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Selling to Excel Lands NOVELPOTTA Y&R in Prison

M2 — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:26:07 +0000

Crime, and not ignorance, sends people to the big house, as the agency’s team discovers
For NOVELPOTTA Y&R prison team, April April 5-6 marked a return to Ikoyi Prisons. To celebrate the agency’s fifth anniversary five years ago, the team had visited the big house behind the walls and engaged the inmates in creative workshops. In the three-man team comprising the creative director, a senior art director and a copywriter, it was only the senior art director who had been part of the fifth anniversary delegation. The anniversary itself climaxes next month.
Inside the prisons, the team, led by Obarewo Ayodele, principal of the prison school, was given a welcoming smile. The inmates always realised that any outsider would only be there for their own good. Before the team had been led 20 metres, they came to a hall filled with well-arranged plastic chairs occupied by a handful of inmates sitting in different arrangements, learning or discussing the subjects of their interest. A physics class was going on and the other blackboards held other subjects like Chemistry, English and French.
The pervasive learning atmosphere reordered the team’s expectations. Contrary to their stereotypical assessment of inmates’ learning abilities, crime and not illiteracy had made them prisoners. The principal returned to the hall with a middle-aged man, grinning as though the team had kept their promise to secure his release. With him was another man who was hailed as ‘pastor’. When the class eventually settled down, ‘pastor’ was in the front row! The middle-aged man recalled that NOVELPOTTA Y&R held a similar seminar five years earlier and that the participants were issued with certificates. His recollection left a stamp of pride and commitment on the team.
Twenty inmates had registered for the workshop titled Selling to Excel, a module in the Creativity Unbound series of the agency’s anniversary programme. But some other inmates formed knots of passive participants inside the hall. Once the workshop was underway, there were early signs of a great time. Perhaps, it was the delivery strategy or the inmates’ own level of understanding, but the class had a life that had not been expected of it.
Selling to Excel was conceptualised to provide the participants with the importance and basic elements of ‘selling’ from advertising point of view. This was considered appropriate against the background of participants’ imminent release into the larger society to enable them present their latent skills and talents in the best way that could provoke their target market to action. They were told of the overriding importance of the unique selling point (USP) of every brand and how that could align with strong messaging and appropriate targeting to give the brand a top-of-the-mind place in the consciousness of the consumer. The principles of design were not left out and altogether the first day was enough to prepare everyone for the next day after the 20 participants had been formed into five groups of four people each with the task of developing their own brand and concept. Workshop Day 1 came to a close with item seven!
When the next day’s business commenced, the previous day’s points were refreshed and set as the background. As time came for the presentations, the team expected some form of hesitation but a wave of well-founded enthusiasm swept through the hall. The groups were ready with their works! The materials were pinned to the blackboard in front of everyone. That marked the first real surprise. The respective groups had chosen varied imaginary brands thus ruling out the possibility of any collaboration between any of the groups. The team was compelled to wonder whether it was the knowledge acquired from the previous day’s exercise or that advertising creativity was something they had been praying for the right opportunity to demonstrate. Their critique of the respective team’s work was as incisive as the materials were engaging.
Obviously, they recognised that in generating advertising concepts, a sense of perspective is to be kept. This was thrown up in reaction to an idea that a participant felt bordered on sheer puffery. And, of course, they identified that in a communication material, all the elements should share a common direction of meaning, for how would a smooth road be deployed in positioning a tyre brand as “big, strong, reliable”? In the general critique that engulfed the class, it was advanced that a rough road should have been deployed as an appropriate surface for selling the ruggedness of the brand. There was evidence of the participants’ acquaintance with certain brands as one of them identified the aforementioned three words as the payoff of a popular bank. That said, it was noted that freshness and originality are key to creativity.
But for time, the critical evaluation of the ideas and art direction would have stretched into late afternoon. Given the circumstances, the ideas were adjudged great. The five groups demonstrated the basic knowledge and concept of Selling to Excel through advertising as enunciated at the workshop, and at the closing stages, there was an atmosphere of confidence about advertising that each of the participants could release from their creative depth when they rejoin the society. Excited as the workshop cruised to a close, they were delighted to know that certificates were going to be awarded. But just before then, the team coordinator had wished them well in and out of the prisons and prayed that none of them would be a participant at the next edition of Creativity Unbound. Of course, it was received with a thunderous “Amennnn!!!”
Soon, the Managing Director of NOVELPOTTA Y&R, Mr Celey Okogun joined the workshop, just as he did five years ago. Their participants’ gratitude was overwhelming as they broke into a closing prayer and vote of thanks. The certificates were awarded to the 20 participants but two inmates, one of whom is handicapped, requested to be issued with certificates for they had been passive participants. And they got it! The principal of the prison school will be awarded his own certificate at the agency’s 10th anniversary grand finale in June.

