Why the African consumer market opportunity will force marketing to reinvent itself
Mass markets were a shorthand forced on marketers who had too little time or information or leverage to treat different people differently. They are the result of the mass merchant, the mass media and mass production. But humans aren’t a homogeneous mass, we are individuals, as individual as we dare to be. ~ Seth Godin […]
Its complicated: Pondering the implications of the Emerging Markets hyperbole for Africa
Middle class or something uniquely African? Businessman’s home in Mombasa, Kenya Photo Credit: Niti Bhan As I mentioned in my previous post, the hyperbole and handwringing characterising current day news coverage of the frontier market opportunity in the African continent has been reminding me of the way India and China were covered back in the […]
News coverage of the African “market opportunity” reminds me of “Chindia”
Africa’s economic and consumer market opportunities, as covered in mainstream media as well as press releases, has begun to remind me of the way India and China used to be covered back in the early years of the past decade. Just as was the case with India, where any news of economic growth or scientific […]
Service design for the prepaid economy: Continuing the case of Google’s Bebapay in Nairobi
The previous post on the sluggish adoption of Google’s BebaPay, a cashless prepaid card introduced in Nairobi as a payment mechanism for public transportation, had me pondering the challenge of designing services for the informal sector. There are two main challenges that I see here, which don’t seem to have been taken into consideration during […]
The curious case of Google’s Beba Pay: a mobile payment app that users refuse to adopt
This week, news from Nairobi, that hotbed of mobile money innovation, opened up a Pandora’s box of reflections on payment plans, service design issues and the challenge of technology adoption in the mass markets of the African informal economy. None of these are ‘bad’ things in their own right, but taken together, they have resulted […]
Prototyping for pennies
That’s Teemu Ronkka, the Electroshop leader at the design factory, explaining his moisture detector. Its a prototype he put together for just pennies of a humidity sensor using some copper 5 eurocent coins, lemonade and bit of sponge. This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World
Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka. Called Kaffir, Siddi, Habshi, or Zanji, these men, women and children from Sudan in the north […]
2014 is the year of the wooden horse
Startup Sauna, Espoo, Finland What am I doing here? Sitting upstairs next to that guy and typing this. Just got my keycard and I have no idea what I am going to do next but they’ve offered me a chair and told me I can hang out as long as like. This post was […]
FAQ on Value creation
The NDA expired 4 years ago 1. Problem statement: How do you build and maintain trust and commitment without face to face contact with your customers? Value proposition: Through a cohesive, integrated strategy of brand building across all information media sources, whether they be handhelds, mobiles, monitors, screens or even the product interfaces on medical […]
Dear Jony, we need to talk.
About your design sensibilities, that is… This past week, the few opportunities that I’ve had to actually get online or use a computer, have all been on this very beautiful (the CMF oooh la la!) Mac of some sort. Its a tiny box, a slim keyboard that still works for an old touch typist and […]
