Easy Recipe For A Fresh Start(New Year)

Certain reflections seem to dawn on you amidst the merriments of December as the year gradually draws the curtain. It becomes increasingly important to set a plan of action, make a resolution, say prayers and process crucial thoughts for the New Year ahead. After all, Nigeria despite being acclaimed as one of the best economies in Africa is relatively broke; the dollar is sky rocketing while the naira is taking a precipitous nose-dive; news of insecurity amidst fears of disintegration have grown intense with the approaching elections. These concerns have amounted to a very tough 2015.

For the better part of the year, it seems we have taken to wearing our hearts on our sleeves and they seem to have increasingly turned very cold and hard. This attitude generally affects our productivity, mindset and world view. So let us start afresh with this very easy and highly practicable recipe;

Our major ingredient is the set of thoroughly washed 12 months, it must be purged of past rancor, regrets, misgivings, mistakes, guilt etc; all kinds of impediments. In order for the year to come out great each month should be put into perspective by carefully adding cupfuls of laughter, adequate teaspoons of courage, faith, goodwill, selflessness, patience and joy (leaving any out is not advisable as it is needed daily). 

A pinch of kindness, meditation and well planned resolution; pour in lots of smile and love and mix with an unbending conscience and character. For a better taste, sprinkle in exercise and family time. Garnish with a handful of hard work, integrity, humility and a sprig of humor. If cooked with cheerfulness and honesty you are certain of 365 days of sunshine.

 Happy New Year.

                                                                                    Copyright ® Wemy Industries 1978-2016.

REBRANDING AND ITS BENEFITS.

Re-branding a business is the process of creating a new look and feel for an already existing brand or product in order to influence its customer’s perception. This may include changing the name, logo or packaging. Re-branding can be a very challenging but extremely rewarding process. It requires careful consideration and planning to achieve the desired goal which is to breathe new life into a brand to attract new customers and increase its popularity. Nigerian Breweries, Oando, and Glo are examples of Nigerian companies that are constantly re-branding and are enjoying wide acceptance among the Nigerian public.

 In 1997, tech giant Apple was very close to declaring bankruptcy, but a little less than 17 years later, stock prices have gone up from $6 to $350 and the company keeps shooting in an upward trajectory. Apple did not only re-brand the company’s name, mascot and logo, but also started producing reliable and elegantly designed products, adding artistry to technology; as changing its name from Apple Computer to Apple enabled the company to produce innovative products such as iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone. Apple found a way to polish its brand and create a positive experience for its customers. 

Until recently, McDonald’s had the image of a chain that served unhealthy meals sold at exorbitant prices; in fact, critics touted McDonald’s meals to be one of the leading causes of obesity. McDonald’s has since re-branded itself, now serving more healthy meals with reduced prices under the slogan “I’m lovin it”. This makeover appears to be having a ripple effect as there has been a reported 5.3 percent rise in sales according to Business Insider.

Wal-Mart, in a 2007 re-branding, replaced its tagline “Always low price” with “Save money. Live better”. This singular act changed the company’s reputation from offering retails at rock bottom prices to suggesting that buying items at low prices will improve the lifestyle of the customer. In 2010, Wal-Mart was the world’s largest public corporation by revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000 for that year.

Re-branding is generally aimed at repositioning a brand or company, usually in an attempt to move the brand up market. According to Business Insider, it doesn’t only change the customer’s response to the brand but also helps the brand achieve its goals. It’s a careful strategy; often times subtle and methodical, and may involve both re-imaging and regeneration. Change, as it is said, is inevitable; it is pertinent that companies adopt new strategies when needed rather than sticking with the same strategy for years even when it starts to feel uninteresting with time. 

Re-branding is considered a smart business decision for the following reasons:

• ·         Every brand needs refreshing to stay relevant as the 21^st century market is an ever evolving one, re-branding affords companies the chance to sort out a new strategy to make their brand relevant and more importantly, remain relevant.
• ·         Re-branding influences the customers perception, when a product wears a new look, or has a new feel or a company updates its marketing materials and strategies with a careful consideration of the target customer, the customer perception changes and tilts more positively.
• ·         Re-branding offers the opportunity to clarify image, while allowing room for future growth this naturally improves the bottom line by conveying a company’s core value and brand message.
• ·         Re-branding can breathe new life into a business when it is done with a strategy, a process, thought and most importantly for the right reasons. This will set the product or company apart from competitors.

