BCW Africa, Brand Leadership, Kantar, and Geopoll announced the launch of the Buy Africa Build Africa initiative to encourages local brands to adopt the approval for ‘made in Africa’ brands and to wear their local identity with pride.
In the ten years since the inception of the Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands survey and rankings, regarded as the most authoritative survey and analysis of brands on the continent, African brands have lagged their non-African counterparts.
Since a high of a 34% share in 2011 when the first survey was launched, African brands have dropped to an all-time low with just a 13% share of the Top 100 brands Africans admire in the 2020 survey. Non-African brands accounted for 87% of the Top 100 brands.
“African brands have an important role to play in helping to build the image and competitiveness of the continent,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, Executive Head: Brand Leadership and Founder of Brand Africa 100.
Quoting the ‘How we made it in Africa survey’ of June 2017, Ikalafeng says, “63% of African respondents prefer to buy African brands whenever possible.
In the wake of COVID-19, there has been a shift in consumer values towards community and supporting local, which is likely to continue beyond the pandemic.
This provides fresh opportunities to invest in local brands, drive greater consciousness amongst consumers, and ultimately grow the number of African brands that Africans admire and that feature in the Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands.”
#BuyAfricaBuildAfrica is aligned with and supports the African Union 2063 agenda for a united, peaceful, and prosperous Africa and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) goal to accelerate intra-African trade and boost Africa’s trading position in the global market.
“Local brands that have been in the Brand Africa 100 over the past 10 years are being encouraged to register on the platform and start displaying the logo in their marketing campaigns – as the pioneers that they are. The call also goes out to other African brands, of all sizes and across many industry sectors, to sign up and start wearing your local identity with pride,” says Karin Du Chenne, Kantar’s Chief Growth Officer – Africa and the Middle East.
“Consumers also have an important role to play in identifying, sharing about and supporting local brands because, by buying Africa we can build Africa – together,” she adds.
“Our teams of brand experts, research specialists, and communication professionals across the continent are the catalysts for this initiative, in the hope that many others will support it. We have collaborated on the Brand Africa 100 with Brand Leadership for some years now – so this takes our joint commitment to building brands in Africa one step further,” concludes Robyn de Villiers, BCW Africa Chairman, and CEO.
