PR experts urge African leaders to embrace branding

As the African Public Relations Association (APRA) conference entered the third day yesterday, African leaders have been charged to embrace the culture of branding.

Answering questions at the conference, the President of APRA, Mr. Peter Mutie, said branding is a veritable tool in nation development and the time has come for the continent to embrace it.

To achieve this, he said: “We must wake up in Africa and start branding our brand. That is our role and we must do it because if you wait for someone else they will not do it, and APRA should stand up and take the lead.”

Presenting a paper titled, “Reputation Management for Country Branding”, Robyn de Viliers said: “A brand is a front and centre of corporate and country strategy as a major differentiator and asset.”

Viliers, whose paper was presented on her behalf by Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okunsanya said, African governments and organisations “should always engage professional companies while doing business because issues are properly managed and records kept.”

On image, she said it is important for countries and organisations to have a good reputation because “it drives support and business relationships.”

Jerry Sawyerr in his presentation “The Challenge of Creating Values in Business” charged public relations practitioners to always formulate strategy that would create solutions because strategy articulates goals.

He said practitioners should always do something creative out of press releases, indentify and understand media targets, get quality media and match outlet with journalists and others.

Over 150 delegates from South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra-Leone, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Netherlands, Cameroon, Ireland, Bulgaria and other countries are taking part in the conference that, which is ending tomorrow.