The Nation Newspaper

Category: Online Special

  • How to build an enduring brand

    How to build an enduring brand

    Increasingly, the business world is competitive. It evolves daily with innovations, challenges and new trends.  An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.

    But what exactly does “branding” mean? Succinctly put, your brand is your promise to your clients.

    It clearly shows them what they should expect from your products and services and such differentiates your offering from the crowd or competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

    Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. In fact, everything is about your brand strategy.

    Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company’s products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command.

    In the 21st century business world, entrepreneurs’ need to build strategic brands that would transcend to the future. There are basic fundamentals SME, corporate and evolving organisations should have in mind in building an enduring brand.

    Without these foundations, one cannot successfully build an enduring brand. The truth is when the fundamentals fail, the brand suffers.

    A brand is built on foundation of these fundamentals.

    1. DEFINATE VISION: An enduring brand must have a definite vision. A vision is an expression of corporate ambition.  Vision is an aspiration or description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term It is intended to  serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future decisions. Therefore, every brand as a matter of foundation should have its vision well defined from the inception. It will birth corporate values, ethos and beliefs.

     

    1. COMPETENT HUMAN ENERGIES: Yet another deciding factor for brands.  Some refer to it as human resource, but it connotes same thing.  Brands must have very motivated and competent human resources that are passionate, prepared and persistent about the brand’s vision.  When your brand’s resources are not ambassadors of the brand, then there is a clog in the wheel of your progress.  Constantly identify how to motivate your “energies” towards your corporate vision. It pays to do so.
    1. SOUND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: Nothing wrecks brands like financial recklessness. To mention brands that have kissed the dust based on this single action is messy. The effect is better imagined that experienced. Therefore, enduring brands must have very sound, technical financial management in place. Things should follow the established rules and regulations.  Most especially in Africa and Nigeria in particular, people want to cut corners on their duties with the hope of deceiving the system. Hence, every brand managers should ensure proper financial technicalities to cage mismanagement. This is vital for brands.
    1. EXECELLENT LEADERSHIP: This is the ability to guide, direct, control or manages a set of people. This is crucial in brands management. The old adage that says “When the head is bad, the whole body will be affected” is very apt here. If your business must succeed, then up your leadership skills regularly. There are various trainings, free seminars on leadership development to attend.
    1. STRATEGIC PLANNING: Strategic Planning is putting positive efforts into your future. For your brands to last, you need to constantly ensure plans ahead of your competitors.  Be alert of new trends, inventions and technologies in your service industry.  Learn to embrace these new ideas if you must remain industry relevant.
    1. GOOD CORPORATE VALUES: Do you know that your corporate values determine what you value which in turns determines your corporate value in the industry? Think on that!

     

    Brand value exists in segments. You need to indentify your niche market and play there. A brand succeeds when the fundamentals are taken care of.

     

    Osanyintuyi has over 12 years rich media industry experience. He is passionate about using media for national development. As an expert in media relations and corporate communications, Sunday consults for SME, churches and other corporate organisations to maximize their media exposures.

    He belongs to some professional bodies like Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, (NIPR), and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) among others. He has undergone international trainings on media, leadership, and management.

    sundayosanyintuyi@gmail.com

    Twitter: @SundayOs

  • Ten things not to say to a writer

    [news_list display=”category” category=”1225″ show_more=”on”]
  • Day Sabongidda-Ora honoured IGP Arase

    Day Sabongidda-Ora honoured IGP Arase

    The sleepy community of Sabongidda-Ora, headquarters of Owan West Local Government Area of Edo state was agog last weekend as members of the community grouped out in their thousands to honor their illustrious son, who is the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase.

    Arase’s mother hails from the Owan community and he grew up among his maternal relatives, after the death of his father, who was a scion of the prominent Arase family of Benin City, in Oredo Local Government Area.

    The event attracted Governor Adams Oshiomhole and other prominent Nigerians from all walks of life and there was heavy presence of security operatives. The massive blanket of security thrown over the community prompted one of the curious locals to ask our reporter whether Arase would now be operating from Sabongidda Ora.

    The event, which was organized by the Ora-Ekpen Development Association (ODA), was also attended by many notable sons and daughters of the community, traditional rulers as well as top politicians from across the country.

