Brand management to sustain corporate reputation and customer loyalty is essential for both multinationals and indigenous fi rms in Africa. This book provides a practical overview of country branding and positioning activities in Africa, based on a broad defi nition of base of the pyramid (BoP) marketing, which includes both goods and services, as well as business-to-business marketing, corporate branding, and country branding. The text highlights branding strategies that can be adopted in BoP markets, as well as marketing mix strategies appropriate for much of the continent. Taking into account the role of social networks, culture, and religion, the book explores avenues for developing and building competitive advantage, and how African countries can leverage country branding as part of the development process. The book is ideal for researchers, educators and advanced students in international marketing, management, and brand strategy who are interested in the unique branding characteristics of the African continent.

This contributed volume serves as an authoritative reference and guide for anyone looking to study or build a brand in Africa. Despite being touted as the ‘last frontier’ of global brands, very little research exists that examines brands and branding in this emerging market. Authors cover crucial topics such as the history of branding in Africa, branding approaches used by start-ups, religious organizations, political parties, and businesses in the informal economies of Africa, as well as marketing Africa as a brand using practical cases, empirical and critical approaches. With the world’s youngest population and the second-fastest growing economies, Africa has quickly become a hotbed for marketing and consumption of local and global brands. While past research has mostly focused on examining the brand image of Africa and African countries, or on branding Africa as a place for tourist consumption, what is missing is a comprehensive guide that discusses the theory and practice of branding and brands in and from Africa. Through theoretical and practical contributions, the authors of this book seek to fill the knowledge gap about branding in and from Africa.

Drawing on the expertise of multi-disciplinary scholars from emerging economies, this volume aims to share fascinating perspectives on marketing communications by discussing the shift in the power of public relations, and highlighting how the small and local use communication effectively to improve performance and shares useful lessons on how to communicate hope by responding to customer emotions during uncertainties. The book contains valuable lessons and insights on communicating corporate social responsibility, effective social media communication, enacting brand purpose through communication, and using aesthetics in point-of-purchase advertising to drive purchase intention. It is the first of its kind to highlight key conceptual issues and provide critical empirical evidence on marketing communications in and from emerging economies. Corporate executives, educators, students, policymakers and businesses would find this book a useful tool on marketing communication as it lays bare some important strategic and operational insights specific to emerging markets.

This book highlights the development of retail marketing in developing economies and presents this sector as a major area of growth and business opportunity. With a special focus on supermarket chains, the authors show that the advancement of technology and infrastructure means that there are now increased electronic capabilities for data collection, giving retailers more opportunities to pursue micro and macro-marketing strategies. The authors explain the evolution of this new era of marketing and the associated impact on all stakeholders, especially consumers. Taking the example of Ghana, which is considered a leader among African nations in the use of loyalty cards, the authors are able to set a benchmark for other emerging countries, especially those that are experiencing similar trends. The book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and foreign companies wishing to expand their knowledge of the marketing strategies employed by emerging economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Strategic Marketing of Higher Education in Africa explores higher education marketing themes along the lines of understanding higher education markets, university branding and international marketing strategies, digital marketing, and student choice-making. The Higher Education landscape around the world is changing. There is global competition for students’ enrolments, universities are competing within their home market as well as in the international market, and as government funding for public universities is reducing there is pressure on universities to seek additional income by increasing their student enrolment. African universities are not an exception in this competitive market. This book is unique in providing a composite overview of strategic marketing and brand communications of higher education institutions in Africa. It recognises that there is a growing need for universities to understand the stakeholders and develop strategies on how best to engage with them effectively. Highlighting the unique characteristics, nature, and challenges of African universities, this book explores the marketisation strategies of African universities, with focus on the strategic digital marketing and brand management. The book provides significant theoretical and marketing practice implications for academics, higher-education administrators, and practitioners on how best to market higher education in Africa and reach out to prospective students. International practitioners aiming to market to Africans and start a partnership with an African university will also find this relevant in understanding the dynamics of the African market.

