REVERT : The plight of young black professionals

Brothers and Sisters, we know that its been a while since we reverted with regards to the status quo on the e-mail that had been sent to Mr. Jimmy Manyi, well we finally had the opportunity to have a brief chat with the individual in question, yesterday evening, he unfortunately has not been privy to the e-mail sent to him detailing exactly what we have been discussing in this forum, the reason he has not seen the e-mail is because of his “extremely efficient” gatekeeper in the form of a PA who decides which e-mails he reads and which ones he doesn’t, he subsequently requested that we re-send the e-mail which has been done so that he could get a clearer understanding of what we were telling him. He provided us with his landline number which obviously also has a gatekeeper, but nonetheless, it should assist us in following up on a response to the e-mail.

At the session, Mr. Manyi spoke of transformation initiatives such as employment equity and BBBEE, the monkey tricks that white corporate South Africa has been using in attempting to frustrate these initiatives. Mr. Manyi spoke of the penalties that are currently being reviewed, that will be imposed upon companies that don’t comply, amongst them being the fact that the transformation initiatives are going to be made law, and those that refuse to comply will be individually named and shamed (no more safety in numbers), a proposed penalty of a fine of 10% of a company’s turnover and spot fines. Mr. Manyi also alluded to the fact that once the transformation plan is made a law, the government will be obligated not to deal with naughty companies, and will also be entitled to cancel any contract that it may have with a company that has been found to be naughty and resisting transformation.

Mr. Manyi went further to acknowledge that because white women were also beneficiaries of EE, the ill-disciplined company’s had taken advantage of this by flooding the workplace with Suzanne’s, Tracey’s and Marietjies, and thereby exacerbating the situation of having over-representation of white women, who only make up 5.5% of the economically active population yet their representation at “executive levels in companies is 14.7%, at senior management they are at 19% and middle management they are at 22%” . Mr. Manyi assured the gathering that there would be no more “nicey, nicey” when dealing with transgressors, whereby companies will be asked to comply etc etc before punishing them, he further went to state to the audience that if you work for one of these companies, you should let them know that there is a new man in town and if they do not comply “something bad is going to happen to them”

The audience was informed that the above mentioned would all be compiled in a document termed the “DG review” which we should look out for in the not so distant future. Mr. Manyi went on to further acknowledge how the regressive forces in companies appoint uncle toms to executive positions and middle management to fill the BEE quota, these uncle toms, once there will frustrate the advancement of Blacks within the company, The DG said, “We know in companies that you will get a Black person who enters a group of whites but knows that doesn’t make him/her white, then you get a Black person who enters a group of white people then thinks he/she is white” and subsequently frustrates black people, “we have Black people and then we have non-whites, we have to come with a programme to deal with these non-whites”.

Mr Manyi touched on a number of relevant challenges within working environments, but what was evident from his address is that the man means business; hopefully this wasn’t just lip service being paid to the cause, but the confidence that his address inspired indicated that the man is taking no prisoners, and for the mere fact that he is a deployed DG says that the current administration wants to get the wheels of transformation rolling.

So, brothers and sisters, there seems to be some headway being made in this regard – with respect to us taking the next steps on what has been proposed in terms of forming an association that doesn’t only bark but can actually bite, I would propose that this rather be sent to individual inboxes rather than posting it here for all and sundry to see, from the inboxes, individuals will be encouraged to invite more leaders with similar mindsets to come and join us at our inaugural meeting, where we will take resolutions on a certain number of discussion items prior to us drafting our objectives, strategic alliances etc and a comprehensive battle plan or plan of action if you may.

If you have not already provided your e-mail address, please do so by sending an e-mail to the following address – marketings101@gmail.com, looking forward to hear from you all, its time to roll up our sleeves and do something about our plight, unless we want to preserve the status quo and walk between now and eternity without seeing any change whatsoever and end up blaming everybody else but ourselves.

If I may borrow from an African proverb that I recently heard at a BMF event “If you want to walk fast, walk alone……If you want to walk far, walk together”. In resounding the message already put forward by some members, we need to act as a collective to effect proper sustainable change…Collectively we cannot and will not fail.

