"Your brand as a person should be valuable as the information you share"- Dr. Ike Tandoh
Speaking to some selected journalists, advocates and prolific writers at the African Journalists for Economic Opportunity Training (AJEOT-2020) organised by ILAPI, the communication expert said: "There is a general lack of understanding of what branding entails. Everyone associates branding with high cost. But it is rather the opposite. Branding is about packaging, capacity, honesty and credibility, rather than spending money."
He added that: "The second issue is a lack of understanding of the communication environment. Your personal appearance as a communication person or entity begins from the information or idea you put across. But what actually is missing among some people in the communication space is that they don’t just know how to go about it."
To get branding right, Dr. Tandoh said, media practitioners, advocates, business owners, policy analysts etc. must consider certain important factors that will ensure that their brands satisfy their existing consumers of information and also attract prospective ones.
"One must do a basic analysis of his or herself to know, possess a sense of honesty and credibility and share information valuable for societal transformation and advancement. "What one represents, your personal brand is crucial in any space you find yourself", he stressed.
He cautioned, however, that journalists, social commentators, activists must not build their personal brand that does not satisfy packaging, capacity, honesty and credibility as it takes considerable time for a brand to grow to the point of reaping positive results.
"If journalists or communicators take their personal branding seriously, it is going to help them grow and expand. Notice, I didn’t say they are going to make money upfront. Every occupation or individual takes time to make profit. But the biggest opportunity in branding is that your personality grows and the growth yields profits over time," he stated.
Commenting on the relevance of the training programme, he indicated that ILAPI-Ghana is working hard to grow and shape communication and public policy discourse and so participants need to know what kind of things to get right that will help them reach their goal.
"Build a personal brand for yourself because it forms an important individual make up and you'll be able to deliver on your promises and create opportunity avenues. One of the greatest sins of effective communication is assumption", he added.
He added that: "The second issue is a lack of understanding of the communication environment. Your personal appearance as a communication person or entity begins from the information or idea you put across. But what actually is missing among some people in the communication space is that they don’t just know how to go about it."
To get branding right, Dr. Tandoh said, media practitioners, advocates, business owners, policy analysts etc. must consider certain important factors that will ensure that their brands satisfy their existing consumers of information and also attract prospective ones.
"One must do a basic analysis of his or herself to know, possess a sense of honesty and credibility and share information valuable for societal transformation and advancement. "What one represents, your personal brand is crucial in any space you find yourself", he stressed.
He cautioned, however, that journalists, social commentators, activists must not build their personal brand that does not satisfy packaging, capacity, honesty and credibility as it takes considerable time for a brand to grow to the point of reaping positive results.
"If journalists or communicators take their personal branding seriously, it is going to help them grow and expand. Notice, I didn’t say they are going to make money upfront. Every occupation or individual takes time to make profit. But the biggest opportunity in branding is that your personality grows and the growth yields profits over time," he stated.
Commenting on the relevance of the training programme, he indicated that ILAPI-Ghana is working hard to grow and shape communication and public policy discourse and so participants need to know what kind of things to get right that will help them reach their goal.
"Build a personal brand for yourself because it forms an important individual make up and you'll be able to deliver on your promises and create opportunity avenues. One of the greatest sins of effective communication is assumption", he added.
Source: Bright Philip Donkor
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