eCommerce Alert: Who does the actual shopping in Nigeria? Men or Women?
…This will be a short post, but I will look at exploring this topic fully in the near future So I love shopping online, and as I was recently shopping More »
Former Head Of Marketing and Partnerships At Jumia Nigeria Joins Rival Firm Konga
I received an email a couple of days from “Onyeka Akumah” inviting me along with several journalists to the offices of Konga, Nigeria’s Online Mega Store at Ilupeju for a tour of their More »
Where is the Next Generation of Jesus Conscious Gospel Musicians(#JCGM)?
You call me out upon the waters The great unknown where feet may fail And there I find You in the mystery In oceans deep My faith will stand I have been More »
StartUp Spotlight: Latrendy.com.ng; Events Management/Planning
Startups are companies set up to test business models developed around new ideas, and latrendy describes itself as a “Startup firm committed to Innovation and Excellence: “Paint the picture…we’ll make it happen” More »
African Gaming Startups Kuluya and Maliyo Games; A Lesson in Wrong Online Business Strategy
First question to ask and answer; does the internet render established rules about strategy obsolete? This is a question I have often asked myself and I am sure most More »
Category Archives: Latest News
eCommerce Alert: Who does the actual shopping in Nigeria? Men or Women?
…This will be a short post, but I will look at exploring this topic fully in the near future
So I love shopping online, and as I was recently shopping for groceries on konga.com, I suddenly started thinking about what would happen when I finally get married; would I still be able to shop online, or will my wife prefer to do all our shopping offline while driving down from work.
I decided that this would actually be a valid question to be considered by online marketers;
Who makes the shopping decisions? Or who does the actual shopping? Who do we want to make the shopping decisions?
These are all individual posts on their own and I will be looking at exploring them when I have some free time.
Several decisions are made by online marketing gurus about buying behaviours/patterns of consumers, and huge marketing budgets are committed into perceived trends. I am a big data man, and believe there are several opportunities that lie in understanding big data for companies in Africa.
Now to quote a statement from a new Wharton research; “When it comes to shopping, women are from Nordstrom’s and men are from Sears”, Women love to spend long hours going clothes, accessories, and can spend many hours checking through different categories, but for men they know exactly what they want and don’t like to stay in the store for too long
In a study titled, “Men Buy, Women Shop,” researchers at Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative and the Verde Group, a Toronto consulting firm, found that women react more strongly than men to personal interaction with sales associates. Men are more likely to respond to more utilitarian aspects of the experience — such as the availability of parking, whether the item they came for is in stock, and the length of the checkout line.
“Women tend to be more invested in the shopping experience on many dimensions,” says Robert Price, chief marketing officer at CVS Caremark and a member of the Baker advisory board. “Men want to go to Sears, buy a specific tool and get out.”
I asked a friend, Adebimpe Familusi and she smiled before talking about how that Women love to physically shop, she said “they want to see, feel, (taste and smell) whatever they want to buy and most especially they want to be able to haggle, because haggling is fun!
Now how does all this information help the online marketer make decisions, how does konga.com ensure that my wife does not decide to do the shopping while coming back from work?
As more people move away from traditional target age groups of online shopper, what can be done to ensure that they continue shopping online?
So I am throwing this question out before a follow up post sharing my views.
Tweet at me: @IfeanyiAbraham
Former Head Of Marketing and Partnerships At Jumia Nigeria Joins Rival Firm Konga
I received an email a couple of days from “Onyeka Akumah” inviting me along with several journalists to the offices of Konga, Nigeria’s Online Mega Store at Ilupeju for a tour of their offices, and unless there is another top digital marketer called Onyeka Akumah in Nigeria, then it means that former head of marketing and partnerships at Rocket Internet Gmbh, the parent company of JUMIA Nigeria has joined a rival firm Konga, in the latter’s bid to improve operations around the company. I hear that Konga has been filling up a lot of different positions, and now has staff of over 100(unconfirmed) in the company’s bid to challenge JUMIA Nigeria in e-Commerce in Nigeria.