ALUTA CONTINUA!!

The power of Community Media

In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment. South Africa comprises of various communities of ranging LSM groups, mindsets, lifestyles and life stages. Community Media would be: community radio, community newspapers, billboards, posters, murals, commuter advertising etc. With the exception of traditional billboards, community media has been pretty much neglected or looked down upon as inferior platforms to utilize, ironically, stats indicate a growth in listenership in community radio, a larger reach in newspapers and with the 2010 Soccer World Cup coming, there has been a bit more infrastructure development in locations. Now, is this not an opportunity for a brand to get closer to its consumers?

Marketing and advertising have taken a new direction in the 21^st century, everything has become more technologically driven and brands have begun to implement 5D branding strategies. 5D Branding is also known as Sensory branding which is, when brands appeal to a consumer’s senses (touch, taste, smell, sight and sound) in advertising to capture them more affectively e.g. Rice Crispies - snap, crackle and pop, Coke - Brrrrrrr, Castle Lite - temperature sensitive logo on bottle, Robertsons Rajah. Each of these brands appeal to one or more of the human senses creating an intimate connection between the brand and the consumer as the brand distinguishes itself from its competitors. With the effective use of 5D Branding, a brand can open the door to creating a relationship with the consumer. Since community media platforms are the closest to communities, would it not make more sense to use 5D Branding on platforms that communities rely on?

Traditional community media platforms such as radio stations and newspapers are the mouth piece of communities across the entire country and communities rely on these platforms for information pertaining their community, which means that the market is very captive. Advertising on these platforms has been known to create a perception that a brand is part of a consumer’s life and therefore more in touch with them (provided the creative used is relevant of course). The paradigm shift from mass media to relationship marketing has occurred, ergo the strict use of traditional ATL (above the line) mediums may no longer be as effective anymore today, instead, the strategic use of ATL mediums together with community media has been known to provide explosive results due to the close nit nature of community media platforms and the large reach of ATL mediums. KFC is a brand that has mastered the use of some elements of community media using sublime creative that speaks in the language of their market e.g. They have a billboard in Alexandra with a Street-wise 2 and the copy reading “Nix mapha”. The phrase used here can only be understood by the market as it has been part of their lifestyles for decades which symbolizes that KFC is part of this community’s lifestyle.

The globe has been bitten by the mandibles of recession, even though the 1^st world countries have escaped, the rest of the globe is still trying to loosen the grip and we all know that the 1^st budget to be cut is the marketing and advertising budget. With less money to spend, marketers are faced with having to find innovative and most importantly, cost effective ways to market their products/brands and what better way than community media. One spot on an ALS (African Language Station) can give an advertiser 4 spots on a community radio station, a billboard in a prime location in an urban area will give an advertiser 2 mobile billboards that roam in strategic areas in a community, which route makes more sense? A traditional marketer wearing blinkers can argue that at least they can guarantee that the traditional method works even though its expensive but they conveniently forget how thin they end up spreading themselves where as they can fill up prime time with community media with the same budget.

So community media is closer to the community, it is cost effective, it has grown every year, it is uncluttered and largely untapped, it complements mass media, its been proven to work for brands such as KFC, COKE, Robertsons and is not as restrictive as ALSs, its strong where mainstream is weak i.e. the radio stations reach places that ALSs cant reach so why aren’t marketers using these brilliant platforms? Well, the same reason Eskom didn’t avoid load shedding….

The plight of young Black professionals

The private sector absorbs black graduates in large deposits - which they must be applauded for. On the other hand in an act of double standards practise, once in the system, the graduates are subjects of intransigency and excruciating frustrations – such acts of double standards must be reviled and abrogated in the strongest possible terms. For if we let such practises prevail, we’d be perpetuating the stereo-type that black executives are only good for public office.

