Is a brand ambassador/spokesperson a manipulator?

Hello jolly people,

On the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th of May, Link to Life conducted a Flag Day throughout the island, in order to raise awareness on the goals and objectives of the organisation but also to raise funds to be able to continue to dispense the many a service that the organisation provides.   

On those particular dates, volunteers throughout the whole island gave a helping hand when it came to support the organisation and were assigned into different teams in strategic places targeted by the NGO. With the help of a few friends, who jumped on the occasion and who I am greatly thankful to, I was put in charge of the team targeting the Bagatelle Shopping Mall.   

Our objective was to raise a maximum of funds during those 3 days.  This was one very interesting experience, since I do not exactly approach people out of the blue and encumber their personal circle.  However, this is exactly what I had fun doing on that day.  Equipped with my little donation box (picture below), I embarked on one very insightful and enriching journey. 

On a side note, to be able to approach people and convince them to put money into the box, one has to have the ability to convince and use the right wordings with regards to the objectives that they have in mind. On those particular days, what I observed was that when people understood the goals and objectives of the organisation, they automatically felt concerned.  However, to make them understand the goal of the organisation, I had to approach and explain it to them. 

This is where I tried to formulate a particular set of words to convince them to put their money into the donation box as well.  Also, what I observed was that most of the women here were the most concerned when they heard the word “cancer”.  This raises quite a pertinent point in that, is a brand ambassador or a spokesperson, a manipulator embarked on a journey to put the maximum information with regards to his or her company he or she belongs to, into the head of people he or she is targeting?  This is one way of putting it, for a spokesperson is trained to come forward and represent a company with regards to the goals and obectives of the organisation. This is where having done the media relations activity the past semester came in handy as it helped me in representing the NGO and is also where the different PR, communication and marketing principles learnt throughout the year came in handy as well.

The approach used was a proactive one where I indulged into approaching people to make them be aware of our objectives as opposed to a rather conventional approach of standing in a corner while waiting for people to come towards you.

Below are some of the photos taken on the Flag Day:

  

 That's it for now folks.  Keep in touch for another post is to come describing a rather hearty and painful last week at work. Also, it is good to note that every donation box our little team dealt with was full by the end of the day.

Warm regards,
Swaraj Nunkoo.