MARKETING FORUM

Kartajaya suggests Africa’s marketing potential could be topic for new books

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

Marketing author and Philip Kotler collaborator could co-author new books focusing on Africa’s potential, with AMC as a project partner.

Such is the potential for marketing innovation in Africa, that Hermawan Kartajaya, long-time collaborator with Philip Kotler on many books and projects, believes that the next books he co-authors could be about the continent. He has also suggested that the African Marketing Confederation should be a project partner.

Photo: African Marketing Confederation

Speaking at the opening day of the AMC Marketing Forum in Mombasa, Kenya, Kartajaya said he hoped the first of these books could be published as early as next year.

He has made his name focusing on the marketing and business opportunities in Asia, but sees the potential of Africa as the next emerging market frontier.

Picking up on a comment by Dr Mohamad Hery Saripudin, Indonesia’s Ambassador to Kenya, during the conference that Africa is a “beautiful girl”, Kartajaya said he would go a step further and categorise the continent as a “sexy girl” in terms of its potential.

Giving advice to African marketers on their strategies, he stressed that you don’t need to be the best brand – providing you’re different. “Be different, just be different,” he emphasised.

Discussing his latest book collaboration, published in August 2024 and titled ‘Reimagining Operational Excellence’, Kartajaya discussed the CI-EL (Creativity, Innovation – Entrepreneurship, Leadership) vs PI-PM (Productivity, Improvement – Professionalism, Management) model that features in the book.

CI-EL embraces Marketing and Humanity, while PI-PM embraces Technology and Finance. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI) marketers need to excel in CI-EL, while allowing PI-PM to be enhanced by AI.

He emphasised that human marketers could use AI to be better, but “humans must make decisions – AI only helps”.

The forum continues. Visit the African Marketing Confederation website and social media pages for AMC Marketing Forum updates from Mombasa.

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