When black aspiring graduates enter the workplace they do so with great zest, zeal and eagerness to learn and they do so devoid of racial prejudice. However, once the harsh imperialistic practices of employment have taken a full effect and a taxing toll, they are left frustrated and crying for intervention from relevant labour relations bodies. It is a fact that even in this day and age a top brass black graduate is still subject of great and often evil intentioned scrutiny whereas his Caucasian counter-part has a home run to top executive positions; those who dispute this stance are nothing but victims of “rainbow illusion” – a disease prevalent amongst those detached from reality.

When the brave ones dare stand up against this Jim Crow labour practises, they are ostracised and a red hot iron is used to brand them “trouble-makers”. Such incidents are rife especially in industries where Government labour legislations regulating employment equity are denigrated with shameless impunity – one such industry is Advertising and Media sales. A glance at executive management of top advertising agencies and media owners is reminiscence of pre-94 South Africa. The old-guard of the previous regime is still having a field day. The few black executives are either outnumbered by the regressive forces and can’t effect meaningful change or are mere pin-ups. This is a call for great concern.

In the Advertising and Media industry concern is not only at top brass level, it is also at departmental level where the rewarding positions such as sales are reserved for and/or largely filled by whites whereas blacks are cramped into positions that requires less intellect often for no purpose other than to fill quotas requirements, but those who are lucky enough to make such positions are set up for failure with ludicrous restrictions that lead to dismissal due to a ‘lack of performance’.

Very often is the race card used in the Advertising and Media Sales industry where campaigns are given to a company based on the colour of their skin instead of merit and excellence. Preference is often given to white owned companies, by white clients of course, even when the black owned companies are better equipped for the job all because of their attempts to combat affirmative action and because there has been no legal intervention from the office of Director-General of Labour in this industry, this bitter behaviour reigns as freely as spring butterflies.

Patronisation and marginalisation are norms, where black folk are set up for failure in a 96% “Lilly” white industry. A good portion of those black folk have been job hopping in attempts to find refuge in Advertising agencies but to no avail as this sort of prejudice dominates. The few lucky scholars who arguably ‘make it’ are exploited in “business unit manager” positions to acquire black business from Government and are rewarded with a condescending performance bonus instead of shares in the company and such behaviour will never cease until their pockets are shaken.

The concerned young black graduates urge the employment equity bodies to apply microscopic introspection on transformation prevalence in the Advertising and Media Sales industry. This is a plea to the office of Director-General of Labour to champion some much needed transformation in this industry as well as other industries resistant towards transformation policies.


Written by Khwaet Frank and The Architect.

FUBU Marketing

Remember that iconic hip hop clothing brand from the late 1990’s? For Us Bu Us that’s what it stands for. Having being in advertising and being a keen scholar of marketing, I’m convinced there’s a need for FUBU marketing, not as a theory but as a basic application of the fundamental view that one has to be in touch with a specific target market (preferably a part of it) in order to be in a position to market products aimed at that particular target group.

Today we have a situation where people that are not in touch with a particular market yet they are trusted to be custodians of a brand/product that these “custodians” are not in touch with and have no bearing whatsoever on the brand/products’ target market. More and more they are caught out of their depth and found wanting all the time, henceforth they often rely on feeble methods of research to help them light the way in an effort to understand that particular market, often this ends ups in misleading conclusion about psychographics and behavioural patterns regarding the target market subject.

If you ask then, how does FUBU marketing fits on this picture? The core fundamentals of FUBU is that only people that have a grass root level understanding of a target market, should be appointed sole custodians of products aimed at that market. For example, irrespective of their claimed understanding of a market, you can’t task a 25 year old Blackman to market a product aimed at white females going through menopause and experiencing hot-flushes every five minutes. In the same breath you can’t task a white male going through mid-life crisis to be brand custodian for a product aimed at black youth in the township. All needed to be done is to reverse the situation and bang!!! We have a winning formula.

On the second paragraph I highlighted the use of feeble methods of research as a guide to chaperone those found wanting and eagerly trying to understand a market they can’t relate to. What baffles me is that these people they use these methods of research and they have the nerve to proclaim themselves gurus and professors of the target market in question. But what exactly do I mean by feeble research methods?

