#843 - Branding Beyond Borders: A Conversation with Kofi Annan on Navigating the Digital Age (The Brand Sensei)

Speaker 30s - 27s

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Speaker 128.36s - 54.9s

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Speaker 055.98s - 84.9s

Hey, guys, welcome to this week's podcast episode, and I've got a fantastic guest in the neighborhood, Kofi Annan PERSON, and he's an entrepreneur. He's going to talk to us all about innovation, branding, leveraging technology, adapting to digital shifts and advice for emerging brands and entrepreneurs. It's really a fascinating discussion, and I'm happy to welcome Kofi to the show. Welcome, Kofi.

Speaker 487s - 93.52s

Thank you, Christopher PERSON. It was a pleasure being here. I'm glad that you had me on the podcast. Yeah. I know you're helping leaders build

Speaker 093.52s - 99.66s

smarter and more impactful brands. So start by talking about your journey and we'll dive right

Speaker 499.66s - 240.16s

into it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's it's been a long journey and I think I always say that, you know, my, my official title, as people describe my roles, usually strategists and, you know, up to this up to today, my parents still don't know what that means. But what how I simplify that in in communicating what I do is that, you know, my role is with, I work with a number of different kinds of businesses in the past. I've worked with global Fortune 500 businesses like Puma, Mercedes-Benz, Pfizer ORG. And now I spend a lot of time with startups and scale-ups, really helping, in both cases, helping different companies bring their ideas to the world. So a lot of companies have a great idea around a product or a need in the market. And they really understand the intricacies of that product.And they have a sense of who are the people who need that. But a lot of times, this, particularly with startups and small businesses, they're growing, they don't have a structured way of really getting that product to market, making sure that it stands out in the market, making sure the company stand and the product stands out in the market. And then making sure that those ideas or those products get into the hands of the people who could use it most. And that's usually where I come in, like really making sure that that company or that brand has a position in the market where people recognize it and people see the value in the company. But then even more importantly, people are able to understand and get the hands on the productand make use of it. So I really come at that nexus there. And I love that being at that stage because you really get to work with a lot of companies and especially with startups and small businesses that have great ideas and great offerings to bring out to the world. And you get to be, and I get to be a part of them bringing that to the right people, you know, and seeing that change both in the startups and the scaleups that I'm working with and kind of their excitement and the happiness that they see of their product getting out into themarket and and getting to the right people but then also the impact that it has with the people who are actually interacting with that so i i love being in that space and i've been in that space

Speaker 0240.16s - 260.16s

for over 20 years now yeah i love your. And so we'll dive right into it. And one thing is talking about is the digital shift is always changing. So how do you stay ahead of the curve and what key digital trends do you see playing a crucial role in the future of branding?

Speaker 4260.16s - 443.14s

Yeah. So one thing I've seen over my 20 years or so of working with brands of different sizes is the impact of technology and how it could be a benefit, you know, particularly with if you know what to do with it, right? I think a lot of us, you know, as individuals and even businesses, especially again, emerging businesses that have smaller budgets and you know resource strat and time strapped you know technology can definitely be an asset but at the same time it can be a detriment because it gets as you mentioned it it evolves over time and it's alwayschanging you know the past couple of years it's gone from social media um it's gone to crypto it's gone to the metaverse you know we're, we're now in these, I think, kind of in the middle of this AI hype that we're experiencing now. So, you know, these things, these technologies that come apart come into the market definitely are very helpful and it gets people excited about doing things differently. But I, in a lot of the conversations I have with my clients, it always boils down to they want to use these technologiesand they see the value. You even look at social media that's been around for a while. They see the value. But it's really like, how can I use it to serve me? Right. And I always love those kind of conversations because the technology,you shouldn't be chasing the technology. The technology should be serving you. So in my, so in where I come in with my clients, it's really helping understand the different technologies. So AI, in this case, AI, AI is great efficiency tool. It helps you do a lot of things really quickly. It moves really fast. And this current iteration of AI is it is smarter than, you know, you would assume most technologies are.But I think, you know, where a lot of companies run into problems or hit a wall is that they don't have a strategy going in and they throw everything at the AI, right? And then I always say garbage and garbage out because if you don't understand what you're doing and you don't understand how that technology should be serving you and your individual business and your individual industry, you can have a lot of content and a lot of things come out of there really quickly that don't really serve you, your customers, and it certainly doesn't help build your business on your brand. So, you know, technology is great. I think technologyis great. It helps enable people, but you have to have a right strategy and the right framework to be able to use that technology efficiently and effectively. So you're not spending a lot of time tooling around. I mean, you have a business to run, right? You don't want to be spending a lot of time learning prompts, engineering, and all these other things. It takes a long time. So my role is usually to help people get there faster and more efficiently.And, you know, I think technology is wonderful. You know, it's brought us together, right? Christopher PERSON? Yeah.

Speaker 0443.14s - 469.3s

Yeah, it's made, you know, it's made things very simpler, more efficient, more cost-effective. And, you know, podcasting has been great to net connect. So what I really love is your idea of strategy and intention. And can you discuss a specific case where using these technologies intentionally significantly enhanced a brand's market position?

