Visual Communications & Branding in Africa 2.0 (Interview by Olowoyo Oluwatomisin for City Scope NG)
Once again, my name is Ifeoluwa Sopeju, Founder and Creative Director, CREO HUB DESIGNS, and I will be continuing from the previous session, ‘Visual Communication and Brand Perception in Africa’. I am sure those present last week learnt a thing or two from the session.
Today, we’ll be focusing on South Africa as a Case Study with respect to Brand Perception.
Nonetheless, I will try to be brief and concise as possible, focusing on the crux of tonight’s discussion.
I will love to briefly touch on the following key words; Visual Communication, Brand Identity, Branding and Brand Perception.
The term Visual Communication refers to the transmission of information and ideas using symbols, signs, graphic designs, films, videos, typography, imagery and countless other examples with the aim of persuading, entertaining, informing, and enlightening an audience of products, ideas, messages, cultures and values.
Brand Identity or Corporate identity is employed by organizations and companies to make a visual statement about itself and to communicate its business philosophy. The first aspect of brand identity or corporate identity has to do with branding.
Please note that: Branding is not to be confused with identity and logo design as your logo is not your brand. Identity is the visual aspects that forms part of the overall brand.
Branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme
Brand Perception is owned and determined by consumers, end users and the public not Brands. Your brand is majorly centered around how you are perceived. Regardless of your message, whatever people are thinking and saying about your brand, is your brand. There are seven types of brand perception; quality, value, visual, senses, personality, reputation & legacy, status & culture.
Having given a brief definition of these terms, I have got a quick question which I will love you all to answer before I proceed.
How is Nigeria as a ‘brand’ perceived?
Is Nigeria a ‘faulty product’?
Can Nigeria be marketed?
Reply 1: The perception we have out there is one of instability and a host of fraudulent people running things fraudulently.
Not yet. We need to change our brand image and perception about Nigeria before we can market it.
Reply 2: Nigeria is perceived as a corrupt nation, always in the news for the very wrong reasons.
Reply 3: Nigeria image out there is like someone who does not know what he wants or what he is doing
Reply 4: I think the perception of Nigeria out there is much more of a consumer nation or a dump site of products and has someone said previously a host of fraudulent people
As I said, today’s session will focus on South Africa with regards to brand perception. You might challenge me by saying, South Africa is not a brand.
Well, South Africa is a national brand, if you’d permit me to put it that way, same as Nigeria is a national brand. However, the perception of both ‘brands’ vary. That’s not to say that South Africa doesn’t have its own societal vices, but they have been able to package and portray the positives of their nation, thereby downplaying the negatives.
What is a Brand?
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.
How many of us have heard of this slogan, ‘Good People, Great Nation’?
I have chosen to focus on South Africa rather than Nigeria’s national re-branding campaign ‘Good People, Great Nation’ under the administration of the former Information and Communications Minister, Late Prof. (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili, which was intended to signal the march towards national re-birth.
I decided to focus on South Africa because we have only paid lip service to that slogan. The evidences are there as to why South Africa’s brand perception rates higher than Nigeria (for the good reasons, so to speak). In my own opinion, I think that initiative failed because there was no plan for continuity and sustainability.
While researching for this session, I came across Taryn Val King’s mini-dissertation, titled, ‘Examining the visual brand language used by Brand South Africa to communicate South African identity at the world Expo 2010, Shanghai China’.
I will draw a few things from his mini-dissertation.
Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor, author and researcher specialising in national identity and reputation, public diplomacy and the public perceptions of nations, cities and regions, first coined the term Nation Branding in 1996. The term refers to an approach that integrates, guides, focuses and creates a recognisable place identity, or nation brand, and the subsequent use of that identity to further other desirable processes, whether to improve financial investment, change user behaviours or generate political capital and goodwill. (GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media 2008:3).
Nation branding is the response to the need for positive nation building and the mass media, new media and every form of communication contributes to the development of nation branding via the spread and promotion of nationalism and collective national identities through mass media channels.
NOTE: Mass media and communication, particularly visual communication, are ideal tools for nation branding. Also note that a nation’s brand leverages corporate brands
It is evident that commercial brands in South Africa, through their marketing efforts have contributed to strengthening South Africa as a national brand by building national pride for its citizens.
Food for thought: What are Nigerian corporate brands doing to project her nation?
Visual communications in form of advertisements created by South African brands using South African idiosyncrasies were used to promote national pride.
Nation branding has a rich theoretical grounding in traditional branding practices and concepts. The foundational strategies from which nation branding evolved can be traced back to corporate branding. In general, traditional brands and branding practices, which form the foundations of nation branding, are conceived in one of three understandings from Anholt’s perspective — the popular, simple or the advanced.
