A paper authored by Lagos Business School (LBS) faculty, Dr Tayo Otubanjo won the Highly Commended Theoretical Paper Award at the Corporate Communications International Conference, held at USC Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles between May 20 and 23, 2019.
The 2019 Corporate Communications International Conference saw a gathering of international speakers from industry and universities who exchanged ideas and information on issues facing the corporate communication profession.
Titled ‘A Cultural Representation Model of Corporate Heritage Brand’, the paper identifies the absence of shared meanings in campaign messages used by corporate communications executives in corporate heritage brand communications.
The paper highlights the cases of First Bank’s 125th-year campaign, Union Bank’s 100th-year campaign and Citi Group’s 200 years of banking campaign, all of which possess what Dr Otubanjo describes as “chest-beating cues” that underscore the historic achievements of these corporate brands. However, it says these campaigns “carry no shared universal codes that enable effective communication between corporations and stakeholders”.
Dr Otubanjo, who teaches Marketing Management at LBS, provided a solution to this challenge by developing a cultural representation model of corporate heritage brand, not just to introduce the concept of shared meanings or universally accepted codes into the literature of corporate heritage brand management, but more importantly, to demonstrate how such an action can be pursued.
LBS faculty is made up of experienced professionals who are dedicated to shaping the practice of management across industries in Nigeria and this award lends credence to their efforts.