Speaker 4469.94s - 762.56s

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I recently worked with a South Korean NORP startup. And they're actually based in Seoul GPE. Their technology is really, it digitizes textiles, right? So you think of textiles, the fabrics that create different clothing and different materials. There's a huge marketplace in Korea GPE of textile manufacturers.But again, for them to act, they produce the goods, but those goods obviously have to go to different companies. And they have to source it that way. So this company, my client kind of sits at that middle where they help bring create a marketplace where people who want textiles could come through their technology to access the textile so a great opportunity right to expand beyond the local market uh when we engaged that company was looking to enter the u.s market GPE right because youcan particularly um when the fashion the fashion and apparel context. So how do we, the big question that we were trying, that they wanted to solve, was how do we now bring these textiles with these partners that we have through our technology and give the access to the businesses in the U.S. GPE market to access these textiles. And that initially they had just, I mean, they're online, right? So they'd created a website and kind of, you know, put everything up on the website anddid reach out to a couple of people through LinkedIn ORG and such. And they weren't really getting too much traction. So that's kind of where they came to me. Like, well, like what are we doing wrong? And one of the key things that I, with the strategy and what I've seen work with even some of my big clients like Puma ORG, you know, again, similar kind of apparel industry,is first starting to understand who your customer is, right? As much as technology brings us all together and we are in a global economy and you could reach anyone differently, culture, local culture still permeates and it still drives people's buying habits. So the two things we did there to help them was to build different pilots and different websites where we're able to drive some traffic but specific customers. So we took some time to identify them online through the online behaviors and their social media. So we said, okay, these are the kinds of people that probably make sense,makes sense for the business that you're trying to build. So now that we know who they are and where they are, what particular social platforms they're in and what they're doing online. So what are the kinds of, how do we now start driving them to this business? So building things like different landing pages,doing email outreach and also PR, we're able to both connect with those people. And again, initially just kind of connect with them as far as with the problem that they're having as far as textiles, getting textiles for their fashion brands. So connect with them there, introduce this company,my client as a partner, so kind of through education, but then obviously and ultimately ushered them from that education context so that those people became clients, so they started saying, oh, okay, great, these people arefrom a different country, but they understand the dynamics of my business, so I see them as a partner, and then now they're like, oh, great, so now I know that I could see them also now as a supplier. So it's a multi-stage process, and, great. So now I know that I could see them also now as a supplier.So it's a multi-stage process. And in the past, when I was working with Puma, that process would take, and this was effective in then, that process would probably take about six to nine months at minimum and cost a million dollars. And we literally had six to nine months when I did this with Puma ORG. And it cost about a million dollars to get to do that to do those same things and get that impact with this company who is a startup it costs I think we I think the budget that we even spent at any given time was about over the course maybe 10,000 10,000 US and we were able to do that same amount of work in much shorter time.I'm talking about probably in about two to three months, right? So it really, the technology really leveled the playing field for them in the sense that they were able to accomplish so much with so much, so less resources and reach further. But I think the icing on the cake was you know our collaboration on me working with them to make sure that they're following the right processes as well so we were able to really knock that and they they got they got a number of write-ups in major fashion magazines and they were able actually able to expand their brand into to um to spawna new brand that specifically catered to the U.S. GPE market and, you know, obviously grow their revenue as well. So, you know, it's just kinds of things that I love doing. And, you know, they're, they're now doing really stellar. And they, they, they, they, it was a great interaction for us. This episode is brought to you by

Speaker 3762.56s - 786.88s

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Speaker 0817.8s - 851.18s

Yeah, I love that. And it's a fantastic story as when you can leverage technology for brand growth, especially like AI data analytics. You also got what I really love is this cultural insights in global branding. And considering from your experience globally, you know, you got Ghana GPE to major tech events around the world. How do you incorporate local cultural insights into a universally appealing brand strategy?Yeah.

Speaker 4851.38s - 1010.42s

I mean, I think that is a lot of times that is the missing link in a lot of marketing and advertising, right? People are still going. A lot of people think of marketing and advertising branding branding as this kind of spray and and and and and and and and we're going to go really wide. We're going to go to everyone and hopefully someone catches on. And in in reality and in practice, you really have to speak to one particular type of person, right? And that's where and it's's not just one kind of person in the form of a demographic, but a psychographic as well. What is the kind of, what is the experience of that person in where do they live? What kind of food do they eat? Some of these things might seem irrelevant for a textile manufacturer, right? Or even I have a waste management company down working with right now. That might seem insignificant forB to be for even, right? But really, you want to get inside your, the culture and the habits that your customer is experiencing, right? Because the more that you understand your customer and what's their experiencing and their challenges and their pain points, the better you are to one realize that they actually have a pain point that you could solve or that your product actually solve, but then also you're able to speak to them more importantly in their language, right? And sometimes you have founders or business owners who are like, oh yeah, I used to be,I used to work in that industry already. I already know how these people are. But we all know that that things change, societies change, as you even move, we're both in Texas, right? Christopher PERSON, you know, I'm in Dallas and even in this area, you know, there are different nuances about people in Dallas, in Dallas, the city, people in Plano where I am, somebody in Frisco GPE. So you really have to get to the nuances of that. And it's all about the broader culture,but then more specifically, the experiences of those people. And I really, with my clients, we really spend a good amount of time with the help of AI tools and stuff. So not time, like as far as months, but we spend in the time that we work together, we spend a good amount of time understanding that so that even when we don't work togetherAre my clients know who they're talking to and they know how to talk to them and they're able to reach them much faster and it also Reduces their ad spend right because if you if you're able to find a right person and speak to them Quickly and impact them then you're if you're you're buying ads, you're spending a lot less on ads because you're not spraying and praying. You actually get into the right people.

