Marketing in Africa vs Marketing for Africans: Why the Difference Matters

Growing up in Nairobi, I was surrounded by markets brimming with life and mobile phones alight with activity. Yet for a long time, mainstream marketing seemed to view Africa through a single, blurry lens. Hearing global agencies boast about “the next billion consumers” often felt tone-deaf to me. Now in 2025, as co-founder of SK Digital Studio and after years of pounding the pavement with East African entrepreneurs, I see the need to set the record straight: marketing in Africa isn’t a monolith, and doing it right means marketing for Africans, not just in Africa. I’ve seen startups rise on bold local insight and others fall by copying an external playbook. I’ve watched seasoned marketers misinterpret trends and fight stereotypes in boardrooms. From Safaricom’s smart inclusion campaigns to Copia Global’s hard lesson in rural realities, the messages are clear. This post is my attempt to weave those experiences and observations into a narrative for entrepreneurs, marketers, and creatives who care about building brands here.

Market Reality: What Most People Get Wrong

One of the biggest mistakes I see is assuming “Africa” is one market. It’s not. It’s 54 countries, thousands of languages, cultures, and economies. Treating the continent as a homogeneous bloc leads to campaigns that ring hollow. As one marketing article bluntly put it, “There is no such thing as ‘the African consumer’… People generalize more about Africa than about any other continent, and yet it is the most diverse continent on earth.” Think of it this way: A Kenyan tech entrepreneur and a Congolese market trader have wildly different expectations and tastes. Even within Kenya or Nigeria, urban and rural audiences can be worlds apart. Yet too often I’ve seen well-intentioned marketers airlift a campaign “for Africa” without research, then scratch their heads when engagement tanks.

Another persistent myth is treating African consumers as uninformed or desperate. In the early 2010s, simply “being there” with any product might have worked because choice was limited. Today, consumers — especially the youth and middle class — are increasingly informed, connected, and sensitive to being patronized. If you launch a campaign that dumbs down communication or dumps a second-rate product because you think “they’ll buy anything cheap”, you’ll backfire. African customers want respect and authenticity. Family, community, faith and practical value often rank higher than flashiness. A campaign that makes people feel looked down on, or naively disconnected from their reality, will be ignored. As one study warned, some brands still treat the consumer “like morons” and that only alienates them.

It also surprises many foreign teams that the “status and bling” narrative is not the whole story. Yes, aspirations exist — many African consumers dream big and admire success stories. But community and purpose matter greatly too. Most people I talk to want to “provide for others and contribute to their community” as much as improve their standing. When brands focus only on superficial glamour, they miss a huge part of what motivates people here. In practice, that means we highlight stories of shared achievement and social upliftment, rather than exclusively individual fame.

Another misconception is thinking it’s all a volume game at the bottom of the pyramid. Sure, Africa has a fast-growing middle class, but still a large chunk of the population has very limited disposable income. Simply trying to sell massive volumes of the cheapest product squeezes consumers’ already-small wallets and builds no loyalty. A smarter play is to grow the consumer’s capacity: invest in social innovation, include them in your value chain, or help them earn more. For example, some successful CPGs in Nigeria and Kenya started programs that help small retailers increase their sales, thereby expanding the retailers’ income and the brand’s reach simultaneously. In short, we should aim to increase people’s overall prosperity, not just chase one-off cheap sales.

Finally, assuming “Western is best” is a dangerous trap. There is a subtle arrogance when global brands parachute in with Western aesthetics and call it “localization.” In many markets, pride in local culture is surging. Consumers here often prefer campaigns that celebrate their own heroes and rhythms. The best marketing examples today riff on local music, fashion, and dialects, or spotlight a community story. For instance, if you look at successful campaigns across Africa, you’ll often find a chorus of local artists, traditional stories retold in a modern voice, or vibrant local imagery. Brands that try to force an imported “cool” factor tend to flop. As Bizcommunity observes: “Consumers would rather you celebrated their culture and country than tried to impose a foreign sense of ‘cool’…Great brands are innovating at a really local level”.

In summary, marketing for Africans means dropping stereotypes and doing the homework. Know the income levels, languages, values, and media habits of your specific target. Respect that African consumers aren’t in the dark — many are tech-savvy and entrepreneurial. And always ask: How does this make life better or more meaningful for real people here? Approaching campaigns with that empathy is the only way to win trust.

Stories That Taught Me

Let me share some vivid examples from recent years that illustrate these lessons. In Kenya, I often recall Kune Foods, a local meal-delivery startup. Kune’s mission was to offer “affordable meals” via an app. Initially, they launched with great fanfare in 2021, pricing balanced meals around KES 250–360 (~$2.50–$3). Their founder even said the aim was to fill the “nutrition and price gap.” At first glance, that sounds noble, but Kenyans reacted with surprise. I remember a discussion with a colleague: Wasn’t $1–$2 the going rate for street food already? Sure enough, it turned out many consumers were already eating meals for less than a dollar. It was the higher-income fast-food crowd — those spending $10 or more at KFC, Domino’s, etc.. Who saw value at Kune’s $3 price point? In other words, Kune had mis-segmented the market. They set out to serve “people looking to spend less,” but ended up targeting a mid-tier segment already served by other options.

