I have a friend who has that hatred for Americans
that he developed a theory called the conspiracy theory, he linked the theory
to American’s ambition of controlling the financial resources of the world, he
was so enthusiastic about the theory that he even link the exportation of Ebola
Disease to Nigeria as part of the conspiracy theory with the American aim of
developing a drug and making money from it and bearing in mind that Nigeria is
the most populous country in African. He went on to say that the other African
countries impact will be minimal but the effect on Nigeria will create a
maximum impact. Hence the exportation to Nigeria through Patrick Sawyer. But I am
not interested at this point on the conspiracy theory that will be a study for
the later time. But one thing that marvels me is that after his conspiracy theory,
he ends up taking a bottle of Coca-Cola. He has become obsessed with the Cola
drink. That is the result of branding,
even though he dislike American, but he loved their Cola.
In a special report in 2003 by Business week
captioned “The Best Global Brands”, Annual Ranking of the top 100 Brands. In a
sub title “Brands in an age of Anti Americanism” the report stated and I quote”
Park Young Hoon of Seoul was quick to clench his fist and yell slogans against
George W Bush in a giant rally denouncing the US president’s tough policy on
North Korea. The report went on to say “but that doesn’t mean the 33 year old Computer
Engineer is willing to loosen his grip on his favorite American coffee or
cola”
“Calling for political independence from the US is
one thing and liking American brands is another” he says off course I like IBM,
Dell, Microsoft, Starbucks and Coke”
The report also stated that “Yemeni students were
out burning American flags, chanting kill the Americans noted by Valenti CEO of
the Motion Pictures Association of Americans, as soon as the theaters open at 7pm,
bingo, they are all there”.
The popular
Islamic fighters also states that they are against western education, but
bingo, they are carrying the latest assemblage of state of the art weapons and
ammunitions which are the products of foreign countries , they are also uploading their videos, pictures of the
exploits in You tube, and other social networks, the Islamic State militants that killed the American In Iraq were busy
castigating the Americans, yelling anti American slogans, but by evening they
are communicating their exploits in Twitter, Face book and You tube. One thing
is to hate a country, a society and another thing is to like its product or
service.
This is the importance of branding and building a
brand loyalty , as customers will always run to your brand unknowingly after
making attacks on the company or the country in which the products originates.
People have at one time or the other condemned the
activities of the Japanese and the Germans during the Second World War, but
they cannot do without the German Machines, Mercedes and the Japanese
automobiles like Honda and Toyota. Even when they cast aspersions on these countries,
they cannot do without their brand of automobiles.
Branding is very important in business and its
impact in pension industry cannot be over emphasized. Building a successful
brand in the pension industry requires the positive actions of the operators of
the scheme as bad news emanating from one organization will adversely affect
the activities of the others. As a name is so interwoven that any bad image
adversely affects other localities and families that associates with bad name,
as the African adage states that it is one finger dipped in oil that affects
the other fingers.
What then is Brand? Branding is a name, term, symbol or sign
used to identify a product or service.
Adirika et al (1997:127) noted that branding is a
major issue in product strategy , on the
one hand developing a branded product
requires a great deal of long term investment spending especially for
advertising, promotion and even packaging”
Adirika et al (op cited) stated that brand is a
name, term, symbol, or design or a combination of them, intended to identify
the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate
them from those of competitions.
The American Marketing Association AMA defines a
brand as a name term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them intended
to identify the goods or services one seller or group of sellers and to
differentiate those of other sellers.
McCarthy et al 1985,
in Anyanwu (1993:39) defined branding as the use of a name, term, symbol,
design, or a combination of these to identify a product. And according to Toyin
Benson, “a brand can be described as the total sum of various consumer
perceptions and beliefs formed over time as a result of various contacts with
the product under reference, it can be seen as a combination of meaning ( in
terms of proposition,) a reference point ( in terms of category) , an
identifier of a brand ,( in terms of
name or logo) within a global
positioning framework ( in terms of
global benchmarking”)
Laura Lake (2011:1) “therefore it makes to
understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you
over the competition but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the
only one that provides a solution to their problems.
Lake identifies that a good brand will achieve 5
objectives
Deliver the message clearly
Confirms your credibility
Connects your target prospect emotionally
Motivates your buyer
Concrete user loyalty.
Name is one of the major element of a good brand
and in fact impacts more on the brand than other element (Benson)
Even in real life, names are so much valued that
individual and family are always protected by those owning their names from any
form of tarnish, stain or blemish and when a names goes wrong either by bad
character , people find it difficult to answer such names again, I have never
come across one answering Judas or Jezebel based on the characters they
exhibited in the Bible.
A good name therefore becomes a selling point both
to the individual and to the organization. Nowadays women attached their maiden
names before attaching their marital name and some have worked so hard that
they even find it difficult to attach their marital names especially in the movie
industry. That is power of a name and even the Holy aptly captured that a good
name is better than silver and gold.
Creating lasting impressions by a brand is hinged
on the strength, quality and appeal of the brand to the customers. The
combination of the brand elements coupled with the expectations on delivery
symbolize a promise by the brand which the consumer expect to fulfill a need
(Benson)
It is the fulfillment of the need according to
Benson that helps to build a brand equity and leverage effectively on this over
a long term. Continuing Benson went on to highlight that the “pricing
distribution and availability of the brand helps to reinforce the consumers
patronage of the brand.
The pension industry is roughly ten years in
Nigeria and with the recent speculations of the lifting of the transfer window,
Pension Fund Administrators need to work hard to create an enduring brand, this
is because when brand do not meet up with the expectations of the consumers and customers, they move
elsewhere and look for alternatives
probably never to come back as noted by Benson. Continuing he stated that when
brand meet with up with expectations, i.e. consumers expectation, then a
lasting impression is made and a
chemistry is established with the customer as was observed with the global
brand reports of Business week.
The various customers of the PFAs are looking up
for such brands in the pension industry, this is the time for the PFAs to create
such brand and take us away from the old practice of failure in the pension industry.
Failure is no longer an option coupled with the stringent principles of the
National Pension Commission , PenCom and other regulatory organs and act, like
the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 1991, as amended, or the Money
Laundry prohibition Act , 2004, the
Advance Fee fraud Act and other fraud related offences Act 2006 and the pension Reform Act 2oo4 which has
been repealed , and the Pension Reform Act 2014 are all geared towards the success and creation of an enduring
brand in the pension industry .
Odunze Reginald
Managing Partner, Chareg Consulting, Managing
online Editor, Pensionsbenefit.com, Reginaldodunze.com and theverynewsinfo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment