Leading strategic branding and communications consultancy, HKLM recently completed a rebrand of the South Africa-Nigeria Business Chamber (SA-NBC), a privately funded, not-for-profit, membership driven organisation that facilitates trade and investment between South Africa and Nigeria, two of Africa’s largest economies.
Previously known as the SA-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, the rebrand involved re-calibrating the chamber’s strategy after a careful examination of its core mandate and value proposition. The name change, explains HKLM founder and director, Sean McCoy, appropriately places greater emphasis on the chamber’s outbound orientation toward the Nigerian market.
The change to ‘Business Chamber’ from ‘Chamber of Commerce’ reflects a more focused, progressive and agile organisation and, importantly, avoids brand confusion with the Lagos-based Nigeria-SA Chamber of Commerce, with which the SA-NBC collaborates but does not have a formal partnership agreement or commercial affiliation.
Part of the rebrand included modernising the chamber’s identity from one with a predictable look and feel to a more forward focused design. Incorporating the colours of both the South African and Nigerian flags, the new identity is an abstract depiction symbolic of people and currency as vehicles of economic success.
The SA-NBC was established 14 years ago to promote, facilitate and assist South African businesses to do business in Nigeria, acting as a pivotal link between the economies of the two countries. In addition to providing information and insight to South African companies about the regulatory and business environment in Nigeria, it hosts professional networking events, provides advocacy services and other supplementary services to its member base, many of whom are blue chip companies. The chamber supports free trade and fair business that complies with the regulatory environment and rule of law in Nigeria.
The rebrand, says McCoy, has shifted the SA-NBC towards a more progressive looking organisation and successfully re-calibrated the chamber as it looks to the future.
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