By feeble research methods I’m referring to the likes of AMPS and SAARF research methodology but in this case I’m more concerned with the use of “focus groups” as a method to measure a target market’s psychographic behavioural patterns. I question the use of focus groups purely based on the fact that 10 out of 10 times they’ll tell you what you want to hear instead of the real TRUTH out there, this is largely blamed on the current set-ups used to conduct focus groups. As a result the use of focus groups, the self-proclaimed guru will fail to pick up the negative perceptions that are associated with the brand they are trusted to be custodians of.

Now you may ask “ja we hear you but what’s the solution”? Here’s a solution. Say I work for SAB and I’m a custodian for Black Label. Because on the grass root level I interact daily with consumers of the brand in question, I know their perception on the brand both negative and positive and these perceptions are organic perception not some third party “fact” that was induce by paying someone to sit in a “focus group” and starving them until they say only positive things about the brand. The solution is hire people that are organically in touch with your target market and can be used as brand custodian purely not only because they understand that market but because they live that target market.

In conclusion I often compare the use of focus groups to animals in captivity and those in the wild. If you want to know how a gorilla react when you say “khukhu Khakha”, say Khukhu Khakha to a Gorilla at Jo’burg Zoo and the same thing to a gorilla from the Congo forest. The reaction from the Congo forest gorilla will give you an organic reaction of what happens when you say

New year....and the "struggle continues"

For most of us, January 05 2009 marked the first day back in the grind. Yep another marketing year down and now we are faced with the last one just before '2010', how's the innovating going?

In times like these, decent marketers will take a minute to analyse the direction of their marketing style/direction in the new year in comparison to last year's. Believe it or not, but the reality of '2010' has not yet dawned on alot of people and it is up to you marketers to create messages, linked to brands of course, that will slap the average Joe back to reality and effectively create awareness. Question is how can this be done?

Ok so technology has evolved, media rates have increased dramatically, market research has lied, campaings have lacked relevance, mr client has dissipated his money and is not seeing any ROI, but that's ok, I mean mr client does not mind buying media space from a friend because he took him out to a golf tournament last year, right? Nothing will change if the same processess are followed. Mr client's media director is best friends with a sales guy from an outdoor company for instance and will assiduously recommend that media type as the best to use for an upcoming campaign, chances of innovation and breakthrough marketing? You tell me...

Corruption is everywhere, but lets just blame government while we slip a couple of grands in an envelope to give to the media director as a thank you for the large media space purchase. Relationships are significant of course but do yours have extended benefits beyond a simple media sale? If so then good luck to you and if not, then you are going to get beaten in the race to getting that monumental budget by your competitor.

We are constantly faced with struggles/ challenges so in the new year, let us thrive for NEO-MARKETING and see whether this leap year really is 2000-and-divine!!! Aluta Continua....

The Power of Media

I’d like us to look at this article from a media news reporting point of view rather than media advertising point of view, there’s relevance in a sense that it’s two hands washing each other not one hand feeding off the other. Having studied media for many moons at an institution of higher learning, I think I’m qualified to make a two cent worth comment about media reporting and the power of media. If used strategically media reporting has the power to influence opinions and brainwash and/or change the “world view” of the masses. In the world the most powerful are not politicians but rather the media moguls who owns conglomerate media empires that broadcast to the masses the “opinion” of these politicians.

Some may refer to it as propaganda, some as freedom-of-speech but mind you that these two words are interchangeable depending on which side your bread is buttered on. For example, when the corruption scandal about a certain political figure in the ruling party broke, those on his camp saw that as propaganda and an attempted political character assassination, whereas those reporting the news saw it as freedom of expression and they were attempting to show the mass that no one is untouchable.

But hang on a second!!! Let’s look at the process of reporting the so called news. The 7pm news bulletin run for approximately 30 minute and 5 minutes of those 30 minutes is adverts; in essence it’s actually a 25 minutes bulletin. In the news bulleting they report about issues or events they claim is of importance for the masses to be informed about as outlined by what is known as an editor, but isn’t that brainwashing? One person or a group of people deciding on what the masses has to be informed about, that sounds like brainwashing to me.