This book offers theoretical and practical insights into the marketing of higher education in Africa. It explores the key players, challenges and policies affecting higher education across the continent; their marketing strategies and the students’ selection process. While acknowledging the vast size of the continent, this book aims to provide an understanding of the dynamics of higher education in Africa. This book recognises the private and government involvement in higher education provision and students and staff as stakeholders in the marketisation process. Strategic efforts are directed by universities to attract prospective students. This book further addresses issues such as the responses of higher education sectors to the notion of markets and marketing; consumerism and competition in higher education in Africa; conceptions of the commodification of higher education in Africa; and the dominance of Western epistemologies and their influence in transforming higher education sectors. Students as consumers in increasingly marketised higher education sectors in Africa are also discussed. Though primarily for marketing students and academic researchers, the book's feature of blended theoretical and practical knowledge means that it will also be of interest to marketing practitioners and university managers.

This book traces the development of internal marketing from initial conceptualisation through to the current issues. It identifies both significant underlying tensions between major theorists and areas in which new perspectives may enrich our understanding of this crucial subject. Internal marketing is the use of traditional strategies by organisations to market themselves to their employees. Presented in bite-sized sections, each of which dissects the most important themes and concepts underpinning the subject, this book explains how subsidiary areas of study have emerged and suggests how the introduction of concepts and perspectives from channel management literature can help analyse the dyadic encounters in which internal marketing takes place. Brown critically extends the scope of internal marketing theory yet further by presenting and analysing new interview transcripts to suggest that internal demarketing – an organisation making itself less attractive to its employees – may sometimes be undertaken intentionally. Internationally applicable and highly accessible, Internal Marketing is perfect for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest not only in internal marketing, but also in employer relations, internal branding, employer branding, and internal communications. It uses clear language and gradually introduces the reader to more sophisticated theoretical concepts step by step, with a uniquely focused, critical, and comprehensive thematic coverage of internal marketing and its extensive theoretical outputs.

The amount and range of brand related literature published in the last fifty years can be overwhelming for brand scholars. This Companion provides a uniquely comprehensive overview of contemporary issues in brand management research, and the challenges faced by brands and their managers. Original contributions from an international range of established and emerging scholars from Europe, US, Asia and Africa, provide a diverse range of insights on different areas of branding, reflecting the state of the art and insights into future challenges. Designed to provide not only a comprehensive overview, but also to stimulate new insights, this will be an essential resource for researchers, educators and advanced students in branding and brand management, consumer behaviour, marketing and advertising.

Executives continue to lose their position because of inability to communicate organizational decisions to employees and boards effectively. More than just the words one writes or speaks, communication includes one’s actions and other non-verbal attributes that carry meaning for audiences. Further, decisions may affect these audiences differently emotionally and economically, complicating communication with each group. This book provides case studies to illustrate communication failure that directly resulted in executives' termination. These case studies include the fields of higher education, health care administration, computer technology, medical research, news media, and advertising. Synthesizing scholarship in neuroscience about how the brain processes information from verbal, visual and other stimuli as well as management and communication principles found in books valued in leadership development programs, this book explains why audiences reacted negatively to messages and describes how the messages could have been delivered to get a better response. The book includes rubrics to assist readers develop their own messages. Executives and those in leadership development programs will benefit from this book.

This book proposes that entrepreneurial practice is often considered an "applicable" paradigm. An "applicable" paradigm - which focus too much on planned, analytical, calculable, tool-based and ready-to-hand modes of decision making action. Hence, the equally important "theory of Nothing" has not received the attention it deserves. With reference to Heidegger’s existence oriented philosophy, Heidegger and Entrepreneurship: A Phenomenological Approach indicates how nothing can be a condition for an entrepreneurial applicable paradigm. It is suggested that the "theory of Nothing" bears the possibility of further development and can re-create the entrepreneurial paradigm of applying and decision making. This may also indicate a structure for understanding the new possibilities in entrepreneurship practice, such as entrepreneurial education and research. The book will be of value to students, researchers, and academics with an interest in entrepreneurship, management, and innovation.