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Brand new secondhand
A Brand Africa report out this week on the continent’s top 100 most-admired brands is a reminder of the importance of innovation, consistency, customer service and regular investment.
The number one most-admired brand was Samsung. Yes, that Samsung, with the exploding Galaxy Note 7 (which was never officially launched on the continent), and which is currently embroiled in one of the worst scandals in its home country’s (South Korea) history.
But last year’s number one, South Africa’s MTN, tumbled to ninth after its own annus horribilis. It spent a good part of 2016 dealing with the fallout with Nigerian regulators over its unregistered sim cards which ended with a $1.7 billion fine, after months of negotiation and accusations of MTN’s arrogance in the local press. Back home in South Africa, it seemed to be the face of the bad phone networks in the #datamustfall campaign to get cheaper and, hopefully, faster Internet.
One difference is Samsung, which spends more $3 billion a year on marketing, is more consistent as a brand for innovation and quality and might be forgiven more readily for an incident which likely didn’t impact the 11,000 people questioned in this survey across 19 African countries (representing 74% of the population).
But the more troubling issue from the survey is the continued dominance of international brands. The United States alone had a quarter of the top 100 with names like Nike, Google and Apple. In fact, international brands grew their share on the list to 84% up from 77%.
The survey reminds us there aren’t many competitive African consumer-facing brands. MTN was alone in the top 10 and there were only 16 in the top 100 including Glo and Dangote (Nigeria), Anbessa Shoes (Ethiopia), Safaricom/M-Pesa and Tusker (Kenya), Mukwano (Uganda) and South Africa’s DStv, Shoprite and Tiger Brands.
When it comes to brand perception and awareness there is little sentiment or ‘patriotic duty’ anywhere in the world. Consumers vote with their wallets if they trust your brand to be consistent with quality, affordability and great service.
Innovation is key to being in the position to establish that culture at any business. If African countries are ever to compete on the global stage creating a local environment where innovation thrives will help make that reality. That’s how we will start to see more admired African brands on lists like this one.
Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
It’s time for Ghana to find its place in the world. Ghana celebrated 60 years as an independent nation on Mar. 6. Yet despite the jubilations and the successes, Emmanuel Quartey provides several pointers that would push Ghana further along its national project if the new administration focuses on them.
Kenya’s mobile money is vulnerable to money laundering. A US State department report noted this month that services like Kenya’s M-Pesa system are susceptible to illicit financial flows. But the deep entrenchment of M-Pesa into Kenya’s economy is also worrying Kenyan regulators writes Joshua Masinde.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s lessons for South African students fell on deaf ears. The venerated Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o recently visited South Africa to deliver lectures on decolonizing the mind and prioritizing African languages. But the core of his message was lost in the morass of heckling and anger that gripped the auditorium at the University of Cape Town.
Narrating African parables on chairs you can’t sit on. British-Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori recreated his If Chairs Could Talk installation on stage at Design Indaba in Cape Town. Lynsey Chutel writes that the project was inspired by the creative resilience of immigrants.
The women who power the world’s khat industry. Khat, the controversial mild stimulant found in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, is a male-dominated trade. But as Abdi Latif Dahir reports, it was women who were the pioneers in making it a global business.
CHART OF THE WEEK
Mobile internet prices are falling so why are Nigeria’s users declining? When the Nigerian Communications Commission removed the minimum price networks could charge for data, mobile internet prices fell to a third of their original cost in 2015. But that hasn’t necessarily translated into more internet users, finds Yomi Kazeem.
Other Things We Liked
The thirsty Ethiopian town that welcomes water firms. Sululta is a town where rainfall is abundant for about four months of the year. The private sector has invested in boreholes and pumps, and Nestlé Waters has even invested in a water bottling company there. William Davison reports in the Guardian about why half the town’s population has no access to fresh water.
How Liberian women elected the first female president in Africa. In 2005, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first woman to be elected president of an African country. In an excerpt from her new book Madame President, Helene Cooper traces the story of how Liberia’s women campaigned to get Sirleaf into office.
Marketing Kenya’s premium tea brands to Kenyans. Kenya exports more tea than any other country in the world. But for years, high-quality tea was viewed as luxury and consumed by the affluent. Matina Stevis writes in The Wall Street Journal ($) about the companies trying to change that.
Keep an eye on
A Nigerian court rules on whether to lift an order of the temporary seizure of an oilfield (Mar. 13). The field was seized from Royal Dutch Shell and Eni of Italy at the request of Nigeria’s financial crimes agency, on suspicion of bribery and other alleged crimes potentially involved in the $1 billion-plus sale of the land.
New African Union chairman (Mar. 14). South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will hand over power to Chad’s foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahamat on March 14. The Chadian diplomat was elected in Addis Ababa in January after seven rounds of voting.
The Nambian peoples’ lawsuit against the German government (Mar. 16). A court date has been set in a United States court for a proposed class-action suit for the descendants of Namibia’s Herero and Nama people against a campaign of genocide by German colonial troops in the early 1900s.
Our best wishes for a productive and thought-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, African chairs you can sit on and khat leaves to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.
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