Category: Business

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L’Oreal sets sights on African women

L'OrealThere’s no shortage of criticism of the fashion and beauty industry for not recognizing the diversity of what is considered beautiful. Cosmetics giants in particular have had it hard, trying to accommodate skin tones. In their effort to generate more revenue and gain market share globally, L’Oreal has announced plans to expand their product line and – most notably – make an effort to cater to African women’s beauty needs. Not being a cosmetics industry veteran myself it’s hard to tell if L’Oreal is trully addressing some of the issues it’s diversity critics have.

..the company, which has 26 international cosmetics brands and a presence in more than 130 countries, already has a presence on the continent upon which it aims to build. A key market is the African woman, and L’Oréal is seeking growth and expansion into this market, that will require balancing technological innovation with the need for prudent spending. – L’Oréal South Africa MD Philippe Raffray, more

What do you think?

photo by epicharmus

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Focus Features launches Africa filmmaking program

California-based Focus Features, a division of NBC Universal, announced that it is launching an African film making program. The Africa First Program, spearheaded by producer Kisha Imani Cameron, will award 5 African filmmakers $10,000 in financing for post or production work on a narrative short that makes use of local African film industry resources. Filmmakers selected for the grants will retain the copyrights to their projects as well as artistic, budgetary and editorial control with support from a team at Focus. The winning filmmakers will retain global distribution rights to their shorts, excluding North America, which Focus will retain. Focus also holds the right of first negotiation to any productions derived from the shorts. Focus Features has produced and distributed award-winning films including Traffic, Gosford Park, The Pianist, Lost in Translation, The Constant Gardener, Brokeback Mountain, and Atonement. The company also produced the 2006 film Catch a Fire which was set if Apartheid-era South Africa.
via Variety

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“Africa Rising” festival brings JAY-Z, Rihanna, Alek Wek to Nigeria & Washington DC

Friday was the kickoff for Nigeria-based media company THISDAY’s 3rd annual festival titled “Africa Rising”. The star-studded THISDAY Music and Fashion Festival at the THISDAY Dome in Abuja, Nigeria featured performances by Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Usher. The fashion portion of the festival featured models Naomi Campbell, Tyson Beckford, Alek Wek, Oluchi, and designers Chris Aire and Ozwald Boateng. The annual festival which is “focus on finding ‘sustainable solutions’ rather than the ‘problems’ facing Africa”, will be making it’s international debut with stops in Washington DC’s Kennedy Center on August 1 with Beyoncé and Seal as headliners, and in London on October 14. THISDAY has some 700 staff members in 38 offices across Nigeria. It also maintains a bureau in Washington DC, from which it provides news on Africa to a variety of global news organisations and agencies across all platforms- from online to broadcast.

“Right now the international community seems to be dealing with the symptoms not the problems of Africa. The symptoms are poverty and disease, but the problem is lack of social and physical infrastructure. This initiative is to highlight the need to focus sustainable solutions on the problems through massive investment in infrastructure and microfinance in order to rebuild Africa from the ground up. Europe is what it is today because after World War II the ‘Marshall Plan’ took hold. It did not deal with poverty, it focused on rebuilding Europe.” – said media mogul Nduka Obaigbena, THISDAY’s Editor-in-Chief.

The “Africa Rising” event “tour” reflects a rapidly growing trend in the Africa-focused aid sector: African’s creating products with a sustainability focus targeted to both African and international consumers. I’m eager to see what the attendance numbers are for the UK and US events.

more pics

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Ethiopia adds luxury coffee to brand identity

Ethiopia coffee logoWhether you’re religious about your coffee or just a casual drinker, you’ve no doubt seen mention of Ethiopian coffee on some sort of packaging or marketing. Well beginning this month the brand identity and marketing of Ethiopian coffee will finally be regulated and controlled by the Ethiopian government. After a long fight with coffee giant Starbucks, in early 2007 the Ethiopian government won the the rights to trademark it’s coffee beans which account for about 2% of Starbucks’ coffee purchase. In a effort to use Starbucks as leverage and re-position the country Ethiopia within the luxury lifestyle so many of us attempt to live out by drinking our premium coffee, the Ethiopian government recently hired UK-based design firm Brandhouse to create a series of new brand logos to use in it’s upcoming coffee marketing push. The new logo featuring a letter “E” in the form of a coffee bean over the name of the countries most popular coffee varieties Harar, Yirgacheffe or Sidamo, accompanied by the slogan “Ethiopian Fine Coffee.”, was designed to “establish Ethiopia’s reputation for high-quality coffee around the
world, like French wine, Russian caviar, or Cuban cigars.” No doubt the Ethiopian government have realised how their country’s natural resource is a coveted commodity around the world and is using Starbucks’ marketing techniques to try to get a larger share of the revenues from their number 1 export. Hopefully the marketing plan for Ethiopian coffee tells the story of how Ethiopia has long been considered the birthplace of coffee. Stories sell products and brands, and if done well a story from the originator of coffee should sell foreigners on the image of a bountiful, resource-rich Ethiopia, a stark contrast to the current story of Ethiopia resounding in tourist and consumer minds.

