Various consumer brands are facing overwhelming challenges. Slowing global sales are placing pressure on companies aiming to expand their footprint and achieve real sales growth in sub-Saharan Africa, a region boasting a growing middle class and strong economic growth.
Financial results of two of the world’s largest breweries, SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch InBev, show declining global sales, and many other companies are feeling the pinch as well. These consumer brands are affected by getting their products to the African consumer and inefficiencies in the supply chain is a thorn preventing them from succeeding on a continent with over a billion people.
Some other challenges could be that despite strong distribution strategies, products are simply not available and brand visibility is inconsistent due to stock exchange. South African food and clothing retailer, Woolworths Holdings, cited difficulties in their supply chain among other reasons for closing down three stores in the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, in 2013.
According to Jeremy Haysom, the Vice President of Business Development and Supply Chain Solutions for DHL in the Middle East and Africa, the greatest challenge facing consumer brands as they venture into Africa is establishing an efficient route to the consumer.
“With growing urbanization, city populations have shown exponential growth in recent years and are expected to grow by over 25% over the next 10 years. There has been an explosion in the number of supermarkets and convenience stores established in cities to serve the customer,” he says.
“While these stores are located in prime locations, the back-end of the supply chain serving this retail revolution is in its infancy. This results in inconsistent stock availability and regular outages, a lack of brand visibility and most importantly product availability.”
Retailers handle their own international supply chain, which is managed from a distribution center, quite well. But the problem lies at the back of shop where manufacturers have to manage their own deliveries into the retail outlets. This causes a number of issues, including multiple deliveries from multiple suppliers at any given time causing considerable congestion at the back of retail outlets.
“Unless there is collaboration between a retailer and a consumer manufacturer you will continue to see inefficiencies at the back of shop and you will continue to have the knock-on effect that has on congestion and other issues around these developing cities,” says Haysom.
He adds that this is a general challenge seen in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. The South African market is mature and has ironed out many challenges and multiple deliveries into retail outlets do not occur anymore.
“You’ve got consolidation, collaboration between consumer manufacturers and retailers to ensure that multiple deliveries of one vehicle going to a retail outlet. Therefore pretty much the brand and the brand market can be taken onto the shelf, where you’d expect everything to arrive at the shop and there would be a certain high percentage of on-shelf availability in the retail store,” says Haysom.
“What you see outside of South Africa is different. Consumer manufacturers are having to undertake a part of the supply chain deliveries from their side onto a retail side and inefficiencies occur and on-shelf availability is affected.”
So what must be done in 2015 for retail to deliver on Africa’s promise? Haysom says there is little or no collaboration between the supermarket and the supplier which results in regular out-of-stock situations. Retailers, both multinationals and regional, need to invest in bolstering the back-end or supply chain serving this retail revolution. Consumer brand companies that are keen to translate Africa’s latent potential into real success need to recognize the relative immaturity of the African supermarket industry and put in place strategies that will successfully navigate inventory management.
In his book, Africa’s Future Darkness to Destiny &#8211; How The Past Is Shaping Africa’s Economic Evolution, Duncan Clarke says the state of Africa and its economies today marks the departure point for the future. We know the past has shaped the present: for the future, what do we really know? And those words couldn’t be any truer.
The key to winning in Africa is through the little things that are done in 2015 which will help retailers overcome supply chain inefficiencies.

