Advertising and Promotion in South Africa-5 Questions for Johan Bester

I recently caught up with Johan Bester, CEO of Communication Works, a marketing communications expert based in South Africa. Here are 5 questions I had for him:

1. How is marketing in South Africa different from marketing in the United States?
Marketing in South Africa tends to be more subdued than in the United States. One has to consider the cultural differences between the two countries; South Africans are generally less expressive. South Africa has also been in the grips of a very repressive regime until a mere 13 years ago. That has had an enormously stifling effect on the population. The good news is that in these past few years there has been an explosion of entrepreneurship, so that right now South Africa is a very exciting place to be. Lots of innovation taking place… it’s a hub in the process of waking up and finding its feet… It will be interesting to see where SA lands over the next few years.

2. Are there any unique marketing methods you see in South Africa that you may not see as often in America?
The Stormhoek winery has had phenomenal success using a combination of highly innovative marketing methods, including making great use of their own and other people’s blogs. They have capitalised on the new media in an innovative way. Nothing unique in any one of their methods; but the way in which Graham Knox, owner and previous advertising professional, has blended the various methods, quite phenomenal. To use a tiny budget ($7,000) and massively outperform rival estates using much larger budgets ($3 Million) quite astounding. Growth in exports is also quite phenomenal.

It is of interest to note that Stormhoek has also won the “Grand Prix” award in the South African Sunday Times Marketing Excellence Awards.

3. If you had to boil your marketing advice down to 5 words or less, what would it be?
Let your customers market you.

4. Any advice for American firms wanting to export to South Africa? What combination of marketing strategies seems to work best in South Africa?
Bear in mind that South Africa is a small market as compared to the United States. Relatively, there has been a massive growth in Internet usage. Seek out blogs and find ways to contribute to them. Note too, that Facebook has close on a million users in South Africa. In the end, however, it depends on what it is you want to market...

5. In your opinion, who are (were) the best marketers of all time and why?
Claude Hopkins for his uncanny ability to see the obvious things. Jay Abraham for his inspirational ability to leverage combinations of things that were there all along, but nobody thought of doing it quite that way.

Thanks Johan and best of luck...