Brand ambassadorship, ethics and the moral question

 Tiwa Savage, MTN ambassador, Wizkid, Glo
ambassador and Olamide, Etisalat ambassador
One strategy usually employed by brand custodians
to penetrate today’s market and bond their brands
with the consuming public is giving a face to the
brand. And, besides settling for a celebrity or a
‘crowd puller’ as an ambassador, the brand also
ensures such ambassador fully understands its
essence and share some of its characteristics
features; since this is seen as the only way such
ambassador can successfully give the brand the
necessary push in the market place.
 
Interestingly, the nation’s market space is never
devoid of this global marketing strategy either. It is
a common spectacle today to see brand owners use
celebrities as ambassadors to either introduce a
brand into the market or re-position an existing
brand to further deepen the bond between it and
the consuming public.
From the nation’s ICT sector, to banking and fast
moving consuming goods (FCMG)sectors, the story is
the same. Brands are employing the brand
ambassadorship strategy to expand their frontiers in
the market.
But potent as the strategy may be, not a few have
expressed their reservations on the way some of
these brand ambassadors turn their backs on the
brands they professed so much love for and pitch
their tents with another, in the same market
segment. Curiously, this is fast becoming the norm!
For instance, while the dust raised by ‘Saka’s’ decision
to dump Etisalat, the telecom brand he had spent
substantial amount of his energy to promote as the
preferred choice in that market segment is yet to
settle, another celebrity, Banky W today sings the
praises of another telecom brand, despite the fact
that his face was at a time synonymous with Etisalat.
The question on the lips of many is: how genuine,
therefore, is this brand ambassadorship strategy? Are
these brand ambassadors really committed to the
cause of these brands they claim to represent? In
other words, why is it that easy for these
ambassadors dump their brands without even baiting
an eyelid?
For Dada Ajai-Ikhile, it is only in this part of the
globe that such a thing would happen. Dada, who is
the Chief Executive Officer of an advertising agency,
NextMedia believes what we are seeing today on the
nation’s market space is capable of rubbing off
negatively on such brands involved.
”For instance, if you are well known with a brand as a
celebrity and suddenly you are seen with another
brand in the same market segment, it doesn’t portray
you as really serious,” he argued.
Goddie Ofose, a brand analyst and a writer, would
rather want to see this issue from the perspective of
the consuming public. He believes such action is
capable of eroding whatever trust or confidence the
consuming public has in such brand and its
ambassadors