The Challenges of Adopting Brand-Building Strategies by Entrepreneurs: A Study of MSME Businesses in Lagos State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study is to understand the challenges faced by MSME business owners in adopting brand-building strategies and propose strategies and tactics that can be adopted to overcome the problem. The theoretical framework was based on the work of Wongs & Merrilles (2005) which identified 3 levels of brand orientation amongst SMEs. The conceptual framework is based on 5 variables that are critical to the adoption of brand orientation by business owners. This study was conducted amongst 234 MSME business owners in operation for a minimum of 2 years across 14 business sectors. A quantitative approach was adopted to be able to gather relevant and structured data using questionnaires ranging from the biodata of the business owners to questions on the Likert scale on each variable. Five independent variables and one dependent variable of brand building formed the formulation of 4 hypotheses that tested the relationship between the variables. Data analysis commenced by turning the responses into composite variables for ease of testing. By adopting relevant statistical tests, all 4 hypotheses established relationships between the independent and dependent variables, where the null was rejected, and the alternate hypothesis accepted. Challenges were identified and recommendations were made for business owners to learn the rudiments of brand building and to enlist the help of their employees to execute branding. They also need to have a good attitude toward branding. This study is relevant for business owners to shorten their learning curve and is applicable for practice and learning.