, CEO Brandhealth said the essence of the awards is “to track the strength of brands relationships with their consumers. It is expected that results from the tracking would enable an environment of continual learning, continual improvement and innovation for the brand owners. It is expected that it would stimulate a new way to think- seeing the customer’s input in this survey and the award as a gift – and new knowledge that can be used to better brand planning and achieve competitive advantage. The results serve as a reminder for the brand owners to build on-going relationships by keeping their promises and building trust.”
He added that prior to 2010; the idea of a comprehensive national survey particularly designed towards identifying most trusted brands in Nigeria was non-existent. With the coming on board of the award however, Nigerian consumers now have the opportunity of determining their favourite brands whose sole purpose is the identification and celebration of brands that bond well with the consumers.
Criteria used for selecting winners include face–to-face interviews with consumers in their homes using fully structured questionnaires and multi-stage sampling method with selected respondents.
“In each edition,” Udowima stated “brandhealth interviews 1,600 respondents pan Nigeria. 50% of the respondents are usually males while the balance 50% are always females. The study consists of respondents aged 16-25(25%), 26-34, (25%) 35-44(20%) 45-55(15%) 56 and above (15%). In terms of social class, 10% of the respondents are drawn from the upper income class, 40% from the middle income class and 50% in the lower income class.”
Mrs. Ngozi Nkwoji, Senior Brand Manager Maltina thanked the organisers and Nigerians for choosing the brand as their most trusted. She reiterated that Maltina is all about “sharing happiness and meeting consumers where they are; be it at carnivals across the country, free periodic inter and intra city bus rides, celebrations and most importantly at the annual Maltina Dance All (MDA) competition. We are passionate about our consumers and will do all it takes to share, and if possible participate in their happy moments.”
Only in December, the brand sponsored the CARNIRIV festival in Port Harcourt where the Briggs family, season seven winners, thrilled fans at the brand’s stand to the admirations of guests and fans. A mini MDA was also conducted where 17 years old Gbenga Awokoya, 15-year old Stanley Eze, a JSS2 student of Eleka Secondary School, Port Harcourt and 45-year old, Mrs. Chika Brown won a generating set, home theatre system and flat screen television set respectively.