    Among other dignitaries present were former deputy governor of the state and Chief of Staff to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe; Senator Oseriemen Osunbor; Senator Roland Owie; Iyase of Benin Kingdom, Chief Sam Igbe; Senator Ehigie Uzamere; Senator Yisa Braimoh; Sir Arumemi Johnson-Ikhide and Amb. Moses Ihonde.

    Others included National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, Chief John Oyegun, who was represented by Prof. Dennis Agbonlahor; Mr. Mike Okogie; APC Governorship candidate in River State, Peterside Dakuku, amongst others.

    Speaking at the occasion, President of ODA, Prof. Sam Ifijeh Ahonkhai, said the event was to celebrate their son who rose to the pinnacle of his chosen career based on merit, hard work and service rendered without blemish.

    Prof. Ahonkhai said the choice of Holy Trinity School as the reception venue was carefully selected because it was the secondary school that moulded the character of Arase and helped shaped his future.

    He described Arase as a man who is forthright, diligent dependable and full of integrity.

    Ahonkhai called for prayers from Nigerians so that Arase’s tenure would witness tremendous milestone in the Nigeria Police Force.

    Chief Sam Ifidon, a maternal uncle of the IGP, recalled how Arase’s late mother helped pay his school fees after their father died. He urged Nigerians to pray for the IG and always tell him the truth because the public would assess his performance as the head of the Nigerian Police Force.

    On his part, the IGP said his late mother was disappointed that her only surviving son opted to join the police instead of seeking employment in the civil service.

    Arase recalled how his late mother taught him that sacrifice, diligence, perseverance and complete reverence to God were indispensable ingredients of future success.

    According to him, “Sabongidda Ora has made my life. I can only promise three things in return. Firstly, in my line of duty, I shall continue to project those values that will edify this community and I will never engage in anything that will bring our communal values and the image of the community into disrepute.”

    “Secondly, to my relations who raised me, I will not let you down. I shall continue to keep the bond and hold onto your hands and hearts as we jointly continue to walk through the journey of life.

    “I promise to give back to Sabongida-Ora and Owan land what the community has given to me. It is in furtherance of this that I incorporated the Madam Mercy Igbe-Arase Foundation which has been awarding scholarships to deserving Owan West and East undergraduates to enable them fulfill their dreams and make their youthful age and future as worthy of celebration as mine.”

    Governor Adams Oshiomhole who graced the occasion with his wife, Lara, said Arase became IG by reasons of his unique qualities and not political connection.

    He said, “The IGP recognize that those called troublemakers are meant to be protected. There is a lot we can learn not from the fact of being an IG but even from delicate political environment, you can do your job without descending on innocent citizens. You represent the finest tradition of an Edo man with courage, determination to do your job without minding whose ox is gored.

    “If you are being oppressed, you can count on him.

    “He needs all the support, all the prayers he can get from Edo people. Let it not be said that the challenge of policing Nigeria become more difficult because of people from Edo State. He is serving under a President who is a no-nonsense man, who will not tolerate anything you call indiscipline. He is an IG at a time of profound changes in the psyche and governance of our great nation.”

    The IGP and his wife, Agharese, were later decorated with the title of Ojeagbase of Ora Land.

     

  • What Bobbi Kristina’s autopsy revealed…and more

    What Bobbi Kristina’s autopsy revealed…and more

    Drag your mouse over the buttons on the image below and click for details.

  • Baby disappears mysteriously during naming in Ogun

    Baby disappears mysteriously during naming in Ogun

    Anxiety and confusion enveloped the rustic Inuosegba community in Abeokuta as residents discovered items suspected to be  severed human wrist, school pupils’ bags and uniforms in a locked building while searching for a missing 18 months old baby.

    The 18 months baby identified as Hezekiah Opeyemi Ogundele was taken to a naming ceremony at Inuosegba community around 4pm on Sunday by his brother but while the ceremony was to commence, the baby was discovered to have disappeared mysteriously.

    The Nation gathered that the naming ceremony was put on hold indefinitely while apprehensive guests and residents began to comb surrounding bushes and home, searching for the baby.

    The mother of the baby, 26 years old Fashion designer, Elizabeth  Ogundele, said her elder sister gave birth and was preparing to the naming when it was discovered that her son had disappeared.

    In the course of the search, they discovered that a building near the venue of naming, severed wrist and school children’s items were found in a suspicious building within the neighbourhood, forcing the residents to place the property under surveilance as there was no one inside at the time.

