Today at the market place there are millions of brands competing for the share of the market. Thus, why is branding so key to an organisation? Let us start off with an understanding of what is a brand.  Simply put, a brand is a promise. At a personal level, a brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. So how can you ensure your corporate communications create the kind of a brand image that would make you proud to be a fly on the wall in your market?

It’s rare to find a company with a genuinely unique selling point, that is why to form a strong brand image and message, organizations or individuals need to think hard about anything that differentiates them. Often companies say their people make them different, but unless they have a truly unusual working culture, that’s unlikely. Better managed organisations always brand their organisation from the inside. Leaders begin by trying to discover what the organisation is good at, what it is proud of, and known for, and then build the brand promise around these existing strengths.

The existence of the strengths is derived from what the company stand for, typically focusing on the brand from the inside and outside. When your internal team doesn’t respond with appropriate enthusiasm for the brand promise, they work with heads of operations to flog the business into behaving the way they think it should. This breeds calamity to the organisation. Imagine leading an institution where an understanding of a brand promise is lacking, the workforce don’t behave, the brand doesn’t deliver while operating at the midst of many competing brand interests.

It should be noted, that brands are built around ‘the relentless pursuit of perfection’. As one would expect of a Safaricom company, there’s a strong emphasis on quality of services delivered, but this is taken to a whole new level through innovation, good governance practices, all round marketing concept and the corporate social responsibility among other virtues. It’s not simply about quality of fit and finish, but about seeking out and delivering on the little details that create as close to a perfect delivery experience as possible. For employees, this means the emphasis is on behaviours aligned to what the company’s good at delivering to its vision. All the above strategically packaged and presented to the company’s stakeholders enables brand positioning.

Brand positioning sets the direction of marketing activities and programs, what the brand should and should not do with its marketing. Brand positioning involves establishing key brand associations in the minds of customers and other important constituents to differentiate the brand and establish competitive superiority (Keller et al. 2002). Besides the obvious issue of selecting tangible product attribute levels (e.g., ‘M-PESA, Mshwari etc.), two particularly relevant areas to positioning are the role of brand intangibles and the role of corporate images and reputation of your organisation.

As you endeavor to fulfill your branding strategy, it’s essential to have your staff on board, ensure the brand has its own story. This approach is effective because storytelling is a fundamental part of human nature and it allows players to position their brands in human terms, rather than sterile marketing.

How do you ensure consistency and longevity? There is power in brand measurement, accountability and understanding. To manage brand equity (or anything) requires current, valid data. This includes diagnostic data about why the brand is where it is. Few brand owners do this well. Endeavour to understand systematically how your brand is perceived. Also consider accountability issue in relation to marketing metrics such as market share, customer loyalty, relative price and relative perceived quality. Leaders and Managers should make it their daily tea to seeing these metrics regularly and report the main ones to shareholders for strategic decision making.

Organisations contribute to the destruction of their brands through communication. A variety of brand messages just leads to confusion in the consumer’s mind.  As a leader in marketing, adapt to play to the media’s strengths and use the channels to the advancement of your brand’s ideals such as building your brand, the quality of goods or services and innovation while maintaining your organizational core values.

If you’ve already gained understanding and engagement from your people as part of the brand formulation process, this will stand you in good stead. Marketing teams can and should drive consistency of brand design, language and brand presentation across all media channels and forms of communication. Be able to drive and support the same messages internally as you do externally and in return this could double the power and performance of your communications campaigns at any given time.

Consider brand management as a solution when it comes to getting corporate communications right while embracing the complex and messy media environment for what it potent to your brand filled with unpredictable highs and lows.

Brand: Product and communications planning must work together as part of a cohesive whole. They’re often the responsibility of separate teams that don’t talk to each other enough. A unifying strategy and joined-up planning are critical.     
 Research: Communications activity can so often look great but miss the target with the wrong tone, language, imagery or media. The cornerstone of relevant, effective communications is insight, derived from rigorous research. Yet often this is the first part of the budget to be cut – in my view, a massive mistake. After all, without insight where’s the competitive edge coming from?

Control: Maintaining brand discipline across markets, languages and outlets is tough. An efficient online resource or library is a pre-requisite, centrally controlled, interactive and really easy to use. And, as a general principle, keep brand rules and regulations stripped out and simple.

Flexibility: With a seemingly unending variety of media available, understanding the relevance of each channel to different consumers on different occasions is vital. It is also critical to plan content and creative to work powerfully in each channel.

Engagement: In an age of social media, dialogue and engagement, we often seem stuck in a one-way street. It’s time to shift into listening mode and embrace interaction and transparency as more than just an afterthought handled by the web team.

As I conclude, it should be noted that, there are many technical and commercial reasons why companies are valuing their brands. Unlike the days when brand managers were messengers in briefing PR firms. Today they are more likely to be rubbing shoulders with key decision makers in finance for the corporate business. Brand managers have to be aware of how, when and why to value brands. Branding is big business and managing it determines your future survival and profitability at the market play.