A founding statement by Kune was especially telling: the founder said he launched the business because he “could not get affordable ready-to-eat meals” in Kenya. This claim backfired. Many Kenyans quietly laughed (and some publicly criticized him) because cheap meals were already widely available in local diners and street vendors. Kune had oversimplified the need and alienated customers who felt the company didn’t understand their real situation. In less than two years, despite raising $1 million in funding and selling 55,000 meals, Kune shut its doors. For me, the Kune story became a cautionary tale: even a good product idea can flop if the story around it doesn’t resonate. Marketing isn’t just slapping a label “affordable” on something — you have to first ask, affordable to whom, at whose sacrifice? It reinforced that we must ground positioning in actual consumer insights and sentiments.

On the flip side, consider Safaricom’s Maisha Ni Digital campaign. Safaricom is Kenya’s giant telco, and in 2019–20, they launched an ingenious program to push smartphone adoption among low-income users (especially women). Rather than just advertising, Safaricom tackled real barriers: handset cost, digital literacy, and awareness. They introduced an ultra-affordable 4G phone (the “Neon Ray” at about KSh 1,499/~$15) and bundled it with education and local support. The results were impressive: over 500,000 new smartphones were sold in a year, 54% of them to women. Most users had upgraded from 2G/3G, and nearly all reported much higher internet use afterward. In other words, Safaricom didn’t just market to the consumers — they empowered them with the tools to buy and use the product. The campaign explicitly addressed “affordability, knowledge, and skills”.

The lesson from Safaricom felt so powerful that I now often show this case in workshops. Notice how everything was local and specific: affordable local-currency pricing, local store representatives teaching usage, and ads featuring Kenyan women learning social media. They avoided making it a flashy international campaign. One GSMA report summarized it well: “Clear messaging about the benefits of a digital life, combined with an affordable, Safaricom-branded handset and features… were key reasons why … purchased a smartphone”. That is marketing for people, not at them.

Another story is Coca-Cola’s African Creation. Big global brands often feel out of sync here, but Coke made a smart move in 2024 for Africa Day. They launched “Coca-Cola Wozzaah”, a limited-edition flavor inspired by African culture. Each can was decked out with vibrant African art, and they even enlisted popular DJ Uncle Waffles as the local face of the campaign. The company said they wanted to “celebrate the rich tapestry of African culture” and “immerse consumers in the limitless energy of the continent”. For a beverage giant, it was a nod to local pride: not just pushing a global product, but co-creating with African artists and imagery. While I haven’t seen Nielsen sales data yet, the PR itself was a lesson: authenticity resonates. If Coca-Cola acknowledges Africa’s diverse culture in a product, it’s because even they know the old one-size-fits-all pop ads wouldn’t cut through here. It shows that global brands are waking up to the truth that the story matters as much as the drink inside the can.

Then there’s a very different sector — banking — where marketing has also taken a local turn. In 2018, Barclays Bank spun out of its parent and rebranded across Africa as Absa. The new campaign, called “Africanacity,” was remarkable for its tone. Instead of vague finance-speak, Absa talked about “the distinctly African ability to always find a way to get things done”. They celebrated tenacity, soul, and togetherness. It was one of the few bank ads I saw that felt like it spoke an East African proverb. Absa’s marketing head explained they wanted “an entrepreneurial, digitally-led bank with deep knowledge of African markets”. They even changed their visual identity (new logo and color) to move away from Barclays’ heritage, emphasizing local roots. This rebrand wasn’t just lip service: Absa leveraged sponsorships like the African football league, and branches adopted a modern, friendly look. For me, Absa’s shift illustrated that even complex products (like banking services) can and should be framed in cultural context. If a bank can tell a locally meaningful story, surely any brand can.

Finally, I keep in mind broader African tech efforts too. Copia Global was an ambitious e-commerce startup that tried to bring online shopping to rural Kenya and Uganda. Initially, I admired them, as did many investors, who poured over $120 million into the company. Copia built a network of 30,000 local agents (mostly women) who took orders via mobile or USSD and delivered household goods door to door. On paper, it was a brilliant social impact.

But by 2024, Copia had collapsed into bankruptcy. What happened? In reflecting on that failure, I saw the same blind spots I’d warned others about. The founders, coming from Silicon Valley, had perhaps underestimated rural realities. Reports noted that Copia stumbled over “low household incomes, logistical complexities, and poor infrastructure”. In rural villages, even a coupon code or an electric signal is no guarantee of sales, and delivery over bad roads is expensive. Their business never had a path to profitability without endless funding. By the end, Copia owed $45.5 million and had only $20,000 cash on hand — and agents with empty promises. As analysts put it, Copia’s collapse “highlights the perils of scaling prematurely in underserved markets”.

For me, Copia’s story is a humbling reminder: good intentions and big data don’t replace feet on the ground. The marketing lesson wasn’t about ads or slogans at all, but about aligning the whole model with local behavior. Copia assumed rural consumers would respond to an Amazon-like experience, but those consumers had very different pain points and priorities. We at SK Digital discuss Copia often when planning e-commerce or fintech projects. The takeaway is that with rural segments, sometimes offline trust and community channels are even more important than flashy social media. You can’t simply drop a tech solution in and expect habits to change overnight.