    The Nation gathered that later in the day, a commercial motorcycle operator visited the building in the wee hour and was arrested and handed over to the Police at the Lafenwa Divisional Police Headquarters, Abeokuta.

    The Nation visited the building believed to be owned by one Chief Olasile Ifayemi, about 26 years old young man, and witnessed vandalising the over seven room bungalow and desecrated his shrine inside and over a dozen pots of fetish objects.

    Operatives the Speacial Anti – Robbery Squad (SARS), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were sighted making frantic effort to control the enraged crowd bent on bringing down the building.

  • Doctor warns against consumption of unwholesome meat

    Doctor warns against consumption of unwholesome meat

    An Abuja-based veterinary practitioner, Dr Victor Nwachukwu, on Monday warned against the consumption of poorly preserved frozen poultry products to avoid the associated health dangers.

    Nwachukwu gave the warning against the back drop that the cold chain of most smuggled frozen poultry products had been broken making them unwholesome.

    Nigerians apparently had been smuggling into the country frozen poultry products, especially through the land boarders, a situation that have these products outside the refrigeration units for days.

    The development often left some of the products decaying before they get to the cold stores from where they are sold to the consumers.

    With the enforcement of the ban on the products, consumers have expressed fear that the die-hard smugglers would continue to bring into the country these unwholesome products.

    It is believed that when the cold chain is broken such products are left to the vagaries of the reaction between weather and the preservation chemical which often contaminates them.

    Nwachukwu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that putrefying and entero-toxic strains of bacteria species could infest poultry products if the cold chain was broken.

    “Basically, a break in the cold chain might result in a build-up of microbial loads which could be pathogenic and if ingested, may pose health risks to consumers.

    “If refrigeration is terminated for two to five days and above, such poultry meat could begin to decay and overtaken by putrefying and entero-toxic strains of bacteria species,’’ he said.

    Nwachukwu also told NAN that chemically preserved frozen poultry products might cause cardiovascular diseases.

    He told NAN that if the chemical was toxic, it could lead to many other diseases such as induction of respiratory problems (diseases or syndromes).

    He added that diseases such as neuro-toxic might affect the urino-genital gastrointestinal and musculo-skeletal systems.

    “It may be difficult to name just one chemical as chemicals are best known by the companies or processing plants that use them for preserving frozen poultry products.

    “There have been reports that chemicals have been used but I am not aware of any specific name; however, if these chemicals are toxic as assumed, then the effects on humans could be among many.

    “Neuro-toxic, induction of respiratory problems (diseases or syndromes) may affect the urino-genital, lymphatic, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and musculo-skeletal systems,’’ he said.

    On the best methods to preserve frozen poultry products, the veterinary doctor said that processing companies should apply global operations standard of ISO19001 (quality control).

    According to him, this depends on the industry’s operations and quality control processes and procedures.

    “Every processor applies independent or statutory standards and some operators utilise the globally accepted ISO19001.

    “Poultry meat will need extreme freezing by refrigeration (requires adequate power supply). Poultry meat could also be dry fried with skin removed in cholesterol-free oil.

    “For eggs, crates (plastic or carton materials) for packaging kept in cool dry and airy places. They must be protected from predators such as monitor lizards and snakes,’’ he said.

    Nwachukwu said the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) should be more active in the quality control for consumption of poultry products.

  • Top stories of the week: an interactive timeline

  • WhatsApp introduces mute, unread option

    WhatsApp introduces mute, unread option



    [dropcap color=”#319e4f”]E[/dropcap]ver got tired of WhatsApp messages from friends especially while workload is much or late at night when the only sure thing is sleep, good news is that the instant messaging application now has provision to help handle that.

    The Android application PacKage (APK) has had a very fruitful and active day going through no less than 5 updates in the span of 24 hours. The app’s developers introduced a series of new options and seem to be fixing bugs with successive iterative updates from v2.12.189 to the most recent v2.12.194.

    According to an APK website, Android Police, the most significant change in this series of updates is the new custom notifications settings. When you open a contact’s or group’s details page, you’ll see a new Notifications box below the Media one.

    In it is the option to mute the chat for 8 hours, 1 week, or 1 year, as well as extensive custom notifications. These let you pick a specific tone, vibration length, light, popup notification, as well as the call ringtone and vibration.

