A response to Matambo’s budget
In this week's piece I wish to share with my readership the views I expressed in parliament on the budget. 

Mr Speaker I wish to begin by registering a complaint and citing a major weakness in our democracy. When the head of state speaks in parliament, his speech is broadcast live on BTV and Radio Botswana.
When the budget speech is presented, the same applies but surprisingly when the leader of opposition presents an alternative program, he is not accorded the same privilege. This is a clear sign that ours is indeed a dictatorship that continues as a democracy.
May be before you gloat about your image next time, be reminded that there are vibrant and functional democracies out there. In fact, I can't help but wonder, if you are so confident about your democratic credentials, if you confident about your ideas and performance in parliament, why don't you broadcast parliament live and allow Batswana the right to access to information- so they make informed choices.

I also want to make this important point that you honourable minister successfully paints a gloomy picture of our economic situation and then abandon us there. You do not provide or chat the path out of this gloom. I would have expected you to offer the nation an aggressive recovery plan of how you intend to help the economy through the difficult times. I will return to this point. Let me first deal with an important point of the budget as a policy tool.
There is a misconception that the budget is simply about allocations of funds. Thomas Dye defines policy "as everything a government does or does not do" and therefore a budget speech as a spending plan should reflect government priorities for the following year. Budget as a Policy Tool would mean that the budget is a statement of the policy priorities for a particular year.
So at a macro level, for example we need to know how much is earmarked for the notorious ESP. For example with regard to education, the minister has been allocating more money to education but instead of improving, the results have been forever plummeting. In my constituency, we concerned with the results of Segoditshane, Boikhutso, Notwane Primary Schools. In this same vein, allow me to congratulate camp primary school for their sterling performance despite difficult conditions such old and dilapidated houses for teachers.

Minister I want to argue that Because of a missed opportunity to use the budget as a policy tool, we have confusion in our education policy direction.
As a result of this, there is what I would call a systematic attempt to destroy the pride of Batswana- the University of Botswana through a drastic reduction in sponsorship of the arts. Global educational thinking is moving towards multidisciplinary, to produce well rounded graduates, who would aid our developmental efforts and take them to the next level.

The confusion in policy manifests also in the form of mixed priorities – for example the BDF expenditure on weaponry.
As Hon Molao was speaking I couldn't help but wonder how did we get here. To a situation where the people who make it into position of power struggle to make head or tail of very basic concepts.
You spoke of 2014 bringing babies to parliament and I was tempted then, not now, then, to say that it might be better to have babies in Parley cause there is room for growth n improvement. I think you would agree with me that it would be more tragic to have babies tramped in adult bodies because that would mean doom and gloom. You quoted one MP from the opposition saying we need a small and professional army. That is the point. Getting to know exactly what our army needs. Our army needs helicopters not fighter jets.
Our disciplined forces need us to address the welfare of our men in uniform at the police, BDF and prisons. 

Answering my question in this house last year, The responsible minister told this house that a consultancy looking into the salaries of the police, BDF and prisons will have completed the job by end of February last year and he expected the officers to begin enjoying the new structures in April last year. We moving to another April, another round of salary negotiations is ongoing and these men and women are left behind.
I am always brought to tears when I remember the Dilapidated and inhabitable houses in prisons at village camp and at the former police college. I am reminded of an officer with 5 years of service, five years of wearing our uniform proudly at SSG camp in Maruapula staying in a tent for those five years. How will buying fighter jets help these men and women in uniform.
How will it improve their morale.

I want to also posit that there is Lack of a clear developmental philosophy that informs the thinking in this budget. You do not show honourable minister that you are indeed in touch with global thinking on development. The proposal on Local Economic Development (LED) is welcome.
But the proposal raises a lot of questions. Why is the government talking about LED only now? Your commitment as a government is suspect. Your government is centralizing instead of decentralization. 

We know why the government is centralising rather than decentralising development management. It is consolidating state capture.
Centralisation has nothing to do with government efficiency and effectiveness and everything to do with government tenders. When ministers and civil servants are free to do business with government, state capture intensifies. Prove us wrong. Take LED seriously and move expeditiously on decentralisation. In fact, let his honour the Vice President tell us that as the man in charge of poverty, employment creation and economic diversification, he shall personally ensure that government moves fast and purposefully on LED.


