How Can African Brands Win Customers Back From Western Giants?

In his previous life Thebe Ikalafeng worked to boost western-originated brands such as Colgate and Nike. For the past 15 years, however, he has been preoccupied with the question of how African brands can find and leverage that je ne sais quoi that will make them as pervasive as western brands are in the continent and elsewhere. The organisation he founded, Brand Africa, is behind the Annual Brand Africa 100 that has been published every year since 2011 - a ranking of which brands, local and foreign, hold the most sway with African consumers. Ikalafeng says the idea, popular at the time, that Africa was the next frontier, led him to question exactly how Africa might profit. "It seemed that the conversation was more about how to extract more out of the continent, rather than Africans themselves seeing the opportunities presented by the continent," he recalls.

Ikalafeng's apprehension was that, with the various advantages that foreign brands had over African ones, they would gain more from the burgeoning African opportunity than would local brands. A decade and a half later, the odds remain firmly stacked in the favour of non-African brands.

Ikalafeng says this is due not just to a first-mover advantage, but to decades of foreign brands working to build loyalty among African consumers. "They have invested heavily to find a way into our mouths, our minds and our money. We have been led to believe that the west is best and if you look at the African consumption basket, it is dominated by non-African brands, which means the externalisation of African profits," Ikalafeng explains.

For African brands, Ikalafeng adds, there is also a barrier to entry, even in their own lands. Having a captive audience and a decades-long head start means that foreign brands selling to Africans have access to resources, production capacity and distribution networks that their African competition simply do not have. "The barrier is money," he points out starkly.

The result of all this is an entrenched perception among African consumers, Ikalafeng observes. This perception has been further exacerbated by new media and technology, which allows Africans to engage even more with western culture and brands.