DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND AFRICAN’S BRAND EVOLUTION

By Kelly Nii Mensah @AppsGH

This article originally appeared on Appreporttv.blogspot.com where the writer frequently contributes. This article was obtained with his full consent.

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Smart phones, tablets, social web and digital advertising. The revolution of the digital age is now and we must survive in it.

Africa’s call for a piece of the digital goodies that other countries seemed to be enjoying has arrived. The Cables are here, bandwidths are being installed and the gadgets are here, we are moving everything from analogue to Digital including Television.

Social Media is hotter than ever and new stuffs are being added by the day. Majority of people are now almost always logged-in to one social site or the other.

These presents significant shift for Marketing and Communication Companies as to redefining where the various target audience are and what media must be used to reach them. Africa is excited about the Technological Advancement the world is seeing but the question is, are we ready for it. In this first series of others that I will be writing, we are going to see how to deal with the Digital Age from the Brand and Communication perspective. I will be touching on different brands and how to deal with the Social Media Market Powerhouse.

Guide for the Luxury Brand Company (Series I)

Am not going to waste your time to talk about what I mean by Exceptional Brand Companies but I want to emphasis on their exclusivity in approaching their audience. These are brands that are ware their client will buy whatever they’re offering because they have the means to buy such luxurious stuffs.

The social Media might seem like a no go zone area for a company that want to be seen as prestigious with selective clientele base.

Recently, I asked one manager of a ‘luxuriously branded’ company here in Ghana why they are not on facebook. He explains to my surprise how the social web is too open and too ordinary to their level of target strategizing and how they don’t believe it will have any positive impact.  Wake up mate! Everything is going Digital, television inclusive.  The coming of the Digital and Technological Age is eminent and the Luxury Brand can get lost in it just like any other who ill-prepares for it or ignores it.

Every brand including the prestigious ones can still maintain their brand identity and reputation in the Social Media with carefully strategies Social Media stances.

Rule One

Uniqueness and Exclusivity with reference to ‘prestigious brands’ must be changed to a more socially controlled way. What do I mean? Targeting ONLY those who have the means to buy a product or service must change. Companies with restricted target base must now start focusing on ‘aspirational’ consumers as well. Yes, (for illustrations purposes only) a luxurious brand company like Fairloop, dealers of Jaguar cars in Ghana must engage those who can buy their cars as well as those who will love to drive in one. In this way, you get the Social Media talking about your stuffs in a way that is controlled by you. The company must ensure significant brand control on all social media concepts.

Rule Two

More importantly, even though the targeting now is going to be broad, it must be well controlled so as not lose the exclusivity associated with the brand. This brings us obviously to our next guideline to maintaining your exclusive style in a Digital Market.

Once a brand is exposed to the Social Media its communication strategies are easily mimicked and wrongly copied.

Every socially exposed brand must keep a constant upgrade of innovation and creativity. This is a sure way to survive your brand in a rather opened social and digital market. Social Web pages must be well managed by specialist and updated with latest technologies to flow with the needs of the brand showing it.

Most companies think they can manage a social media page on their own. Hey they have personal facebook profiles right…Huge mistake! Business Pages on a social media website are never stuffs to gamble with because it holds the very center your brand and must be taken seriously.

Its just like managing a website. It involves uploading good quality videos, images, messages and installing social widgets and plug-ins for your audience to feedback or connects to you. You do not need a techy geek or wizard to manage you web pages. A good social media blogger with good knowledge about techs stuffs can do the job.

He is just going to add up to your list of employees. A good image is worth the investment.

On my next blogging, we wil discuss the other guidelines that can be exploited by companies to break into the Social Media Market.