Digital marketing experts and brand strategists have called on individuals and companies to focus on remaining consistent, authentic and building trust to remain relevant in their quest to build strong brands and deliver quality products and service delivery.
Speaking as part of the second panel during the inaugural edition of the B&FT-organised Brand-CON Africa, Rhoda N.Y. Odoi, CEO of HypeNet Digital Ghana, and Eli Daniel-Wilson, Group Head, Digital Media and Innovation at Global Media Alliance, noted that consistency, authenticity and building trust are non-negotiables for building sustainable brands.
“Branding is what makes you distinct from others, so I think a good personal brand is who you are, what you stand for and how consistent you are. There are people who start with teamwork, another time they are doing individualism. You need to be consistent with what you stand for. If there is no consistency, it is very difficult to build a personal brand because you will always have to do something over and over again,” Ms. Odoi said.
Speaking on the topic ‘Influencers rising, the art and science of personal branding in a digital world’, she noted that the key metrics stated above have become very important in times when brand positioning is driving businesses as a strong tool, and has a tendency to set some businesses apart from others because of strong competition in the market.
Be who you are at all times
According to Mr. Daniel-Wilson, brands should be known for what they have expertise in and should be their true representation. “If you are putting out a product or service, you need to make sure what you are putting out is consistent with the perception that people have of you. So, the part where you have control is what you need to project,” he said.
He added that, as a brand, it is your responsibility to represent what you really look like on digital media at all times to avoid any disconnect between the individual and its brand.
“Most people don’t have the opportunity to really shape what they should stand for, what they should look like in digital media. You have the opportunity to represent what you really look like. This is why in a lot of cases people meet others in real life and say ‘this is not who I thought you were’. It is because there’s a disconnect, most probably, to what is put out consistently,” he added.
The use of influencers
Touching further on the topic, Mr. Daniel-Wilson noted that the use of influencers is the sure way to go as most of them have carved a niche for themselves – making their activities go a long way to boost brands. But he advised companies to focus on influencers who have built trust for themselves and also have the right audience.
He further explained that companies who have difficulty in getting the right influencers to push their brands can outsource to agencies who have expertise in influencing marketing to guide them.
“We use these influencers to positively influence the lives of these brand. It is not just a promotional tool, you can use it to shape brand and perception. There are times when we look at conventions where we set a discount promo to an influencer company and they track how packaged the influencer is – based on how much traffic and sales they are able to drive to the brand,” he said.
Personal brands must not conflict with employer’s brand
Ms. Odoi advised that individuals working with companies must ensure their personal brands do not conflict that of their employers’, stating that: “The moment you are working for a company, it is very difficult to have a personal life. Your personal life is being facilitated by the money you are getting from the company. You can’t promote something else while your company is promoting a particular product”.
Brand-CON Africa
Brand-CON Africa is the latest conference in the ever-expanding catalogue of agenda-setting events by the B&FT, with the maiden edition theme being ‘Celebrating Versatility and Innovation in the midst of a pandemic’. The conference brought together relevant marketing communication professionals who shared insights on their respective work.