The world has recognised and embraced the growing and strategic role of cities in economic development. This is an inevitable outcome of globalisation. National borders are becoming more and more irrelevant to the flow of goods and services and farsighted governments around the world are giving cities more space to make polices for their development. Part of the reason we want decentralisation is to accord a sophisticated city such as Gaborone freedom from limiting decisions made at the MLGRD.


Gaborone is fast growing city. The people of Gaborone have the capacity to run a successful and vibrant local economy, if we can allow them to. It has a potentially strong tax base, if fiscal authorities could be creative. If you allowed us we would be able to deal with problems such as bad dusty internal roads, no streets lights, and unemployment that is spiralling out control.

The ESP and economic transformation

Before I speak about ESP, I would like to introduce a concept, actually a propaganda technique often credited to Adolfo hitter termed "a big lie". Hitler believed in the use of a lie so colossal that it would be almost impossible for it not to be believed.
He opined that telling this lie repeatedly and frequently would make it believable. 

Ours is a society in which economic literacy is low even amongst those with tertiary qualifications. We expect leaders to be concerned enough about this to seek to do something about it, not to ruthlessly exploit it for political gain. Yet this is precisely what is happening with the ESP.


The Vice President, some ministers, the Secretary General of the ruling party and party propagandists have to date used every medium they could access to sell the untruth that the ESP is a bold plan to transform the economy.
As it came out in bits and pieces, first through the SONA, then the brochure, and now the budget, it has become apparent that as the LOO has observed, this is irresponsible, cruel and fraudulent, especially to the extent that unsuspecting people have been urged to register companies in large numbers to chase the phantom of broad-based opportunity that the ESP has turned out to be.

There is nothing bold about this intervention, not the idea, not the amounts involved and certainly not the potential. The only thing bold and audacious about it is the dishonesty and deviousness behind it. We have been told that it is a bold plan to transform the economy.
The budget figures tell a different story. There is no fiscal expansion here, no ramping up of demand and therefore no stimulus.

The budget for the ESP is only P2 billion. It is naïve, even if we were to accept the wholly irrational position that money is what the economy needs the most to build momentum towards transformation, to imagine that P2 billion would suffice. This is not sufficient to deliver benefits to the many. It will of course line the pockets of a couple of tenderpreneurs and grease the palms of a couple of corrupt public servants and politicians. More so that it looks like a plan to circumvent normal public procurement processes.


The ESP basically has no design. It is backlog eradication. It is the EDD. His Honour the Vice President said on the floor of parliament in November 2015 that the ESP was brilliantly conceived and brilliantly delivered by the President. With all due respect, your Honour, you are being very unkind to the President. There is no programme design in the ESP. It is as poorly conceived and designed as the monumental disaster that the Poverty Eradication Framework has become.

It should be cause for concern that the person responsible for the ESP is none other than his honour the Vice President.
This is the same man who has led the disinformation on the ESP, perhaps because he does not understand it, has failed dismally on another important initiative, poverty eradication. He has to date failed to deliver a Poverty Eradication Policy he promised the 2009-2014 parliament more than once. He has also failed by the way, to deliver the Freedom of Information Act he promised to deliver within months whilst torpedoing a Private Member’s bill by Honourable Dumelang Saleshando. Can we trust him with an equally weighty assignment such as job creation? I don’t. The disinformation he has started on says we should not. Either he does not understand what is expected of him or he treats this as the vote catching and wealth transfer gimmick it is.


Local Economic Development Decentralisation
 The proposal on Local Economic Development (LED) is welcome. But the proposal raises a lot of questions. Why is the government talking about LED only now? Its commitment is suspect.

LED has been on the table for about four years now, confined to a department within the Ministry of Local Government, the Botswana Association of Local Authorities and a few enterprising local authorities. The rest of government, including the MFDP, has not shown any real interest in this initiative, which may explain why it has stalled.
The MFDP should henceforth ensure that as a coordinating ministry, it engages the MLGRD and helps it mobilise the rest of government to ensure that government moves beyond talking on LED.

We also doubt the Government’s commitment to LED because, as the LOO has correctly observed, the government is not interested in decentralisation.
You cannot pursue LED effectively through local authorities that have no power to make decisions that matter. Central government still appoints their CEOs and operational personnel, determines their strategies and in fact influences every sphere of their operation. In fact, over the last few years, the government has been centralising functions and decision making (water and health are cases in point) with serious adverse effects on the delivery of services.

