Masterclass to inspire, empower brand builders in Africa

© Ekler via Fotolia.com

Kicking off in Zambia on 20 May, the program for 2014 includes Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia.

The Africa Branding Masterclass, focusing on Building Great African Brands and Global Brands in Africa, will be personally facilitated by Ikalafeng across selected African nations and will culminate in a 'Building Global Brands in Africa' in London.

"One of the primary drivers of Africa's growth, independence and identity, is in creating and sand growing thriving African and global businesses and brands in Africa," says Ikalafeng. "I'm excited about embarking on this journey to work with fellow brand builders across Africa to share insights and skills on how to build world-class African and global brands in Africa."

Outpacing other regions

It is reported that Africa is fast outpacing other regions globally with an average growth in excess of 5%. Consequently, Africa's wealthy class and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) are also growing by 9.9%, the second-highest growth rate in the world after North America, and above the global average growth rate of 9.2%, according to the 2012 World Wealth Report by the consulting firm Capgemini.

As Africans become wealthier and seek expedient access to global brands, leading global brands are looking to the continent as the destination for brands and source of growth. At the same time, Africans are fast-tracking Made in Africa brands across all sectors, particularly in telecommunications and financial services where brands such as Kenya's Safaricom mobile money brand, M-Pesa, Nigeria's online retailer brand Konga, and South Africa's MTN have become global examples of Africa's growing confidence in building world-class African brands.

However, as illustrated in the recent Brand Africa 100 survey, African brands represent only 33.7% of all the most valuable brands, while international brands account for 66.3%. Out of all the African brands, South African brands represent 24% of the share; Nigerian brands represent 9% with Kenyan brands representing the remaining 1%.

With a shortage of brand-building skills that blend global expertise and local insight across the continent, there is an urgent need in Africa to enhance branding skills and expertise.

Principles, practice and best practices

Each masterclass, aimed at senior marketing, branding and communication practitioners and decision makers with a passion and responsibility for building inspired and profitable brands, will cover the principles, practice and best practices of building brands in Africa, intellectual property and how brands inspire people and impact the bottom-line.

Each country event will also feature a facilitated panel of leading local and global leaders. Ikalafeng intends to broaden the countries and range of masterclasses to include sessions for branded customer service, place branding, personal branding, sponsorship and political branding.

Ikalafeng will reference and draw on his wealth of branding and reputation experience, thought leadership and global and African research, including Brand Africa 100 and the Brand Finance African Nation League, case studies and best practices in building brands in Africa.

Ever mindful of the unique business, branding and economic environments in each of Africa's 54 diverse nations, each session will include the host country's branding experience and reality.

Ikalafeng is the founder of the pan-African Brand Africa initiative to re-imagine Africa's image, reputation and competitiveness. Under his initiative and leadership, since 2011, Brand Africa, in collaboration with TNS, Brand Finance and African Business, have researched and published Brand Africa 100, the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in Africa.

For more, go to www.brandleadershipacademy.org