Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Brand, Nation and Truth: The Parable of the Apple


The Warm Heart of Africa is beating faster now and the legendary welcome is there for all who wish to experience the unrivalled combination of Lake, Landscape and Wildlife in one of Africa's most beautiful countries. Malawi is like none other in Africa: small, yet with an immense diversity of scenery and a vast inland sea. (www.malawaitourism.com)


There are two things to note in the above. The first is Malawi's appropriation of "The Warm Heart of Africa" while the second is its bold claim to a unique place on the African continent. Students and practitioners of marketing communications, particularly those with an interest in place branding, will notice the significance of these two phrases. The first boldly highlights the "unique word or phrase" that can be owned by a brand. There must be obvious brand attributes that make this appropriation natural. In further defense of this title, take note of the "Malawi is like none other in Africa" with the clear description that goes ahead to justify the statement.

Any discussion of the current efforts to rebrand Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications that does not examine the history of that "failed" campaign, as she put it, is an effort in futility. Our first challenge therefore will be to return to the scandalous revelation by Prof Dora Akunyili that the creators of that earlier campaign plagiarized a campaign slogan that has been in use by another African country. Plagiarism in Marketing Communications is akin, if not worse than election rigging. We therefore should ask the honorable minister to reveal the identity of the consultant who subjected our nation to such ridicule. The least that consultant can do is to offer an unqualified apology, or at worst, to explain his own side of the story. That consultant should also refund whatever was paid him for that misdemeanor.

I know that Alder consulting is reputed to have created the campaign. And this much is documented in the company's website: "To accomplish this (a cohesive image program that would promote the country's national brands while…addressing the negatives) Alder Consulting conceptualized what is known as the Heart of Africa Project (aka the Nigeria Image Project). Even then, I still hesitate to jump into conclusions on such a sensitive issue. As consultants, we know that client sometimes impose their own ideas, and since he who pays the piper dictates the tune, maybe the consultant has been compelled to action on this? However, perhaps Mr Leke Alder can shed some light on this delicate matter?

Despite this, the Heart of Africa project, in terms of process, was miles ahead of the current effort by the Honorable Minister. According to the Alder website, "we conducted a Brand Asset Audit of Nigeria and evaluated the strengths & weaknesses of those assets. (This was done to identify strong and credible Nigerian brands to be marketed). We also executed extensive research to identify Nigeria's brand eroders and their effects". But as I have noted before, the biggest problem with that effort, as was agreed by many who followed the story, was the messianic, all knowing complex displayed by the creators of the campaign. Our insistence was that the brand Nigeria campaign cannot be created by one or two "eggheads", no matter how brilliant, locked up in their corporate laboratories and concocting "brilliant" ideas to sell our country's image to the world. To the world! (We shall return to this topic presently).

So there was an attitudinal problem. Many turned off from that effort when they noticed the "shepherd" mentality of its creators that left every other person feeling like the herd! The first major effort at announcing the project to the topic was a big press conference where creatives were already on display! At the time, despite receiving a few knocks here and there, many did not or could not contribute to the debate effectively because the subject itself was still fresh and almost alien. So they got away with it. At the end we were told that a budget of N600 million was appropriated for the project, even then, many professionals thought that this was a paltry figure. When the Nigeria Image project was to be changed to the Heart of Africa project, it was done under the same clandestine shadow. This time around, there was even an effort at selling the project to Nigerians, they took it abroad, completing the circle of alienation.




It is obvious, and has always been to anyone who is willing to face the truth, that Nigeria's image problem is homegrown. Any image enhancing campaign must therefore commence from the home front. But you cannot then, having made this great discovery, jump over every other professional protocol an take the process to the open market, like the respected professor has done. I am convinced that Prof Akunyili, like Martin Luther-King, had a "dream". Dreams can easily translate to visions when infused with clarity. That dream is what she now pursues with visionary fervor. But dreams must be properly analyzed, completed (dreams often have several missing parts) and forged through wind, fire and water. Then it becomes a living vision.