The writer is a Chartered Marketer and Communications professional and can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com

It is widely recognized that location images greatly influences tourist destination choices. The images of a location play a significant role in influencing tourist’s decision-making process as the basis for where to visit (Gartner 1989; Echtner & Ritchie 1991). This is based on the favor-ability of a location of choice.

Butler (1990) suggests that films can influence the travel preferences of those who are exposed to the destination attributes and create a favorable travel destination. Film provides knowledge of certain aspects of the destination such as nature, culture and people which result in the construction of the key attitudes towards the country.

Film, is used as an influence to viewer’s choices to travel by the physical attributes and their associated themes, story-lines, events and actors, influencing the audience’ feelings, emotion and attitudes towards the location. Locations and film experiences are enhanced in memories by associating them with the actors, events and the setting through the films journey.

The world of associations and sentiments are all enclosed in the viewers’ minds as memories and obsessions which give meaning to these locations. They then become iconic attractions as a result of being given powerful meanings in film narrations in the mind of the viewer. This memories and the picture created from the film and the meaning to it from the viewer, acts as a stimuli for one to want to visit particular places.

Today, the world’s tourism industry has reached a maturity stage. This is to mean most tourists are more experienced and have become more selective in their choices of holiday destinations.  The industry is also very competitive with many competing interests for visitors as well as sustained destination marketing campaigns from all corners. This is unlike those days when countries spent dollars on attracting tourists through promotion. Tourists today want to reap maximum value of benefits for less as there are many tourism products in the market.

In my view, films are likely to be more successful as a tool for promoting tourism than any other model or strategy. This is a new form of cultural tourism which still receives little attention from most authorities and practitioners due to the lack of knowledge and understanding on the benefits of film on tourism. Researchers suggest that films can have strong influence on tourist decision-making and not only provide short-term tourism revenue, but also long-term prosperity a location.

For a country like Kenya, it is easy for film makers to design storylines and sites that are closely related in which the film involves the audience and an emotional experience which links perfectly with the location’s attributes. Exposure of tourism induced films would provide greater familiarity, attachment, identification and influence to the country’s target market. As a consequence, these films acting as marketing tool becomes the push factor for the audience to visit the location, people, experience and stories as portrayed by the film. The success of such a film would in return be a good predictor of film-induced tourist arrivals.

There has been an increase in number of tourists visiting various destinations featured through films and television series that are not directly related to tourism promotion campaigns. The increasing popularity of film-induced tourism owes to the rise of international travel and the growth of entertainment industry (Hudson & Ritchie, 2006b).

Countries that embrace this mode of destination marketing are likely to reap the most in the long term. Most of those who take up this opportunities, package it as part of their main holiday, thus more bookings without any previous visit or knowledge. It has long been recognized that travel stimuli through marketing efforts and previous travel experience have played an important role in influencing destination choices. Non-touristic-directed stimuli such as films can also have strong influences on tourist decision-making (Iwashita, 2003).

This calls for players in the sector to embrace the film stimuli and include it in their tourist attraction models. The power of film in portraying a positive impression of a country’s image to induce tourist arrivals is clearly shown in various researches (e.g. Tooke & Baker 1996; Iwashita 2006; Kim et al., 2008). Having reviewed the literature, it was found that film-induced tourism is relatively new in tourism research.

Film tourism is likely to draw more benefits to a country and thus creating major economic benefits to the local community. Film locations can be all-year, all-weather attractions which alleviates problems of seasonality in the tourism industry (Beeton, 2004). Riley et al. (1998) studied 12 films and found that the peak of the interest appear after the release of the film, approximately 50% increase in visitation at least five years later and the image is often retained for a long time.

It significantly increases the cultural value for the film location of which a range of cultural meanings and values are communicated. Many heritage sites that serve as film locations gain popularity after the film release because these places acquire specific meaning through film narration. It enhances the locations image and increases the awareness of the host country.

Television series are even more powerful since they continuously reinforce the appeal of the destination that builds top-of the mind awareness. Today, there are many strategies used by various marketers, film is one of the strategies that should be integrated. Tourism boards need to begin forging relationships and provide incentives for film commissions and production companies for promotional purposes.

In the developed economies such as New Zealand, film promotion schemes have been introduced with an aim to facilitate international film-makers and broadcasters in the shooting, production and post-production of quality movies and television programmes. Each film-maker or broadcaster may be granted financial support based on the extent to how the film or programme can uniquely showcase its locations and the economic benefits thereto.

Promotion of hotels, guesthouses and other historic places featured in the films can be a powerful magnet to generate tourism. These places can be differentiated from others through films. This promotion strategy has been used in New Zealand where Tourism New Zealand developed part of its website to specifically promote ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and other film locations throughout the country.

Other marketing strategies which have been used include; guided film tours and film walks. These tours rely heavily on the illustrations from the films so that the tourists can recognize the real landscapes used in the film. The success of film locations rely on the success of films. Some film locations are much more successful than others in terms of the number of tourist arrivals.

