Consumer behavior in Africa has changed drastically over the last few years, with more people turning online to purchase goods. As G Media Studios explains, this changing consumer behavior is also altering the future of marketing on the continent, as companies seek to reach consumers through digital means.
Africa is a massive continent that’s home to 1.3 billion people. That’s almost one-quarter of the world’s population and more people than North America, Oceania, and Europe combined.
The basic demographics make it a powerful consumer base that more companies are finally beginning to recognize. However, as the digital consumer becomes more defined, companies need to tailor their marketing strategies to the changing market.
Here are some of the main characteristics that define today’s African consumers and how they will change the future of marketing.
Mobile-First
Maybe more so than any other market, African consumers are mobile-first. By 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to have 1 billion sim connections, which would mark 71% of the region’s total population.
The average consumer in Africa is young, connected, trendy, and is willing to spend money. Their phones are the primary way they connect to the Internet, which is why the usage is so high.
This mobile-first characteristic means that all companies need to have mobile digital marketing strategies that are well-thought-out and detailed. If you want to reach African consumers online, know that it’ll have to be tailored to smartphone consumption.
Offline Connections
Transactions via mobile apps are often seen as the primary source on smartphones. But, in Africa, more mobile transactions are actually conducted offline over online.
It’s expected that this trend will only continue, too. To reach African consumers, you need to focus marketing efforts on SMS and USSD channels. Many companies already have these marketing plans in place, but it’ll be crucial for those wanting to reach African consumers to increase these efforts.
Data-Driven
Some people around the world treat Africa as one country, grouping together a massive amount of people and many diverse countries and cultures. This is such a short-sighted and naïve way of approaching the continent, obviously, and will leave many companies on the outside looking in.
Africa’s different countries have different demographics and different spoken languages, different consumer characteristics, and different interests. To effectively market to the people of the continent, you have to understand these differences and embrace them.
The only way to effectively do that today is by changing your marketing approach to be driven by data rather than casting a wide net over a large market. If you expect to uncover valuable insights to target your marketing campaigns, you’ll need to use a large amount of data available to you.
Once you’ve collected, grouped, and analyzed the data, you can then create specific plans to reach your target audience.
Localization
G Media Studios explains that it’s essential to take this concept one step further. First, recognize the importance of having a data-driven approach to marketing to African consumers, and then localize the content you’re searching for when considering each different demographic.
What you market to people in the northern part of the continent might be completely different from what you market in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example. Your target consumers in South Africa might not fit the same mold as those in Egypt.
The first step is using the data to understand and define separate audiences for your company throughout Africa. Then, the next step is serving localized content to each of these different audiences.
About G Media Studios
G-Media is an Animation & Advertising studio HQ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We provide and produce some of Africa’s most original and inspiring content for our clients and viewers around the world. As an animation studio, we produce top-tier 2D & 3D content, diving deep into African cultures and stories. We also implement animations into campaigns to provide our clients with modern and captivating animated content to brand and promote their products. As an advertising studio, we help our clients in branding and promoting their products for maximum market penetration and exposure. We use high-definition equipment with well-experienced production crews to produce captivating and moving commercials, documentaries, and photographs.
