A successful brand is built on more than the products it sells. It must understand its customers, reflect their culture, create an emotional connection and develop the capacity to grow beyond the founder’s individual abilities.
These were among the central lessons shared by Olamide Olowe, founder of skincare brand Topicals, during her masterclass, Building Brand Worlds, at the 2026 GTCO Fashion Weekend.
The session, held on Sunday, November 8, explored how entrepreneurs can build distinctive brands by combining product innovation, cultural identity, storytelling and sound business management.
Olowe’s insights challenged the idea that a strong product and aggressive marketing are sufficient to establish a lasting business. Instead, she emphasised the need for entrepreneurs to understand the problems their products are designed to solve and give customers compelling reasons to remain loyal.
For her, product-market fit is the foundation of sustainable growth. A business must offer products that meet genuine customer needs, rather than depend on promotional campaigns to generate sales.
She explained that companies could spend heavily on marketing without achieving lasting success if their products failed to satisfy customers. Repeat purchases and word-of-mouth recommendations, she noted, provide stronger indications that a business is delivering value.
But building a brand, in her view, goes beyond satisfying a customer’s immediate need.
Olowe urged entrepreneurs to establish businesses around a purpose that connects with the personal and emotional experiences of their audiences.
She cited Topicals as an example, explaining that the brand seeks to address not only the physical effects of skin conditions but also their emotional and mental-health dimensions.
The idea is to create a relationship in which customers feel recognised and understood, rather than simply persuade them to purchase skincare products.
This emphasis on connection informed her discussion of storytelling and cultural relevance. She highlighted the importance of understanding the communities a brand serves and reflecting their interests, experiences and identities in its products, communications and customer engagements.
Topicals has drawn on film, cultural references and experiences in Ghana and Lagos to establish a distinctive identity and connect with its audience.
For Olowe, these elements help transform a product-based business into a brand world, where customers identify with the values, culture and experiences associated with the company.
The approach offers an important lesson for entrepreneurs in the fashion and creative industries, where a product’s appeal may extend beyond its practical use to the identity and expression it represents.
However, a compelling brand identity does not remove the financial demands of building a business.
Olowe identified access to capital as a major requirement for business expansion, particularly for women and entrepreneurs from underserved communities.
She called for greater support for founders who understand the problems they are trying to solve and have the potential to develop meaningful solutions.
She also acknowledged the contribution of investors and retail partners to Topicals’ growth, stressing that building a successful enterprise requires support beyond the founder.
That message also speaks to the wider purpose of the GTCO Fashion Weekend, which combines fashion showcases with masterclasses and business conversations aimed at strengthening enterprise in the creative industry.
By bringing business experience into conversations about fashion, beauty and culture, the platform creates an opportunity for entrepreneurs to examine not just how to make products, but how to build businesses that can endure.