GROWTH NEVER TASTED THIS GOOD:
How do you raise a business from ground zero in the heart of a global pandemic?
There are people in this world you store up questions for and pray the universe brings you together.
And the bulk of your questions are the “Hows”.
One of such persons is Feranmi Ajetomobi.
In a fated meeting in 2019, Feranmi had showed up at Jam Summit, a Christian Fellowship International (CFi) annual conference held across different regions of the world, however, the host for 2019’s conference was CFi Auchi Polytechnic.
What was Feranmi doing in Auchi?
Apparently, his office had sent him as a representative to speak at the conference. I fell in love with his expertise on the stage, the finesse, the dazzle, but most importantly, his practicality in communicating salient points and impacting knowledge.
He talked about Cowrywise that day, and I was sold on the spot. Opened my Cowrywise account and my savings journey began. Since then I have gone on to save for my school fees, a new laptop, a new phone, house rent and I had a few thousands of naira as an emergency budget at the time. Let’s not forget the thrill of detty December, it was also included in my savings all using Cowrywise.
This is starting to feel like a Cowrywise celebratory paragraph. Well, let’s give it to them. A conversation with Feranmi later that year led to the start of Cowrywise Ambassador program in Federal University of Technology, Akure. I worked closely with Oyeyinka Oyerinde and I pulled together a team of ambassadors then before the global pandemic hit in March 2020 and a number of our plans were forestalled.
Feranmi no longer works with Cowrywise, but his “growth pixie dust” trail may be seen in areas he’s visited in recent years.
A peculiar story would be the rebirth of Ni Fries during the pandemic. I loved every bit of it. The intentionality put into ensuring every bite is an experience got me glued to my seat as Feranmi told the story of NiFries at Brands, Customers and Products; a one-day conference held in Akure with he and Uche Ugo as the front line speakers physically present on that day, April 30, 2022.
I found a number of stories on the Internet where Feranmi had told the NiFries story as an example of how systemic magic works. For proper context, systemic magic is what he does with brands when he handles their growth engines.
Case in point, what’s suya burger?
Who thinks of these things.
What a radical combination.
Now Feranmi started making radical food combinations during the pandemic and these series of events led to the rebirth of NiFries.
One of such combos was the Suya Burger;
Now, here’s the growth strategy; understanding the times and need of your target audience. Quoting Feranmi, “ people were stuck at home and were tired of eating the usual. What if we tried something new, let’s combine these regulars and see what we can create”
He did this with home made burger and suya and viola, when he shared it on twitter, you can safely assume; people wanted to get a taste of it.
He made more, packed it and shipped them to his first adopters for free (friends and lucky tweeps).
With that action, Feranmi activated word of mouth marketing leveraging social media at a time where everybody was online.
Back to BCP!
At the event, he took us through an engaging process with his signature white board and marker, he opened our eyes and mind using an imaginary Yoghurt company names XYZ.
At the start of a business’s life cycle, a lot of business owners spend a lot of creative energy trying to name the business. Feranmi made us see that the name is only as important as the experience you communicate to your audience in a business’s birth phase.
It’s not the name that will make people buy into your product, it’s the experience your product gives them that would make them a first time and repeat buyer.
This is a particular take home for me as I stood listening to Feranmi work his magic with the audience captivated in steady gazes.
This right here is a Feranmi stan paragraph.
Although he had planned to use just 20 minutes in 30 minutes for his session, it extended into over an hour as the audience kept their questions coming in.
If growth strategies could be plucked off trees, Feranmi would be the farmer that tends the yard that those trees are planted in. The good thing, he’s open to sharing the magic behind building effective growth strategies for your business.
Brands, Customers and Products would be my first real life encounter with this growth whizz and I am happy the universe played the right chords to ensure our paths intersected.
If you’re ever in Lagos, check out the NiFries menu and have a taste of the universe in sizable bits.