What We’re Learning

These stories taught me that authentic, locally grounded marketing is the only sustainable path forward. In practice, what does this mean for us as African marketers and founders? First, it means spending a lot more time on research and empathy. We conduct interviews in local languages, do street intercepts, and use focus groups with real people, not just online surveys. We map out the daily routines of our customers — what media they consume, what words they use, what aspirations they whisper about during lunch breaks. This boots-on-the-ground approach has paid off. For instance, before launching a fintech app in Nairobi slums, one of our teams embedded with street vendors for a week. We discovered that trust is built by community ambassadors, not billboards. So we adjusted the plan: recruited informal savings groups as advocates and tailored graphics in Swahili. That “field research” cut our churn in half.

Second, we’ve learned to incorporate local collaborators and influencers who truly resonate. Not internet celebrities with a million followers (who often appeal only to urban elites), but respected figures in each community. This could be a beloved radio host in Dar es Salaam, a popular vlogger in Kampala who talks about daily money struggles, or even a neighborhood elder. We let them co-create content so the final ad isn’t us narrating at the audience, but rather community voices telling peers about a solution. For example, when we worked with a hygiene brand, we let local women write the copy for a handwashing campaign. They used their own slang and humor, and response rates skyrocketed.

We also now treat product and positioning as inseparable from marketing. The product itself must make sense in context. If it’s too expensive, we build financing (like mobile money pay-as-you-go). If it’s unfamiliar, we include training. We package it as something that extends local customs. A telecom promotion will tie into local events or festivals, not European holidays. A financial app might start with language selection for local dialects before feature lists. In essence, we design the product and campaign hand-in-hand with African users in mind. This approach echoes what Safaricom did with Maisha Ni Digital: they didn’t just slap an ad on TV, they engineered the product (affordable phone) and the after-sales support around the campaign.

Another lesson is about storytelling and art direction. We resist generic stock images and boring corporate fonts. Instead, we infuse local aesthetics: bright colors from kitenge prints, sounds of local instruments in videos, storytelling patterns familiar from community theater or folktales. For instance, one of SK Digital’s clients is a mobile money startup. We pitched ads filmed in a Kenyan village homestead, using actual families and their real-life problem-solution narrative (e.g. “This is what happens when my sister sends money with namasheke,” instead of contrived models). Audiences responded strongly because they saw themselves on screen.

At the same time, we keep a global relevance mindset — but defined differently. Being “global” for an African brand means being true to local identity while also speaking in universal emotional truths. People everywhere want hope, dignity, progress. If an East African brand can tell a story of innovation and community, that story can resonate internationally. Twiga Foods is an example: though they are Kenyan, their mission of solving a universal problem (food waste and high prices) is global. When Twiga branded itself as “Africa’s food supply chain innovator,” they dressed it in Kenyan reality (matching sorghum heaps, Matatu markets) which gave it authenticity. Yet investors from Silicon Valley got excited because the problem and solution are relevant beyond Nairobi. This dual view — local authenticity + universal value — is what we strive for.

Finally, we are constantly revisiting assumptions. Is there really a “digital divide”? If so, how big? That kind of data drives decisions. For example, GSMA data taught us that while coverage in Kenya is widespread, usage gaps remain huge: many people still lack smartphones or internet skills. So we don’t assume everyone is on Instagram or checks email daily. Instead, we might combine mobile USSD campaigns, radio dramas, and face-to-face outreach. Similarly, we know from research that low handset cost is a top barrier, so we sometimes support product financing schemes as part of our marketing plan. We check our biases: just because something went viral in Lagos doesn’t mean it will land in Lilongwe. In practice, every campaign ends with a “lessons learned” session in which we look at the data and feedback to recalibrate for next time.

Through all this, one principle guides us: treat African consumers with dignity and co-creation. We speak with them, not to them. When we get it right, the rewards are clear — stronger brand loyalty, word-of-mouth evangelism, and sustainable growth. When we ignore it, we set ourselves up to stumble.

As marketers and entrepreneurs in East Africa, we stand at an exciting juncture. The world is watching our growth, but the world’s old playbook won’t write our future for us. The future belongs to those who remember that an African consumer is a real person with dreams and daily struggles, not a generic data point. I urge my peers to rethink any campaign that feels like a “paste and pray” job. Invest the time to learn the local story first. Collaborate with local talents to tell that story. Embrace the quirks and aspirations that make African markets unique.

In closing, let’s pledge to shift from marketing in Africa to marketing for Africans. That means authentic branding, context-driven strategy, and above all, empathy. If we show consumers that we genuinely understand and respect their world, they’ll reward us with trust and loyalty. Looking forward, I believe this is not only the right thing to do, but the only sustainable path for building winning brands on our continent. Let’s set the example together and change the narrative on African marketing — because Africa’s story deserves to be told by Africans, for Africa.

For Afrikan Marketer Podcast.

Author: Sirkelvin Kamami: Founder/CEO DAS Creatives