We know why the government is centralising rather than decentralising development management. It is consolidating state capture. Centralisation has nothing to do with government efficiency and effectiveness and everything to do with government tenders.
When ministers and civil servants are free to do business with government, state capture intensifies. Prove us wrong. Take LED seriously and move expeditiously on decentralisation. In fact, let his honour the Vice President tell us that as the man in charge of poverty, employment creation and economic diversification, he shall personally ensure that government moves fast and purposefully on LED.

The world has recognised and embraced the growing and strategic role of cities in economic development.
This is an inevitable outcome of globalisation. National borders are becoming more and more irrelevant to the flow of goods and services and farsighted governments around the world are giving cities more space to make polices for their development. Part of the reason we want decentralisation is to accord a sophisticated city such as Gaborone freedom from limiting decisions made at the MLGRD.

Gaborone is fast growing city. The people of Gaborone have the capacity to run a successful and vibrant local economy, if we can allow them to.
It has a potentially strong tax base, if fiscal authorities could be creative. If you allowed us we can address challenges such as Bad, dusty internal roads, streets lights that seldom lay work and unemployment that is spiraling out of control.

Youth unemployment
Of all our failings, if there is one we can ill-afford, it is to fail our youth. To fail them is to fail the country.
The cost of a poor education system and failure to engage young educated people today will reflect decades from now in our decline down competitiveness rankings and a downward spiral that will be difficult to reverse. The band aid being proposed now in the form of special initiatives with no prospects long term sustainability and delivering results will shortly be proved inadequate.
There are no short cuts. We must commit to:

a) Economic transformation as a matter of agency: We in the UDC will roll up our sleeves and challenge experts in and outside the UDC to help us develop one but we will be even happier to join the government in finding a pathway out of the current trajectory of slow and jobless growth.

b) Regulatory reform: The LOO has spoken at length about this. It is a matter we must keep emphasising and we urge business, civil society and the youth to join us so that our voice becomes louder and more difficult to ignore as we call for burdensome regulation to fall. This is not rocket science. Stop vetting investors. Stop DIS from harassing investors. Make business regulation generally more efficient and less cumbersome.
Do away with the archaic work and resident permit procedures that stand in the way of FDI, business growth and employment creation. Work towards faster contract enforcement mechanisms. 

These measures and investment in high speed internet access, will spur growth and create jobs. 
c) Empower the youth and create opportunity: Unemployment is not simply a problem of lack of skills. I would argue that it is in fact more a problem of lack of opportunity. Employers will, for the most part be able train educated youths they employ to suit their specific needs. That does not mean that public policy should not deal with skills. It should. But we have a problem in this country.
Much of the training that we avail today is useless because regulators are allowing ill-equipped profit seekers to profit from the misery of our youths and unemployed people. Let us look more closely at the rapidly growing population of entities providing training and satisfy ourselves that they are meeting our requirements. 


In conclusion I wish to speak to workers of this country.
Like the prophet of old has said you have nothing more to lose than the chains in your hands. Beware of the wolf in sheep skin in your midst. Beware of unions and union leaders who have hijacked the workers struggle yet they are tools in the hands of the enemy to offset your march to victory. Remember unity is key. Let me also speak to friends on the other side of the aisle. We are mismanaging labour relations. Tensions breeds inefficiency. The current stalemate at the bargaining council is a case in point. It cannot be right to treat our workers like this.
You still have a chance to be on the right side of history. When there was talk of an event where you queued up to receive ESP projects I thought of tshepo tshola"s song "waiting for my name to be called" I hope it isn't true because it would be sad if Government resources were shared like gangsters would share the loot after a successful night out not after a good in the office.

