Brandzone CEO explains appointment as jury board member of global Rebrand 100
Chizor Malize, Managing Partner/CEO, Brandzone Consulting, a strategy led Nigerian organization, has given further insight of her recent appointment as African continent representative in to jury board for the Rebrand 100 Global Awards 2016.
The Rebrand 100 Global Awards in its tenth year is an international and world’s most respected juried award that aims to honour the best in effective brand transformations. The competition brings together brands of different segments across several countries, prizing the most original initiatives and outstanding brand design work. The process presents great opportunities to brands and brand design experts from all over the world to showcase their talents and expertise.
“As African representative in to the New York- based 10-man board for the 2016 global award, my appointment was based on credentials and parameters that are already set. The appointment, without prior application is strictly on merit as the board is looking for people who have deep experience, expertise in the area of brand design, people who have done it and created the multiplicity in the regions they operate”.
Chizor whose organization drives branding from strategy to design and to execution, processes required for appropriate and effective brand building has worked for ValuCard as brand manager, organization that set up the process of using card payment as against cash which was revolutionary. She also worked as head of product and marketing at Standard Trust Bank/ UBA. She later moved to Bankphb, a former bank that was noted for is differentiation and distinction in marketing communication
The brand strategist also worked at Access Bank as head of marketing and branding between 2006 and 2010 before starting Brandzone five years ago.
“ Starting Brandzone was as a result of, after all extensive work in all of these places, it becomes necessary to create a platform where we can use these skills to help in multiplicity of organizations rather than just been stuck in one. At Brandzone, it has been interesting, in line with that vision to bring about intervention beyond one organisation, we have been able to drive our impact across robust sectors including financial services, oil and gas operation, airlines and hospitality industry”
Assessing businesses post election and the pressure on businesses, Chizor who recognized the present pressure on global economy said with or without election, Nigerians would have still felt the pressure on the economy as Nigeria does not operate in isolation.
She said the present global development challenges businesses to become smarter. “Businesses must find ingenious ways of doing things to come out of challenges and be ahead and lead the game. Marketing communication cannot continue to complain. What practitioners need to do is to begin to find scalable solutions more ingenious ways to deliver services to their clients to grow. For instance, at Brandzone we come with expertise, experience, strategy and clients can see what that amounts to in terms of cost savings and revenue drive”
On Nigeria’s brand, Chizor said Nigeria’s image is still evolving but regretted lack of strategic effort towards creating a strong brand. According to her, a lot of positive activities are happening in patches which need to be aggregated for a holistic branding strategy. “As a nation we need to aggregate these quick wins in to good success stories we can export”.