
The concept of celebrity branding is deeply misunderstood and have no real connection with reality in Ghana—and even though I am yet to locate any commanding celebrity brands in Ghana, I know countless celebrities who are dead right they have powerful brands.
The test of a strong brand, be it corporate or personal is not what the owners think of their establishment, but how eager others or respected brands want to associate themselves and their products with that particular brand…
I wouldn’t mention any of our celebrities who claim to have a brand, though non-existing, because, I do not for sure want anyone thinking I am taking a big hit at him or her—and secondly, because, every one of our stars claim to have a brand, including, Kyeiwaa…
The reason why branding is key in marketing is that, proper branding does not only result to increase in sales of a product but other products associated with the brand. To me, this is where you are able to separate the chaff from the goodies…
At the international front, most well branded celebrities will sleep in the most expensive hotels anywhere in the world for free— and the hotels will be more than happy to give them all they want for free. Reason being, they want their hotel brands to be associated with such personalities to amplify the incoming sales.
I can’t think of any hotel in the world (including our little Ghana) that an actor like Denzel Washington’s team will write to and request a free one week stay in return for the hotel being able to advertise on their website that Denzel stayed there—and the hotel will refused. In fact, the hotel will even offer to pay him for the free stay. This is the power of a well placed brand.
When we talk about branding, our Ghanaian celebrities are so convinced beyond reasonable doubt that they have well intact brands when they cannot even score a free hotel stay for themselves in the cheapest hotel in Accra.
The real benefit of being a well branded celebrity in any part of the world is the fact that, you do not have to pay for what the ordinary “Joes” will have to pay to acquire—and this is because, business owners have faith in your brand and want to have that sort of association.
I know countless Ghanaian celebrities whose faces cannot sell anything, including their own songs and movies—yet they claim to have millions of fans and on top of it, well vested brands.
For some reason, I think the misplaced understanding of the concept of branding among our Ghanaian celebrities rests on the assumption that, dressing in fine clothes and having people LIKE your facebook pages means you have a well glued together brand, with enviable prospects—and yet, they will struggle to get Auntie Munni’s wakyee for free, using their brands.