I call upon tourism marketers in Africa not to separate their promotional strategies from wider film marketing, as the benefits have far reaching positive effects to the community. Films provide many positive impacts for the location in terms of economic, cultural values and awareness and image. I wish to conclude by the following “film induces tourism and not the other way round”.

The writer is a Chartered Marketer ,Communications professional and a film industry practitioner. Can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com

Telecommunications companies operate in highly competitive markets with the potential of IP networks to deliver converged services with the advantage of interactivity. IPTV services have been introduced by various telecommunication firms for differentiation. The technology has enabled service providers to offer Video on Demand with capability of providing a full pay TV service offering.

What is this IPTV?  In context it means, distribution of television content over a controlled IP network, where the end consumer receives the information through a set-top box which is connected to its normal broadband connection. It should be noted that IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) does not mean that information is sent over the internet, only that IP protocol is used.

In some markets, IPTV is largely a defensive mechanism by telecom and GSM service providers in encouraging subscriber’s retention rather than migrate to alternative offers in the same space. In Kenya, Telecoms and cable operators have come to understand the value of new services that could be delivered to consumers over IP networks. Most of these companies have invested in network infrastructure as well as home gateways to provide the managed platforms that are essential for delivering real time services such as video with adequate quality of service.

In adapting these technologies, Operators generate extra revenue through value addition packages incorporating the new services, while enhancing customer relationships through proactively managing the needs of the ever demanding subscribers. Pay TV operators have responded in a similar measure by developing multi-screen services themselves and where possible exploiting their superior premium content offerings to defend their revenues in OTT platform.

In order to maintain their edge and to continue defending their interests, operators need to provide compelling advantages to broadcasters and content owners through their ability to deliver video assets cost effectively to as many users as possible.

What are the key IPTV features? The biggest difference in today’s distribution of television content is that you have the power to choose which information you want. Unlike before, everything is not broadcast-ed as with terrestrial, cable and satellite. The IPTV services presents big difference in that, you are able to have a high capacity two way communication and have the ability to interact with the service provider as compared to the other models.

IPTV services providers also boasts of other things that could be provided with its interactive applications (e.g. blogging) or transaction applications (e.g. Television shopping). Because of the point-to-point connection IPTV offers, every user is able to view their own individual broadcasts. The service offers capabilities for VoD (Video on Demand) which provides individual choices, EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and PVR (Personal Video Recorder), where the EPG is fully interactive, use of features like pause, fast forward and rewind when you are watching a movie on your TV among others.

What does this potent to content producers? The entry of new devices and new video delivery technologies has created an opportunity for content providers to go direct to consumers. Service platforms have evolved from proprietary complex systems dealing with Conditional Access (CAS), Subscriber database, Content database and Portal management to simpler modules inspired by Web technologies.

This change explains that what was referred to as a Service Platform is now called a CMS. In all there are still significant issues to be considered by content providers if they are to fully reap the rewards of this brave new world. There are issues to do with live events; peaks in demand are hard to deal with when the system must scale with the number of users, no guarantee for the quality of service once streams are delivered to the local operator’s network among others.

The same provides opportunities for users’ experiences in watching TV and can be achieved by integrating IPTV and multimedia communication services, such as voice and video telephony. This presents user groups like friends or family members to share their emotions while they are watching a TV program. The integrated solutions enable end users to use even complex functions like group communication (conferencing) with ease. This stimulates the service usage and allows new technology usage forms to evolve, potentially opening new business opportunities.

As telecoms flat rates are widely adopted, there is no likelihood for them to experience a big revenue increase from integrated communication services directly, hence need for innovation and creativity for long-term business survival. Most Telecoms are embracing IPTV as a way to boost broadband adoption and generate new revenues. Moreover, the move to IPTV is also dictated by the need to compete with the triple play offering of cable operators. As more operators deploy IPTV services with new features such as catch-up TV and PVR, the factors for differentiation are dissolving rapidly.

I believe that further differentiation is possible by focusing on the integration with communication services in order to create new viewing experiences. The focus here is on the greater benefits, which will come from the social connectivity. This scenario focuses on stimulating cross-service transactions through enhanced IPTV commercial advertisements while maintaining user privacy. With this technology, many people are enabled to many new services delivered over the open Internet. With this technology, content providers are capable of targeting end users directly.

Where do we go from here? The quality of experience is the ultimate game changer in this competitive environment. The user expectations are much higher for a TV-based service than for Internet services, such as internet browsing. The strategy for any video content provider must now include multi-screen delivery. Users are now demanding access from all their devices and there is growing momentum behind companion screen applications that add value to existing services through increased levels of interactivity.

Players in the sector have to be alert and ready to innovate and adapt to new trends which include but not limited to development of new software’s, enhanced companion screen activities and enable new revenue generating applications and use of secondary devices. The y must also consider cost control, user experience across devices among others.

For the content creators’, the future is bright, however be ready to change with the ever changing operational environment.