To you minister Matambo a future historian will have to record that it was under your tutelage that our economy was ransacked and mismanaged.
Say NO to the ever expanding Botswana Democratic Party patronage network. Say NO to the Khama oligarchy and chose Botswana and Batswana. Stop making a butchery of your conscience. Be like the biblical Shadreck, Abednico and Meshack who chose to go into the furnace of fire instead of worshiping the golden image of king Nebuchadnezzar. May God help you and may he bless our country abundantly. I rest my case
Opinions
IEC Disrespects Batswana: A Critical Analysis
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has recently faced significant criticism for its handling of the voter registration exercise. In this prose I aim to shed light on the various instances where the IEC has demonstrated a lack of respect towards the citizens of Botswana, leading to a loss of credibility. By examining the postponements of the registration exercise and the IEC’s failure to communicate effectively, it becomes evident that the institution has disregarded its core mandate and the importance of its role in ensuring fair and transparent elections.
Incompetence or Disrespect?
One possible explanation for the IEC’s behavior is sheer incompetence. It is alarming to consider that the leadership of such a critical institution may lack the understanding of the importance of their mandate. The failure to communicate the reasons for the postponements in a timely manner raises questions about their ability to handle their responsibilities effectively. Furthermore, if the issue lies with government processes, it calls into question whether the IEC has the courage to stand up to the country’s leadership.
Another possibility is that the IEC lacks respect for its core clients, the voters of Botswana. Respect for stakeholders is crucial in building trust, and clear communication is a key component of this. The IEC’s failure to communicate accurate and complete information, despite having access to it, has fueled speculation and mistrust. Additionally, the IEC’s disregard for engaging with political parties, such as the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), further highlights this disrespect. By ignoring the UDC’s request to observe the registration process, the IEC demonstrates a lack of regard for its partners in the electoral exercise.
Rebuilding Trust and Credibility:
While allegations of political interference and security services involvement cannot be ignored, the IEC has a greater responsibility to ensure its own credibility. The institution did manage to refute claims by the DISS Director that the IEC database had been compromised, which is a positive step towards rebuilding trust. However, this remains a small glimmer of hope in the midst of the IEC’s overall disregard for the citizens of Botswana.
To regain the trust of Batswana, the IEC must prioritize respect for its stakeholders. Clear and timely communication is essential in this process. By engaging with political parties and addressing their concerns, the IEC can demonstrate a commitment to transparency and fairness. It is crucial for the IEC to recognize that its credibility is directly linked to the trust it garners from the voters.
Conclusion:
The IEC’s recent actions have raised serious concerns about its credibility and respect for the citizens of Botswana. Whether due to incompetence or a lack of respect for stakeholders, the IEC’s failure to communicate effectively and handle its responsibilities has damaged its reputation. To regain trust and maintain relevance, the IEC must prioritize clear and timely communication, engage with political parties, and demonstrate a commitment to transparency and fairness. Only by respecting the voters of Botswana can the IEC fulfill its crucial role in ensuring free and fair elections.
Opinions
Fuelling Change: The Evolving Dynamics of the Oil and Gas Industry
The Oil and Gas industry has undergone several significant developments and changes over the last few years. Understanding these developments and trends is crucial towards better appreciating how to navigate the engagement in this space, whether directly in the energy space or in associated value chain roles such as financing.
Here, we explore some of the most notable global events and trends and the potential impact or bearing they have on the local and global market.
Governments and companies around the world have been increasingly focused on transitioning towards renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. This shift is motivated by concerns about climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Africa, including Botswana, is part of these discussions, as we work to collectively ensure a greener and more sustainable future. Indeed, this is now a greater priority the world over. It aligns closely with the increase in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing being observed. ESG investing has become increasingly popular, and many investors are now looking for companies that are focused on sustainability and reducing their carbon footprint. This trend could have significant implications for the oil and fuel industry, which is often viewed as environmentally unsustainable. Relatedly and equally key are the evolving government policies. Government policies and regulations related to the Oil and Gas industry are likely to continue evolving with discussions including incentives for renewable energy and potentially imposing stricter regulations on emissions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also played a strong role. Over the last two years, the pandemic had a profound impact on the Oil and Gas industry (and fuel generally), leading to a significant drop in demand as travel and economic activity slowed down. As a result, oil prices plummeted, with crude oil prices briefly turning negative in April 2020. Most economies have now vaccinated their populations and are in recovery mode, and with the recovery of the economies, there has been recovery of oil prices; however, the pace and sustainability of recovery continues to be dependent on factors such as emergence of new variants of the virus.