My Country; My Chivita: Which Country?

M2 — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:20:56 +0000

Kenneth O. Eze
Jean-Marc Lehu might not have any brand that can lay claim to Nigerian roots in mind in scripting his 2006 book, ‘Brand Rejuvenation.’ In the book, he touched creatively on the life cycle of brands, comprising birth, growth, maturity, decline or rejuvenation and death (following decline or failure to rejuvenate). According to Lehu, once a brand progresses to maturity, the natural course is to sojourn towards death but it behoves the owners or custodians to tow the path of rejuvenation, to save the brand from death and make more money from it.
‘It is a standard life cycle. It has the merit of attracting the attention of the brand manager to the logical sequence that the brand may follow,’ Lehu points out. The matter of life cycle touches on Chivita and its advertisement with which it tries to engage Nigerians as one of their own. What a way to blend with a people than to naturalise in their domain.
But Chivita from an invariably proudly Indian corporation, through its campaign ‘my country, my Chivita,’ seems in search of the Nigerian passport, while jealously preserving for itself the white, red, green and blue colours of the Indian national flag. These lines of thought and logic are difficult to fault, given the story behind the brand. However, custodians of this brand need to know that the jackboot has made way for the Agbada in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s democracy is approaching its 12th anniversary, with the first eight years under the leadership of Olusegun Obasanjo, a proud native who attended no official function in colonial robes. His successor, Umaru Yar’Adua walked in the same path until he joined his ancestors. Goodluck Jonathan is famous for his Niger Delta swagger, showing no deviation from his predecessors.
These three leaders are proud to display Nigeria’s cultural badge globally through native attires and this is beginning to rub-off on the national psyche. Chivita had better factor the paradigm shift into its marketing communications and customer engagement messages for the Nigerian market, or devise other means of engaging the people of Nigeria in more meaningfully.
Antony Young and Lucy Aitken in their 2007 book, ‘Profitable Marketing Communications,’ have apt words that might be of interest to Chivita and those feeding from its continuous success. ‘The need to rejuvenate extends far beyond old-fashioned consumer insights; it’s more about being relevant to the consumer, so we are welcomed on their terms. Marketers encourage huge advertisement spend, but if advertisement messages are good, there is evidence that it works.’ Chivita might need to reconsider its nativity stunt.
Al Ries and Jack Trout in their 1993 book ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing,’ counsel that it hurts to inject ‘ego in the marketing process.’ Astute marketers, they maintain, ‘put themselves in the shoes of their customers. They put themselves in the shoes of their customers.’ Chivita has attained a measure of success, but the brand must wake up to the reality that success can be a path to failure unless wise counsel as propounded by these authorities cited above are taken. The brand’s desire to engage Nigerians and be identified as proudly Nigerian must factor-in the rich cultural heritage as well the currency of the people’s psyche. It must also consider the prospects (yearnings of the country and her peoples) to enable it position (rejuvenate) effectively for continuous success.
The owners of the brand ought not to be focusing on sales figures only for measurement of brand health, as decline may be gradual, as is most often the case. It may not have even started in this particular case, but word of mouth on the advertisement and television commercial, TVC is likely to begin influencing purchase decisions sooner than later, assuming it has not started eroded market share.
Ries and Trout posit that people are not easily swayed back, once they have turned against brands. ‘People don’t like to change their minds,’ they state. ‘Once they perceive you one way, that’s it,’ they sum it. This brand might have tried connecting with the people of Nigeria by placing a national badge on itself, but it must wake up to realities. Times have changed. Limca, a carbonated drink that plied a similar route in the 1990s may be a good lesson for Chivita.
Country music maestro, Don Williams in one of his popular songs made it clear that, ‘every gambler knows the secret to survival; knowing when to hold on, knowing when to run.’ Williams counsels investors, not gamblers ‘you never count your money while seated at the table.’ For Chivita’s campaign of nativity, it looks like now is the time to run for life or defy the laws and thrive.

