Two decades of exellence

Sibongile Khumalo still has it all after more than 20years in the music industry

Sibongile Khumalo performing for her audiences

Today I took the pleasure in writing this blog, as I’m honoring one of my favorites’ jazz and classical singers of all time, a legend that’s still very active and still knows how to get her audience going crazy over two decades now.

She was born and grew up in Orlando West, in Soweto with both her parents. She developed her love of music at a very young age and was greatly influenced mainly by her father, as he was a music professor. That is why everything she does is a tribute to him.

When I think of Sibongile Khumalo, I think of a well built brand. I mean how can one survive for so many years and still have so much support from her country? So I decided to take a step back and analyse her career history and try to she how she managed to keep people wanting more and more for so many years.

Then it clicked to me that she is a great example of what we call in Public Relations a well built Brand Image or Brand Reputation. It literally begins with having a broader knowledge of the main term “BRAND”, which includes you as the brand developing a promise, making that promise and sustaining or maintaining that promise, by positioning it and then delivering it to the public.

Sibongile Khumalo realized the importance of having a brand image and knew the success it would bring her career. She had an idea of how she wanted to be perceived by the public, especially her target audience (even some of us who are not her target audience). She had a clear idea of who she was marketing her brand to and what she wanted to achieve in all of this, thanks to her parents but mostly her father.

Her father was the one who helped in creating the brand and showed her how to keep her audiences, old and young, committed to her music. Her strong brand image differentiated her from other musicians in the same industry, as she brought a different package that people did not expect to see and also confidence in her music, which made it difficult not to appreciate the songstress’ angelic voice.

In conclusion the exceptional singer will be celebrating 20years in the music industry, with a two night special concert at the Lyric Theatre on April 27^th and 28^th, at 8:30pm. The two decades concert at Klippie’s( Lyric Theatre), which was then the hottest jazz club in the history of Newtown; will be hosting The Three Faces of Sibongile Khumalo ,a concert not to be missed.

 Sources: www.profitduck.com, www.managementstudyguide.com, www.mg.co.za and www.brooklynvegan.com

Kim Kardashian wants to be mayor

Kim Kardashian
source: Belfast Telegraph

A Kardashian publicity stunt

How many celebrities have actually run for mayor and succeed? Well Kim Kardashian is also following the trend of becoming a mayor when you are still hot news. Apparently Kim mentioned to her little sister on her reality show called Khloe and Lamar , that she has plans on becoming a mayor in the near future. Well according to (www.thefreedictionary.com, 2012)” a mayor is someone who is the head of government of a city, town, borough or municipal corporation” and Kim Kardashian does not fit into that category.  I must say I was shocked when I heard the news about Kim’s plan to become the mayor of Glendale in the future.  Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County in California found in the United States of America. This is the city where almost half of the world’s Armenian population is found and with her having Armenian heritage, which is from her father’s side of the family, she has decided that Glendale would be the perfect city for her to be the mayor as she is half Armenian.

Los Angeles has a reputation of creating politicians out of celebrities like the likes of Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sonny Bono. But unlike these celebrities Kim does not have a political background and does not seem like the type that could handle all the pressure that politicians are faced with on a daily bases. Could this be a publicity stunt? Especially now that she is not on the cover of every magazine or even tabloid newspapers all over the world, this could be one of the ways for her to get back into the lime light.

In conclusion, I must say this is an intelligently thought over Public Relations act, I mean grabbing people’s attention when they least expect it, after all she got used to being in the spotlight that when she is not  she would say just about anything to get people talking about her again.

sources : www.thefreedictionary,com; www.pmflegal.com; www.yahoo.com and www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Celebrity in the making

Citius, Altius, Fortius                 

official 2012 Olympic rings , source: www.techfleece.com

Most people do not know her and what she does, she is one of our very own that’s soon going to makes us proud because of her achievements. Rene Kalmer is still unknown to many but the few that know her, know that she is a rising start in the making.

Unlike some athletes running did not come naturally, it was something she fell into. It all began when she was 10 years old when her teacher suggested that the entire school should run the cross country race and also when she made it into the Transvaal B team for the 1993 Cross Country Championship. This was when she found her love for running in the marathon and never stopped ever since.

victoyr smile source:wwwgalloimages.co.za

She has competed in a number of athletic events mainly marathons and in some she did not win and in others she did. Despite her loses, she never gave up but continued to do her best and improved her running. Her first international participation was at African Junior Athletics Championship in 1997, where she came third and received her first international medal for both the 1500 and 3000 metres events.

She started to compete again internationally but this time as a senior at the 2001 International Amateur Athletics Federation World Cross Country Championship, where she came 30^th in the race. Always striving to be the best at what she does, she continued her work and also participated in a whole lot of athletics meetings, locally and internationally.

Recently she participated in the Two Ocean half-marathon, where she won first place with a record of an hour, fifteen minutes and two seconds(1:15:02), which made her hold a record of over 12000 finisher of the race. Now that she will be representing South Africa at the Olympic games 2012 in London on the 5^th of August, she surely will make all of us proud as a nation. Like the Olympic Motto says "Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger)" and to the top is where she is headed. A true celebrity in her own nature.



sources : www.mg.co.za www.runnersworld.co.za www.en.wikipedia.org