As has been undoubtedly witnessed in the examples of companies that have re-branded, re-branding brings along with it its own basket of gifts both for the company and their customers. It must be stressed that in re-branding, corporate establishments must take the current needs and desires of their customers into consideration but still stay true to themselves as a respectable brand as seen in the example of McDonald’s. 

Re-branding must also be meaningful and powerful enough that it would improve the relationship between the company and current customers as well as prospective new ones. Most importantly, companies need to re-brand to stay ahead of competition in a very competitive market where you can get left behind if you don’t keep up with the ever-growing demands of customers and the trends in the society that create such demands. This will ensure that brands don’t lose their usefulness and help them create a stronger voice for their brands.

                                                                                              Copyright©2014Wemy Industries

Source(s):

Business Insider.

The Importance Of Social Media Sites In The Future Of Advertising In Nigeria.

www.wemydrbrowns.com

“The advertising industry is relentlessly inventive, that’s what we do” (sic)

Rupert Howell. Chairman of the London arm of McCann Erikson.

As at 2013, online sales in Nigeria through social media network were worth 3 billion dollars. Apparently, there are 600 million more people who own a mobile phone and have access to the internet and ultimately the social media compared to those who own a toothbrush. The research revealed there are 4.8 billion mobile users as at 2010 but only 4.2 billion people with a toothbrush. I guess it means every mobile should be sold with a toothbrush to ensure close encounters are engaging and pleasant in our society, technically the internet has taken over the globe to the detriment of essential utilities.

The above statistics are merely a bench mark for the assertion I will be making in this article. So, what are the key terms here? Social Media and Advertising; Social media represents low cost tools that are used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words, pictures and all sort of semiotics. These tools are typically internet or mobile based, a few that you have probably heard of include: Twitter, Face book, YouTube etc. A scholar simply said “it is an unobtrusive two way communications”. While, Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. 

Advertising is a tool used to inform potential customers. It is important to know that the advertising industry is a vast one, in fact Nigeria’s advertising industry has witnessed tremendous growth especially in recent times thanks to the advent of new technologies especially social media. Advertising in Nigeria could be dated back to 1859 via news-paper; Rev. Henry Townsend’s (IWE IROYIN). The emergence of different technologies further nurtured the growth of advertising in Nigeria and the world general.

            As ever before, the debate of the industry has centered on the best way to achieve results,  which brings me back to my facts and figures on social media: the idea that if Face book  were to be a country it will be way bigger than Nigeria , as it houses over 1.23 billion users as at January 2014. Face book as continue to innovate and evolve, the last 12 months have seen the new time line introduced, brand pages as well as the purchase of Instagram and the mobile app platform, monthly active users now total 850 million users, 20% of all page views on the web are on Face book, 425 million active mobile users, 2.7 billion likes per month, interestingly 57% users are female. What about Twitter? Twitter is regarded as the enigma of social media fraternity with its usefulness questioned by a lot of people, yet scholars assert it’s simplicity and immediacy as the key to its geometric growth  , but do you know there are 465 million accounts again bigger than Nigeria , 175 million tweets  a day.

            LinkedIn  started in 2003 as a professional business social network and as at 2014 there are over 300 million members according to the press release from LinkedIn , 60% of the members live outside USA in 2011 alone  there were 4.2 billion professional oriented searches on LinkedIn platform; YouTube is affiliated to videos, so many brands outside and within Nigeria have seized on its power  to be a viral media that augments traditional advertising media such as television. YouTube’s advantage is its availability and ubiquity. It is the world second largest search engine after Google; it may surprise you that it has 2 billion views per day. I can go and on, with the likes of Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Myspace etc. All these statistics are meant to make obvious and absolute the importance of social media in the future of advertising in Nigeria , this facts and figures justifies the claim that social media is very strategic to the growth of the advertising  company not only a developing country like Nigeria but also the world.

A novelist once said “you can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements”, Nigeria’s ideals and belief system varies from place to place: the North is mostly Muslims, the South is mostly Christians, influx of young and old, rural and urban, Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa; each group share different world view, thus the advertising industry in Nigeria must be deft and sensitive. The future is already here, most Nigerians spend less time reading the newspaper but they check mails, update Face book status, tweet trending topics. In fact social media have become a melting point for Nigerian elite, a haven of some sort. 

Social media is a global village, do I need to emphasize its immediacy, responsiveness and reliability for feed backs as opposed to the one-way immobile media like radio, newspaper, television etc. the social media is not just important to the future of advertising in Nigeria, since the whole world is getting digital, it is the bridge that will take the advertising industry in Nigeria past the miry clay of disorientation and ineffectiveness.