Cry beloved black business, wake up, and move forward into progress
A quick browse in the townships, you will notice a lot of small businesses i.e. spaza-shops, driving schools, internet/printing cafes, pharmacies. Their state of branding Read more
Category: Uncategorized
8 tips on building sharp musicians for the world to consume
1. Absolute product.
Make your music. The music has to be a consumable product. A product has to represent value; hence you want someone (consumer) to exchange their money for it.
I remember in my DJing days; the vinyl days. Buying a record wasn’t an easy task; at least for me. They cost between R80 to R180; so such a decision was well thought out. I would to listen to the entirety of an LP before deciding to purchase. I scrutinized each second of the LP until I thought it matched the R120 I’m about to fork out. Read more
Mandela did not sell out; De Klerk and company were pulling
I’m sure most of you saw an article on Mandela’s birthday; titled “Mandela sold blacks out” via News24. I could feel the pain the fella was spilling into the post. Either you sympathized with it; were disgusted by it or felt neutral. Nonetheless it pointed out real points that have a fundamental bearing on the South African economy.
The CODESA negotiations had a number of outcomes which of course directed South Africa’s political and economic future.
Land was to be redistributed per the model known as willing buyer willing seller, private property was to be constitutionally protected, new bill of rights and the South African Reserve Bank remained in private hands.
The Convention of Democratic South Africa produced what it produced and at the same time didn’t produce some aspirations. In many senses our struggle heroes tried their best. Kudos to them! Read more
Surprise surprise – the cure to unemployment
Whenever we talk of unemployment, we tend to miss what primarily runs economies and employs people: commercial products by those people called entrepreneurs.
These products then employ human skills. So therefore, for more unemployed human capital to be utilized in the economy, we need more and new entrepreneurs to introduce their product ideas. Economic products lead in controlling the employment of human skills.
The two major problems in South Africa in terms of creating employment Read more
What maybe government officials don’t know
What makes a country go round and bigger or smaller.
The government is those folks that get to spend what citizen pay as tax: call it VAT, payee, company tax etc. They spend what we voluntarily or rather involuntarily pay. Sometimes they take it from your employers; sometimes when you buy something at the shops. They take it and they spent it.
Do government officials Read more
Kanye “made in America” is some gospel; no swearing dude
I finally decide to listen to Watch The Throne; Jay Z and Kanye West’s collaboration album. I come across this song “made in America” which features Frank Ocean on the hook. OH LORD this is an amazing record.
The chorus terribly hooks me; it goes like “Sweet King Martin, sweet Queen Coretta, Sweet Brother, Malcolm, sweet Queen Betty, Sweet Mother Mary, sweet Father Joseph, Sweet Jesus, we made it in America, Sweet baby Jesus, oh sweet baby Jesus” . This is a religious song. This is a holy song. It’s a nigga spiritual. Black people; formerly slaves; now making it hard in the US of A; that got to be celebrated.
There is a line where Kanye West goes “this This ain’t no fashion show ****mothafucka, we live it”. Mr West why do you have to swear on this blessed song. Nigga please; wipe that “motherfucker” off the song. LOL
Later
theShog
Great brand components
It all starts with an idea to create a product; then making the product. The second stage is selling that product (sales and marketing). This is where most businesses have it hard. It is a very important and crucial stage; a stage at which you have an opportunity to connect your product with society.
Here are the components that make a great product
- Honest product
As said above; it begins with an idea for a product; to making that product. That’s how everything starts. Be proud of your ideas. Read more
The attitude that let apartheid persist still prevails
17 years into the so called democracy; a lot has been done but more is still not done. Poverty and unemployment are scourges that still thug our society.
Of recent was the successful economic freedom march which travelled from Johannesburg CBD, to Sandton then finally Pretoria. A distance of approximately 60km travelled over 24 hours straight. Young man and women; mostly unemployed; took part in the march. Read more
What if we were all white or all black or all Chinese?
The world is in a bad shape.
Why do we exist?
Why apartheid, why war? But war is stupid?
Some go far as saying the west just likes bombing Arabs, Asian and black people! Read more
Your quotation process can cost you potential clients
Being in the clothing industry, it involves ever searching for new, cheaper and better suppliers. We always experience bad service in this regard.
There we are looking for printing quotations. Phoning and emailing printers, in some instances visiting their offices. These all costs money. Read more
What social media should or can achieve for your brands
Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and now Google+. Is your organisation using any of these? What are the expectations or goals for using social media networks?
To some extend some companies are just on social media because it’s the thing to do these days.
While some that are not using this new phenomenon are so because they do not get what they can achieve with it. Read more
Big brands failing at social media | the green light
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been following some of the big brands on twitter and Facebook. The reality is they are not getting a lot of twitter followers or Facebook page “likes”. To support my statement, they are forever punting for following (by giving away prizes). This tends to be the only information they disseminate, if it’s not directing queries.
Twitter is a bit tricky; it requires more effort to get followers; and getting retweets, mentions and replies is the few ways (context) you can measure if your tweets are sinking into your followers positively. Whereas Facebook’s status like button is really an effective feature.
So how to do it? Realise that the people you are trying to attract are progressive, choosey, intelligent, irritable and opinionated. Attraction is attraction; it does not matter if its social media or elsewhere.
Ask your self this! Are you on social media to disseminate information about your products or make your brand the brand bestowed with society’s favour? Be the uncle who always has interesting stories to tell. The uncle who even if is bad in some ways, always gets laughs out of you. Be the dad who never misses his kid’s soccer games.
Your tweets or status updates should be informational, progressive, artistic and inspirational. You must show that you belong to a community. And that you are the big brother (always appreciative and encouraging).
Artistically disseminate to your fans on ways you are engaging with them and the world, outside social media.
Communicate, mentioning referrals, what your products are doing out there. Communicate cases of how your products are adding value to people.