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 and marketing efforts behind the 2008 African Cup of Nations held recently in Ghana. As a sponsor for 9 out of the 16 African teams, including tournament hosts Ghana and champions Egypt, Puma worked hard to make the brand synonymous with African football, even going so far as buying the Ghana team a top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz bus for transport between matches. The company began it’s Cup of Nations efforts with a sponsorship deal for Eurosport’s live coverage of the games and then a press conference at the brand new Puma store in Ghana’s Accra Mall. The press conference was held to announce several activities on the ground during the tournament, including a youth exhibition game co-hosted by the Peace One Day charity and edun Live and featuring African football legends Roger Milla and Anthony Yeboah. Continue reading “Puma’s love affair with African football deepens”
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 just read that Tony Blair was paid half a million pounds to make a speech in China. People like Blair always have a place in society, they have secure financial futures,†– Lunch with the FT: Mo Ibrahim
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 auction closed at a total of $42.58 million, an amount which even eclipsed Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate of $21 million – $29 million. A fan of contemporary art myself, some of the pieces sold are truly beautiful and I’m envious of the winning bidders.
In kicking off the Valentine’s Day sale, to which over 60 top contemporary artists donated museum-quality work, Bono led the crowd in a sing-along of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love.” – Forbes.com
I continue to be amazed at the RED campaign’s ability to continuously be “successful” at tapping into the guilt of celebrities and normal citizens alike. It’s too bad that such a brilliant marketing vehicle doesn’t think it could be effective without consistently playing the victim/savior game. Check out some of the artwork and related video below.
Gallery footage
Damien Hirst speaking to Charlie Rose about the auction
Bono fanfare at the Valentine’s auction
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 of the overall change in the world’s political climate, where stories of terrorist attacks come out of former tourist “safe havens”. Whether that is the case or if it’s a result of the increased marketing and advertising efforts by African countries such as Tanzania, the fact is that developers are looking to Africa as a premiere destination for luxury travel. But it’s not just the large developers who are jumping onto the trend. Recently Charlotte Bobcats owner and BET founder Robert L. (Bob) Johnson along with a delegation of African American businesspeople announced an agreement with the government of Liberia to build a villa-style, four-star hotel in Monrovia. The project falls under Bob Johnson’s Maryland-based firm RLJ Companies, which with some 135 hotels valued at more than $3 billion, is the largest Black-owned hotel investment company in the United States. The Liberian hotel project is the result of a “commitment” made by Bob Johnson, Debra Lee, Chairman and CEO of BET, and actors Chris Tucker, Cicely Tyson, and actor Jeffrey Wright among others to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative Annual meeting. In addition to the hotel, which is scheduled to break ground in March 2008 and open in February 2009, Bob Johnson also donated $3 million to open a new fund which will “provide Liberian entrepreneurs and businesses with the financial and technical resources they need to rejuvenate the country’s economy and foster long-term stability in the wake of two decades of civil strife”.
What makes this story interesting, besides the kind of project the group chose to launch, is also the fact that – as I’ve reported numerous times on this site – African Americans are increasingly putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to Africa’s business development. And with Liberia being a country which was established as a place to send freed African-American slaves, what better place for a serious businessman like Bob Johnson to invest in. Black Enterprise Magazine quotes Andy Ingraham, President and CEO of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers saying, “It’s important to note that this is part of an overall philanthropic effort by Robert Johnson, and you will see more African Americans not only doing increased business with the Caribbean and Africa, but also entering into philanthropic ventures….African American investors have been in talks with developing countries in Africa such as South Africa and Ghana, to build hotels.”. This is certainly a story to watch.
(photo: RLJ Cos.)
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. Taking place on March 9, 2008, the Africa 2.0 panel will bring together a group of African professionals who are all using technology in innovative ways. The panelists for what might be the only Africa-focused panel during the festival will be:
• Erik Hersman (WhiteAfrican.com, AfriGadget.com)
• Uduak Oduok (Ladybrille.com)
• Nii Simmonds (Nubian Cheetah)
• Chosan (Silverstreetz Entertainment)
As the moderator, I will be leading a discussion on how technology is being used to affect change in Africa. The panelists will be discussing how technology factors into efforts in different industries including fashion, entertainment, finance, and marketing. For a perfect example of how technology can affect change in Africa, visit Ushahidi, a collaborative effort by African bloggers to report on the election-provoked crisis currently taking place in Kenya.
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, we find problems marketing it in the more developed countries because they perceive all products from the third world as inferior … It’s only natural that Uganda focuses on markets in the Arab world, North Africa and Far East where consumers don’t have this bias.
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 interesting so far about the book is the fact that the author calls for marketers to go beyond the usual census-based demographics data and focus more on doing their own research to understand the cultural norms of their target market. Though I haven’t quite gotten to the core of the book’s message yet, I am hopeful that the beyond translation message is something that more companies and marketers adopt in 2008. As someone who continues to follow the growing African market, I can see so many benefits for companies changing the way they develop products and market them. Gone are the days when a company need only market to the dominant culture and all others followed suit. Particularly in areas like the USA and Europe, the browning of the dominant culture is now the norm and new segments continue to emerge. Economists can point to many reasons for the rapid development for these new markets, but the bottom line is consumers now have many more choices, and the product/company they choose will be the one which genuinely speaks their language and is invested in their community’s growth.
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