NIMET
Samy Numan
Managing Director & Founder
What is the branding process?
There must always be a correlation and harmonization between what happens within an organization and what is seen from the outside. So that’s the first thing. As an entrepreneur, you need to ensure that you are perceived slightly better externally than you are internally, but not too much. You need to have things happening, processes in place, an organization with a certain style, producing a certain type of product. Okay, you need to be recognized, appreciated, and seen as such for people to trust you, to know exactly where you stand and what you offer. For example, there are four-star hotels in inland cities that give guests their accommodation confirmation via Yahoo. I’m giving an example. There are sad situations like this. There needs to be alignment. I’ve seen websites and logos and a lot of activity on LinkedIn, on social media, and when you look behind the scenes, there’s nothing there. I mean, there’s a correlation. I’ve seen sites and logos and a lot of activity on LinkedIn, on social media, and when you go behind the scenes, there’s nothing there. I mean, as I said, there’s a correlation between what happens within an organization, how you present yourself, presenting yourself a little higher to push the organization a little higher, and clients having trust and you presenting yourself nicely, elegantly, discreetly according to your stature. And always, always, you need to raise this level of perception, to convey a certain mission, a certain vision, what you want to do, where you want to go, and to instill more confidence in clients. Many people say that branding is only for the exterior. Branding has a significant effect within the organization. They know they’re in a certain culture, they know they’re a certain brand, they know they’re working in that area, they know they have more trust. The branding we did together has changed a lot internally within the organization. It changed a lot. People respected certain rules, certain procedures, there was a certain discipline, a certain look, as if something happened there and we need to respect it. So branding and rebranding are continuous processes. It needs to be continuous, not allowing things to happen that are outside the internal label. If you have a certain behavior towards clients, you shouldn’t deviate from it. All of these, branding, they come and keep things under control. It’s a continuous process of maintaining the internal image, of what’s happening internally and how you present yourself. And every 4-5 years when you have something to add, when you have something to say, you do it. You do it either through a sharp, solemn moment, or you can do it progressively. I don’t know now, I’m not good at it. It can be a continuous process of discreet growth. So Romanian entrepreneurs and not only, they need to have a continuous process of internal improvement and that is your image in the end. There was a saying, does the clothes make the man? I say it does. It’s something like that, you put on nice clothes. I can’t just put on clothes that my colleagues are not used to because they’ll laugh at me. But if I’ve been wearing jeans for three years or five years, I can’t go to a tuxedo the next day. Right? You have to take it discreetly and the same goes for a company. I can’t just go and make a website and present myself like BMW to the world. Branding is something there, it’s a measure of what happens in television, but I would push a little more. Especially with the idea of saying, hey, clients, I’m here, right? Look, I’m coming from behind to solve this for you, I’ll do this for you, I’m more open, let there be activity on the website, at fairs, in customer relations, in day-to-day business, and on LinkedIn. There are some who, for example, have inflation. Inflation. People, collaborators from a certain organization, have an excess of being on LinkedIn.
What does it mean to be a brand in the NIMET niche?
For us, a brand means having a position of strength, being able to deliver on time, being able to support any type of solution requested by the client, having the financial strength to overcome the financial fluctuations and trends of the times, and being a reliable, trustworthy supplier, offering solutions. So for us, a brand primarily means looking good financially. Today, our clients, companies, need security. They need to know that you are financially strong enough to invest. So for the main industrial clients in the world, you need to be solid, strong, standing on your own feet, with strong equity, so that they can find the same product from you in 2 years, in 3 years, in 10 years. This is the financial brand, so to speak, I haven’t classified them, it just came to mind now. Then you need to provide other types of services, be able to provide services, deliver and respond on time, provide a quality product, stand behind the product you sold. Have the strength to offer all solutions to clients. Give them the goods on time, good, cheap, and if they’re not satisfied, have the strength to acknowledge that it wasn’t right and come up with another solution, replace it, and stay until you solve the customer’s problem. All of these together give you a certain strength, a certain reputation, trust, give you a certain smell, a certain color. They know you’re there and that you solve their problems and that you’re safe, reliable, and can find solutions on time. That’s the brand in our area.
Since when has NIMET been a brand?
