Category: Business

Puma’s love affair with African football deepens

Being the No. 4 sporting-goods brand is tough. But Puma is betting that backing African football (soccer to Americans) will differentiate the brand and win it a significant increase in market share. Continuing with the company’s commitment to African football made during the 2006 World Cup Games, Puma put some serious resources together for product…
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A retirement plan for African leaders, Mo Ibrahim

African leaders, Ibrahim (says), look to retirement as they would to the edge of a cliff, beyond which lies a dizzying fall towards retribution and relative poverty. “We don’t have financial institutions for ex-presidents to go and run, or boards of great companies. There is life after office in other parts of the world. I…
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Sotheby’s, Bansky bring Bono green for Valentine’s

Despite increasing criticism Bono’s marketing behemoth Product (RED) keeps on course, this time with a Sotheby’s run valentine’s day auction titled (AUCTION) RED. The art auction, held February 14th at the Gagosian Gallery, included limited edition art by the contemporary art world’s heavy hitters such as Takashi Murakami, Bansky, Damien Hirst, and Jasper Johns. The…
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BET’s Bob Johnson adds to the African luxury hotel surge

In the past few years there’s been a bit of news coming out of new hotel projects taking place on the African continent. From the Hilton Hotels Group to the Rezidor Hotel Group it seems there’s a lot of interest in Africa as a luxury travel destination. Some will say that the shift is part…
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Africa 2.0 panel at SXSW Interactive 2008

A few months ago I asked for votes for a panel idea I had proposed for the upcoming South by SouthWest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. Well I’m happy to announce that with the support of many bloggers and readers, the Africa 2.0 panel has been chosen as part of the schedule for the upcoming SXSW Festival.…
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Video: Thinking big in Ghana

“What makes a country great is not that people stay there, but that other people want to come there” (via YG)

Quote: Taking African products where there’s no bias

While more established economies begin to focus on the revenue potential of emerging economies, many of those emerging economies are also seeing the benefits of selling to each other. Speaking about selling African products in foreign markets, the Ugandan Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) managing director, Mr. Henry Ngabirano, explains Though our coffee is world class,…
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Beyond translation to an African target market

I recently started reading a new book Beyond Translation; The Marketer’s Field Guide to Understanding Today’s Transcultural Consumer and so far am impressed by the perspective of the author Valerie Romley. Having only “met” the author online, I was interested to find out what marketers are beginning to think about diversity and multicultural marketing. What’s…
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Quote: Don Cheadle on Africa’s brand image

In the December 2007 issue of Ebony Magazine actor Don Cheadle says: One thing (African people) need is better p.r. If people in (the USA) think of Africa as a place with kids and flies swarming around their heads, then they won’t understand that these people are you and you are them