The popular understanding originates from a marketing perspective and is often interchangeable with advertising, marketing, public relations and sales promotion.
The simple conception of brands refers to a designed visual identity, which comprises a name, logo, slogan and corporate visual language.
The advanced understanding uses the simple definition as a starting point and goes on to cover a wide area of corporate strategy, consumer and stakeholder motivation and behaviour, internal and external communication, ethics and purpose, says Anholt.
One thing to note is that, nation branding is very similar to corporate branding because they both manage reputation.
Have you asked yourself, how is Nigeria, managing her reputation going by these perspectives?
While I would not want to bore you with a lot of history, it is good to note a few things about the history of South Africa.
A look at South Africa’s historical emergence and traditional ethnic identity, from the ‘Rainbow Nation’ — a term for the modern collective national identity of South Africa, to ‘South Africa — Alive with Possibility’ and afterwards, ‘South Africa: It’s Possible’ — its intentionally constructed counterpart, is enough proof as to what the nation has done with regards to changing the perception and projecting the nation’s brand to the entire world.
‘South Africa: It’s Possible’ perfectly captures the country’s history and brand DNA.
The purpose of the brand alignment was to avoid brand dilution when various South African entities market themselves internationally using different logos. Rather, the intention was to combine the country’s various marketing efforts to enhance South Africa’s global competitiveness about tourism, sports, arts and culture, trade and investment.
We’ve also heard the use of the tagline, ‘Proudly South Africa’ and also ‘Africa Rising’. These are subtle ways with which South Africa changed and is changing the narrative on how African nations can change the world’s negative perception about them. While it’s sad that xenophobic attacks, rape and all vices occur in South Africa, they have been able to play it down by projecting the beauty of their nation.
Based on the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015 (World Economic Forum) ranking, did you know that South Africa is the number one tourism destination in Africa?
Yeah, it is still the Number One tourism destination in Africa, based on the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 (World Economic Forum) ranking, even though it slipped 5 places from it’s position in 2015 globally
In an article by Marie-Therese Phido, Sales & Marketing Strategist, Business Coach and CEO, Elevato titled, ‘Time to Brand Nigeria’ which I asked everyone present in last week’s session to read, Marie-Therese said, ‘One country I admire in the way they have re-branded their image is South Africa.
We see their adverts on CNN always ending with ‘Proudly South African’. Those of us who have travelled on South Africa Airways (not Nigeria Airways) hear the welcome on board in a local South African language and good-bye message, in the same language. Though also translated into English, but the first message is in a local dialect. This portrays pride and nationalism, critical to country branding.
By the way, where is Nigeria Airways?
Marie-Therese said, ‘Branding is all about perception and Nigeria is not where it should be by a long stretch. We can no longer afford to leave Nigeria’s branding in the hands of anybody with an opinion on the country. Is it that the government does not know we should brand the country? Economically, branding the country will attract tourism, foreign direct investments and grow our economy now in the doldrums.
She said, ‘We must stop accepting mediocrity and change this perception and ranking. We must start to manage Nigeria’s brand with the best branding tools and put in the same amount of focus on the country the same way organizations manage their branding and messaging.’
‘Nigeria’s story can change positively too. We need to take a lesson from countries that have succeeded in transforming their brands positively. Many countries in Africa are more socially, economically and security challenged but nobody remembers these issues when they talk about the countries because of their branding. For us to continue to be able to attract investments, tourism, events and skills to drive exports in an increasingly competitive world we need to upgrade our ranking. To do this, it must be done through consistent and coordinated effort, communication and reputation management locally and globally. It is imperative that as a nation we all work together and work with the various stakeholders to determine a visionary strategy to upgrade and improve Nigeria’s brand perception everywhere.’
Those were excerpts from Marie-Therese’s article. Thought-provoking they are.
While I round off, I will like to note this…
Do you know that that the recent unveiling of the Super Eagles kit ahead of Russia 2018, has brought a lot of praises and commendation from all and sundry? Never have we seen citizens clamour to purchase these kits immediately after its unveiling.
While it’s sad that the unveiling wasn’t done in Nigeria, the visuals, branding of the kit is enough to change the perception of citizens towards its nation and the world at large. Even if it is an infinitesimal percentage to all that still needs to be done regarding the re-branding or repackaging of Nigeria, we must acknowledge that it is a step in the right direction.
I hope as a nation, we would do the right thing to change the narrative regarding the branding, re-branding and the perception of Nigeria to the entire world.
Thank you.