Bargain Hunting Returns Market CAP above N6trillion in 5days Rally

M2 — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:28:34 +0000

Proshare
Bargain activities continued the extended positive outlook recorded last week as value investors remained committed to equity haunting. This week, the Nigerian Equity market recorded an outstanding position and brighter prospect for the weeks ahead as the market marked the third weekly upbeat in a row with 5days bullish run to return to N6 trillion capitalization.
Market bagged N654.30billion in 14days on the heels of continued positive market sentiments to defile fragile investors’ confidence. So far into last quarter of the year (Q42010), the market has added N325.88 billion to investors’ stake as attractive low valuation of selected equities remained the driver.
Also, in the same vein, the All Share Index opened the week by 1.83 percent upswing, an impressive opening for the week, to continue the growing positive trend inherited from preceding week. NSE All Share Index rides on positive market sentiments to survive the swings in five days rally with positive growing market breath. Active bargain tendency dominated the transaction activities in the week as Friday recorded significant surge by 2.42 percent to close ASI higher at new high of 25,077.73 with aggregate upbeat of 5.49 percent.
In the week, the management of NSE increased tempo on reviving market confidence, announcing delisting of 5 quoted firms that failed to conform to post listing requirements of Exchange. The delisting was scheduled for November 16 2010, as a way of instilling discipline in the market. The companies are: West Africa Aluminium Products Plc, Flexible Packaging Plc, Krabo Nigeria Plc, Newpak Plc, and Tropical Petroleum Products Plc. (www.proshareng.com/news/12260)
All the NSE-sectoral Index closed for the week in positive positions as NSE Food & Beverages topped by 10.56 percent, followed by NSE Banking with an upbeat 0f 5.66 percent, NSE 30 gained by 5.41 percent, NSE Insurance appreciated by 4.36 percent while NSE Oil & Gas moved from negative position to gain by 3.46 percent.
In the week, the share price of following companies was marked down;
1. Chellarams Plc: was marked for dividend of 8k, Payment date 14th Oct, 2010.
2. Custodian & Allied Assurance Plc: was marked for dividend of 6k, Payment date 14th Oct, 2010.
However, the All-Share Index in the week under review gained by 5.49 percent to close at 25,077.73 as against an upbeat of 3.13 percent recorded last week to close at 23,772.40
In the same vein, the market capitalization in the week gained by N319.85 billion (US$2.16 billion) to close at N6.14 trillion (US$ 41.64 billion) as against appreciation of N176.87 billion (US$1.19 billion) recorded last week to close at N5.82 trillion (US39.47 billion).
The total volume traded in the week closed at 1.32 billion units valued at N11.53 billion (US$78.16 million) compared with 2.04 billion units valued at N17.98 billion (US$121.92 million) exchanged in 28,785 deals last week. The volume transaction in the week when compared with the previous week data moved down by -35.41 percent as against volume growth by 51.91 percent recorded last week. Weekly value however went up by 35.89 percent as against an upbeat of 58.34 percent recorded last week.