We started the rudimentary garage-type activity, as they say now, around 2008, but about 7-8 years after we started the activity, we felt the need to repair the label we started with, that of a startup, a garage, someone who doesn’t have the financial solidity I mentioned, who was unaffected and branded as Romanian, and all of this took about 7-8 years from when we started from scratch, when we started to be appreciated, respected, and to present more confidence, we felt the need to do branding, a rebranding to mark the end of the first pioneering period, of search, and with that branding, we interrupted that process where we were always the second, third supplier, always in the emergency zone, never on the negotiating table. With branding like this, we sent a message that we’re no longer what we used to be, we have a certain position, we know how to solve solutions, we already have a history, we already had a finished path. But if we continued with, from the banal logo, from the message we sent to the market, it needed to be interrupted in a way, and we needed to come up with another qualitative leap. And for the organization, the branding was important, the rebranding we did for the people inside and outside. So it has at least two valences. For the interior of the organization, we sent a message, our documents already had a certain coherence, a certain logic, a certain aesthetic, they presented a certain security, both internally and externally. But we felt the need to do rebranding because we were kind of tired of being told, hey, you’re from Romania, you just started, no. We need to mark certain events, and the fact that we managed to bring people from all over the world for that rebranding, and the fact that they came to see what it was about, with the location, with your professionalism, with your warmth, with Teodora Enache, with what was there, went out into the market. It was like a shockwave, and there I think we marked our position a bit. That was the situation with the rebranding from Marriott at that time.
Is NIMET a Romanian brand?
I think we suffered a lot, at least in the first 2-3 years of activity. Wherever we went, this made in Romania label appeared and generated a kind of frustration. When you left discussions, traveled to big countries, and came back with this smell that they prefer Italian goods, French goods, German goods, and so on. We had situations where we were in other countries, they even preferred a lower quality product, but if it had made in Italy on it. We suffered a lot in this area and then it was like a revenge that I wanted and I said we have to do something to break this and you should know that it happened. At this moment, we are even recognized and I don’t want to be modest, everything we do there is done with people, with managers, with operators, collaborators from the Targoviste area, from the villages and communes there. We are very happy that we have a huge impact on the local community. That a lot of families have reintegrated, it’s very important to us. I wish all the young people in the city wouldn’t migrate to Ploiesti, Bucharest, Pitesti, to stay there in Targoviste, the city would become more and more beautiful and I want us to make a product, to provide industrial solutions at the highest level to many, many industries made in a city like Targoviste for me and for them it’s a great pride.
What do customers appreciate about NIMET?
We believe we have a very good team. So the working team, whether they come for audits, for sales, it’s a team that’s very different from our competitors. So here I think the difference is made. It’s a different form of dialogue, we respond very quickly, for us response time is the winning weapon. The solution provided, the friendliness, and the cleanliness in the factory. Many have noticed that they have never seen a factory so clean, not that I want to brag now, but many are simply surprised, more than surprised, shocked by the cleanliness in the factory. When you see that things are in harmony, you start to like it. You get a quick response, you get a solution, you see that everything is green, clean, everything is blooming, there’s not a speck of dirt on the green grass in the yard, all the trees seem to be lined up on a computer, the factory is clean, the team smiles, they’re available. What more could you want? A pleasant dinner, a friendly conversation, and all these together make them feel good. Behind it, as I said, there’s a solid financial background, they say sir, I come here and I know I’ll find them in three years too. The products are of quality, we haven’t reached what we want yet, but all this together says, sir, good things are happening here in Targoviste, we have a good team, we have a solid company. What more does a customer want?
What’s the secret of businessman Samy Numan?
One secret, let’s say, a more gray, hidden, sadder one, is that I wanted to quit many times. But behind each, let’s say, quitting, there came an opposite reaction to quitting and moving forward. In the life of a company, there are many ups and downs, and at some point, you get tired and wonder, is it worth it, isn’t it worth it, and I’ve had several attempts to take a step back. But now what can I tell you, another secret is that we want to go further than what we did in Targoviste and we want to go beyond the Romanian space. That’s a secret, maybe it’s not really a secret, as many know, many, 3-4 people from the company know what it’s about, but the project is still in the drawer. That would be the secret. So there are many doubts and I’ve had many doubts for a long time and even today I have them, I’m very fluctuating and like Andreea, like Cristina, I know I have such moments.