The writer is a Chartered Marketer, and film industry professional and can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com

 

Getting into the business means actually getting started on your own for profit. This arises when one has crossed certain milestones especially in reconciling effort verses some success. When the reconciliation of the two is positive, one may not need to break into private venture but instead, the business comes to you. A number of times, this has happened to many entrepreneurs especially when opportunities come their way. Suddenly, positive vibes start coming, free publicity and key followers sizes up.

What does this mean to film business start-ups? Start making work on your own by considering yourself a winner while building an audience and gaining some recognition, and adding to the number of those willing to help you from the industry. Consider gaining industry validation from the industry as compared to if you were to gain it on your own.

Fundamentally, as we get more film professionals joining the industry, there are key questions that must be answered. It is now easy to acquire filming equipment as the costs of the same have come down. This means that, many people who would not previously have been able to afford to make films now are able to make them. Also, there are more and more outlets for distributing films to a global audience than ever before.

Creators have to imagine an oversupply of films which as a result may drive down the sales numbers from distributors and the amount of money consumers are willing to pay. There being continuous change in consumer behavior and watching patterns. Filmmakers must respond to questions such as why buy a DVD for X amount or leave home to go to the cinema when you can see the film online for free or for a very low cost and at ones convenience.

The film market has become so uncertain with various disruptions arising from technological changes, audience changing needs, competing interests hence more difficult to get the attention of an audience who now have an overabundance of leisure activities such gaming, YouTube, cable channels among others. As we make films, this calls for us to be steadfast and strong in making films capable of grabbing wide attention repeatedly.

Marketing has to be at play and alive to the changing times. There is no specific format to follow, but strategies in use keep changing all the time. This is as a result of the ever changing time and tools, new tools come up, old ones fade away, capabilities on all of them change, audience needs also change. A strategy based on knowing who your audience is in an in-depth way and what you want to achieve is critical as part of your overall marketing strategy. Today, the social networks are a game changer, as they are about sharing, researching, selling through influence etc. As filmmakers break into professional businesses, there is need to separate their accounts into business and personal use and keep what they share on those channels. What will pull you off from a professional standpoint will be what you share with an audience and what draws them to you and your professional work.

As we discuss, the business of film, there is need to respond to questions such as why people make films. Generally, many filmmakers do side jobs and only do film productions for personal satisfaction. In such kind of a mindset, how do we reconfigure our minds to orient the art into the profit making business?

In forging the journey in the business of film, let us craft the art, put it in perspective and consolidate all factors for growth. Enjoy film making and tell more stories for the world to share.

The writer is a Chartered Marketer and film industry professional. Can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com

Today’s organisations both in government, private and not for profit, strive to show how the marketing profession can be used as a force for good in the world. Social marketing has its roots in the public health communication for behavior change in the 1960’s. The art has evolved considerably, and now embraces a position in strategic marketing planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation, sustainability for effective behavior change.

Social marketing, as is broadly defined, is the application of business marketing practices and other techniques for social good. This includes initiatives in prevention of environmental degradation projects, reducing crime, promoting the benefits of exercise and responsible citizenry, education, health and sanitation, cultural heritage as examples of social marketing that have been undertaken with notable success in recent years.

Over the years’, marketers are known for researching what customers want, providing offers through innovation and new product design, communicating the offerings in ways that turn interest into actions and ensuring satisfaction and repeat business. This are the key elements of marketing that marketers are good at, and are continually honed to realize the art of the marketing concept.

Social marketing is a phenomenon that offers marketers opportunities to use their talents for positive change in their operational environment. This provides a platform to which marketers provide room for a more favorable attitude towards the profession, while on the other hand providing recognition to the importance the marketing profession can play in making the world a better place.

Social marketers often work with those whose behavior is the hardest of all to change, communities that are disadvantaged, hard to reach or socially excluded, and whose social, cultural and peer pressures create enormous barriers and resistance to change. Social marketers here understand customer psychology and motivations in ways that marketers do not always implement.

Generally, marketing is about changing behavior and acting as an engine that drives successful competitive advantage, developing a strong brand, building a relationship with customers and running a profitable and not for profit organisations. In doing these, marketing organisations potent success in the coming years as they get involved on creating impact by either public or private entities. Social marketing is destined at influencing marketing campaigns, designs to promote positive community change.

As the marketing profession move to position of influence in the society, it makes sense for governments to explore, learn from, and blend these approaches into their own in dealing with the ever rising challenges of governance, alcoholism, leadership and integrity among many more. Increasing awareness of social marketing principles will continue to shows and prove that marketing profession can lead positive social change as well as economic successes.

In today’s continued social change, governments need to take notice of social marketing, because of the way social policy is increasingly seeking the skills. The Kenya Government, for example, can now appreciate more than ever before that passing legislation does not in itself necessarily lead to changes in people’s behavior. This has been attested in the recent changes in the Kenya’s constitution 2010 and the constitutional offices created to the resultant outcomes to the desired.

