Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey, Managing Director (MD) of the Graphic Communications Group has blamed failed brands in Ghana on bad attitudes of employees towards customers and urged institutions and organisations to engage quality staff with the right attitudes.

He said quality brands would fail if employees put up negative behaviours towards customers because consumers are consistently learning new developments and have become knowledgeable and concerned about matters of quality service delivery.

Mr. Ashigbey, who said this at the Brand Excellence Awards 2014 night on Friday organised by Premier Brands on the theme: “Building a strong brand for business growth,” also criticised bad leadership for contributing to poor branding.

The awards being described as ‘tribute event’ was in appreciation of the efforts of the men and women who are building Ghana’s brand asset.

About 20 companies and institutions including the Ghana News Agency received premier brand category awards while the top 10 companies received the greatest brand award with the Graphic Communications Group adjudged the best brand of the year.

Mr. Ashigbey urged the companies not to downplay consumers response perceived in negative or positive way, but reinforce the positive ones and work harder to correct the negatives if “they (companies) are to survive in today’s tremendous competitive world”.

Advertising and communication play key roles in branding and over the past decades, the environments in which brands operate and the challenges and opportunities they face have changed dramatically.

However, Mr Eric Affaidu, Chief Executive Officer of Premier Brands noted that many of the companies have still not recognised the importance of branding while others fail to apply the principles properly.