Brand Identity & Relationship Management:

The Rite Foods Saga

What makes a brand lies really in what the brand reflects into the prospective consumers’ eyes and minds.  This, in summary is called brand identity.  Research has revealed that what shapes brand identity goes beyond marketing. Having a brand identity that resonates positively within the market the brand operates is very important; however this should not be pursued at the expense of the various publics of the brand or company either as employee or distributor.  Brand Scholars have identified two key factors that mould brand identity; they include Visibility and Credibility.

Visibility in the sense that, most prospective consumers look for highly visible, well-defined brands and businesses to identify with, so the "look and feel" of a brand identity plays a major role in their decision making process. And credibility in terms of establishing and reinforcing specific positive characters, using strong messages in a professionally developed system to project a personality that will keep the brand steps ahead of competition.  A good brand identity creates brand loyalists and ambassadors who will ultimately determine the success or failure of the brand.

With this two key factors that determines brand identity, what brand identity is Rite Food Limited, makers of Rite sausage roll trying to project in a world where consumers have become conscious of brands that do not live up to high moral standards required by corporate citizens. One of its key distributor was handed over to the police and he was reported to have died in police custody after an arrest initiated by the company itself.  

The story making the rounds in the media  has it that Mr. Ademola Adedeji, a distributor with Rite Foods was arrested over an alleged debt of about N20 million. It was gathered that Mr Adedeji, owner of Ademola Stores who distribute Rite Foods products in places like Lagos, Ogun, Ghana and Benin republic was awarded the best distributor of the company in 2010 when he made sales of over N250million. But few months later, the celebrated hero turned villain. It was reported that Mr. Adedeji went to the company to purchase goods worth N400, 000 only to be called by the General Manager of the company that he owed some millions and was arrested immediately. Mr. Adedeji did not come out alive from this detention. All efforts to get Rite foods to comment on this incident proved abortive.

The management of the company took up paid advertorial in the newspapers to explain their position stating that the late distributor issued a dud cheque to the company and they had to involve the police since the issuance of dud cheque is a criminal offence. The company thus washed its hands off what happened after that.

But the questions that will dominate the minds of the other distributors, consumers of the product and brand conscious members of the public who are aware of the development include; how would Rite Food want to be identified in this whole picture?

The wife of the deceased was said to have reacted aggressively claiming that the company is responsible for the death of her husband. According to her “My husband was an honest man who had won an award in 2010 for making huge profit for Rite Foods ltd.

‘My husband drove to work that day and was very strong, no history of illness is linked him, and he was just 39year old. Whatever the case, why will this company arrest and kill my husband, who made over N250millon sales for them just because he was accused of owning less than N2millon which they cannot be verify?’ she lamented.

 Most consumers are livid over this development. Bayowa, a staff of Alumaco, a company based in Ikeja and regular consumer of sausage rolls says, “every evening, on my way from work I insist on either gala or super bite. I can’t spend my hard earned cash on a product whose owners are not people-friendly”

Another consumer who simply gives his name as Kayode,  is of the opinion that the makers of both Biggi and Rite sausage rolls have not done anything good with the treatment melted on their distributor, Mr.Adedeji who lost his live over a dud cheque.

“I love their product but I was sad when I read about that issue in the newspaper. It’s inhuman on that company’s part. I think there are betters ways they could have handle the issue without it leading to the man;s death.’ He said.  

According to a major distributor of Rites Food Ltd located in the heart of Ojota, who spoke to our reporter on the grounds of anonymity, “before now we do collect goods and pay with our cheques, since the last two weeks, Rites Foods Ltd gave a new law that we can only pay cash directly to the company’s account and present the teller to a cashier in the office before goods can be released to us.

“This new development may not be unconnected with the recent event with Mr Ademola Adedeji owner of Ademola Stores.”

Another distributor, Hakeem Onifade in Ota, Ogun state said he ceased to be a distributor of that brand when it became obvious the management of the company does not care about them.

‘I don’t know Mr. Adedeji but I heard of the incident. If someone who made such huge amount for the company could be treated that way, what hope do people like us who have not made up to 20 percent of that amount have? Am not going to step into that place again, at least there are better brands of sausage rolls that people patronize, so why should I risk my life with Rite foods when we all know  that credit facilities cannot be ignored in our society?’ he quipped. 

Some brand analysts have commented on the possible negative impact such an incident can have on any brand. Mr. James Agama, a brand strategist said, “We are probably faced with an organization that has very little regard for the media and possibly believe that branding and marketing only means good product packaging, publicity and an aggressive sales force. It is apparent that they never had a PR plan because after the story broke in one newspaper, there was no plan in place to manage follow-up stories.

Explaining further on the impact this type of development can have on the image of the brand, Agama stressed that it will result in negative brand associations especially amongst stakeholders like distributors, consumers and workforce. Agama further x-rayed “The Company may not attract very good talent for example. This will most likely affect people’s perception of the company”.

On what the brand should have done before things got this messy Agama suggested, “They should have put a good PR plan in place to address the issues. They should have come up with their own side of the story and possibly engage the family of the deceased to sort out things. Silence or playing the Ostrich will not help the brand in any way. They need to make a statement but they would need to be careful, concise but never confrontational.

“At this point, the best response will be to engage all stakeholders in discussion as well as cleverly using social media to relate their side of the story;” he concluded.

Another brand commentator, Michael Otons from Orange brand Academy, feels that what should be uppermost in the mind of a brand handler or owner is what and how he wants the consumer to perceive his product or brand. In his words, “no brand conscious company will sit and hope that any crisis will go away. The image of a brand could be bad, sometimes caused indirectly by the things the brand associates with. I doubt if the company directly caused the death of this man, but since the brand is linked in a way, the company should have made strategic efforts to bridge the gap between the bad brand image and the desired brand identity.  Besides, distributors are like life blood to companies. Hardly will a company survive without them. Why should a company arrest the distributor they once celebrated? Do they have a brand manager at all? They are playing games with their survival.”