Dentsu Africa launches Consumer packaged goods like never before

"As soon as you have a sense of where we are now, you may get very excited about the next 30 years. PS: You don’t have 30 years to get there – you need to act sooner rather than later, or you’ll be displaced. Africa moves fast and leapfrogs many trends. We have built a guide based on the six biggest trends we see right now that warrant your attention if you are in retail, finance or the CPG sector.” - Dawn Rowlands, CEO at Dentsu SSA.

Dentsu Africa launches the wisdom series: e-commerce like never before

Dentsu  12 Mar 2021

Below is a snapshot of the biggest opportunities in Africa for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) category.

Knowing who you really compete with

We’ve done an extensive review of brands by market in Africa in terms of their current position, pricing and location to give readers a comprehensive look at how brands are showing up by market and competing. We share examples of interesting categories such as dairy, beer, noodles and non-alcoholic drinks and how brands and consumer tastes vary by market. There is also an indication of how infrastructure affects categories and drives innovation.

Brand fandoms

Fandoms are groups of people who rally together to support a brand. Fandoms themselves have enormous influence but they are made up of regular folk, not influencers. Essentially, they signal the demise of the traditional/sponsored/paid/ influencer. A brand’s ability to cultivate the cultural power, the community power and the commercial power of fandom will determine a big part of their success in the next decade.

Understanding young male audiences

Music and football are completely overtraded from a brand perspective. The potential of gaming as a platform, which is already a larger industry than music and entertainment combined, needs more attention. We give readers insight into this mega-billion-dollar industry, so you’re not left out of the game.

Direct to consumer

An increasingly digital world has seen direct-to-customer (DTC) retailing flourish, allowing a brand to own the purchase journey from start to finish. If you are in the CPG category, you’ll be feeling hard hit by changing customer behaviours. For decades, your business was built on brand and retail partnerships. This is evolving faster than you know and startups are creating havoc for large established brands. In the report we provide readers with all the facts they should know and help brands solve the million-dollar question: How do big brands create DTC plans?

Mobile money

This is already ‘how we do it’ in Africa, and the numbers are staggering. According to a new report from the GSMA trade body, sub-Saharan Africa continues to outpace other regions when it comes to mobile money services. The total value of the 23.8 billion transactions carried out in 2019 exceeds $456bn, representing an almost 28% jump compared to 2018.

Social commerce

This goes hand-in-hand with the mobile money trend and Africa’s custom of marketplaces. The social marketplace is booming. In Africa, whilst internet retailing is gaining momentum, informal retailing remains a contender. Africa has embraced technology – and often leapfrogs it to make it work for our circumstances. The best example of this has been in social commerce space as it is the most prevalent. This has seen mobile purchasing and banking explode. With 76 % of internet usage being dedicated to social media there is no way brands can ignore the power of social commerce. We unpack the types of social commerce and the vital role that trust plays.

It is clear that consumer behaviour and spending is shifting rapidly, the CPG sector is having to adapt quickly or be left behind.

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