This period, which saw increased digital transformation on the whole, also saw accelerated and increased investment in technology. The Oil and Gas industry is expected to continue investing in new digital technologies to increase efficiency and reduce costs. This also means a necessary understanding and subsequent action to address the impacts from the rise of electric vehicles. The growing popularity of electric vehicles is expected to reduce demand for traditional gasoline-powered cars. This has, in turn, had an impact on the demand for oil.
Last but not least, geopolitical tensions have played a tremendous role. Geopolitical tensions between major oil-producing countries can and has impacted the supply of oil and fuel. Ongoing tensions in the Middle East and between the US and Russia could have an impact on global oil prices further, and we must be mindful of this.
On the home front in Botswana, all these discussions are relevant and the subject of discussion in many corporate and even public sector boardrooms. Stanbic Bank Botswana continues to take a lead in supporting the Oil and Gas industry in its current state and as it evolves and navigates these dynamics. This is through providing financing to support Oil and Gas companies’ operations, including investments in new technologies. The Bank offers risk management services to help oil and gas companies to manage risks associated with price fluctuations, supply chain disruptions and regulatory changes. This includes offering hedging products and providing advice on risk management strategies.
Advisory and support for sustainability initiatives that the industry undertakes is also key to ensuring that, as companies navigate complex market conditions, they are more empowered to make informed business decisions. It is important to work with Oil and Gas companies to develop and implement sustainability strategies, such as reducing emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy. This is key to how partners such as Stanbic Bank work to support the sector.
Last but not least, Stanbic Bank stands firmly in support of Botswana’s drive in the development of the sector with the view to attain better fuel security and reduce dependence risk on imported fuel. This is crucial towards ensuring a stronger, stabler market, and a core aspect to how we can play a role in helping drive Botswana’s growth.  Continued understanding, learning, and sustainable action are what will help ensure the Oil and Gas sector is supported towards positive, sustainable and impactful growth in a manner that brings social, environmental and economic benefit.
Loago Tshomane is Manager, Client Coverage, Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), Stanbic Bank Botswana
Opinions
Brands are important
So, the conclusion is brands are important. I start by concluding because one hopes this is a foregone conclusion given the furore that erupts over a botched brand. If a fast food chef bungles a food order, there’d be possibly some isolated complaint thrown. However, if the same company’s marketing expert or agency cooks up a tasteless brand there is a country-wide outcry. Why? Perhaps this is because brands affect us more deeply than we care to understand or admit. The fact that the uproar might be equal parts of schadenfreude, black twitter-esque criticism and, disappointment does not take away from the decibel of concern raised.
A good place to start our understanding of a brand is naturally by defining what a brand is. Marty Neumier, the genius who authored The Brand Gap, offers this instructive definition – “A brand is a person’s gut feel about a product or serviceâ€. In other words, a brand is not what the company says it is. It is what the people feel it is. It is the sum total of what it means to them. Brands are perceptions. So, brands are defined by individuals not companies. But brands are owned by companies not individuals. Brands are crafted in privacy but consumed publicly. Brands are communal. Granted, you say. But that doesn’t still explain why everybody and their pet dog feel entitled to jump in feet first into a brand slug-fest armed with a hot opinion. True. But consider the following truism.
Brands are living. They act as milestones in our past. They are signposts of our identity. Beacons of our triumphs. Indexes of our consumption. Most importantly, they have invaded our very words and world view. Try going for just 24 hours without mentioning a single brand name. Quite difficult, right? Because they live among us they have become one of us. And we have therefore built ‘brand bonds’ with them. For example, iPhone owners gather here. You love your iPhone. It goes everywhere. You turn to it in moments of joy and when we need a quick mood boost. Notice how that ‘relationship’ started with desire as you longingly gazed upon it in a glossy brochure. That quickly progressed to asking other people what they thought about it. Followed by the zero moment of truth were you committed and voted your approval through a purchase. Does that sound like a romantic relationship timeline. You bet it does. Because it is. When we conduct brand workshops we run the Brand Loyalty ™ exercise wherein we test people’s loyalty to their favourite brand(s). The results are always quite intriguing. Most people are willing to pay a 40% premium over the standard price for ‘their’ brand. They simply won’t easily ‘breakup’ with it. Doing so can cause brand ‘heart ache’. There is strong brand elasticity for loved brands.
Now that we know brands are communal and endeared, then companies armed with this knowledge, must exercise caution and practise reverence when approaching the subject of rebranding. It’s fragile. The question marketers ought to ask themselves before gleefully jumping into the hot rebranding cauldron is – Do we go for an Evolution (partial rebrand) or a Revolution(full rebrand)? An evolution is incremental. It introduces small but significant changes or additions to the existing visual brand. Here, think of the subtle changes you’ve seen in financial or FMCG brands over the decades. Evolution allows you to redirect the brand without alienating its horde of faithful followers. As humans we love the familiar and certain. Change scares us. Especially if we’ve not been privy to the important but probably blinkered ‘strategy sessions’ ongoing behind the scenes. Revolutions are often messy. They are often hard reset about-turns aiming for a total new look and ‘feel’.
