Businesses in the country have been advised to place high premium on people if they want to successfully grow their brands.

This according the Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Lucy Quist is important since the impact a business has on its people especially, its staff would go a long way to grow its brands – which is key to the success of the business.

Mrs. Quist was speaking with Joy Business at a forum organized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG) on Brands and People and how the two connect.

According to her, a brand only exists in so far as people represent that brand and the first group of people is the staff who work for the company.

The next in the chain she said is the customers who are also representatives of the brand. She added that the customer is at the centre of the business and once the staff of the business are happy with what they do, that feeling will be extended to the customer which will obviously affect the business in a positive way. The final group in the mix she indicated includes all stakeholders of the business. 

Airtel Ghana she said places a lot of premium on “making people the focus of our brand by first living what we believe internally. “We believe in the power of potential and we believe that we exist to empower Africans, that’s to create opportunities for Africans. We are alive, we are inclusive and we are respectful, so we start by living those values and the essence of who we are internally and extend the same to our customers.”

Airtel Ghana according to Mrs. Quist has been so successful because it has over the years, and to date continues to live the essence of its brand – living what it claims and making sure that essence goes on to inform everything it does.

Branding, she added tends to be largely associated with imagery –“associated with what people visualize of your brand and that is why good marketing companies try to have something distinctive about their brand that makes people want to take a second look or remember what their brand looks like.”

Mrs Quist emphasized that it is in the creative expression of Airtel’s brand that it creates an impression in people’s minds.

She was quick to add however, that “great marketers go beyond that physical representation and ask how that brand makes people feel – the emotional connection – so a great brand combines both the physical attributes and the emotional attributes.”

The emotions she though indicated, can only be created by a human being, and that the success of any brand is to a large extend dependent on the value places on people.