What makes you different?

Have you ever thought or been asked the question: What makes you different? In job interviews you may be asked, what skills / value are you bringing to the organisation? In a social context, others may ask; who is he? what is he known for? All these questions relate to one GRAND question: What is your value proposition.
Do you know what makes you unique? Your response to this question, shows what qualities you hold dear to your heart. The quest to understanding and clearifying your value proposition in a manner that is authentic and visible to others, will secure you future earnings. In the work environment, when others know your value proposition, they need not doubt your abilities or capabilities to produre good quality work.
Your value proposition is and can be translated to your brand value, just as much as companies are surveyed and clasified in their value to the consumers. Companies with greater brand value generally attract quality employees, perform better in the stock market and consumers are more than happy to be associated with those companies. These companies become top of mind to consumers, and they choose them first over competitor products.
It is absolutely important to figure out what makes you unique, and, how will those unique qualities earn you greater dividents. This will be the beginning of building the brand called YOU.

Social Media: Overconnected or Effective Connection?

When we talk of social media, to some they think 'information over-load', but to others, social media is a symbol of effective communication in modern times. One could ask: is social media only for the youth? or has it been able to cross and bridge the age divide between the old and young generation?
Atleast for those who are commuting, you may be familiar with the scene of a young person, sitting all almost unaware or not paying attention to the happenings around them, busy fiddling with their phone, until they reach their destination. Whereas, the older guy sitting alone with his face completely covered with the newspaper he is reading, almost gives you a sense that, he is really interested in the current affairs issues in the papers and would not want to be interrupted. One may argue that at times, the feel of holding a newspaper in your hands and reading the news, is irreplaceable. However, with that said, you can find infact, more than newspaper online, by just a click of a button on your mobile phone. I can almost believe that, even the guy who likes reading his favourite newspaper every morning would like to read more than one paper to get other news if not different angles of the same story.
We can agree or disagree, social media has made life simpler by providing information quicker and making it easily accessible. Different people, use social media for different reasons, others enjoy just to be informed of what is going on around the world, as they read RSS feeds, others enjoy engaging in  conversations and providing their perspective or oponion. Whichever way you choose to use social media, the benefits of information being easily and readily available when you need it, is always a great feeling to have access to it.

Has Digital Media Taken Over TV & Radio?

Recently, effective marketing strategies are those that focus more on consumer engagement, rather than awareness. And this could be the reason why there is a huge speculation about whether TV and radio have been overtaken by the digital space.
An article in the Harvard Business Review titled: Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places. Sparked more conversation amongst communicators about the value and effectiveness of different mediums qnd channels of communication.
In South Africa, a significant shift in the way brands communicate as started as more corporates begin to see value in engaging with consumers on the digital space. However, there are still questions that are raised in the corporate boardrooms regarding the effectiveness and justification of large spendings on marketing campaigns.
Fact of the matter is that, most of these channels of communication are integrated and often inter-dependant on each other to ensure effectiveness. Once more, the word integration is key in all brand communication activities. It is true that consumers would like to engage more with brands more now than ever before, however, there is still value in outdoor advertising, and TV adverts. The reasons are that, each medium of communication serves a different purpose, the purpose of running a radio, TV, outdoor and digital campaign are all for different reasons and the results will also vary in value.
So, we may conclude that the digital space has brought a new and different dynamic to the brand communications arena, but, there is still a need for the other mediums of communication. When it comes to the question of: Which medium adds more value and is cost effective? Most people may argue that the digital space adds more value and is cheaper, however, this is all dependant the purpose of the campaign, and the expected results.