This brings out the need to discovering and understanding the barriers to change, thinking carefully about how those barriers could be overcome, and asking the right questions of the target audiences. The result is likely to be a win-win situation for government, company, customer and the environment in differentiating the organisation, prudent use of resources and improving lifestyles for the targeted audiences and their action to the ultimate desired change. This deep connection with peoples’ values, and helping them change habits through innovation, builds the brand and helps retain and build desired behavior.

The government at both county and national levels, need to take cognizance of the wider cultural implications involved in addressing general social challenges at their behest; the issue is not just about ticking the box and closing time, but the ingrained culture of creating understanding and dealing with the predetermined social causes. As an example, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, National Cohesion and Integration Commission, Independent Policing Oversight Authority, The Kenya Police Service among other agencies in Kenya, are grappling with varied strategies in tackling challenges within areas of their mandate.

To successfully achieve social behavior change, it is my call for a more in-depth strategic approach. This can be attained by the Governments beginning to recognize the potential of social marketing to influence public behavior, and applying the same to public policy. Public policy has not previously taken much notice of what’s known to marketing organisations. For the case of Kenya, we now need to ask ourselves critical questions on how marketing agencies in government would seal this gap.

As we drive the wave of change in our environment, these social challenges are important to note, because no longer is it acceptable for organisations to assert their position in business and leave it to governments to legislate on the societal consequences of a market-based economy. Whatever is important to society is equally important to organisations and the responsible player, who wants to differentiate their products, service and advance their prospects, understands their importance and relevance.

Timothy Owase is a Chartered Marketer and Communications  professional and a Creative Industries practitioner. Can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com 

In today’s business environment, engaging our diverse stakeholders in long-term dialogue is an important ingredient that informs our decision making, helps us progressively improve towards organisations sustainability commitments. In a world of business focused on 24/7 turnaround, technological integration, varying customer’s needs, regulatory environments, media and demand for profits and customer satisfaction.

In an environment where trust is hard-earned and a company’s reputation is in the hands of its stakeholders. Business proprietors require a deliberate stakeholder engagement strategy.  This is vital to a business, as it is no longer optional for businesses who wish to stay relevant in business. Organisations that ignore this, will in the foreseeable future find themselves dealing with different business realities.

A today’s stakeholder is more sophisticated, informed and engaged, collaborative, aware of governance and decision-making among stakeholder networks, and their expectations is that organisations aptly upright and  have the competence to instantly respond to any of their concerns. Businesses engage with many stakeholder groups in a variety of formal and informal settings across their entire business environment. The engagements may range from meetings with local, regional and national groups to dialogues with suppliers and customers.

There is always a need for organisations to actively get involved in multi-stakeholder initiatives, so that they can address pressing business environmental challenges. This can be proactively achieved by working together with external stakeholder partners, being able to identify and address issues by bringing together the expertise, knowledge and passion of organizations and individuals.

Engaging stakeholder’s is an important management function, particularly in relation to leading an organisation. In today’s modern business, you cannot run any business without engaging with your key stakeholders and there’s no doubt you already interact with them on a frequent, if not daily basis.  Stakeholder engagement goes beyond the interaction and in this context is about far more than dealing with them at the day to day level. It is a strategic decision and refers to truly putting stakeholders at the heart of your business and ensuring that everything you do across the business is designed to meet and exceed their needs and expectations.

Most organisations consider stakeholder engagement as a secondary function or even as a non-essential activity to the business vision. Programs in this line are today meant and designed to a tick the box approach with an aim of evidencing signed contracts. Stakeholder engagement should be at the heart of your strategic management processes and as an underlying principle in stakeholder engagement strategy.

It is essential that your organisation is genuinely interested in listening to stakeholder’s concerns and addressing their needs as part of the organizational decision-making processes. Some organisations undertake stakeholder engagement just because it is seen to be a fashionable thing to do and without any meaning to it, thus only racing to participating in a box ticking exercise.

What is evident is that stakeholders see through this while for leaders and managers who don’t approach stakeholder engagement in a genuine and meaningful way also do themselves and the business more harm than good.

As business leaders, aspiring owners, managers and employees, true stakeholder engagement has to mean more than daily transactions to developing meaningful relationships which serve to ensure that you understand and consistently deliver upon stakeholder’s needs and expectations.

For a long- term business relationships, consider thought leaders and influences from government, civil society, and the private sector, as they play an important role in creating and maintaining business value. This calls for organisation whether big or small to evolves and take a strategic and structured approach to stakeholder relations.

We have had insights as to why the stakeholders are a critical element of a business. Who are these stakeholders? And why are they important? Stakeholders vary from organisation to the other and include sponsors or investors, customers, employees, community, government, suppliers, shareholders among others.  

Investors or sponsors naturally want to protect their investment, and get the highest returns possible, so they generally view the business from that limited perspective. Thus it is essential to understand them in that context and create an understanding for business continuity. As a means, enable Annual General Meetings, quarterly roadshows and results briefings, webcasts, ongoing dialogue with analysts and investors.

