Thursday 5 January 2012

How To Increase Your Brand Awareness In The African Market


The Brand Africa 

A powerful brand is only as good as the target market’s awareness of its existence and qualities. Branding is not done in a vacuum; it is aimed at a particular segment of the market. Every branding exercise should be culture specific.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once described Africa as “a scar on the conscience of the world.” This goes to tell the how infamous Africa’s brand is across continents.
 Recent events on the African continent are however beginning to change people’s perception of Africa. Images of war, famine and tyranny are no more exclusively synonymous with Africa. The improving image of Africa is evidenced and fueled by the following events: the successful hosting of the world cup by South Africa in 2010, US. President Barack Obama’s visit to select countries in Africa, the recent Arab spring that sparked off in Tunisia, the fall of Former Libyan president Gadhafi. Nobel laureates such as the late Wangari Mathai of Kenya and Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, just to mention a few have also brought honors to the African continent.
The improving image of Africa coupled with its widely underdeveloped market and human as well as mineral resources continue to attract new brands unto the African market. Described as the final frontier in some circles, Africa is a very promising brand and market for any astute businessman or marketer. Numerous global brands continue to flood the African market. Their attempts at marketing and creating brand awareness have however been fraught with challenges due to a lack of an understanding of the African market.

                                            

Increasing Brand Awareness in Africa



Africans tend to congregate around certain activities which are peculiar to the African culture. These should be in sharp focus for any brand awareness campaign.

1)      Research: Alexander Graham Bell(Inventor of the telephone), said that “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” This emphasizes the importance of preparation and research in particular in any field of endeavor. To be successful at increasing your brand awareness in Africa, you need to know, understand and appreciate your target market. You must know their needs, wants and desires. Knowing their needs, wants and desires will help you design a product they find useful to their lives.
2)      Strong product: Coming from a good research exercise, you are now able to develop a winning product for your brand. For example, research will probably reveal to you the most appropriate colors, for your brand, which will appeal to your target market the most and also create an emotional attachment with it.

3)      Deliver on your promise: The measure of value placed on a brand or product is seen in how much you are seen to deliver on your brand promise. If your promise is to deliver timely service, at the very least, just do that. Only then can you delight your customers who will increase your brand awareness by word of mouth especially in Africa where interpersonal bonds are stronger. In Africa, people tend to at least rely on advice from friends and acquaintances principally because of the lack of data and or access to it with regards to product quality.

4)      Language: Africa is largely unlettered in the western sense of the word. While the US. For instance has a literacy rate of 99%, the figure is 63% in Sub-Saharan Africa. This requires the use of simple language and more vivid imagery. Indigenous languages should be employed to increase your brand awareness. Also, it should be ensured that brand names and or symbols do not connote negativity in the local African dialects.

5)      Consistency: One important ingredient in increasing your brand awareness is consistency in message and product quality. Put out the same message and keep repeating it. The quality of the product behind the brand also goes a long way to increase your brand awareness. It is important to be consistent on the African market because the continent is awash with new brands.

6)      Corporate social responsibility(CSR): According to corporate social responsibility expert Mallen Baker, “CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.” It goes to say that your operations should have a positive impact on the society at large and all stakeholders of your brand. Very often, CSR activities focus on philanthropy leaving out all the other aspects. It is also important to be ethical and that is where most corporate brands fall short. Issues of ethics are at the center of the long standing crisis in the Niger delta of Nigeria. This gave rise to the formation and activities of armed groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Activities of such groups affect not only the communal peace, but also the operations of the oil exploration companies involved. Efforts must therefore be taken to fully fulfill one’s Corporate Social Responsibility.

7)      Festivals and Dance: Africans are reputed for and pride themselves in having an immensely rich culture. Cultural activities such as festivals and dance are rallying points for the African people. Brand awareness can therefore be increased by using these media. A case in point is the Malta Guinness Street Dance Africa competition which has no doubt increased the public’s awareness of the Malta Guinness brand. In such instances, you get to engage with your customers on a more personal basis which is good for increasing your brand awareness.

In sum
Brand awareness is very important to the continued survival of any brand anywhere in the world. To be successful at brand awareness in Africa, you need to have a reasonably deep insight into the minds of the people, delight them with a winning product and empathize with their way of life.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

5 Strategies that Will Jump Start Your Brand Positioning in 2012




What is a Brand?

According to the American Marketing Association, a brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

Brand Positioning is a deliberate or an unpremeditated image created in the minds of customers about a particular brand in relation to other brands within a given industry. 

