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Product Branding as a Money-Spinning Business
By Sulaiman Adenekan
Mr. Sina Ogunrinde is the Chief Executive of Trustmark Communications
Limited, a product branding company, located in Lagos. He was formerly into
advertising, but the desire to provide all marketing and communication services
under one roof brought him into product branding.He says that the essence of
branding is to add value to the product.
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Ogunrinde says that product can be branded with computerised monogramming
machine and heat transfer processes. The capital required to start the business
of product branding, according to him, varies according to the scale. For
instance, N700,000 may just be enough to start on a small-scale; while between
N10m and N30m will be required for medium-scale operation.
Where embroidery and monogramming are added to the line of production, the cost
may shoot up to N100m. The capital outlay covers cost of machinery, staff salary
and other operational expenses.
Ogunrinde says that not much space is required, but that the business can be
started in a two-bedroom flat on a small scale, while a full plot of land with
factory or a whole building will be needed for medium-scale operation. The
large-scale production facility will require a whole hectare of land.
The machines that are used in the business include heat transfer machine,
printers and computerised embroidery and monogramming machines of different
heads depending on the financial capacity of the company.
Heads in this case means the number of product that the machine can work on at a
time.
On the number of staffs required to operate get the business going, he says 10
or more may be needed, while the number of machine operators increases as more
machines are acquired leaving the number of administrative staff the same.
He says that the entrepreneur must have production experience as well as ability
to handle minor machine repairs and be able to operate the software used in
digitalising and preparing works for the machine, adding that a minimum of
Ordinary National Diploma is required for a person to operate and manage the
business well.
Ogunrinde says that after embossing the required images of the product on the
fabric, the staff will then repackage it back as if nothing has happened to it
and deliver it to the customer in perfect condition.
The products mostly used for branding include T-shirts, faze-caps, mugs, towels,
pillow cases and bed sheets among others.
Coloured heat transfer on a shirt costs N780 to N800, while white printing costs
about N300. Monogramming costs N250 to N300 depending on the complexity of the
service required.
Continued on Page 2
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