Stocktake: Brazen booze burglars and the state of marketing

Salesforce has a new report out for marketers on the impact of data privacy regulations; there’s a new CEO for Bravo Group; Langplaas appoints RSA Group as its agents; and there’s a lockdown movie in the making as thieves in Joburg tunneled into a bottle store to help themselves to crateloads of alcohol.

The global state of marketing

South African marketers expect new regulations governing data privacy to have the biggest impact over the next 10 years’ on their business. This is according to Salesforce’s sixth annual global State of Marketing report, released recently. An expanded online population as internet access becomes more democratic; as well as the increase in wearables, like smart watches, will have a transformative effect on the marketing landscape. Based on data collected from over 7,000 marketers across six continents, including 200 interviews in South Africa, key trends include:

• Innovation is the top priority of marketers.
• AI use has skyrocketed.
• Account-based marketing has rapidly become a cornerstone in B2B.
• Emerging technologies, like 5G, augmented reality and virtual reality, are expected to have a major impact in the next decade.
• In South Africa, marketers say their greatest challenges are unifying customer data sources; followed by the need to balance personalisation with customer comfort levels, and innovating (which is both a top priority and challenge).
• Marketers are increasingly tracking metrics like customer satisfaction, digital engagement, and lifetime customer value to gain a holistic picture of what’s working and what isn’t across the customer journey.
• B2B marketers have a particularly strong role in business growth through account-based marketing (ABM). In South Africa, 60% of marketers track customer lifetime value (LTV) to measure success.
• In South Africa, marketers are expected to go from four data sources in 2019, to six projected data sources in 2021. 91% are using AI to personalise customer experiences.

*The full report is available here; and includes expanded South Africa data.

Bravo Group appoints new CEO

Bravo Group, Africa’s largest manufacturer of well-known furniture brands such as Sealy, Edblo, Gommagomma, Grafton Everest and La-Z-Boy, has appointed Dave Govender as its new Group CEO from June 1, 2020. Greg Boulle, Bravo’s CEO since 2014, will remain with the company until his retirement at the end of February 2021. Govender joins Bravo from Tsebo Solutions Group, where he was group chief procurement officer responsible for the company’s procurement and supply chain function across its South African and African operations. He also headed Tsebo’s asset and fleet leasing division for South Africa. Govender has worked in executive roles across investment holding company Shanduka; and FMCG brand giants Coca-Cola and Nando’s; as well as served as a non-executive director on the boards of Alexander Forbes, Macsteel, Seacom and TBWA Hunt Lascaris.

“Bravo’s market-leading, enduring brands provide me with a firm and ideal platform to help reshape Bravo Group’s future by developing and executing clear and resilient strategies to navigate our way in a current and post-pandemic industry, economy and world; ever-mindful of our responsibilities towards safer workplaces and communities and constantly-evolving consumer behaviour,” said Govender. The Bravo Group was formed in 2007, uniting companies that dominated South Africa’s furniture-manufacturing history – from GommaGomma, founded in 1988, all the way back to the Transvaal Mattress and Furnishings Company, founded in 1895.

RSA Group adds Langplaas as a producer

The RSA Group has added Langplaas to its stable of producers. Located at the foot of the Magalies mountains, the Janse van Rensburg family farm has been a feature of the North West landscape since 1942. Known as one of South Africa’s pioneering agri-businesses, they are recognised across the world for quality produce. Langplaas focuses on four key fresh produce lines: butternut, sweet potato, carrots and beetroot. These lines are all grown under the farm’s Zero Label classification. All Langplaas crops are tested for Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) in the two weeks before harvesting, and reliably return zero levels. Gert Janse van Rensburg, who owns and manages Langplaas together with his twin brother, Peet, said the farming family were looking forward to using a single agent across the country to achieve strong brand exposure on fresh produce markets.

Langplaas’ Zero Label classification was established after nearly a decade of experimentation with regenerative agricultural principles. In fact, the business only decided at the end of 2019 that it was finally comfortable to claim Zero Pesticide Residue on its produce, after several successful years of testing. Establishing rotation cycles between products, planting cover crops and balancing the biological life in Langplaas soil have been key components of the farm’s chemical free drive, which has proved increasingly attractive to consumers.

Langplaas’ commitment to its Zero Label has also laid the groundwork for additional business lines, including a coffee roastery, Tall Pete (Lang Piet); and a separate Langplaas Organics business, which provides all the knowledge, tools and products necessary for other farmers to follow in Langplaas’ footsteps to establish a more sustainable structure. The farm is also notable for its experimental mindset when it comes to testing new varieties. For example, it currently has over 40 varieties of Sweet Potato planted, each of which is being evaluated in terms of yield, disease resistance, shape, taste and storage ability. “Langplaas products are not only chemical free, they’re also mineral dense, which gives them a better taste, look and shelf life. Consumers seek them out for these reasons,” explained Janse van Rensburg.

This week in numbers:

R300,000

This is the value of the whiskey, brandy, gin, vodka and beer that thieves stole by tunneling into a bottle store in Johannesburg, while South Africa was under hard lockdown which prohibited the selling of alcohol. The Shoprite Liquorshop in Newtown Junction, Johannesburg, was the target of the bold booze burglars, who actually used electrical and stormwater drain tunnels underneath the shopping centre to gain access underground the shopping mall; and then bashed through the solid concrete floor to break into the store. The theft was only discovered after the manager entered the store on May 29, to prepare for the reopening of bottle stores under lockdown level 3 on  June 1, 2020. The criminals apparently returned several times to stock up. Unluckily for them, three of the suspects were recorded on the store’s internal CCTV on May 21. A R50,000 reward has been posted.

QUOTE of the week:

“For any business that has an entrepreneurial streak, chaos and crisis are friends. That is because it gives you an opportunity to reimagine the possibilities in your future, your business models; the reason why you exist and what the canvas of the future will look like.”

– Sylvia Mulinge, chief customer officer of Safaricom, which was featured as one of Africa’s most admired brands of 2020.

 

*Stocktake is weekly roundup of current FMCG retailing and brand news, curated and edited by Retailing Africa Publisher & Editor, Louise Burgers. Keep the industry updated and send your announcements and news to: news@retailingafrica.com.

 

 

Louise Burgers (previously Marsland) is the Publisher and Editor and Co-Founder of RetailingAfrica.com. She has spent over 20 years writing about the FMCG retailing, marketing, media and advertising industry in South Africa and on the African continent. She has specialised in local and Africa consumer trends and is a passionate Afro-optimist who believes it is Africa’s time to rise again and that the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will be a global gamechanger in the next decade.

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