Controversy Over Plagiarism By GTBank's Brand Consultant Deepens - 2008-09-22

Dumbiri Frank Eboh

The controversy over the alleged plagiarism deployed by renowned brand management consultants, Alder Consulting , in the handling of GTBank's media campaign, has deepened with practitioners in the Nigerian marketing communications industry making conflicting claims. In an interview granted M2 a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Anthony Swart, the Chief Executive Officer of Brand Union, a South African based consulting firm operating in Nigeria, had accused those that handled GTBank's media campaign (Alder) of copying Orange Telcom's  line “We are Orange, we are simple…”

    According to Mr. Swart, this “theft” took a severe toll on the identity of GTBank as it lacked the differentiation needed to carve out a unique brand niche for the bank. “Branding is about differentiation, branding is about being unique. You cannot be unique if you do not have the ability to think about it and you decide to plagiarize on somebody else's unique points and try to make them yours… you cannot just steal it and think it is going to work for you,” Swart had submitted while taking a swipe at local practitioners in the industry whom he said pretend to be brand consultants when actually they are advertising practitioners.

     Mr. Swart's assertion has, however, received knocks from local consultants in the industry. While maintaining that Swart, just as well as Alder Consulting, should be blamed over the saga, Oluyinka Olaito of Michael Sage Consulting, an Ikeja based outfit, wondered why the acclaimed expert accepted to work with a local agency that he knew was guilty of plagiarism.

     “It is part of personal and corporate integrity to reject an account that does not conform to one's core values. Why should a 'big name' like Brand Union continue to work with an account that was known to have 'stolen' another organization's idea? Why do not they cry foul then? Why did Brand Union collect the account's hard earned  money and kept quiet until now?” Olaito queried. He also faulted the South African claim that Brand Union had not been able to open an office in Nigeria because it could not find skillful local hands, asking why the firm had not considered it a part of its corporate social responsibility to train local hands since all the years it had been operating in Nigeria.

     Olaito is not alone in this side of the divide. For Friday Erhabor, Deputy Director, Research, USP, a well known consulting firm, Mr. Swart failed to say who the real culprits of that branding disaster were. According to him, Mr. Swart is the main culprit because even before the campaign broke out, everyone knew from the colour and design of the logo, that it was an imitation of Orange Telecoms.

     “The question we need to ask ourselves is: at what point did the plagiarism of Orange Telecom start? Is it at the advertising campaign level or right from the visual identity logo creation? Those of us that saw the logo even before the campaign, did not need to see the entire campaign to conclude that it was a copy-cat of Orange Telecom… To me, Mr. Swart was trying to smartly find an escape route,” Mr. Erhabor stated.

     Most industry annalists who commented  on the saga, said the issue of plagiarism was becoming a disturbing trend in Nigeria's marketing communications industry. “Why should Alder of all consultants condescend so low as to copy another brand’s is campaign?” asked Uche Mako, an ikeja based practitioner. Another practitioner who does not want his name to be mentioned said some dubions consultants who lack creativity, take advantage of ignorant Nigerians to perpetrate their acts. In a brief with M2, Mr. Erhabor said it was unfortunate for the Brand Union boss to say there are no brand consultants in Nigeria. In his words : “Sometimes we mystify brand management as if it is atomic physics. Whatever knowledge that any person from South Africa has access to, more than one million Nigerians have access to it. It is a function of how such a Nigerian now applies his mind. The profession obviously is emerging in Nigeria ; but with all sense of humility, those of us that have embraced it here in Nigeria make bold to say that given a level playing ground, we can compete with any other professional from any other country and stand tall with our performance. That my methodology does not conform with yours does not make mine inferior to your own. At the end of the day, performance and result is what count. 'One rule fits all' has no place in Brand Management.”

         He added that if you give 10 South African companies a branding brief, they are likely to interpret it in 10 different ways. “ That is the interesting aspect of our profession. Nobody has a monopoly of knowledge in this vibrant profession. Brand Union has made their mark in this country. There are a lot they still need to learn because everyday, the profession is emerging and if they want to live under the illusion that they are kings in Nigeria as far as branding is concerned, then I can predict their rustiness in this business very soon,” he stated.

 However, when Alder Consulting was contacted by M2 to give their own account, the chief consultant was said to be not on seat.