A few months ago, in preparation for his speech at the Fine Minds 4 Fine Wine Conference in Champagne, France, Dr. Beverley Skeggs sent an email to her network.
It wasn’t just any network. Skeggs runs a fellowship program on social and economic inequality at the London School of Economics, and she reached out to her 40 fellows around the world to ask what she thought was a fairly simple question:
What does good wine mean to you?
“I’m still shocked by their responses,” she said of the responses she received. She expected the fellows – many of whom are based in emerging markets in South America, Asia and Africa – to talk about class and/or gender, which are always issues in terms of inequality and representation.
But they didn’t talk about those things. Instead, they responded in terms of race.
“Good wine is whiteness,” she told her classmates, “and we talk about it in terms of colonial history, across Africa, India and various parts of the world. »
Most notable were Skeggs’ comments, along with those of his colleagues and co-panelists on class, gender and age. subject of a two-part series I wrote earlier this month. With today’s article, I would like to delve deeper into the topic of race, colonialism and the sale of wine in Africa.
Because wineries mostly do it poorly, if at all.
Discussions and feedback from salespeople working in Africa often focus on the dynamism of the continent and the crucial importance of establishing a network of contacts and building long-term relationships with them.
The dynamic part is certainly true, considering that Africa is made up of 58 countries, 1.2 billion people and around 3,000 different languages. The business mechanism for working in this type of environment is not as simple as it might be in Europe or Asia, said Akintola Temitope Obafemi, founder of Become a global consultant and one of my former students at the Global MBA in Food and Wine program at Bologna Business School, who has been selling Italian sparkling wine to the African market since he graduated. Obafemi, originally from Lagos, Nigeria, said the scale and complexity of Africa is “the kind of market where once you’re there, you stay and you can really do a lot of things.”
How to define the most attractive markets
Defining the most attractive markets depends on your metrics and your willingness to adapt to constantly changing metrics.
“In most European countries, the measurement parameters are similar and apply across the continent,” Obafemi said. “You have the euro as currency, the purchasing power is about the same, the availability of currency is not a problem and the population figures are reliable. With Africa, on the other hand, there is no problem. “No two countries spend exactly the same currency (even if it’s called the same name), currency availability is a major problem and purchasing power is as volatile as the wind.”
Should these factors prevent you from entering the market or choosing which markets to focus on? No, but it does mean you need to keep your strategic board tight, Obafemi said, and be prepared to adapt regularly to changing dynamics.
Overcoming the Poverty Assumption
Poverty in Africa is a question Obafemi is asked frequently, and it is a question he asks himself often: Is Africa a poor continent or a rich continent?
There is no denying the poverty evident in some parts of the continent, but in other areas, Obafemi said, the question is more difficult to answer, given “the number of helipads on buildings that I see flying from Port Harcourt in Lagos, the number of Ferraris and Lamborghinis in Lagos and Ghana, the number of bottles of Champagne sold only in Lagos and the value of properties in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
How to reach your target audience
The simple answer? The same way you would anywhere else, Obafemi said.
This means finding a common voice and using it wisely to appeal to all the markets you want to reach. It won’t happen overnight, but a constant presence, ready to adapt nimbly to changing circumstances, will pay off.
Any advice for the target population defined by age? Look at the middle class, advises Obafemi, aged 22 to 45. They’ve been exposed to the world, he says, “having visited Europe or America at some point, they love to travel, they love to live the good life, and they love social media and are easily influenced by it. “
This class is most radically changing the financial mix in Africa, Obafemi said, “and they are easy to target and convert. This doesn’t mean she’s the only class with the resources to buy wine, but it’s an easy place to convert. to start.
