A night of branding and politics

By Dimgba Igwe [08055001932) (dimgbaigwe@gmail.com] Tuesday, March 22, 2011

If you are a fan of the marketing communication industry, you may consider last Friday’s lecture and award presentation a beautiful and mentally stimulating way to spend a night that heralds the weekend. We have been invited to witness the presentation of Most Visionary and Brand-Friendly award to Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim and Most Distinguished Brand Ambassador to former Minister of Information, Professor Dora Akunyili, now a senatorial aspirant locked in a titanic battle with former Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige and incumbent Senator Annie Okonkwo.

But the organizers, Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria, BJAN, being very smart, knew that they needed more than politics to draw the elite audience to such an occasion. If it was all about politics, they must have reckoned that many people are getting weary of politics and awards that go with it. So, they came up with the smart idea of combining the occasion with a lecture on branding titled, Branding in Governance. The lecture was delivered by an international speaker and brand specialist, Karen Post from USA.

A combination of good topic and good speaker turned out to be the necessary bait that drew the marketing communication elite, especially all the sectoral leaders to the event. With public relations patriarch and former Minister of Information Chief Alex Akinyele chairing the event, Chairman of Nigeria’s largest marketing communication group, Troyka Group, Mr. Biodun Shobanju, a man we named Nigeria’s Advert Man of the Century in 1999 at the Weekend Concord, was the guest of honour with sectoral leaders and agency chief executives like Lolu Akinwunmi, Chief Lugard Aimiumu, Idorenyen Enang, Funmi Onabolu, Tolu Ogunkoya, Kola Ademulegun, Dr. Phil Osagie and Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi, among others on hand. I have not met so many marketing communication movers and shakers in recent times.

Whenever you mention brand, you are sure to draw marketing communicators. The reason is simple. Their business is about branding, turning products and services into brands and brands into corporate cash cows that deliver returns to all stakeholders. Don’t ask me what a brand is all about. Remember, after all, that I am merely a reporter, not a marketing communication guru. Ah then, I remember one of my rules of the thumb journalism 101: a journalist is somebody that knows a little bit about everything!

In that case, you deserve a little bit about branding then. I looked at my library and saw about a dozen books on branding, each offering various definition of branding. But this is not a book matter—no space for such indulgence. But, drawing tips from some of the authorities, I can safely conclude that brand seems to be the functional and emotional attributes perceived in the mind of consumers about products and services. If you want to stretch the definition into greater detail and nuances, it will be better you visit a bookshop to get a book on branding.

What makes a good brand proposition? Simplicity, creativity, unity and consistency, says Karen Post, a brilliant, vivacious woman whom Sony Irabor who compeered the occasion kept describing her beauty in superlative terms. We should say a graceful combination of brain and beauty. A good brand personality is the one you can describe in four simple adjectives. Those afraid to step into the uncomfortable zone to do something that is distinct and capable of drawing the “are you crazy” factor should forget about creating great brand, she told us. After all, one of the great killers of branding is what she aptly described as a “sea of sameness”!

This column is not about reporting all the details of her lecture—something the BJAN members should be doing themselves. It is just enough to mention that Post’s lecture on branding started in a cook-book style of how to create a good brand and ended with a highly creative adaptation of Bob Marley’s song into an educative musical, Stand Up, Brand Up—Don’t Give Up the Brand! The song climactically turned the lecture into a huge concert that kept everybody on their feet, pirouetting to the beats of Bob Marley’s reggae beats.

The awards took the rest of the night. While Ohakim was there with his political crowd, Akunyili sent her husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili to represent her. A fiery Amazon who gives her all to whatever she puts her heart to do, whether it is waging battles on fake drugs and their deadly barons at NAFDAC, re-branding Nigeria which many people consider an impossible task for a start or standing up to the cabinet cabal that held the nation under political bondage during late President Umaru Yar’dua’s terminal illness that nearly tipped the country over the precipice, Akunyili remains a redoubtable fighter.

Locked in what has best been described as the zone of death in the senatorial battle in Anambra State, Akunyili wants to be the last one standing when the battleground is cleared. From her pedigree and her relentless campaign forays to counter opponents like Ngige who is no pushover and Annie Okonkwo who is distributing free transformers to different wards to win the votes, there is no doubting that she is has the capacity to turn the odds into her favour. We’re waiting with bated breathe.

That Ohakim is currently embattled in Imo State is an understatement. But then, in Imo State, he remains the governor—which makes all the difference in who wins and who loses. The award presented him an opportunity not only to showcase where he found Imo State nearly four years ago, a state almost buried in a mountain of refuse then now cleared up, but also to present his impressive scorecards to the audience to the applause of many. One man who copiously endorsed Ohakim for a second term was Chief Alex Akinyele who described the governor as a model for others to follow. When he is sworn in for the second term as the high chief prophesied he surely would be despite the opposition, Akinyele promised to visit Imo State to see things for himself. “Of course, I will bear my own costs!” he added in case anybody thinks he is a political jobber at his age.

“Governor Ohakim has eloquently articulated the strategic pathways and the philosophy that have guided the essence of his leadership and stewardship…and his vision for the future as the Governor of Imo State,” the citation stated shortly before the chairperson of NJAN, our own Neta Nwosu conferred the awards.

Locked in what has best been described as the zone of death in the senatorial battle in Anambra State, Akunyili wants to be the last one standing when the battleground is cleared. From her pedigree and her relentless campaign forays to counter opponents like Ngige who is no pushover and Annie Okonkwo who is distributing free transformers to different wards to win the votes, there is no doubting that she is has the capacity to turn the odds into her favour. We’re waiting with bated breathe.

That Ohakim is currently embattled in Imo State is an understatement. But then, in Imo State, he remains the governor—which makes all the difference in who wins and who loses. The award presented him an opportunity not only to showcase where he found Imo State nearly four years ago, a state almost buried in a mountain of refuse then now cleared up, but also to present his impressive scorecards to the audience to the applause of many. One man who copiously endorsed Ohakim for a second term was Chief Alex Akinyele who described the governor as a model for others to follow. When he is sworn in for the second term as the high chief prophesied he surely would be despite the opposition, Akinyele promised to visit Imo State to see things for himself. “Of course, I will bear my own costs!” he added in case anybody thinks he is a political jobber at his age.

“Governor Ohakim has eloquently articulated the strategic pathways and the philosophy that have guided the essence of his leadership and stewardship…and his vision for the future as the Governor of Imo State,” the citation stated shortly before the chairperson of BJAN, our own Neta Nwosu conferred the awards.

Source:Daily Sun