Marketing and Branding for African Exporters
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1 Product Development, Branding and Promotion for the US Market Aubrey Hruby Managing Director The Whitaker Group
description
At last week’s 8th Annual AGOA Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, TWG Managing Director Aubrey Hruby joined a distinguished panel of speakers from such organizations as USAID’s West Africa Trade Hub, South African sourcing agent Cool Ideas, and the Kenya ICT Board to address the topic “Development of and Access to AGOA Export Markets.” Ms. Hruby spoke on product development and adaptation to meet market requirements, as well as the often-overlooked importance of branding and identification of US buyers. This PowerPoint presentation summarizes Ms. Hruby’s strategies for African businesses to break into US markets and highlights a few African companies that have successfully made the transition. Other featured speakers included:Steve Lande - President, Manchester TradeVanessa Adams - Project Director, West Africa Trade HubPaul Kukubo – CEO, Kenya ICT Board Karim Dostmohammed - IPS GroupBelinda Edmonds – Cool Ideas, South Africa Klaus Fehling - KFP Ltd, Uganda
Transcript of Marketing and Branding for African Exporters
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Product Development, Branding and Promotion for the US Market
Aubrey HrubyManaging DirectorThe Whitaker Group
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The Importance Of Branding• TWG’s experience in facilitating exports-> the
importance of branding
• African companies often do not appreciate the need for marketing and branding strategies
• Poor branding acts as a non-tariff barrier to trade
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Value Of A Strong Brand• US consumers are particularly sensitive to
branding• Strong branding adds measurable value not
only to your product but to your organization as a whole
• Strong brands are essential to building customer awareness
• Brand equity is actual value• As a guide, the most successful retailers
companies spend anywhere between 5% and 15% of revenue on advertising and branding
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Brand Valuation ($Billions) 2008Coca-Cola 66.67
IBM 59.03Microsoft 59.01
GE 53.09Nokia 35.94
The World’s Strongest Brands
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Some Marketing & Branding BudgetsUnilever: $2.4 billion on advertising; $59.6 billion in salesNestle: $1.2 billion on advertising; $101.8 billion in salesKellogg Co.: $820 million on advertising; $12.8 billion in salesCoca-Cola Co.: $752 million on advertising; $32.0 billion in salesMcDonald’s: $1.2 billion on advertising; $23.5 billion in sales
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African brands are often hard to distinguish from one another and do not meet the established standards of the US market
The Challenges
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Success Stories
African Companies making waves in international markets with their definitive
brands
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Bourbon Coffee
• Sophisticated, distinctive atmosphere• Powerful branding though colour schemes,
bespoke graphics and signature fonts
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• Global franchise with unified, distinctive look and feel for both restaurants and product line
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• Elegant, artistic branding and marketing• Mirrors sophistication of target customer
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Good African Coffee
• Bold and colourful product branding• High quality branding need not be limited
to high value or speciality goods
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Key Strategies For Success• Make sure you have a sound branding strategy,
with the budget and resources to execute
• Diaspora partners
• Wholesale options
• Integrate into global supply chains where international companies help to brand the product– Cargill– Starbucks