The CEO’s Guide to Corporate Finance

M2 — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:27:28 +0000

Four principles can help you make great financial decisionseven when the CFO’s not in the room.
Richard Dobbs, Bill Huyett, and Tim Koller
It’s one thing for a Chief Financial Officer, CFO to understand the technical methods of valuation and for members of the finance organisation to apply them to help line managers monitor and improve company performance. But it’s still more powerful when CEOs, board members, and other non financial executives internalise the principles of value creation. Doing so allows them to make independent, courageous and even unpopular business decisions in the face of myths and misconceptions about what creates value.
When an organisation’s senior leaders have a strong financial compass, it’s easier for them to resist the siren songs of financial engineering, excessive leverage and the idea (common during boom times) that somehow the established rules of economics no longer apply. Misconceptions like thesewhich can lead companies to make value-destroying decisions and slow down entire economiestake hold with surprising and disturbing ease.
What we hope to do in this article is show how four principles, or cornerstones, can help senior executives and board members make some of their most important decisions. The four cornerstones are disarmingly simple:
1. The core-of-value principle establishes that value creation is a function of returns on capital and growth, while highlighting some important subtleties associated with applying these concepts.
2. The conservation-of-value principle says that it doesn’t matter how you slice the financial pie with financial engineering, share repurchases, or acquisitions; only improving cash flows will create value.
3. The expectations treadmill principle explains how movements in a company’s share price reflect changes in the stock market’s expectations about performance, not just the company’s actual performance (in terms of growth and returns on invested capital). The higher those expectations, the better that company must perform just to keep up.
4. The best-owner principle states that no business has an inherent value in and of itself; it has a different value to different owners or potential ownersa value based on how they manage it and what strategy they pursue.
Ignoring these cornerstones can lead to poor decisions that erode the value of companies. Consider what happened during the run-up to the financial crisis that began in 2007. Participants in the securitised-mortgage market all assumed that securitising risky home loans made them more valuable because it reduced the risk of the assets. But this notion violates the conservation-of-value rule. Securitisation did not increase the aggregated cash flows of the home loans, so no value was created, and the initial risks remained. Securitising the assets simply enabled the risks to be passed on to other owners: some investors, somewhere, had to be holding them.
Obvious as this seems in hindsight, a great many smart people missed it at the time. And the same thing happens every day in executive suites and board rooms as managers and company directors evaluate acquisitions, divestitures, projects, and executive compensation. As we’ll see, the four cornerstones of finance provide a perennially stable frame of reference for managerial decisions like these.
Source: www.mckinseyquarterly.com

Now Muzik Signs Terry G, Timi Dakolo

M2 — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:53:29 +0000

Blessing Nwobodo
Now Muzik, a foremost management and entertainment solutions outfit with a list of top artiste on its label has teamed up with Terry G, the Ginger Ur Swagger crooner and Timi Dakolo, winner of West African Idol, to up their ante in the ever bubbling Nigerian entertainment industry.
Now Muzik and Timi Dakolo are currently putting finishing touches to an early 2011 release of the artiste aptly-titled debut, Beautiful Noise. It will be recalled that only recently Dakolo’s Heaven Please, a song dedicated to his grandmother who was a big influence on his musical career, won the Hip Hop World Award for Recording of the Year from a highly rated poll of nominees.
The artiste has also performed on some of the biggest stages, including Thisday Music Festival, Africa Magic Anniversary, Pink Ball, Hennessy Artistry Show, to mention a few.

Starcomms Bags Hall of Fame Awards

M2 — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:51:31 +0000

Ralph Tathagata
Starcomms has won the CDMA awards at the 2010 African Telecommunications Hall of Fame Awards. Maher Qubain, CEO, Starcomms was also adjudged Telecommunications CEO of the year.
The awards, formerly known as the Nigerian Information Technology and Telecommunication Awards, is instituted to appreciate those who have ensured the rapid development of the information technology especially telecommunication in Nigeria.
Richard Gill, marketing director, Starcomms, who represented the CEO at the event noted that the company’s, ‘performance this year at the African Telecommunications Hall of Fame is a firm revalidation of our commitment to delivering excellent services to our customers in the country. Moreover, it is also a challenge for us to maintain the global standard of our offering to the public, which have kept us on top of our sector in the industry.’
In addition, he says that, ‘The recognition given to us through the awards has put us on our toes to provide continuing value and innovation to our customers. And they can be sure of our unwavering commitment to always surpass our own standards in serving them.’

Zain to Downsize

M2 — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:49:51 +0000

Blessing Nwobodo
There are indications that Zain Nigeria would be downsizing the workforce as part of efforts to reposition itself in the telecom industry.
A source at the company who spoke with M2 on terms of anonymity reveals that the telecoms company is planning to reduce the number of staff in its employ and replace them with contract staff. He says, ‘there are some of us who have worked for the company for five years and what they are saying now is to lay us off and then sign us back on as contract staff. This is unfair but there is nothing we can do.’
He claims that the development is not unconnected to the fact that the new owner Bharti Airtel Nigeria is said to have a penchant for casualising labour wherever it operates.
Efforts to reach Emeka Opara, head of corporate communications, Zain Nigeria , as at the time of report on the development proved abortive.
Bharti Airtel International of India in July officially announced its acquisition of Zain Africa in a $10.7 billion deal to become the world’s fifth largest mobile operator with 180 million subscribers in 18 Asian and African nations.

