Upholding Nigeria key to companies brands growth – Bruce

Chairman of Silverbird Group, Ben Bruce has told Nigerian advertisers who spend over N100 billion annually on brand promotions that for their individual products to attract global recognition, they should focus on upholding and protecting Nigeria as a brand using the media as a strong vehicle.

 Speaking last weekend in Lagos at the second edition of Advertisers day, a day set aside by Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) to examine issues and equip their members for the future, Bruce said for brands to be successful, advertisers and other stakeholders must care about the country and the people.

 “How do we become successful if we ruin the foundation of the country called Nigeria? If you cannot protect and develop your country what brand are we building?” The media mogul who emphasized on the power of media told the advertisers that they need to protect the Nigerian brand first to allow the individual brands to grow.

 In building Nigeria as a strong brand, Bruce who has over 30 scholarship students, including those he picked on the streets, in various schools challenged businessmen and women to take up social responsibility outside their CEO functions.

 Looking at Boko Haram and its impact on the national life, Bruce said the issue of Boko Haram has happened three times in the history of Nigeria. The first was the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970 when Nigeria won the war against Biafra but Biafra won the propaganda war through the media.

 The second significant event was in 2001 when he wanted to organize Miss World in Nigeria. Then there was pregnant Aminia Lawal who was to be stoned to death because she had a child outside wedlock in Katsina. To make it worse, a report on one of the national dailies on the Miss World provoked a riot in Kaduna where over 200 people died.

 He regretted that no statement was issued to stop the crisis because “nobody understood that as the world was changing we need to change our mindset to deal with the issues of the world”

 Delving into education sector to buttress the need for structural changes for demands of today, he said the curriculum for education in Nigeria was set up in 1950s and since then it has remained like that. “Does that curriculum deal with requirement of companies today? We have fundamental problems we must address and education is one and the biggest problem is compassion which is a major requirement for leadership”.

 Explainng on the significance of the adverters’s day, the president of ADVAN, Kola Oyeyemi said the marketing environment is a living organism and changes happen every second. “It is therefore important that marketers gather at periodic times to observe and check within the environment the goings on and check within the environment how we remain at the cutting edge of  technology and concept that will help move the industry forward, drive brands and products and ensure that the economy keeps turning and every body gets better”.