Despite this criticism, I think the professor ought to be proud. Her effort to re-brand Nigeria, just like her efforts at cleaning the nation's food and drugs cesspools, has achieved a major feat: citizenry involvement. At no time in the history of our dear nation has the subject of how we manage our image taken such a centre stage in public discourse. Almost everybody is interested, almost everybody is having a say. The challenge is how to bring all these divergent views to the table and make sense out of it. Do not forget that all this is over a paltry budget of N120 million! With a debt of about N12million which the honorable minister has agreed to offset! Under Chikelu, we were told that N600million was to be expended. We were never, until now told how much was to be expended on Frank Nweke's Heart of Africa project, now, we know it was N1.05billion. Against these huge figures, the professor's budget is puny indeed and we must commend her courage to soldier on under such difficult circumstances.

I have tried to read many of the opinions that have been published on this touchy subject so far. They move from the rational to the emotional, from the angry to the sublime and from the adoption of bolekaja rhetoric to enlightened rigor. If the learned professor of pharmacy is reading these articles, obviously she would have had an education in nation branding, and in this case from a Nigerian point of view. I must also say that there has been a lot of mystification and some level of confusion about this small business of nation branding. Most of this confusion arises from the very nature of branding itself. A relatively young concept in these climes, there are a lot of emergency analysts who are coming to the table with sometimes very high sounding analysis that confuse the issues rather than clarify them.

First, let us try to demystify the very concept of branding. My favorite definition of branding, mine, is that it is the progression from the generic to the particular, or specific, if you like. Imagine ten white identical babies on a flat table. How do you differentiate (and that's it) one of them? Simple, paint it black! Now you can see, in that mental picture we have created, that one baby is standing out black in a crowd of white babies. The key word, and for me, therefore, the most critical element that everyone needs to understand to get a good grasp of this subject is differentiation. So simple isn't it? Ok, so let us move on, to nation branding.

What should a nation first do in its search for a good brand identity? You got it; it's differentiation! It's not the search for perfection; it's the search for a set of differentiators that will be aggregated into a short phrase or sentence that can be owned by the subject in question. This is conventional wisdom in marketing. Now I will like to address some of the issues that have been raised in this debate. Many writers have made the point that there is no brand and in the absence of a brand, you cannot commence a process of rebranding. I disagree entirely with this position. Of course there is a Nigerian brand. The question is what kind of brand is it? I do not think I need to spend time proving this argument. A little research about what makes a brand will suffice. After all, there are 140million people who claim membership of that family, for good or for bad. Indeed, Nigeria meets all the basic criteria of a brand.

The Parable of the Apple.

This simple parable will help us clarify our current situation and define a way forward. A brand, any brand can be compared to an apple. So, dear reader, you are the owner of that apple and it is your decision to do unto it as you wish. Even though this is an exercise in branding, you will agree, at the end of the day, that it is just commonsense and you do not require an expert to help you make the right decision. You do need an expert however to help you develop a strategy and execute so that you can avoid the landmines, and more importantly, achieve best practice.

The inside of the apple is rotten.

In the first instance, the apple is irretrievably rotten from the inside. The skin may be looking fresh but you cut it open either with a knife or with your teeth and you discover the rot inside. Perhaps the skin is even corrupted and the rot is so obvious that you did not need to cut it open to discover how bad. Now we all know that you cannot repair a rotten apple. Unless you want to poison yourself you will be well advised to dispose of that piece of fruit no matter how famished you may be. The delicious inside of an apple is the essence of the apple; it is the core, the original character without which it cannot be called an apple. You cannot replace it. This is the fundamental problem with the apple that has a rotten inside. You have to throw it away.

The skin of the apple is soiled or damaged.