Cerebral Consult Pioneers Tricycle Ad

M2 — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:10:01 +0000

Ralph Tathagata
Cerebral Consult, a media communications agency based in Lagos has embarked on the professional branding of commercial tricycles, known as Keke NAPEP, in Nigeria . The concept is to provide a platform for brands to catch on for visibility.
According to Tunde Ogidan, head of strategy/special project department at Cerebral Consult, ‘At Cerebral Consult, we reinvent business process to generate proceeds and values with the goal of attaining the premium position and visibility needed for brand, hence our invention of the Out-of-Home Tricycle Ad Concept to proffer better and more cost effective alternative to other high rates outdoor hoardings.’
Comparing the concept with conventional out-of-home, he says, ‘What we offer holds commuters and pedestrians as captive audience as it is a must-see ad display and provides avenue for effective message penetration and product recognition. As a mobile means of advertising, it provides wider reach of ad campaign as it would permeate areas where static billboards cannot reach.’
M2, however, gathers that the company has been registered and endorsed by LASAA and Lagos State Ministry of Transport even as discussion is ongoing to introduce the concept in Abuja , Port Harcourt , Ogun and Abia States.

Investors react to FCMB’s Finbank Takeover

M2 — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:09:01 +0000

Kenneth O. Eze
The prospect of an FCMB takeover of Finbank has heightened investors’ interest in the FCMB stock, driving the value upwards from N6 where trading opened on it on Friday October 22, 2010.
Insiders at FCMB that spoke under anonymity give insight on the deal, ‘We have made a bid. I think ours is the preferred bid but we have not been announced as the winner yet.’ Reuters quotes an unnamed source at Finbank indicating FCMB was the preferred bidder.
Nigeria’s central bank rescued nine lenders deemed to be dangerously undercapitalised in a $4 billion bailout last year and has since been seeking new investors to recapitalise them. It will be recalled that Sanusi Lamido, Central Bank Governor, said recently that five or six of the rescued lenders would be announcing negotiations with potential suitors in the coming weeks. He also affirmed last August that the CBN had received bids for four of the rescued banks and that foreign institutions were involved in the bidding process as well as several local banks and private equity firms.
Stock valuation of First City Monument Bank FCMB, remains stable at the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE, after the upsurge that greeted news of the bank’s emergence as preferred bidder to take over Finbank. The news that filtered out on October 29, 2010 saw the price rise by 4.7 percent to 66 kobo that day, according Reuters.
The initial optimism seems to be dying down, as the stock went down marginally on Tuesday November 2, 2010 with the price closing at N7.28, down by 2 kobo, having opened at N7.30. Investors’ interest in the stock saw it traded at a peak price of N7.49 at the floor of the exchange same day. Volume traded was 7,241,674 in 128 deals.
Finbank was created out of a merger between First Atlantic Bank, Inland Bank and IMB Bank during consolidation four years ago. According to Reuters, ‘analysts consider it a ripe acquisition target because it offers a niche business and a potential acquirer will not exceed the market share rules set by the central bank.’

Nigeria Nominees Dominate MAMAs

M2 — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:07:32 +0000

Ralph Tathagata
In a year that has produced the highest number of nominations, Nigerian artistes have got the most nominations in the 2010 MTV Africa Music Awards, MAMAs.
What makes the Nigerian sweep of nominations significant is that for the first time nominations are coming from an expanded field, which includes Francophone and Lusophone artistes.
In a statement made available to M2, Rajan Swaroop, CEO Zain Nigeria , says, ‘The fact that Nigerian artists have scooped many nominations is a proof that investment in the industry is paying off. We at Zain Nigeria are committed to supporting our artistes through various initiatives that showcase the pool of talent in this great nation.’
Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer, Airtel Africa, also explains that, ‘The nominations have shown the universality of music and the fact all genres strike a chord and a cross-over appeal with Africa ‘s youth regardless of their nationality. We are happy to be associated with a platform that recognises and celebrates the rich musical heritage that positively depicts culture from across Africa .’
Commending the nominated artistes, Alex Okosi, senior vice president and managing director, MTV Networks Africa, says, ‘This year’s MAMA is even more representative of the growth of the pan-African music scene and the added emphasis on Lusophone and Francophone artists makes this the most exciting MAMA nominations race that we have seen so far. We congratulate all the artists on their nominations and wish them success on December 11th in Lagos.’