Hard rebranding is risky business. History is littered with the agony of brands large and small who felt the heat of public disfavour. In January 2009, PepsiCo rebranded the Tropicana. When the newly designed package hit the shelves, consumers were not having it. The New York Times reports that ‘some of the commenting described the new packaging as ‘ugly’ ‘stupid’. They wanted their old one back that showed a ripe orange with a straw in it. Sales dipped 20%. PepsiCo reverted to the old logo and packaging within a month. In 2006 Mastercard had to backtrack away from it’s new logo after public criticism, as did Leeds United, and the clothing brand Gap. AdAge magazine reports that critics most common sentiment about the Gap logo was that it looked like something a child had created using a clip-art gallery. Botswana is no different. University of Botswana had to retreat into the comfort of the known and accepted heritage strong brand. Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital was badgered with complaints till it ‘adjusted’ its logo.
So if the landscape of rebranding is so treacherous then whey take the risk? Companies need to soberly assess they need for a rebrand. According to the fellows at Ignyte Branding a rebrand is ignited by the following admissions :
Our brand name no longer reflects our company’s vision.
We’re embarrassed to hand out our business cards.
Our competitive advantage is vague or poorly articulated.
Our brand has lost focus and become too complex to understand. Our business model or strategy has changed.
Our business has outgrown its current brand.
We’re undergoing or recently underwent a merger or acquisition. Our business has moved or expanded its geographic reach.
We need to disassociate our brand from a negative image.
We’re struggling to raise our prices and increase our profit margins. We want to expand our influence and connect to new audiences. We’re not attracting top talent for the positions we need to fill. All the above are good reasons to rebrand.
The downside to this debacle is that companies genuinely needing to rebrand might be hesitant or delay it altogether. The silver lining I guess is that marketing often mocked for its charlatans, is briefly transformed from being the Archilles heel into Thanos’ glove in an instant.
So what does a company need to do to safely navigate the rebranding terrain? Companies need to interrogate their brand purpose thoroughly. Not what they think they stand for but what they authentically represent when seen through the lens of their team members. In our Brand Workshop we use a number of tools to tease out the compelling brand truth. This section always draws amusing insights. Unfailingly, the top management (CEO & CFO)always has a vastly different picture of their brand to the rest of their ExCo and middle management, as do they to the customer-facing officer. We have only come across one company that had good internal alignment. Needless to say that brand is doing superbly well.
There is need a for brand strategies to guide the brand. One observes that most brands ‘make a plan’ as they go along. Little or no deliberate position on Brand audit, Customer research, Brand positioning and purpose, Architecture, Messaging, Naming, Tagline, Brand Training and may more. A brand strategy distils why your business exists beyond making money – its ‘why’. It defines what makes your brand what it is, what differentiates it from the competition and how you want your customers to perceive it. Lacking a brand strategy disadvantages the company in that it appears soul-less and lacking in personality. Naturally, people do not like to hang around humans with nothing to say. A brand strategy understands the value proposition. People don’t buy nails for the nails sake. They buy nails to hammer into the wall to hang pictures of their loved ones. People don’t buy make up because of its several hues and shades. Make up is self-expression. Understanding this arms a brand with an iron clad clad strategy on the brand battlefield.
But perhaps you’ve done the important research and strategy work. It’s still possible to bungle the final look and feel. A few years ago one large brand had an extensive strategy done. Hopes were high for a top tier brand reveal. The eventual proposed brand was lack-lustre. I distinctly remember, being tasked as local agency to ‘land’ the brand and we outright refused. We could see this was a disaster of epic proportions begging to happen. The brand consultants were summoned to revise the logo. After a several tweaks and compromises the brand landed. It currently exists as one of the country’s largest brands. Getting the logo and visual look right is important. But how does one know if they are on the right path? Using the simile of a brand being a person – The answer is how do you know your outfit is right? It must serve a function, be the right fit and cut, it must be coordinated and lastly it must say something about you. So it is possible to bath in a luxurious bath gel, apply exotic lotion, be facebeat and still somehow wear a faux pas outfit. Avoid that.
Another suggestion is to do the obvious. Pre-test the logo and its look and feel on a cross section of your existing and prospective audience. There are tools to do this. Their feedback can save you money, time and pain. Additionally one must do another obvious check – use Google Image to verify the visual outcome and plain Google search to verify the name. These are so obvious they are hopefully for gone conclusions. But for the brands that have gone ahead without them, I hope you have not concluded your brand journeys as there is a world of opportunity waiting to be unlocked with the right brand strategy key.
Cliff Mada is Head of ArmourGetOn Brand Consultancy, based in Gaborone and Cape Town.
cliff@armourgeton.com