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GEPA sensitise women entrepreneurs to branding
The programme, which took place at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in Accra on Friday, was aimed at helping women entrepreneurs to position themselves in ways that could drive sales of their products.
Women who could not make it to the event, including those outside the country, joined through Zoom.
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The women’s group was founded by the Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Dr Afua Asabea Asare, with the goal of bringing female entrepreneurs together to share ideas, support one another and brief them on some of the facilities offered by GEPA and how they could take advantage to develop themselves.
The event dubbed, “Time with the Brand Expert” tackled areas such as personal branding, networking and product branding.
In her opening address, Dr Asare said there were a number of institutions at GEPA that were willing to guide entrepreneurs on export certification, including rooms for meetings at no cost.
She mentioned the Food and Drugs Authority, the Ghana Standard Authority and the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as some of the in-house institutions that were ready to assist entrepreneurs.
“This is actually the place to be if you want to be a business entrepreneur and a very good one at that. We are here to support you. We have meeting rooms and you can come in here to have meetings with your potential clients. We are here to help you grow,” she stated.
Touching on branding, she explained that “it is what people think about you when they see you. How you present yourself to people is your brand. Whichever way we present ourselves, people see us as that as well as our products. Today, we will learn about how to position ourselves and our business”.
A Brand Expert, Ms Anne Sackey, said it was necessary for people to introduce and position themselves or a product with a consistency in creating contents around it.
That, she said, gave potential customers a chance to become more acquainted with the individual or the product.
By showcasing the product, “your brand strategy creates a personality that comes to the mind of the consumer. It is okay to attach yourself to your product but it all depends on the kind of product,” she said.
She said a product must come with unique and easy to pronounce brand names. Explaining that a product name should be able to relate to the product in some way, offering an idea about the purpose, benefits and quality of the products.
The brand expert with over 25 years experience in media, telecommunications, brands, entertainment and cosmetics, also explained that sometimes a product name might not relate in any way with the product but with consistent messaging, it could become a household name, citing Apple technology products as an example.
In business, she said, the tagline should be a permanent expression of the company’s greater purpose and mission because it is possible for customers to remember the tagline even more than the brand name.
On starting a personal branding journey, Ms Sackey said the key element was identifying strengths in terms of what an individual was good at by consistently building on it.
Adding that “what are your gifts? What do people love about you? What are your life lessons? What are you passionate about? Who are you becoming? Ask yourself some questions, in that way you will find your authentic brand voice”.