A customer sustains and grows the business. It is common for businesses to interact with their customers on a regular basis and there is no doubt, no manager can survive for very long in a business environment without doing so. However, the real consideration here is how meaningful those relationships are in terms of really understanding their needs and continuously developing and enhancing service offering in response.

Introduce customer hotlines, local websites, plant tours, research, surveys, focus groups, feedback mechanisms among others like regular visits, dedicated account teams, joint business planning, joint value creation initiatives, customer care centers, social media engagement, surveys etc.

Employees play a critical role in your business. We already know that employee engagement is a vital success factor for business and organisations with no doubt have a variety of ways in which they interact with them. The key issue here is the quality of those interactions; for example, employees in many businesses complain that there are too many meetings which are unproductive so you should reflect upon the quality of your interactions, and not just the quantity. Is there value emanating from employee interactions? Consider; engagement surveys, senior executive business updates, town hall meetings, employee communications, individual development plans, health and safety communications programs, community and employee well-being projects, Ethics hotline;

Community depending upon the location of the business in question, the local communities have a greater or lesser impact on how you run it – if you are located in a small rural area they will probably have more influence on the decision you take than if you are based in a large city.

Regardless of location, most businesses seek to work closely with the local community and this can form part of wider corporate social responsibility efforts. Consider community meetings, plant visits, partnerships on common issues, sponsorship, lectures at universities among others.

The relationship between businesses and their suppliers has been somewhat at “arm’s length”, and in the past there has often been a general feeling of mistrust within the relationship. The expectation is that the supplier’s aim to maximize profits at the expense of service standards and quality, with the purchaser challenging the supplier on quality, weight and price and always threatening to take their business elsewhere.

Businesses must establish how to well manage the relationship and clear any possible suspicions. Create joint value creation initiatives, annual supplier conference, sustainable sourcing, supplier guiding principles, and packaging associations, branding among others as members of family.

Lastly, often the government is overlooked as a stakeholder in a business, but as you are well aware the national government or local government can directly impact on how you operate your business without you having too much to say in the matter.

In terms of the engagement issue, we must focus on the arms of government and those agencies that directly support the industry you operate in. Create dialogue, partnerships on common issues, and memberships of business and industry associations, foreign investment advisory councils, recycling and recovery initiatives, chambers of commerce among others.

As I conclude on this topic for now, businesses need to be committed to an ongoing stakeholder engagement as a core component of business and sustainability strategies by actively working as members of the communities where we live and work, and strengthen the fabric of our communities so that we prosper together.

Timothy Owase is a Marketing and Communications  professional and a Creative Industries practitioner. Can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com 

This week, Daystar University hosted its annual film week. Over the years I have participated at various film festivals and this one was not different. The Daystar film week reminded me reminds me of the numerous film festivals over the years across the world.

So, why film festivals? I learned through experience on the benefits of such an event and as to why it has to be shared for understanding among key stakeholders. It is necessary to highlight the advantages so people in my country, and others, can understand what the big deal is with festivals.

With so many film festivals in existence across the world and more coming online daily, how do you as a filmmaker decide where to spend you energy?  Is it worth to submit your film to an unknown festival?  This can only be concluded that, it varies depending on who you are and how you participate, your project or audience.

To the filmmakers, festivals present a significant way to market their film, project concept, seek financing, and create networks at a reasonable and viable position. There are no doubt festivals present opportunities to network within the industry, get feedback from your target audiences, film critics to shaping your project direction and enhance film business relationships.

As we reflect about this topic, it is worthy to note, festivals offer room to share professional tips and information on topics from technical aspects of filming, collaborations are born and developed into co production relationships, enables film festival directors to collect films from far and wide and bring audiences together for a common agenda.

To underscore the significance festivals in the industry, we’ll focus on the benefits to the filmmakers. This relates to their work and story.  While on the other hand, goes to benefit the audience who support the work of audiovisual artists. It is therefore worth to note, festivals offer a two-way traffic, and the filmmakers need the audience while the audience needs the filmmakers.

Let us now unpack why festivals are important.

Marketing talent: – The best way for filmmaker to get his or her name out there is to submit a film and gain acceptance into film festivals. Whether the film passes muster or not with the audience, the filmmakers get recognition simply for completing a work and getting it screened. Festivals provide skilled professionals to showcase their talent and win over their audiences.

Promoting local content: Festivals give preference to filmmakers local to the jurisdiction when selecting films to screen. This encourages and supports the local filmmakers and gives them a platform from which they can leap to the next level. This helps in bolstering film sales from the audience of crew members, actors, friends and family who don’t have to travel far to support the film.

Relationships building through Networking: These festivals give filmmakers a chance to interact with fellow filmmakers, supporters, media and other stakeholders. I have personally made important contacts and friends from networking at festivals. It establishes mutually beneficial relationships and leads to many collaborative possibilities.

