Jul 30, 2012 at 8:55pm

Participants at Citi FM's Brandstorming workshop that ended last Friday left feeling more empowered to leverage their brands hoping to eventually create global ones in future.

This is after world brand expert Brad Van Auken took some marketing managers, brand managers and heads of business institutions among others through the secrets of creating such strong brands.

The two-day workshop saw some of the top companies in the Financial, Manufacturing and Services sectors gain insight into ways of strengthening and creating compelling brands. Some of the companies include Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, GLICO Life, Golden Tulip Hotel, Starlife Assurance among others.

There were also several entrepreneurs and private businesses who were also at the workshop to gain insight into how they can leverage on their brands. Some of the participants who spoke to citifmonlone.com described the event as very useful and their interactions with Brad Van Auken, “a rare opportunity” which they look forward to again in future.

One of the participants Yvonne in an interview with citifmonlone.com said “I used to confuse a product with a brand, but I now know they are two different things. I now have a different approach all together about how to build my company’s brand. I think this the kind of knowledge we need as business people and we thank Citi FM for such a great event.
On his part, Mr. Auken also said he thoroughly enjoyed his interactions with the participant who he described as “very knowledgeable about their business”.

He also said “I see great potential in them and I believe they can affect their brands in several ways to achieve the purposes of gathering here. They just need to keep at the good things they have learned from here and do away with the ‘No Nos’ of trying to build a brand”.
Author of Brand Aid and the Brand Management Checklist, Brad Van Auken is a brand veteran with over 20 years of experience in building world class brands.

He is the President and Founder of Brand Forward Inc. (Brand consultancy) and Chief Branding Strategist for Brand Cool Marketing and The persBlane Project (full service marketing agencies).

Day one of the workshop looked at the fundamentals of branding with topics such as; What powerful brands are, Why powerful brands are important to businesses, brand essence, brand positioning, brand differentiation, brand promise and brand architecture.

Day Two focused on customer touch points, services branding, brand communications, avoiding common brand mistakes and aligning organizations in support of powerful brands.


By: Nana Boakye-Yiadom/citifmonline.com/Ghana