In the second scenario the inside of the apple is preserved. Its essence is not damaged. But the skin is badly soiled or even damaged. If you like apples like I do, you do not throw away an apple because the skin is dirty. Perhaps it fell off the apple tree straight into a pool of mud and the mud caked? Perhaps the skin was slightly damaged during packaging and transportation? If the skin is dirty, I would recommend that you wash it! It's slightly more complicated if the skin is damaged. I would, as a layman, not educated in the higher sciences of food and drugs preservation perhaps(?) simply get out my knife and remove the damaged part of the skin, then I can wash it thoroughly and then it's ready to be consumed. I must say that we will still require the advice of the Professor of pharmacy to tell us if this is safe enough! I would take the risk meanwhile. When the cleaning process is complete, we must go out and let others know that the apple is now clean! Many authorities however believe that you do not need to wait until the apple is absolutely clean before you go tell it on the mountain. Once you begin the process, you can tell the world, and once they know you are serious about it, they will actively help you to get a spanking clean apple. It's in their interest too!

Apple in a Monkey's shadow

The table is set and the gentlemen are ready for dinner. But from all they can see, the apple, which has been promised for dinner, is in a monkey's shadow. From all they can see, it has lost is healthy bright green hue. It's looking very dark and unhealthy. It's in a monkeys shadow and not looking very palatable at the moment! But the chef insists that the apple is fresh, clean and healthy and not only consumable, but very delicious! So what is the problem? One: We have to find out(research); Two: We have to take action(correct the situation in line with feedback) and Three: We have to communicate to the gentlemen at the table that dinner can commence. But we must be sure! We don't want to poison anyone remember, and don't forget, good communication kills a bad product faster! The research reveals the simple problem: The monkey perched itself very close to where the apple was placed. It blocked the rays of light from the window and cast a dark shadow on the green apple, giving it an artificial hue that is not natural to it. Simple solution: The chef takes off the apple and places it in a different location or scares the monkey away. Then he calls the attention of the gentlemen at the table to the apple and they can see that the apple is actually healthy and clean! It's not dark, it's green. Dinner commences.

Which of the three apples represent Nigeria's brand? It depends on where you stand in the debate. But for passionate nationalists like me, its no 2. And the solution is obvious. There is no problem with the essence of the brand. Therefore there is a great truth in the new slogan Good People, Great Nation. That's what we are, essentially. But like the second apple, we have, especially over the last 30-40 years accumulated so much debris (attributes) that we now require a great cleaning process for our brand to be as desirable as we want it to be. The most important, and perhaps most valid argument against this new re-branding process is the failure of this administration to commence the cleaning process before the communication, which is what logos and slogans are about.

Good People, Great Nation.

Now, let us look at the first step of the re-branding process and measure the effort against what has been proposed earlier in this article. We have said that branding is the movement from the generic to the particular and that this is achieved through the process of differentiation. Lets therefore do a simple test on this new slogan. Let us attempt to apply it on several countries across the continents.

Is USA a great nation with good people?

Is Ghana a great nation with good people?

Is Japan a great nation with good people?

Is India a great nation with good people?

Is Great Britain a great nation with good people?

Is Saudi Arabia a great nation with good people?

Is Australia a great nation with good people?

We can go on and on. If the answer to the above is largely yes, then we already have a problem. Can Nigeria own or acquire that description or phrase when so many countries, with certainly superior credentials to that title exist? It's your answer. Why did India choose incredible India? (They have a superior claim to that word even if other can also claim it)Why is South Africa excited about being the land of possibilities? If you ask me, Nigeria is the ultimate land of new opportunities (How about In Nigeria, anything can happen!) It's a frontier! A slogan must ring true and must never be generic. How about "Come to Warsaw, whatever the weather!". So sometimes you can take a slogan that demystifies even the negative by highlighting it, no surprises!! Good people, Great nation is the most generic description for a nation that anyone can imagine! It fails the crucial test of differentiation! It is the equivalent of what we refer to as communal properties. Every nation has a right to make that claim.

My personal opinion is that the honorable minister needs to reconsider that statement and urgently begin to examine the possibility of reviewing it. I am a bit worried that the committee that presented, or approved, or selected this slogan includes such tested marketing communications professionals as Julia Oku-Jacks(The patient dog eats no bone) and Lolu Akinwunmi (We take your briefs(illustrated with undergarments) to town). My suspicion is that they were swallowed up by the usual civil service disfunctionality. Maybe it was selected through voting by the 22 man committee. If voting was done, I wonder what two or three professionals who know what they are doing can achieve in a sea of broadcasters, actors, politicians and academics who may not know much about these basic marketing concepts or processes. This is without prejudice to the fact that many of the professionals referred to are ladies and gentlemen who have achieved excellently in their chosen professions and do deserve our respect and gratitude for the time spent in that committee.

