BRANDING STRATEGY FOR EFFECTIVE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING IN NIGERIA

Branding strategies have become an accepted part of marketing activity and it is the norm for manufactured and processed food products to be offered to consumers as branded products. However, as any vigilant consumer would have noticed, there is still a wide range of agricultural products that remains unbranded. Agricultural and horticultural products are often relatively unprocessed and do not have clear brands associated with particular suppliers. It has become common to find generic brand associated with groups of suppliers, or are merely used as labels to identify particular attributes of the products. In attempting to explore such issues it is often assumed that the lack of such activity is a result of the small firms that exist in the industry, or simply because of the lack of marketing knowledge amongst producers. Farmers have normally sold their products as commodities. This means that there is no appreciable difference between the produce of a farmer and that of another farmer. Nigeria’s agricultural marketing competitiveness has been bedevilled by a lot of market related factors that has to do with the absence of standardization of products in the market place. Standardized system of grading and measurement, which enhances marketing efficiency, is not a feature of agricultural markets in Nigeria. Grades are determined arbitrarily by sizes, colour or smell. Measures come in various types of metal and plastic bowls, dishes, tins, baskets and calabashes. Most of the measures are susceptible to manipulation to change volume, in an attempt to take advantage of buyers. In addition, sorting, branding and packaging activities which are not carried out further reduces the ability of using a sound marketing system to boost farmers’ income and ensure adequate protection of consumers in the country. The study would therefore address the importance of branding as a strategy for effective agricultural marketing in Nigeria and its ability to make agricultural marketing more effective and competitive.