Dear So Klin campaign: Anchoring brand building on CSR

By Akin Adewakun, Lagos - Updated: Tuesday 16-06-2009

From left, Supervising Producer, Dear So Klin, Dada
Ajai Ikhile; Presenter, Moyo Oyatogun, and Producer
and Creative/Script Director, Olawale Obadeyi, all
of the same company, during the ecording session
of the programme recently.EKO Supreme Resources Limited, manufacturers of So Klin detergent, commenced a 15-minute program on radio, tagged Dear So Klin, designed as a platform for the detergent brand to identify and reach out to those in dire need in the society, with the aim of providing the much-needed succour and smiles to the distressed faces.

The initiative, though unique from the traditional means of enhancing brand equity, is meant to actually serve a dual purpose of marketing the So Klin brand and at the same time, enable the brand fulfil its corporate social responsibility to its operating environment.

Unlike traditional advertising, where the whole budget is expended on the different advertising media, the intention of the brand, according to Oliver Terante, Marketing Manager of the brand, is to explore corporate social responsibility as a campaign platform for the first time and at the same time prove that, among other marketing objectives, we could do marketing aggressively and still be socially responsible and relevant.”

The campaign, he explained, is simple and everyone had a secret wish that needed to be met.

Dear So Klin campaign seeks to bring hope and succour to this category of people through the Radio programme by granting some of these wishes every week. For a wish to be granted, a request must have been made on behalf of the person in need on the programme, with such request having a life changing and emotional value before it is considered by the brand.

“We ask people to speak to us if there are persons they would like to help. If you have people who are in distress or in need, you can give us a call or send an e-mail and after a wish is made, the research team of the brand is actually dispatched to verify the genuiness of the claim before it is met. We have to see the sincerity of the person making the request and the person that would receive the help,”he added.

According to Terante, the success of the programme could be seen in many lives that it had touched within a year of its conception.

“We have given out wheelchairs, a cerebral palsy walker for a kid who could not walk, houses to some homeless, sewing machines, computers to schools and even given out some of our products to some who love to sell so that they can start a new lease of life,” he stated.

Presented by a popular radio presenter, Moyo Oyatogun, the Voice and Face of the brand, the programme, which commenced in the first quarter of this year on Star FM, according to Terante, is meant to complement the traditional ways of advertising, and it now runs in other stations in Lagos,South-West, South-East and South-South.

According to him, building a brand requires a lot of funds, and there is a way the funds can be dispensed to build the brand equity, in a way that the brand will still maintain its relevance to the people, adding ‘The Campaign is to prove a point that in a bid to enhance a brand equity, one can still make it relevant to its operating environment if such brand is able to identify with the needs of that community.

For Miss Franca Iyabo Nweze, a physically challenged and one of the beneficiaries from the project, the brand had again brought ‘sunshine’ into her life.

Nweze, who has been confined to a wheelchair had, through the initiative, successfully trained as a seamistress.

To facilitate her movement, she recently had her wheelchair replaced to accommodate her huge frame.

While the likes of Iyabo continue to benefit from this unique initiative, for the brand, it is another way of fighting for its market share, while still being socially responsible to its operating environment.