Promotions of tourism: Film festivals attract tourists from both in and out of the country. A filmmaker will usually travel across the country to attend and promote a screening of their film. It also attracts media and film fans who, on return home to talk about the festival and the city hosting it.

The Interests of locals Community:  Most film festivals favor a niche and will include films based in the region or focus upon a subject many locals will find relevant to their culture and interests. This helps bring particular fans to the festivals based on its niche.

Local Cinema:  As much as the connection between the festival promotors and the cinema halls hosting the festival may vary, the theater enjoys fringe benefits such as a potential boost in concession sales and positive word of mouth.

Community Collaboration: Festivals bring communities together and foster an atmosphere of town pride and friendship among the participants. This is enables networking in which friendships are formed and new creative/business opportunities established.

Recognition: Awards benefit the promotion of the festival as well as the filmmakers. No matter the size of a festival. The filmmakers can add “Award-winning Filmmaker” to their resume and the festival can claim their first award and first big break in the industry.

Education to participants: One benefit many do not realize about film festivals is the educational opportunities it presents. Most festivals hold workshops facilitated by respected film professionals in all fields. Festivals hold special screenings and programs for children teaching them about a specific aspect of filmmaking, particular social issues, economic or art.

Filmmakers bring life, culture, and art to the eager eyes of their audiences, and as the audience we have a very important job, enjoy and learn. The audience, in fact is the most important element, especially for any film. Film festivals bring out the best aspects about film and breaks boundaries. A film festival takes a lot of work, but the outcome is not only beautiful, but groundbreaking for the audience, upcoming and mature film professionals.

Timothy Owase is a film industry professional and a Chartered Marketer. Can be reached at: timothy.owase@live.com

The concept of the ‘job for life’, still prevalent in business, governments and families. This places pressure on the growing individual, who is faced with further pressures as the pace of business life increases and knowledge becomes quickly outmoded and supplanted by new information. As a consequence, governments are beginning to re-evaluate the way they look at training and developing their children. At the same time there is need for parents and children to take more personal responsibility for the learning they take away from training programmes.

For institutions of higher learning, there is a need to align their choice of training with the strategic objectives of the country at the time. Today, in Kenya without a more rigorous identification of what is expected from the training, there is no longer any guarantee that the training will translate into success in life. This calls for the need to identify ‘training needs for the country’ as part of a wider system of ‘learning’, as the current 844’training’ does not do justice to the wide array of new skills, values and perspectives that individuals can develop and bring to life.

At a family level, there is a need for parents to take more individual responsibility for how their children learn, and the need to be more focused on the family and national values and needs in order to extract the right outcomes from the training they undergo. It is important that as citizens, we must be willing to commit to the national aspirations in a way that is appropriate. To achieve these, we need to develop learning experiences that will maximize value for both the individual’s own personal and national development.

As a result, this will shift in learning towards constructive outcomes other than individualistic competition experienced in the current 844 system. This holds that all knowledge is essentially personal knowledge – the learner is at the centre of the process, not the classroom, the lecturer, or the material they are learning from. In the future, training can no longer be merely a valuable thing to do for its own sake. It must directly benefit aspirations, improve specific skills of the individual, and create effective transferable skills for the individual to fit into varied environments.

In the past decade, we have all viewed education in different lenses; Even a relatively short time ago it was possible to think in terms of enjoying a long career with a single employer, building presence and status over a long period of time, this is no longer the case. The roles within organisations were clearly defined and the nature of the work would be consistent. This is no longer the case, as professions have changed and illustrates more clearly than before through the day to day needs of this organisations.

Organisations tend not to take a holistic, whole career approach to their workforce nowadays The impact of this is that the individual has to learn how to manage short-term relationships whilst moving from task to task and organisation to organisation. Sennett argues that as organisations seldom, if ever, provide individuals with a long-term career time frame; the individual has to construct their own career or life narrative.

The other issue is addressing the challenge of developing new skills and uncovering potential abilities as skills decay increasingly rapidly over time. A skill can no longer be viewed as being a skill for life, an enduring presence that will ensure one’s continuing security in the corporate world as once it might have done. Longer serving employees were once respected for the hard won experience they had acquired; they built up valuable knowledge, competencies and skills over time.

These skills were durable and had value. Now, due to the pace of change, there is less advantage in holding such skills. ‘Skills extinction’ has become one of the characteristics of modern corporate life. Adaptability has taken its place. Technological advances mean workers need to retrain every now and then. The notion of a single set of skills that will last an individual their entire working life is as redundant as the pitheads that once dotted the sales concept.

As the 844 system of learning in Kenya beckons, the ability to let go of the past; to accept that no one owns their place in an organized system, and that past services do not guarantee a future with the same employer. The future for any individual is more about potential than experience – what you can do in the future rather than what you have done in the past.

This changes in the way we train will themselves develop and mutate as technology continues to develop at a fast rate of change. As a result, learning will not merely be seen as a useful adjunct to building an individual’s career.

