OPINION: Why Olamide should immediately rebrand and stop calling himself ‘baddo’

Editor’s note: In this article, Yemi Adebowale a public affairs commentator explains why popular musician Olamide needs to immediately stop using his nickname Baddo. He also states why the YBNL boss has to re brand himself.

The characteristics of a good brand name are not only considered by the unique and distinctive symbolism attached to such brand names, but also the top of the mind recall they possess and how well the target audiences can connect and easily remember such brand characterizations.

A general rule in brand development is the ability to ensure that in naming your brand, painstaking attention is deployed to this process in order to create a brand that is not directly or indirectly associated with negativity or in the popular Nigerian context, bad market. In this regard, many brand scholars agree with professional author Al Ries that a brand, at the end of the day, is nothing but a name.

More so, the image and perception of a brand is ultimately a deciding factor that determines the product sales or how well the brand is received in the market place. Elon Musk, a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, investor, engineer, inventor and CEO of SpaceX, believes that “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.” He is right. Brand imaging and imagery are thus very important, as they become an accumulation of beliefs and views that define a particular brand. The character and value of the brand is portrayed by its image, as it is the main component in the eventual scheme of things.