As part of a branding strategy, it is important to design a brand positioning strategy that will certainly enable you take charge of your brand positioning. The under- listed positioning strategies will jump start your personal brand positioning and will take you to the next level.  

Positioning Strategies

  1. Set Your Brand Goals

Goal setting is the most basic activity of any venture, personal or business related. Without goals, strategies would be irrelevant and obviously, nothing would happen.

"Until input (thought) is linked to a goal (purpose) there can be no intelligent accomplishment."-
Paul G. Thomas

For a successful 2012, set meaningful personal brand goals in line with your overall life- plan and professional goals. Also create timelines for the accomplishment of your goals. Never leave your personal branding to chance. Strategic planning is deciding what you want to accomplish in the next 12 months, six months, three months, one month one week as well as setting day to day goals and targets. In short, your goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound). There is need to personally measure, evaluate and control your personal performance in accomplishment of brand positioning goals. Keep a diary if you need to.  

"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break." Rick Hansen

 2. Define Your Target Audience

A Target audience is who you market your brand to. Many times, you will deliberately have to locate where these people are and the best way to reach them. If you are looking for your dream job, then your target audience should be recruiters, company managers, or other professionals in your target industry. There are so many opportunities in the world today in relation to personal growth, education,  careers, finance, business, politics, public service, just to mention a few.   A great way to kick start your brand positioning is to define your target audience, then identify the best way to not only get your message across but to gain their support also.   

A great targeting strategy that can be useful is to divide your target audience into various market segments such as geographic, psychographic, socio-economic, behavioral and so on and so forth.

Also, do a little research on the characteristics of your target audience so you can better decide the best way to reach them. For example, if you identify that your target audience is youthful and internet savvy, then it could prove to be highly profitable to increase your brand positioning activities via the internet, (e.g. advertising through internet gaming websites or social media platforms). By so doing you would achieve your goals efficiently and effectively. In other words you get to achieve your goals and at the same time save up on a lot of time and money, which you would otherwise have spent on bill boards, television ads or other pricey advertising media. 

  1. Competitive Positioning

In the same manner that you define your target audience, it is also imperative to identify key competitors in any business venture. Competition is not always bad. Competitive positioning will enable you differentiate your brand from the rest.

A quick and easy way to identify what makes your product/service different from those of your competitors is to conduct an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of a given market.

An effective positioning strategy is focused on unmet needs and wants of a market. Meeting market needs are what differentiate you from your competitors.  

 4.  Define Your Brand Positioning Statement

“Positioning is not what you do to a product; it is what you do to the mind of a prospect.”

Ries and Trout (1972).

A brand positioning statement defines the benefit customers will derive from your products/services and how it’s differentiated from the same products/services offered by your competitors.

Note that there is a difference between a positioning statement, a mission statement and a slogan

A positioning statement is a written description of a product/service’s benefits and how they are differentiated from those of key competitors; a mission statement on the other hand describes how an organization will achieve its goals and objectives.

Then also, a positioning statement and a slogan are not the same thing.

Simply put, a slogan is a catchy advertizing phrase derived from your positioning statement which is aimed at conveying your brand positioning message to your target audience.  

An effective brand positioning statement answers the following, although not limited to, questions:

WHO are you?

WHAT is your industry?

WHO are your competitors?

WHAT are the needs and wants of your target customers?

WHAT are your unique benefits/ attributes?

WHY should you be a preferred product/service provider?

 There are so many methods by which you can construct a positioning statement, however, brain storming sessions can be quite useful in the process.

Template for a Positioning Statement:

 For (target Customers), dissatisfied with (needs industry competitors are not meeting) (Product / Service / Organization / Person) provides (your key benefit/ point of difference) That’s because (reason to believe).


  1. Communicate Your Brand Positioning Statement

Effective Brand Positioning is contingent upon effectively communicating your brand benefits, attributes and uniqueness. A brand positioning statement is the best way to sum up and convey your brand personality’s core message to your target audience.

The main purpose of any brand communication strategy is to entice people to want more information about the brand.

There are a number of communication channels through which you can convey your brand positioning statement to your audience.    

On –Line Communication Channels

Product / service / personal website

Affiliate Website-advertising

Social media Communications

E-Newsletters

Off-Line Communication Channels

Newspapers Columns
Newspaper and magazine pages 

Newsletters
Business cards

Posters

Television Ads