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Video: Outsourcing for change

One of the best conversations I had at SXSW was on the topic of outsourcing. While Asia – and India specifically – is known for having a strong history in outsourcing, Africa is quickly ramping up it’s ability to compete with and often times supplement Asian outsourcing. While there have been talk of Africa becoming the next Asia in terms of global business/investor focus, the continent still has some heavy issues to resolve before it can truly realize it’s potential. But, of course that will never stop entrepreneurs from doing their part. Watch this creative video below from a new Sillicon Valley-based venture called Market for Change.

Market for Change aims to catalyze economic development by creating a market for responsible outsourcing to small and medium-sized firms in developing countries.

via Timbuktu Chronicles

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1st India-Africa Summit held

india-africa summitWhile everyone was following the Olympic torch global tour and the protests at the various legs of the tour, a very important summit was held in New Delhi India. April 8-9 saw the debut of the 1st India-Africa Summit, where heads of state from 14 African countries including South Africa, Algeria, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana and Tanzania met with the Indian government to discuss future relationships. While some people have said that India’s decision to hold the conference was inspired by the 2006 China-Africa Summit, none can deny the power of such summits in powering Africa’s development. While many people are using the Olympic games to draw attention to China’s human rights history – China is Sudan’s largest trading partner and is seen as a supporter of the turmoil in Darfur – , the issue of Asia’s influence in Africa will increasingly make mainstream news. With the India-Africa summit and China and South Africa celebrating a 10 year anniversary of diplomatic ties, we are sure to see a rapid impact of Asia in Africa.

(India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) said India would more than double its lines of credit to African countries and regional economic groups to $5.4 billion, up from $2.15 billion in the last five years. Two-way trade between India and the African continent totals about $30 billion a year, having grown sixfold in the last five years, according to Indian Junior Minister for External Affairs Anand Sharma. In comparison, trade between China and Africa surged from $55 billion in 2006 to $73.3 billion last year, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. Premier Wen Jiabao said in 2006 that China should strive to bring the trade volume to $100 billion by 2010. ….In the last few years China and India have both bolstered their presence in oil-rich African nations. Last year companies from both countries won in a round of bids for exploration licenses in Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil exporter.
– Time

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Africa 2.0, 2 yr anniversary, growth

Africa 2.0It seems it’s been about a month since my last post. Wow! How timees fly when you’re running around. I guess I’ve been neglecting my duties here on Annansi Chronicles, but hey there’s much more to life than posting to blogs. Some readers might not have missed me since we communicate regularly online, but I’m sure many of you were beginning to think I’d abandoned Annansi Chronicles. Not true! Here’s some updates of what’s been going on:

The Africa 2.0 panel at South by Southwest Interactive went pleasantly well. Besides getting to finally meet a few of my fellow African bloggers/entrepreneurs/innovators, SXSW was one of my best conference experiences to date. The energy, people, and information was well worth the effort of organizing the panel. For a roundup of what went on read my review at the newassignment.net website. Also read Erik, and Uduak’s perspective. The panel was well attended and we got to talk to some really great people. Thanks to the SXSW crew especially Hugh and Christine for allowing us a great opportunity. Below is some video of an interview I did with Sunny Gault of Veoh TV’s Viral channel right before the panel. In the video I talk about the topic of Africa and technology as well as the work I’ve been doing as a board member of the African Film Commission.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

In some other news, Annansi Chronicles passed it’s 2 years anniversary this month! Thanks to all the readers and the brilliant Africa-focused minds who have helped me keep the blog inspiring. It’s been great connecting with people all over the world and building business and personal relationships through Annansi Chronicles. I had no idea what I was doing when I started 2 years ago and to see the response has been very motivating. As a result of the good people I’ve met through this blog, I have been able expand on ideas which I never would have had. I am currently working on a bigger project which, building on some ideas I’ve explored on Annansi Chronicles, will hopefully add to the efforts of innovation in African business and community development. Hopefully I will be soon announcing this new project, but in the meantime, I am looking for writing contributers for this and other projects. Please contact me if you or someone you know might be interested in working with me and my company Annansi LLC.

Finally, for those reading Annansi Chronicles using rss make sure to visit the site itself to see the new re-design. Going forward Annansi Chronicles will have featured posts of in-depth analysis of news items. For those familiar with the content of the blog, the features will be the longer in-depth posts I’ve been doing periodically here. I’m looking forward to providing more inspiration for you all.Thanks again for reading Annansi Chronicles.