BY MIKE OCHONMA
Few years after its foray into the local automotive landscape, Nigeria’s local brand, the management of Nord Automobile has tapped Funmi Ayinke, an engineer and a social influencer as its brand ambassador.
The contract agreement was signed last weekend in Lekki, Lagos between the new brand ambassador and the Nord team led by Oluwatobi Ajayi, the chief executive officer of the automotive company.
Fielding questions on the after-sales service back-up Nord will be rendering the brand ambassador while the contract lasts, the Nord CEO disclosed that the vehicle comes with an after-sales plan for as long as the contract lasts and that each party is seen to be meeting expected obligations.
Expressing her delight over her choice as brand ambassador and subsequent presentation of a Nord tank Pick-up, Funmi Ayinke said that, it is not just the crowd that matters, adding that, this is the fundamental mistake Nigerian influencers make.
“But who are the crowd, who are the followers? I mean, which class do you belong to and I will say to them that FumiAyinke has the class that can afford Nord automobiles and I’m proud to be the brand ambassador,’’she concluded.
Throwing more light on the latest marriage of convenience between the duo, the managing director of the company said that the purpose of using the vehicle is to ensure that the vehicle is always on the road.
So, the aftersales of this vehicle is our headache basically, and I’d like to use this opportunity to state that we are going to start a service campaign which is key to the business that we do; and which is to satisfy our teeming customers.
We know that we do excellent work, and we already have a technical team that is sound, but the issue is that we need to be a lot more popular. Because popularity is what drives sales in this industry, and more importantly, we have always had the capacity.
“Presently, we have an assembly plant that can produce five vehicles per day and with more investments, we will be able to increase that volume to 25 vehicles a day and by the period we increase it to two shifts, production capacity can reach 50 vehicles per day. So the question is not capacity, but rather patronage of the locally assembled vehicles,” he said.
Oluwatobi Ajayi declared that the most important thing is the demand for these vehicles and once this is assured with increase in volume of units locally assembled, more Nigerians will be employed and this will by extension boost the economy.
Financially, we have some of the biggest backings in our business ranging from financials to the shareholders, to everybody and as a result of this, we can actually meet the market demand. All that Nord as an automobile company needed is just somebody like her to take us out there to show Nigerians what they have been missing in terms of good product quality.
At Nord, I think we have the widest after-sales network in Nigeria and we can parade ourselves as the greatest of all brands. Nord as customer-centric automobile companies with strong emphasis on strong after sales service delivery have after-sales points in Lagos, Abuja, Ijebu ode, Abeokuta, Asaba, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and in Abuja, the federal capital, we have two outlets, while four are located in Lagos.
Ajayi disclosed that before signing the deal with Funmi Ayinke, many people have been coming to Nord with proposals for brand ambassadorship. For me, “I was looking for someone at this level who will do this for us and for me and I wanted a business person and someone in the business world that would be able to truly influence people.
“So I feel that it is easier for her to influence people because she’s a business person and she works for it. It is not about the money. It’s about the experience. She has experience in sweating assets. She has many years of experience in making assets work and turning money into profit’’.
Ajayi noted that all Nord models are strong, dutiful vehicles at the best price. “That has been our goal. We have in the past years had fantastic relationships with any corporate organisations, schools, the police, banks, real estate and others.
What we are looking for is a partnership, somebody that understands business, who can influence businesses when they are making their buying decisions. We had difficulty finding such a person until fate brought us with Funmi Ayinke and since then, she has done amazing jobs for us. The business and partnership is going well.