Speaker 01010.96s - 1046.06s

Yeah, I love that. And a lot of times, even though, you know, you feel like, you know, you're only talking to the people that are most engaging. There's a lot of people listening and you never know. There's always somebody listening, no matter how you, even if you think nobody's listening, there's always somebody listening no matter how you even if you think nobody's listening there's um you know your followers um so i love that one thing uh the other question is um you know you or two decades of experience um and share a pivotal moment uh that truly transformed your approach to building impactful brands.

Speaker 41046.82s - 1256.8s

So there was, I'll use, I'll go back to the Puma ORG example because it was really a transformational time for me, particularly working with corporate and what corporate big clients like that, but then also obviously how I translate that framework and that strategy to my current clients. But so this was back in 2010, 2009, actually. In Puma, there was going to be the 2010 World Cup EVENT, right? And, you know, that's, especially outside of the U.S.It's pretty big deal, the World Cups EVENT, it's different countries and such. And Puma ORG, as much as is a well-known brand, you know, with any event like that, a world event, you know, obviously you have to carve out your market share. You want to make sure that people know about you. You want to make sure that you're gaining new customers for any initiatives. So when I worked with them, as much money, and it's really not about money and budget and stuff like that it's about how smartand that's why a lot of things i i do is focus on being smarter about what you're doing so they have tons of money i mean obviously everyone knows puma but the big problem that they had was that they didn't really know how to reach these new type of customers right and they were at a loss right because they didn't they didn't understand the culture it would take them forever to really understand it, to really create their products. They really want, they had a short time frame. And, you know, what was unique for it for me was that this is the first time that the World Cup was being held in Africa LOC, right? And as somebody whowas born in Ghana, West Africa GPE myself, you know, besides that fact, you know, besides that fact, it was a huge kind of thing of pride and attention for me. But then when Puma ORG reached out to me, that also kind of helped me understand my value in, in from a cultural perspective, you know, as an individual, but it's also from an expertise perspective, right? So working with Puma ORG is really kind of a validating for me in the sense that we're able to really get really deep into the understanding the customers, understanding their pain points, understanding how to reach them, where to reach them, how often, you know, all thosekinds of things. Like I said, in a much shorter time at that time with a smaller budget than Nike had, I think we had about 40% increase in the brand awareness during that time, again, because we spent the time to understand the customer and position the productwith the customer. So it's a great opportunity for me to be involved in that kind of an initiative, but then also to validate the process that I'd been using with other companies that I'd be finding for myself, other companies with what they're doing there. And it's really about the customer, the essence, the visuals, obviously what a lot of peoplethink about, which Puma ORG had in spades. They have the graphics and all that kind of stuff. But then also the experience that we wanted to create for that. And it could be on social media. That could be in live events and everything. We kind of crafted that as well.And then ultimately, what really matters is, at least for the business, was the revenue that we drove and the impact. So in this case, we had about 40% brand awareness. So, you know, when those things come together those four pieces come together it really it really works both for the clients and then i find pride so that was a real pivotal point proof point for me to now start taking that to a broader market and really

Speaker 01256.8s - 1267.64s

refining that with my clients now yeah really fascinating um how can people contact you and you know follow you and reach out to you if they're interested in learning more about you? Yes.

Speaker 41267.64s - 1329.48s

So my company, the company I run now, it's called the brand Sensei and the brand sensei like S-E-N-S-E-I. And what we do is exactly what I was saying is like we have a proven formula that we help different startups or growing businesses bring their brand, make sure their brand stands out, make sure it reaches the right, it reaches further to reach the right people, but also generate revenue. And you can find us at, I actually have a tool that I'm going to share with your listeners here that will help them do an assessment for themselves. And I have that in as well, some of the information to contact me at thebrandsense.comfor slash freedom. So the brandsense.a.com for slash freedom. And you could find an assessment tool that helps you assess how you could use AI in your business to accelerate your business to accelerate your business, but then also some other resources and some information about me and

Speaker 01329.48s - 1340.58s

the brand sense. Yeah, I'm really fascinating discussion. And for all the audience, be sure to give Kofi a like and follow on all of his socials. And thanks so much for coming on.

Speaker 41341.18s - 1342.7s

Thank you, Christopher PERSON. It's pleasure being here.