By CTW Team
Photo: ORAC Branding

Meet Munene Githira, the Co-Founder of ORAC Branding, an Integrated Branding Company that launches, grows & re-invents businesses through Digital, Experiential & Promotional Branding. In his comments to CTW, he underscored the importance of branding to the growth of businesses.

“In Kenya alone, we have over 17 million MSMEs. 18% of these businesses close down because they don't know how to market or they can't afford marketing budgets. To solve this problem, my Co-Founder and I, Vanessa Mwaniki, decided to set up ORAC Branding to consult and train businesses on the following areas:

• Digital Branding (Branded research, social media marketing, mobile marketing, Google marketing and content marketing);
• Experiential Branding (street & mall activation, flier distribution etc.);
• Promotional Branding (billboards, TV, radio, giving merchandising items such as, t shirts, caps, water bottles etc.).” he said.

“We have been in operation since January 2018. Currently, we are based at the Innovation and Incubation Centre at USIU-Africa, where one of our Co-Founders, Isaac Bugeri, is an alumnus. We also receive support from Women in Business Kenya to accelerate our solutions and train entrepreneurs on integrated branding,” he added.

“We are also on an exciting mission to reach & help 1.5 million African MSMEs in eliminating marketing constraints as a reason for business closure. One way to achieve this is through knowledge & skill transfer. This led to the development the Integrated Branding Curriculum, which has four courses on how MSMEs should cost effectively grow their businesses through marketing & advertising.

We started training for free, then the demand went high, we started charging an affordable fee, but the demand for the training is still high, “he notes.

The Integrated Branding Course started in February 2020 and includes the following modules:

• The Brand Identity Design – Designed to help entrepreneurs understand logo types, the right colors, the right packaging, the right typography, identifying target audiences & the right messaging;
• The Digital Branding Curriculum - Designed to help entrepreneurs understand the 25+ strategies for social media, mobile, google & content marketing, the advertising promotions types, the audience targeting types and how to measure your online marketing efforts;
• The Branding Scorecard - Designed to help entrepreneurs understand how and when to integrate your digital branding, experiential branding & promotional branding for your marketing campaigns, understand the basic marketing aspects and data collection methods;
• The Branding Calendar - A master-plan for connecting your brand marketing strategy with your customers seasonality e.g. months, events, holidays etc. understanding content schedules and developing a content plan.

The company has plans to automate, customize & digitize the curriculum through an App that will be called Easy Branding, which will help entrepreneurs in Kenya & Africa to take 5-minute lessons on selling, marketing, advertising, customer experiences, analysis & much more on their phones.

Some of our clients include; Flex Money Transfer Services, Women In Business Kenya, Bunson Travel, Arope Group, Web Risk Consultants, ASIS Kenya, Educate Learning Centre, International Supply Chain Solutions, Okito Foundation (Uganda), and Global Solidarity Corporation (DRC).

Munene, who holds a degree in Animation and Media Science, also sits on the KEPSA Youth Sub-sector Board and the Women in Business Secretariat and is also a youth leader at KKREW.

Through their business solutions, the team has received a full scholarship from IU University of Applied Sciences, Germany to do a degree in International Management as a way to accelerate the business.

The team is reachable on +254 727 305 261 and on the following contacts:
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