African Retail  Needs To grow up

A recent study from the 50,000-member strong B2B Technology Marketing community on LinkedIn showed that 85% of B2B Marketers say LinkedIn is the most effective social network in delivering content. That study also showed that 71% of B2B Marketers say audience relevance is the most important element of content marketing and 88% of B2B Marketers cite case studies as the most effective form content marketing.
Yet, most business owners and most marketing, sales and business development professionals have a LinkedIn profile that reads like a resume. Their profiles do not show why a decision-maker or influencer should connect with them. Right there, they are not demonstrating their relevance. And, they’re not effectively showing their relevance in the content they are sharing.
Let me show you how four women are effectively using content and LinkedIn to generate more leads and profits.
<h4>How the founder of Wizard Media gained hundreds of leads and $60,000 by mixing content marketing with LinkedIn marketing</h4>
If you look at the profile of Jimena Cortes, you’ll notice we’ve included case studies. For example, you’ll find a case study on how Jimena built a Neiman Marcus jewelry designer’s Facebook community to 45,000 members in nine months (something retailers would find very interesting). Within that case study, Jimena shows why her strategies took the client from 600 fans to 45,000 fans, zero engagement to capturing 37% of her fans’ information and from zero sales to $12,000 in three days.
Because her profile has content that resonates with her targeted audiences – her targeted audiences are accepting her LinkedIn connection. They’re joining her LinkedIn groups where she offers more content. The profile attracted a prospect that was ready, willing and able to spend $36,000 per year on her services.
Plus, when Jimena completes an email lead generation campaign through LinkedIn (using LinkedIn groups) about an upcoming webinar, prospects are signing up because they see that she has value to offer just by looking at her profile. By mixing LinkedIn marketing with webinar marketing (a form of content marketing), Jimena gained an additional $60,000 for her business last year.
<h4>IT marketing firm gains four new clients fast by challenging the way software and technology companies market their solutions</h4>
Conversion Copywriting President Susan Tatum creates thought leadership content for her clients so they can attract more prospects. But she was creating the same old, boring topics on her own blog. She was writing about topics like “Wow to write an awesome white paper”, “Why tech marketers must have a blog” and “Five signs you’re talking to the wrong content writer.” She was writing for the search engines – but she wasn’t writing content that would position her as an influencer within the different social media circles she belonged to, including LinkedIn. LinkedIn members are savvy, educated professionals, who are constantly looking for new and original ideas and ways of conducting business. As there are thousands of LinkedIn groups with hundreds of discussions happening every single day, your content will get ignored if you are providing the same old, regurgitated content that’s already all over the web. By creating thought-provoking blog posts, special reports and discussions that literally open the eyes of technology marketers inside her own Linked-In group and inside the 50 targeted groups she belongs to, Susan increased her website traffic by 300%. She went from zero LinkedIn shares to 90+ LinkedIn shares. And, she was able to recently gain four new clients including a company that serves 86% of the Fortune 100.
<h4>International coaching firm attracts more women business owners by telling stories</h4>
While working with Zee Worstell, President of AccelerateHer, I discovered that she and her clients had amazing stories to tell. Zee’s expertise is in showing women business owners how to price themselves appropriately. She knows first-hand how hard this is because she came across this issue when she was growing her recruiting business. When she was starting out, she would lower her prices in order to secure a client and wound up earning less than she was worth. This backfired because prospects would doubt her work because she was priced significantly lower than her competition. She was turning off prospects just by lowering her fees – and the clients she did get failed to show her respect. So, we had Zee create blog posts that discussed the “good girl beliefs” that held her back as a woman business owner. She discussed her own confidence issues within the articles and the mistakes she made. She also writes articles where she discusses the challenges her clients faced – and she tells their complete story and how they’ve become successful. As on average, women business owners make 45% less than male business owners, her target audience resonated with the discussions that were being created based on the blog posts. In fact, when she spoke to many of her LinkedIn connections on the phone (as she took the LinkedIn conversation offline) they felt like she was writing and speaking directly to them. As a result they signed up for her coaching program.
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<h4>How the author of this article mixed LinkedIn marketing and content marketing to gain more PR, more exposure and more leads</h4>
You are reading this article right now because I invited the editor to connect and to join my Get Help with Linked Strategies LinkedIn group so she can see the value I have to offer her readers. After reviewing my LinkedIn discussions and blog posts, she asked me to write the article that you’re reading right now. How many leads do you think I’ll generate by being on one of the top business websites? Now, offer real value, challenge your prospects, start thought-provoking conversations, showcase your expertise by sharing case studies, demonstrate your relevance and connect with your audience with stories. And you will generate more leads with LinkedIn.
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Tag: Sales

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

African Retail Needs To grow up

LinkedIn with content marketing