So in that 25 minute bulletin, they’ll dedicate 5 minute to attacking a certain party, 10 on natural disasters or “terrorists attacks”, 5 minutes on praising some sports heroes, the rest is what they call fillers, which could be anything from a hippo roaming on the freeway to Michael Jackson dangling his son on a balcony. So in essence it’s 25 minute of news on issues they want the people to be informed about not 25 minutes of the reality in the world. The same goes for the radio stations and 24 hours news channels, the only different is that they recycle the 25 minute bulleting every top of hour and in between it’s the so called analysts claiming to “unpack” what a politician has just said no so long ago.

Another example is the COPE situation and on how it was formed. When I saw Primedia broadcasting giving Lekota an exclusive press conference on a possibility of forming a break away party from ANC I knew it was in some cartel’s interest to do so. The reason is that the very same broadcasting power that comprises of “liberal” stations such as 702 and/or Cape Talk didn’t give Lekota such preferential treatment when he was still chairing the ANC but their argument will probably be that they were reporting news that was of interest to the nation, I say they were reporting news that is of interest to a certain cartel, they could have used that airtime to broadcast good news about NGO’s and other relief organisation but they opted to lay down a red carpet for Terror Lekota, isn’t that brainwashing??

The media thrive on the fact that people prefer to look at things rather than looking into things. I remember a while back I asked a friend of mine - now that they not reporting about cash heists, do you think that law enforcement has 100% control of the cash heist robberies? The answer is a big NO, it’s just that they’ve decided to informed the masses about something they want people to focus on. Media is a powerful tool, to a certain extent even more powerful than a well co-ordinated army. Media can catapult an ordinary man into cult status, look at Mandela for example. Media can turn a people’s hero into a villain, look at Louis Farrakhan for example. Media made products such as Eskamel and Cuticura look like iconic brands.

Do the math!!!

Captive audience? What captive audience? There’s no such thing…..

Is there such a thing as captive audience? That still remains a subject of much needed debate but in my humble opinion, there’s no such thing. It is a well known fact that media representatives will say anything to advance their chances of selling their media type, I don’t blame them though – we all want the dead presidents, don’t we? In an industry where certain mediums sell themselves and others have to graft hard to get a piece of the pie, the situation has degraded to the lowest point where the hard grafting media representatives will come up with all sorts of feeble mechanisms to convince advertisers to spend money on their medium.

For the fringe media types that don’t have AMPS backing their medium, they find themselves in a position where they have to use gut feel and personal opinion to advance their own interests. However, gut feel and opinion don’t count much in this industry, media practitioners are still chaperoned by the inaccurate statistics spewed by Telmar. I’m of the opinion that if gut feel and opinion are used correctly, they can sell any medium better than AMPS data. The short-fall is that most media representatives haven’t mastered the art of using gut feel and personal opinion to sell their medium’s interest. The art of using gut feel and personal opinion to sell media type can only be mastered if the individual selling a specific medium knows and understands the psychographic behaviour of the audience in question. But again expecting someone who resides in Sandhurst and has never been to a taxi rank to sell a medium that operates in the taxi rank environment is more like expecting Obama to be a key note speaker at the next KKK AGM – it’s not going to work out right.

So for all you people selling Rank TV, Star Radio, Taxi TV, rural Cinema advertising etc, there’s no such thing as a captive audience. Let’s take Star Radio for, example, if you know Bree taxi rank, you’ll understand and acknowledge that Radio in that environment is like a fart in a desert storm, completely ineffectual. There are 101 taxis coming in and out of the rank, hooting and noise loitering all over the rank, so why tell me that the masses that uses the taxi rank on a daily basis are a captive audience? Captive to the depressing environment, perhaps yes but captive to the medium on offer, a definite no no.

If I was a client and someone was trying to sell me a particular medium and their argument was that they offer a captive audience, I’ll tell them THANK YOU VERY MUCH BUT NO THANKS I’LL PASS. I’d rather buy into a self captivated audience instead; henceforth I think digital is the future. People spend endless hours captivated on YouTube and it’s because they want to not because it’s forced down their throat, pity we can’t say the same thing about Star Radio, Rank TV etc.