Abstract
M.A. (Marketing Communication)
Communication in the 21st century has been defined as a practice through which members of society achieve shared meanings through the exchange of information, so that the making and managing of meaning creates a shared understanding of a social reality. Recent research emphasises the strong influence of communication platforms such as the media which encapsulates social thought, social discourse and reflects social reality, notwithstanding the prolific digital media as one of the most intriguing benefits of 21st century communication, specifically in the arena of brands and brand awareness. As such, a brand is a promise made by its owners to its consumers, creating brand perceptions and expectations as conveyed by the story of the brand through its various forms of communication. More specifically, media content significantly contributes to consumer perceptions and aspirations to interact with a brand because 21st century media in collaboration with the brand and media-savvy 21st century consumer creates awareness of a social reality such as brand consumption, by influencing public interest on specific characteristics such as the iconicity of a brand, thus setting the agenda for public discourse on the brand. As such the brand achieves an optimal competitive advantage, which contributes to its iconicity or collective high regard that the media find difficult to ignore, thus the application of the principles of the agenda-setting theory, which implies that the media is a fundamental contributor to social thought and discourse, creating public conversation and interest in the brand, ideally infusing the market with profitable awareness of the brand. In acknowledgement of the recognition of the African Development Bank as Africa’s premier development finance institution and as such, an iconic brand, this study addresses the research problem which explores how the African Development Bank uses its iconic branding in order to establish profitable brand awareness among its public sector clients.