CASE STUDIES

African insights and global impact through marketing cases

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

With a growing interest in case studies from Africa, understanding the case study formats and knowing how to write one has become crucial.

Business case studies capture our attention because they are as relevant as they are interesting. Stories capture our curiosity, and stories about successful African businesses like Yuppiechef, Checkers Sixty60, Discovery Bank or Safaricom are even more compelling.

Why? Because we get to peer behind the scenes and take a step closer toward the magic formula of what has worked and what can be learnt in the process.

Case studies bring business stories to life. They have been around for at least the last hundred years throughout a spectrum of fields like marketing, law, business and medicine, and have emerged largely from locations in the Global North.

Yet, with the increased desirability for more cases from the Global South – both for local and global use – case studies are fast becoming a more popular format as a result. But why are cases from our continent so sought after now?

Photo: RDNE Stock project from Pexels

“The majority of cases in the academic world are written about first-world organisations and developed-country issues. However, African businesses have different environments, challenges, and ways of doing business, which are important to understand and adapt to in order for businesses to be successful in Africa,” says Professor Geoff Bick, Emeritus Professor of Marketing at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business.

In addition to understanding the unique context of doing business in Africa, there are many growth opportunities here which global companies want to understand in more detail. There is also an increased demand for local teaching cases from African education institutions.

Defining case studies

As cases are newer to the continent, the term ‘case study’ tends to still be used quite generically. There are many different types of ‘case studies’ in terms of format and research approach. Firstly, it becomes critical to define and understand exactly which case study format we mean.

“A case study is used frequently to give a synopsis of a particular organisation, industry or event. Also referred to as a ‘caselet’, where the objective is to showcase the organisation, to highlight the context, and what the organisation has done. It tells a story that we can learn from,” says Bick.

In academic research methodology, similarly a ‘case study’ is a particular form of research that focusses on an organisation, and which uses typically qualitative data from several primary and/or secondary sources to analyse a situation in more detail. For example, looking at the marketing or strategy of an organisation.

While similar to the general case study first mentioned, the latter goes a layer deeper in terms of research and is usually part of an academic submission. But they are similar in format.

Then there are ‘teaching cases’ which are built especially for use in teaching at postgraduate or executive level, but which function to spark debate in learning and are in a completely different format.

“A teaching case also tells a story, but not the whole story. It focusses on a dilemma or failure that an organisation faces. The purpose of the teaching case is to sketch a scenario that will require the analysis of information, and is then used for discussion in a classroom environment,” explains Bick.

In the current issue of Strategic Marketing for Africa, the magazine of the African Marketing Confederation (AMC), Claire Barnardo of the UCT GSB Case Writing Centre discusses case study formats and how to write one. Read Claire’s full article, and many more stories of importance to African marketers, in Issue 3 2024.

Find the Digital Edition online here. A Print Edition of the magazine is also available. 