On Personal Brand and Commercial Compromise: A Question for Daphne

First of all, Daphne (and any person that feels concerned) if you are reading this, you don’t have to consider this. After all, it is not my voice that you are using to sing. I do not pay your rents and neither do I pay your studio sessions. Furthermore, how you manage your career is really not my business. But then again, everything in the subsequent paragraphs is what I like to think is my contribution to the culture and that is basically what we do at PoiseSocial.

So, last week I was browsing on Instagram when I came across a post saying Daphne has been signed as a brand ambassador to a flour brand. Even more precisely a brand that with its name, seems to say “our flour is specifically for making puff-puff.”

“Hmmm, this is rather odd.” I thought to myself. I called a cousin of mine who works in marketing and sent her a screenshot of the news. We had brief discussion after that and most of what she said were in line with my own thoughts on the subject.

You see, we live in a world where “secure the bag (at all cost)” is now some sort of personal mantra that everyone, especially those in the show business go by and which people throw around like flower petals on Valentine’s Day. I’m glad we are living in a time when more and more musicians are getting some money outside music sales and performances. Heaven alone knows how difficult it is today to sell records. And so, it is always a good thing when our musicians make some money by licensing their image to a brand. We have seen Ambe with TECNO mobile, Mr Leo with Itel phones, and Stanley Enow with GUINNESS.

But are our artistes exactly thinking about how some of these endorsement deals go in line with THEIR OWN personal image and brand?

Let’s look at our guinea pig for today, Daphne. I think I have watched all Daphne’s music videos and I took the time to scroll down through her most visible personal branding portal – her Instagram page. I may be wrong here but I think I am right when I say that Daphne’s public image (as seen from her public appearance photos) shows her as someone who is chic and sexy but not in an overly raunchy and scandalous manner. Are we together?

Also she appears to be someone simple and real who doesn’t take herself too seriously. A real Cameroonian sweetheart, if we had to define such a thing.

Now, again, the flour brand is called “Mama Makala” and thus the name suggests that the flour is perhaps the real deal when it comes to making puff-puff. Now when you think of puff-puff what do you see? An achombo house/beignetariat right? I mean, except you are used to eating at the Hilton in Yaoundé, there is nothing glamorous about the image of pof-pof and beans.

Now, put the personal brand of Daphne as described above and put the image of an Achombo house right beside it. You see where I am going with this?

I was first surprised that they went for Daphne because as a brand you want to go for someone that embodies your product already in real life. Blanche Bailly will probably sell out a lingerie line and Maahlox will sell a warehouse of Kitoko sachet whiskey. But I have never seen Daphne cooking in an Instagram post. If she did, she deleted it because there is no such posts there right now and that says a lot about Mama Makala’s due diligence and it also speaks to the quality of their marketing team.

There’s nothing Daphne will say about flour from today on Instagram that will convince anyone that has been following her for the past 9 months that that she is being sincere about what she is saying.

But then again, the more I thought about it, the more I considered that the Mama Makala people might be the ones getting the good end of the deal. Daphne is an extremely popular and recognised public figure and her face on billboards right beside a bag of Mama Makala flour might just tell those women frying pof-pof (who danced to “Jusqu’a la gare” at a wedding over the weekend) that Daphne likes her pof-pof made with Mama Makala flour. Whether they choose to use that particular brand of flour thereon is an entirely different topic.

But at the end of the day, Daphne remains the one who has her image doused with flour and soiled with frying oil, if you would permit the metaphor. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is also Daphne’s first endorsement deal and I understand that perhaps there must have been some excitement into signing that deal. Which is perfectly understandable.

What I want to point out here is that we all are at the threshold of something great so far as the industry is concerned. The internet has brought a revolution and many walls are being broken and opportunities will present themselves always, especially for our big name celebrities.

And it is important that in the face of all this, the flag-bearers of this part of our culture start to think long term about who they are as individuals and as brands. We live in the social media age where personal branding is a magnet that attracts a community of followers and also top endorsements.

For a musician with a growing international exposure like Daphne, it is important that she, her team and anyone in her position start defining who they are as brand and what kind of exposure they want. Thinking long term puts you in a position to choose the right type of collaborations, it streamlines it and runs it in more or less parallel lines, where there is an obvious win-win for both parties and that puts you in an even stronger position to attract bigger brands and to bargain better pay checks.

Managing your personal brand first and carving a particular style in the eyes of your followers gives you a certain credibility and legitimacy. Which means that the potential for brands to draw revenue from your community is stronger and thus, you are in a better position to bargain better.

I’m not saying it is such a bad thing that she works with Mama Makala. I’m just saying it is not exactly in line with what she has built as an image so far; and even here we have to question whether or not any thought had been put before into her personal brand. Daphne can go on to be a brand ambassador for chicken feed if she likes, and then Moon Tiger, and then after that soya beans yogurt; again I’m not the one paying her bills. She alone knows the depth of her purse and she and her team are free to go ahead and get the money bag however they like.

But how does that all come together to strengthen THE Daphne brand that has been thought of strategically? There is the real question.

Andirifaa?

- Wandji Wilfred.

P.S* For more enlightenment on the subject, go to Instagram and visit this page: @bonang_m