When your brand gets way ahead of you

Any entrepreneur knows brands are crucial for business. Good brands deliver the product or services’ message clearly, confirm a businesses’ credibility, connects with target prospects emotionally, motivates consumers to purchase and cements loyalty.

However, there are times when this can go too far, and the brand overtakes visibility. Just today when shopping for paint, the only name that came to mind was “Peter Marangi”.

For those not in the know, Peter whose fictitious name is a play on using a common name in Kenya and the Swahili word for paint is a character that appears in advertisements of an established paint company. The role is played by the talented actor Anthony Kinuthia who provides a comic take on house painters and even after Barack Obama’s election gave "Mr. Barack" advice on what colour to paint the White House. 

So when searching for paint products today the Peter Marangi ad was so powerful that the brand name “Duracoat” evaded me. However, when I asked for Peter Marangi’s paint I was promptly offered a tin of Duracoat.

So Basco Paints, the company in question, you almost lost a sale, but at the end of the day your brand Peter Marangi if not Duracoat saved the day!