Way forward

I am convinced that Professor Dora Akunyili is sincere. That she means well and will accept superior commonsensical argument when she sees one. It is also in her interest to do so because she has such a formidable brand equity which she must guard jealously. I do not agree with the mammoth crowd who argue religiously that a pharmacist ought not to be put in the information and communications ministry. Stretch that logic a bit further and you will need a man with fifty degrees to be head of state. I am of the opinion that she is more than qualified and has displayed a high level of openness in this campaign. Here is my position:
Where to start!

I support the move to go to the secondary and primary schools to campaign to the kids. But this does not require any jamboree. I am also opposed to a staccato, pose-for-the-press, occasional visit that would achieve very little. She should sit down with her colleague in the ministry of education and review the curricular of primary and secondary schools. Is the honorable minister aware that the history of Nigeria has been virtually wiped off the teaching curricula of primary and secondary schools? That our children are no longer taught West African history? That they do not know about the Ghana, Mali and Songhai empires? That they have never heard that there were thriving civilizations right here in Nigeria that lasted for many centuries before the white man set foot on our shores? That there was a ruling dynasty in Kanem Bornu(Sefawa) that lasted for 1000 unbroken years until it was brought to an end by the equally illustrious El-Kanemi, whose descendants rule till today? That our kids are no longer taught that there were civilizations in the forest regions of Nigeria with highly sophisticated systems of government with checks and balances that thrived for hundreds of years(in the case of the OYO empire, 400 years) that there was a great kingdom of Benin that lasted for centuries with a highly stable administration and a civilization that built great highways and produced works of such great significance that the British who invaded and ultimately defeated the Ovonramwen's gallant forces nearly went mad with envy that not all their "Christian" piety or civility could help them resist the urge to steal these works of art, which their own civilization could not rival? And that these works of art, till today, still grace the shrine of the British empire and civilization, the British Museum??

Is the honorable minister aware that our languages and literature are no longer, or hardly ever taught in our schools and that our kids are told, both by their parents and teachers that it is a thing of shame for them to speak their own languages when they can speak in English? That our kids in secondary schools do not know who Awolowo, Zik or the Sadauna are? That they don't know about the Islamic Jihad of the 19th century, the great wars of resistance against the British and other pernicious invaders and indeed the 400 years long evil of the slave trade? Who are our kid's heroes? Madam Minister, ask your kids. If not Arnold Shwarzennegar, it would be Mariah Carey or 50cent! That is all they get, from interminable hours sitting in front of local and satellite television! Are we not in trouble? How can they engage the idea, the very idea of a Brand Nigeria? For these class of people, Nigeria is the first apple. That is their experience and if something is not done urgently, we will not be discussing the subject of a brand Nigeria when they take over, because there be none. It's just not in their brain!

Finally, in the light of most of the comments and opinions so far expressed, it would be anti-democratic to go ahead with this campaign without first addressing the myriad issues raised so far. I think there is a need for an urgent review before we proceed, and proceed we must. I have always insisted that we need to start the process of re-branding Nigeria. If your brand or product has got a problem, you have got to do something about it. The process of re-branding does not begin with logos and slogans. It is about properly codifying our core essence, not re-creating it, because it is there in the one thousand year history of our journey as a people. We just need to refresh our minds and write it in very simple language. Then we must define our desired image. It is a desired image, which already means that there is a journey. We are not there, and we need to commence the journey, so the argument that because we are not there, we should not begin, is, in my humble opinion, not valid. We should define it and begin the journey. This cannot be achieved by the Honorable Minister alone, the President must lead that effort, let's get his buy-in! And we must all be part of it, one way or the other.

Akin Adeoya is chief consultant of Marketing Mix and Company and Publisher of M2, the Marketing Magazine. He can be reached on akinadeoya@marketingmixideas.com



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