How Startup Brands Can Survive in the Digital Disruptive Age

The four C’s that SMSs and Startup Brands must utilize to make it in this age;

1.      Content: you must have content, as it’s said “content is king”, however not just any content, you must have relevant content which your audience will crave for, that meets their needs.

Your content must be timely; there is nothing worse than dead news, so ensure that you deliver your content when it’s needed. You need content that has been tested and trusted; the fact that content is required doesn’t imply throwing unverified, untrusted information out there.

2.      Connection: the first stage is to have relevant, trusted, timely content. The next step is to build meaningful connection with your audience; that is your market, fans and followers. Businesses thrive on relationships. Take time to build key relationships. Having great content that doesn’t resonate with your audience is futile, so by constantly engaging with your audience you will better understand their needs and wants which will enable you provide tailored made solutions for them.

3.      Contacts: from your connection you step up your game by establishing key contacts; connecting with influential people who can help push your business/brand to the next level. Some of them are the gatekeepers in the industry which you seek to penetrate, without them it will be difficult to breakthrough such barriers. Your contacts are the people who have the ability and capacity to help you in various ways. They are influential in their various fields. Take time to make such contacts.

4.      Contracts: your contacts should enable you get other clients, repeat business, and contracts. This is the last stage of the process of sustaining your business/brand in this age. Businesses exist to make profit (whatever that means to your business). Most often than not, it’s your contacts that will lead you to your contracts. That is to say your key relationships/influencers are the ones who will bring business to you. If you build this properly, your business will thrive, if not you will be firing arrows without hitting your target.

In conclusion, take note that big brands can readily afford mass media promotion to compete with price but as a small business owner and startup, focus on delivering outstanding offer with excellent customer experience to win. To survive in business today requires that you keep this cycle running constantly; to have something of value to offer – content, to build a bridge with your content – connection, to connect with key influencers – contacts, to get income coming through them – contracts.

Bernard Kelvin Clive is an Amazon bestselling author of REBRAND: The Ultimate Guide to Personal & Corporate Branding & Rebranding, and over twenty-five published books. A Personal Branding Coach, Brand Strategist at BKC Consulting. He has consulted for and helped hundreds of authors locally and internationally to self-publish books and build author brands. Ghana's foremost authority on Personal branding and Digital Publishing who hosts the #1 iTunes ranked Business & Career Podcast in Ghana. www.BKC.name 

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Blakk ID’s modest groundbreaking launch

Product launches must soon become a collector’s item in the very near future. Brands try to outclass each other; innovating their way to mass attention leaving in their wake creative landmarks that sometimes even outlive the brand itself. Some of the activities can be that extreme. One worthy of note in recent times is the Star FM launch that featured camels and the works. Now that was a launch in a class by itself and it did get national attention. Perhaps it was all worth it as it seems to have worked miracles for the Star FM brand. I suppose it is what you can call a successful launch because it had the knock-punch effect—you couldn’t have missed it.

But is there an ethical question to be addressed in running these campaigns? Are the brands simply looking for attention or are they offering more. The world has gone past just doing things for your benefit only. Beyond that, phones now have cameras and flash lights. Some even have radio and TV. Innovation is when you can give more than your core promise in a creative way. A brand that seems to have captured this idea and is presenting what we think is bound to be a trend-setter is Blakk ID.

What if a fashion brand can sprinkle dashes of CSR over the launch even before they are fully in the market? Now, that will be a new way of thinking that also presents the full manifestation of the win-win-win idea. It also demonstrates that they are not just in the market to sell clothes; they also care about society they operate in. We can be sure then, that when they make a billion, they will give some of it back to help improve the lot of their fellow humans. Now that is a trait of a modern brand and the guys at Blakk ID clearly understand the dynamics of this thinking. So what are they doing exactly? They are going to the Akropong School for the blind to stage a fashion show as part of the launch of their fashion brand in an event dubbed Colours of Black. You might think there is nothing innovative about that until I tell you that all the models will be blind students. To answer your question, YES! Visually impaired people can model too. You may be familiar with the maxim “disability is not inability”. What it simply means is that, people you think are disabled may be abled in other departments and these blind students are going to demonstrate this idea in its fullness through fashion all made possible by Blakk ID.

YES! They have the materials; long legs, slender waist, muscular torsos — the whole works and Blakk ID is going to put them all to work on the 21^st of May at the Akropong School for the blind. If you want to support a blind student, witness a trendsetting launch, experience top-end fashion and be inspired, let’s see you there on the 21^stof May.

Blakk ID is an Accra based fashion brand run by Berima Kenneth Kobina Mensah; a Takoradi polytechnic trained fashion designer who has been passionately involved in clothing and dress making since his junior high school years.  

Blakk ID formerly known as Color Blakk is set to take African fashion to the next level. At SPiD-UP®, we are excited about the quality of their output and believe the future is bright for the Blakk ID team. It will be exciting to see you at Akropong on the 21^st.  Whatever you do, be the best you can be. #spidup 

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