JumpStart, a chapter of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (Prisa), held a breakfast session for the public on 21 July at Ogilvy’s The Brand Building in Bryanston.
At the event, a programme designed to bring a voice to the youth in the South African public relations industry, two speakers discussed communication across Africa.
Joanna Oosthuizen and Dustin Chick, both Ogilvy public relations employees, spoke about how language and cultural differences can create barriers which prevent effective communication across Africa.
“If you don’t immediately understand culture, you will not have effective communication,” said Oosthuizen.
The two speakers suggested that in order to establish effective communication across Africa, there must be teams in each country who know the languages and cultures of the target area and can adjust the communication to fit the local norms.
The two speakers reminded the audience that there are multiple markets across Africa and, therefore, businesses must have multiple marketing plans.
According to Chick and Oosthuizen, there is always access to the bottom of the economic pyramid, and while that may not be where many businesses aim the bulk of their marketing, they said that the people who fall into the bottom of the economic pyramid can be a powerful asset for businesses.
They also said that ‘seagull management’, or the act of moving into an area, putting your ideas and strategies into play and leaving, is not welcome across Africa and should, therefore, not be practiced.
One of the points which Oosthuizen and Chick kept repeating is that people no longer respond to long-form media. “Social media is for the wealthy and young minority,” they said, but they did say that communication directed towards anyone should be easy, consumable, interactive and, if possible, visual.
They recommended that, if communications are not intended to be aimed towards the wealthy or young minority, then the best way to communicate would be through radio.
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