The Nigerian economy in recent times has witnessed major capital flight. Now we are about to witness a corporate identity flight. The financial turmoil rocking Etisalat Nigeria took a new turn on Monday, July 10 – The Nigerian arm of Etisalat has been directed by the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) to discontinue using its brand, name and all its associated features, which includes the logo, within the next three weeks. ETC is the largest shareholder in the embattled firm.
The Etisalat logo is one of the best telco logos that ever entered the Nigerian economy. It caught the public’s attention soon as it stepped into the scene with its greenish appeal. It became instantly recognizable and sparked a kind of revolution of a new way to get our telephony groove-on. We all kinda liked the way the logo morphs into a butterfly in the TV Ads, with the end note of that unique tone that resounded “0809ja for life”. The Etisalat logo typifies what a good logo must be; simple, recognizable, ease of instant installation in human memory and functional to differentiate a business with uniqueness.
The Etisalat logo came in with a lot of razzmatazz, I’m sure we would always remember the sonorous voice of Nigeria’s very own international recording artiste, Banky W behind the brands highly entertaining market entry. The owners of the logo were bold about its use in Nigeria and from the get-go, putting it right in our faces. Sounds like the obvious for any company to do, yes! but really how many businesses especially SMEs make a bold display of putting their logo in our faces? Not even an occasional flash of it on the founders display picture on social media or any post for that matter. Give it to Etisalat – the company was relentless on the public display of its logo. They didnt so much of put celebs in our face. The logo was almost all the time the main feature they wanted us to reckon with in obvious and subtle ways. The mix was perfect.
There are many lessons to learn from the time and existence of Etisalat’s logo in Africa’s largest economy:
1. Make sure yours is a well made logo you’re proud of and hold with inestimable value.
2. Take it as your best most important impression when entering a market space you want to be a dominant player.
3. Put the logo in people’s faces as best as you can. Never miss out on the opportunity or available medium to do this.
The logo of Etisalat will be greatly missed. For us at Dayo Abiola – Nigeria’s foremost logo making company, we will continue to value its creativity and how the logo worked well on all the company’s brand association while in Nigeria. We will be keen to see the logo of 9mobile Telecoms, new owners of the embattled company.
Article Written by Dayo Abiola – Chief Design Officer of Dayo Abiola – Nigeria’s foremost logo making company.