JOHANNESBURG: On some estimates, three-quarters of household spending power in Africa will lie with women within a decade, but research indicates that current marketing efforts are failing to resonate with this group and budgets are being wasted.

The Evolving Afro-Feminine study from Kantar Added Value was based on a combination of interviews, cultural and consumer insights, and perspectives from marketers across Africa.

It found that 75% of marketers on the continent do not believe that brands are marketing effectively to African women.

Further, 70% of these marketers admitted that their own marketing efforts are not strongly resonating with that target market, Media Update reported.

Rebone Masemola, Kantar Added Value South Africa’s Brand Project Manager, noted how global brands have “mined and applied the nuanced cultural dynamics that represent the lived realities of women across the globe”. But the research found little evidence that such an approach was being applied in Africa.

“The unrefuted message from African women consumers to brands on the continent was that it is time for brands in Africa to better understand and connect with women on the continent as well as take a stand on the real issues affecting them today,” Masemola said.

The study identified six spaces where an understanding can help marketers better connect with African women: these were described as the Rise of the Matriarchs, The Untaggable Force, Authentic Power, Sexual Empowerment, Defining Afro-Feminism and African Parenting Redefined.

“Each space juxtaposes the global reality with the African nuance, with examples, implications and recommendations for brands to win with this market,” Masemola explained.

Thus, African Parenting Redefined, for example, outlines how African women want their children to succeed in the modern world – but not at the expense of losing their African identity.

“To this end, they want brands to acknowledge that an African parent’s priority is about preserving culture through the next generation, because culture is integral to who the African woman is,” said Masemola.

That means marketing has to show a true picture of African families that these women can identify with. “Copying and pasting the depiction of global women and their challenges into an African context is not the answer,” she stressed.

Sourced from Media Update; additional content by WARC staff