Finding the right slogan

I've come across various slogans and I couldn't help but ask myself how the slogans were formed and who even thought of them. The slogans were so appalling and lacked creativity. I have definitely seen slogans I felt were really creative and depicts the intention of the organisation or product but I have seen more bland slogans.

A slogan is a must have for every product or service as they help reinforce an aim as well as letting the public know what the product stands for amongst several others. Your slogan speaks for you so it's a MUST to make it count. When one hears 'just do it' you automatically know it's 'Nike'. Analysing the slogan, it is safe to conclude this slogan meets what Nike stands for as it deals with everything sport.

Popular misconceptions about PR

This post is inspired by someone I met last week. So we got talking and asked what I studied in University, I replied 'public relations' and this person goes.... "I feel like everybody that studies that course don't want to do anything with their future". Of course I took offence to this statement because it hit the wrong button so bad! I could not help but think how rude and ignorant this person was then it occurred to me that there are so many people out there with the same mindset as this person.

It's no news that it is difficult for 'outsiders' to really understand what public relations is all about or what PR practitioners do and this leads to various misconceptions about what PR really is. As a result, I have decided to make a list of the popular misconceptions people have about PR.

1. PR is not lies, propaganda or misrepresentation: Most people are of the notion PR is deliberate distortion of the truth just to get the 'target' to behave in a certain way. This is not PR as public relations deals with credibility, building relationships and tenable reputation management.

Why do Nigerian organisations overlook crisis planning?

No organisation prays to go through a crisis neither is it possible to predict the form a crisis will take. However, it is highly advisable for organisations to have crisis management plans developed for various likely incidents rather than waiting for the crisis to occur before thinking about how to handle the incident.

A typical crisis management plan highlights the person(s) that performs specific role in a certain crisis situation, a prepared sample press release, emergency contacts information, building plans, etc. Having a crisis management plan prepared will help handle the crisis better  'if/when' it happens and help minimise the effect. Most organisations especially in Nigeria disregard the need to have a contingency plan for reasons best known to such organisations.

7 things to learn from your competitors online and offline

If you want to be successful, do what successful people do. No matter what business you're into, it is good to observe and analyse competitor's activities .  I always say it's best to analyse and learn from a competitor that is more successful and also learn from a competitor that is not doing as good as you. Reason is you get to learn from their successes and failures and use this to improve your own brand. So here are some essential things you can learn from your competitors;

1. What audience appeal do they address; You can research into what appeal your competitor use in campaigns and other related elements. Are they using fear, happiness, family, motherly love, sex appeal, etc. Also analyse how effective the appeal used has been. The essence of doing all these research on the competitor is to know what to incorporate in your own product or service and what to avoid.