Our indigenous brands in Africa, both small and big, often fail to understand the dynamics at play as they grapple with communicating their brand’s storyline, especially on social media and worse off in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
This is mainly because the entire management is fixated on the nuts and bolts of yesteryear when communication was a monologue enterprise.
Sadly, when some brands attempt to compete online, they export the offline mindset and maintain the business-as-usual approach. Things must change!!!
Some brands have built a culture of responding to every slight provocation online with disproportionate irritation and anger, to the extent that they end up mobilising even those seated on the fence to attack their brands.
This is mainly because the brands will attempt to portray a different personality to their true character, especially regarding delivering on their promise, as discussed in last week’s edition.
In most situations, brands are stuck in the traditional communication mindset, forgetting that the ultimate jury on the platform is an informed web of netizens who can easily mobilise and fall on the brand architecture like a tonne of bricks!
Like in the rest of the world, utilisation and uptake are still in their infancy in Africa, and hopefully, through this knowledge reproduction process, we will manage to tap into the technology and enhance our brand management strategy culture online.
So, how do other brands manage to create a progressive brand culture using social media and AI to mobilise for the collective good of the brand while others are reduced to punching bags?
This week, we focus on mastering effective ways of achieving brand culture through a consolidated use of AI and social media.
The whole process of understating the role of the brand culture as a mobilising agent of the brand’s positive change emerges from the understating that if the brand culture is accepted by the legion of enthusiastic and credible brand advocates, it propels the brand’s acceptance and preferences, which in the long run leads to sustainable profits.
To start with, local brands should appreciate that they need people with skills and the ability to intentionally set their respective brands on the unstoppable wave of the sharing culture and continuous engagement.
The pulse of building an online brand culture is the brands’ ability to generate conversations that attract a sharing economy among the billions of online publics.
It is equally worthwhile remembering that the brand’s performance offline will be mirrored online.
Poor offline performance will not sublimate into a magical product because of the online packaging through AI software.
The frustrated customers will take pictures of the product and post them online to harvest the online anger and coordinate rebellion, which can quickly go viral if they utilise AI to vent.
To avoid falling into the trap of being online punch-bags while other brands become run-away success stories, we need to take note of the following cardinal five steps:
Establish a focused communication strategy
A successful strategy is the one that communicates the inner soul of the brand. Answering what the brand uniquely stands for and how it attempts to satisfy the customer’s needs.
Hence, the brand drivers should start from a strong introspection point of view.
This will help the brand managers decide how they will occupy the customer’s mindset for brand positioning.
For example, fizzy drinks are hazardous to health. However, the global brand Coca-Cola does not communicate the product features.
It communicates the soul of its existence, which is happiness.
The “Share a Coke” campaign will go down in the history books as one of the most successful for the fast-moving goods because it hammered and consistently communicated a single-minded message of “open happiness”.
This calls for the brand managers to decide on the core message to communicate online, which will attract the most sharing among the audience.
In the age of AI, teams can be more creative in utilising various tools to brainstorm and accelerate the campaign scales through personalisation and automation.
It’s everyone’s responsibility to share the brand culture
Though it is usually the role of the marketing and senior management teams to define the brand identity and personality, it is everyone’s responsibility to share the brand culture online. This is achieved through engaging colleagues to buy into the brand culture, engaging customers to become brand ambassadors by communicating what they love most about their brand and seeking celebrity endorsements at every opportunity. However, the company should always decide on the people trusted to share the brand culture while pivoting on the employees and the brand’s social capital online.
Invest in relationship-building
If the company decides to share the brand culture, it should be willing to give the brand for free at times and improve on it as it gets feedback from the online platforms.
This entails the brand’s decision to bring people together and make them feel good at times.
In these processes, AI can be an excellent tool for better understanding the customers’ sentiments and harvesting the feedback to co-create the brand.
Live the brand reality
As we noted, for a brand to enjoy online success, it should be prepared to live the brand reality rather than preach through online platforms.
Customers on social media are always on standby to attack hypocritical brands.
Remain open and engaging
As wepointed out in the beginning, when brands decide to go online, they lose control altogether.
Allow both enthusiasts and adversarial parties to express their affection or resentment.
While at it, acknowledge and appreciate the positive feedback and correct information that might be incorrect in a tolerant manner.
In conclusion, one will realise that by strategically leveraging AI technologies, African brands can create a robust online presence that resonates with their audiences, enhances customer experience, and fosters loyalty.
Building a strong online brand culture is about blending technology with local insights and values to create meaningful connections.
- Dr Farai Chigora is a businessman and academic. He is a senior lecturer at the Africa University’s College of Business, Peace, Leadership and Governance. He is also a global business modelling practitioner. His doctoral research focused on Business Administration (Destination Marketing and Branding Major, Ukzn, SA). He is into agribusiness and consults for many companies in Zimbabwe and Africa. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted for feedback and business at fariechigora@gmail.com, www.fachip.co.zw, WhatsApp mobile: +263772886871.
- Dr Tabani Moyo is an extra-ordinary researcher with the University of North West, South Africa’s Social Transformation School. His holds doctorate in business administration (research focus on new media and corporate reputation management, UKZN), chartered marketer, fellow CIM, communications and reputation management expert based in Harare. He can be contacted at moyojz@gmail.com @TabaniMoyo (X)