Learning will be seen in its rightful context as a strategic investment that creates competitive advantage for the individual and leads directly to growth and development. Let us embrace the looming change in our education system the prosperity of our beloved country Kenya. This puts a great deal of individual responsibility on each of us to seize the initiative for our national interest.

The writer is a professional chartered marketer and film industry practitioner. Can be reached at timothy.owase@live.com

The creative economies are important to state economies. Creative and culture-related industries, also known as “creative industries,” provide direct economic benefits to states and communities. They create jobs, attract investments, generate tax revenues, and stimulate local economies through tourism and consumer purchases.

These industries provide an array of other benefits, such as infusing other industries with creative insight for their products and services. In addition, because they enhance quality of life, the arts and culture are an important complement to a country’s development, enriching local amenities and attracting young professionals.

Governments are increasingly recognizing the importance of the creative sector to their states’ economy and ability to compete in the global marketplace. A number of factors underscore the connection between economic competitiveness and creativity.

Creative industries are growing in number and playing increasingly prominent economic and social roles; Companies’ decisions about where to locate their businesses often are influenced by factors such as the ready availability of a creative workforce and the quality of life available to employees; creative economy play a major role in community development and redevelopment by creating new jobs as well as fostering an environment and amenities that attract talented young workers; and Tourism centered on arts and culture contribute to state and local economic growth by providing a diversified and sustainable means for creating jobs and attracting revenue.

In today’s economy: Creative and new media industries are growing in number and playing increasingly prominent economic and social roles;  The market value of products is increasingly determined by a product’s uniqueness, performance, and aesthetic appeal, making creativity a critical competitive advantage to a wide array of industries.

The most desirable high-wage jobs require employees with creativity and higher order problem solving and communications skills; and Business location decisions are influenced by factors such as the ready availability of a creative talents and the quality of life available to employees.

After countries cultural assets have been mapped and analyzed, states can use information to devise economic development strategies that harness the economic benefits of the creative industries on a statewide basis. Such strategies not only summarize the value of the arts to a state, but they also identify new opportunities, point to productive initiatives, and reveal potential partners furthering creative-driven economic development in the state. The key elements of a good planning process are leadership and input from stakeholders, agreement on a clear vision, and visible kick-off efforts.

Identifying the right people to lead is critical to the success of planning efforts. A common strategy is to establish a special office charged with advancing the state’s economy through the arts. Just as states have identified specific high-tech, energy, health, or information industries as important to the future economic success, so too have to identify a variety of creative industries that offer significant potential for economic growth.

These include film, design, crafts, music, traditional arts, environmental art, culinary arts, and many others. Once a state has identified pivotal creative industries or economic clusters, it can then adopt different strategies—including incentive policies, development initiatives, training programs, or public-private collaborations—to encourage growth in that industry.

Much of where filming happens is driven by the script; it is largely a creative decision. It is important to let decision-makers know that your jurisdiction has that “perfect” location. Promoting your locations really goes together with your marketing efforts. Be sure to show off the alleys and the heavy industrial areas as well as the scenic parts of your country. To get that special acknowledgement in the closing credits, you will have to package your locations creatively and place an emphasis on service delivery and outreach.

Fast turnarounds: Producers want quick answers to their questions because the wrong decision can cost time and money.

 Direct Mail:  Identify decision-makers and show them what your location has to offer. Include images of your locations and information about filming in your community.

Marketing Calls:  Get to know your potential customers and check in with them periodically to discuss potential projects that may be in the pipeline. Watch the trade papers for projects in pre-production that would be appropriate for your location.

Print and Electronic Advertising; particularly on the Internet, Entertainment-related and production-related portals are increasing in popularity and usage. A trend to watch is how producers increasingly make use of these sites in developing their projects. Make sure you explore ways to utilize these sites.

Familiarization (“Fam”) Tours: Invite producers or other industry decision-makers to your community and help them become familiar with you and your locations.

In-Person “Sales” Calls: There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings on the studio lot. While trade shows like Locations Expo are popular and serve a purpose for some film commissions it is important to remember that most decisions get made in production offices, not in convention center halls.

How to improve your locations

Location Library: The purpose of the location library is to show producers the variety of available filming sites in your town. Each individual site should be treated to a panoramic view of the venue at one shot. Photograph the area to reflect how the production company would actually see it, and keep your file current. Update the photographs to reflect changes to the location. Keep a photographer on standby to provide a rapid response to any request for sites not already in your photo library.

Production Handbook: Typically, this is developed through establishment of a database, which is organized by categories of potential locations, crew, and vendors including equipment rentals or prop houses, and other ancillary businesses like lumberyards and stationery stores. This can be particularly crucial when promoting local opportunities – you want to encourage use of local products and services, rather than everything simply being brought from your area.

Website: Many organisations are developing sections of their website focused on production services, including a location library and production handbook. Have a website that can be used to promote your area. The advantage of placing information on the website is the savings in paper and postage and the ability of production professionals to access and print these materials at their convenience.

The writer is a chartered marketer and a film industry professional and can be reached at timothy.owase@gmail.com