By Akin Adewakun | Lagos
MEDIA practitioners in Nigeria have been urged to take cognisance of the six principles of marketing, for them to be able to effectively build their reputational capital and professional branding.
Making the charge recently, at a media training workshop, organized by the C&F Porter Novelli, virtually, as part of the activities marking the agency’s 25th anniversary celebrations, the agency’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tony Ajero, charged practitioners on the need to continuously hone their reporting skills, and also seek innovative ways to carve a niche for themselves in the profession.
According to him, it had become imperative for practitioners to up their games, and look for ways to distinguish themselves through personal branding, and consciously build reputational capitals for themselves.
Ajero argued that just like it applies to products and services, any practitioner, desirous of creating an identity for themselves in the industry, must see themselves as a brand.
Defining a brand as what makes a product unique, such that the product is more successful than its peers or competitors, the much-sought-after speaker on marketing communications, therefore charged practitioners on the need to be ready to imbibe the 6 marketing Ps: Production, Promotion, Pricing, Packaging, Placement and Positioning to further their personal and professional brand.
“For instance, as a media practitioner, how do you package yourself? How do you dress, or appear in public? How do you comport yourself? What type of company do you keep? Is it a company that will enhance your professional career or inhibit its progress? How do you promote yourself? The fact remains that sometimes in this profession, if you don’t move with the right people, if you don’t talk about yourself, you are obviously putting yourself at a disadvantage,” he argued.
The C& F Porter Novelli boss also counseled media practitioners on the need to be active on the social media, noting that the social media, of late, has become a veritable tool, waiting to be leveraged for any media professional, desirous of building their professional legacies.
Ajero also identified better margins, better profits, longer lasting and the possibility of being synonymous with the industry, as some of the dividends of intentionally embarking on the process of building a reputational capital.
He also advised on the need to tweak and re-tweak, in case the desired results are not being achieved, despite observing all the marketing principles.
Ajero explained that the session was put together as part the agency’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives to empower the media with the tools they need to continuously seek innovative ways to scale their reporting skills.
He also expressed his belief that the training would equip the media on how to stay in tandem with trends, when gathering and reporting various subject matter, and also equip them with personal reputation- building knowledge.
Also speaking on the topic: ‘Beyond Transactions: Delighted Stakeholders, Build Your Reputation’, the Managing Director/CEO, TBWA, Mr. Kelechi Nwosu, stressed the need for brands to shape their reputation, to enable them accelerate their growth.
The former president of the Advertising Agencies Association of Nigeria (AAAN), noted that some of the ways a brand can delight its stakeholders is for such brand to know those stakeholders, internally and externally, and understand their attitude, interest and opinion (AIO).
“You’ve got to understand your stakeholders to be able to use them as ambassadors,” he added.
Using the examples of Shell BP and the Ogoni people, Nwosu described the running battle between the multinational company and a critical stakeholder in its operating environment, the Ogoni people, as a very good example of how not to delight the stakeholders, and earn their wrath.