    Another addition to the app is the ‘Mark As Unread’ feature. Tap and hold on any conversation and you’ll be able to mark it as unread, which switches its status to green but doesn’t affect the read messages status inside the chat or its chronological rank among your conversations.

    The significance of such is that it could serve as a visual reminder when you want to get back to someone later.

    And finally there are two new changes in the app’s settings. First is a Low data usage option for voice calls, useful when you’re on a limited or slow data plan. Second is a small hint to Google Drive backups.

    Under Account, Network usage, you’ll see Google Drive backup usage tallied along with the app’s media, messages, and calls. There’s still no way to trigger a Google Drive backup — the option was added several months ago then removed — so this could be a sign that Drive backups may be coming again soon or that someone on the developer team forgot to clear out these options before publishing this apk.

    One interesting thing about WhatsApp is that every couple of weeks, the team surprises its users with new features, and keeps on refining them and improving the app’s functionality.

  • UNTH conducts first Truncus Arteriosus heart surgery

    UNTH conducts first Truncus Arteriosus heart surgery

    A team of doctors at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, on Wednesday successfully carried out the first `Truncus Arteriosus’ heart surgery in Nigeria.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the team, led by an expatriate surgeon, Prof. Willaim Novick, conducted the surgery to correct the dysfunctional heart of a 15-months-old baby.

    Novick, while briefing Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, who had gone to witness the surgery, described it as an extreme rare cardiac condition and the first of such a case in Nigeria.

    “We took our chances on the 15-month-old baby and it was successful.”

    According to the surgeon, `Truncus Arteriosus’ is something that happened inside the heart, where the heart has only one blood supplying vessel.

    “A normal heart has one vessel that leaves the right side and goes to the lungs and another vessel that leaves the left side of the heart and goes to the body.

    “In Truncus Arteriosus, the patient does not have two defined vessels leaving the heart. He has one vessel. So, there is no separation between the lungs’ blood flow and the body blood flow.

    “So the problem results in too much blood going to the lungs and not enough going to the body. The operation we did is a curative one to correct the defect,” Novick explained.

    In his remarks, the Chief Medical Director of UNTH, Dr Christopher Amah, told the governor that most of the surgeons were from the U.S., Canada and the UK.

    Amah said that the hospital has collaborated with the expatriate cardiac surgeons for many years.

    “They are here to join hands with the team in UNTH to perform open heart surgeries on 25 sick Nigerian children who may have died prematurely, if help had not come through this exercise.

    “Dr Novick was here in 2003 as the lead surgeon to perform similar surgeries on Nigerian children under the sponsorship of Kanu Nwankwo Heart Foundation and he is here to repeat this kindness for no payment.

    “It may interest you to note that the first Open Heart Surgery in black Africa was performed at UNTH on Feb. 1, 1974, by our indigenous staff, with the collaboration of a renowned heart surgeon, Prof. Magdi Yacoub,” he said.

    Amah said that UNTH was a leading centre for open heart surgery, adding that no fewer than 95 of such surgeries had been done in the hospital from 2013 to date, with more than 90 per cent success.

    The director appealed to the state government to collaborate with UNTH to make the treatment of heart-related ailments affordable to helpless Nigerian children.

    Responding, Ugwuanyi said that the state government would do its best to support the children in dire need.

    “These children are helpless and there is reasons for God to allow us occupy this leadership position. If their parents cannot help them, then we should come in and help.”

    NAN reports that Ugwuanyi made a donation of N5 million to assist the children who were undergoing surgery and paid the hospital bills of indigent patients held back by the hospital management for their inability to settle their bills.

  • Facts about ‘Alhaji Gay’

    Facts about ‘Alhaji Gay’

    Razak Adetunji Adeniyi, popularly known as ‘Alhaji Gay’ has been reportedly killed by unidentified individuals.

    Alhaji Gay, as he is fondly called, who is usually connected with hunting internet fraudsters (Yahoo boys) with an identity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was on Monday stabbed to death.

    In spite of his success in arresting the fraudsters on different accounts, the EFCC has denied any connection between the late Alhaji and the commission.

    Following the announcement of his death, his name began to trend on twitter with different tweets ranging from questions about who he was to who could be responsible for his death, why everyone began to talk about him and why some people are rejoicing over his death.

     

    See below: