08/07/2019
This is a slide from a recent presentation on Crisis Management for event organised by .
Common approach by Ugandan brands is to think big and great about themselves. Just because people may like you, it does not mean you should stop doing the job of continuous brand-building.
Great attention is given to Advertising, Media and PR budgets. Because there is money to spend, there is also money to make.
Somewhere down the line brands also remember to include Social Media. This usually means that all friends, popularly known as ínfluencers' turn up on the payroll with little measurable outcome. Often, too, they don't even get paid - they do the work for merchandise and glory, while SM budget goes for something else.
Actual product and service development is somewhere down the chain. Brands tend to do as little as possible to make their products and services affordable and more appealing. If the brand is making money, that's enough. What customers want is secondary.
Finally, all the money-making prevents the brand from thinking about it's own people. People who make the brand are way down the food chain. Their needs are usually not considered nor satisfied.
What you see in between are Gaps In Thinking. Lazy brand and department managers, unproductive meetings of people with poor interpersonal relations, internal squabbles and so on, can not deliver the creative and proactive thinking that any brand deserves in order to stand out.
The very last thing brands think about is the Crisis Management Plan. We are happy-go-lucky people, crisis happens to others, not to us. So when it strikes, brands often appear like headless chicken, running and bleeding in all directions, with everyone trying to say something smart to rescue the situation. All in unprofessional, uncoordinated and damaging way.
