Founder and CEO- KonneKt World, Phyllis Kuenyehia, has stated that to build a strong brand and attain success in any kind of business endeavour, mentorship is central to the process – as this makes it easier to identify best practices, avoid mistakes and be competitive.
According to her, structured mentorship is a global practice that is backed by science and proven by data to be a very effective tool for building successful brands without making killer mistakes, as trusted instructions or counselling boosts confidence to grow vigorously.
“Mentorship can be wholistic approach to tackling your growth, relationships, connection, emotional wellbeing, finance and any other thing that brings the brand to life. It is important to learn from a professional in the field, an institution; and read related books that will enlighten the brand on how others grew, the challenges and how they navigated failure, as well as the opportunities among others,” she said.
To her, with a structured mentorship system, all one has to do is plug-in, connect to the right resources and get going.
Speaking at the inaugural edition of Brand-CON Africa in Accra, organised by the B&FT and themed ‘Celebrating Versatility and Innovation in the Midst of a Pandemic’, she said all the personalities behind big brands have mentors that influence them, criticise, chastise, cheerlead and help bring their businesses to life, and help them grow to international status.
“On every level of the branding journey, you always find somebody that have an idea of what you are trying to do and has done it before; so it is important to learn the structures of the growth process,” she said.
She reiterated that brands should be mindful of the fact that they can never get to the end or attain perfection, so they should always strive to be better and deliver much better value to clients and society. Based on this backdrop, she advised brand influencers against complacency as having many followers on social media does not necessarily translate into influence and generating reaction for revenue.
Ms. Kuenyehia made these remarks as a panellist in the second plenary session of the conference, on the topic ‘Influencers rising: The art and science of personal branding in a digital world’. She emphasised that building strong values should be core in the mind of every brand manager.
Managing Personal Branding
She further stated that for individuals to be able to create relevant and strong brands which deliver value to clients, there is a need to treat and manage their brand as an organisation.
“Personal branding is about how you show up and how you deliver on projects. So, the question is: do you show up when you have to, deliver on time, and stay true to your values?
As individual brand influencers, we are an organisation and have all the systems and values of an organisation inside of us. To be successful and thrive on your concept to growth, you need to see yourself as an organisation. The way organisations have structures, always go back to the drawing table, take feedback from people and always engage, a personality brand must do the same,” she said.