I was at Tedx Victoria Island, and I remember a talk given by Sim Shagaya, founder of Konga, where talked about Sears, Walmart and other major retail chains in the US, and how that the emerging e-Commerce brands in Nigeria could all easily play in the field of eCommerce.
Onyeka who graduated from Sikkim Manipal University, India top of his class with a GPA of 4.65/5.00 earning a bachelor’s degree in Applied Information Technology has been in top online marketing positions in two of the biggest eCommerce brands in Nigeria. He first worked at wakanow.com as online marketing manager before being appointed as a director in Rocket Internet Nigeria and then on to be a Council Member at GLG – Gerson Lehrman Group focusing on the African Internet market, before becoming Lead, Online & Mobile Marketing (Digital Marketing Group) at Guaranty Trust Bank plc (GTBank), but he is finally back to his passion in e-Commerce with Nigeria’s online megastore; Konga.com
In his characteristic manner, Onyeka in his new role as VP, Marketing at Konga reached out to the media to give them a feel of operations at Konga HQ in Ilupeju.
Konga.com has also just announced the launch of a new product that is set to revolutionize the face of online business in Nigeria forever with this special project codenamed “Konga Mall”, and according to an email sent in by their team, the goal of Konga Mall is to enable offline business thrive online by helping them sell and deliver your products to over 49 million online Nigerians, increasing visibility and growing your profits. Konga.com wants to help your business succeed and keep you happy, with no hassles or headaches by providing
You can register here to get more information about it
Where is the Next Generation of Jesus Conscious Gospel Musicians(#JCGM)?
You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand
I have been listening to a song by Hillsong- Oceans(Where Feet May Fail) from their 2013 Zion Album, and I was permitted to see the heart of a true worshipper as Brooke Fraser one of Hillsong’s anointed minstrels sang the words of the song, and I began to see the heart of God where the next generation of Jesus Conscious Gospel Musicians are concerned,people that understand what they have been called to do, and the importance of faith while they sing and the purpose of their calling
In a world of moon-like gospel, many musicians that start out totally conscious of what God has called them to be, get carried away by love of money, women, fame and many other distractions, but the words of Brooke Fraser continue to ring in my ear
“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior”
Many people like Beyonce, Whitney Houston and even some of our gospel musician role models today start out blessing lives, but when they get to that Ocean, where feet may fail, they fail to stretch forth their hands to the savior who is right in front of them, and they begin to sink into comfort zones, and they begin to take out Jesus out of their songs and begin to substitute other words that the secular world can flow with, in compromise.
And I saw how that no matter how far God has taken you where his work is concerned, you need to daily get to that point where you just commune with your father, not distracted by all the concerts, and all the places you need to be, and I regularly see this in the words of “Hillsong United”; a crazy anointed rock team that is doing something awesome for the Kingdom of Jesus, they regularly come to a point in every album where all they want to do is dedicate their ministrations to God, I have seen this in every album, with songs like “With Everything”, “This is our God” , “Oceans(where everything may fail”, they understand the importance of being blessed while they worship, and although at different points they have been rocked by mini scandals, they have kept strong, continuing to bless us years and years and years after! I am sure my children are going to be blessed and. love Hillsong United and other anointed minstrels.
I was listening to another set of songs, first, by Andre Crouch “Through it all, I have learnt to trust in Jesus”, at a 1975 Billy Graham crusade, and I saw a man that understood what it meant to just trust in Jesus for the next level, a man that just wanted to worship.
Then a song, “Our Heart” by Ron Kenoly and Don Moen, singing about “Their desire for the nations to worship”, and couldn’t help but weep for the some of the present crop of so called gospel musicians who are shy to call the name of Jesus in their songs, who lack edifying lyrics, who personally have no encounter with King Jesus!, who come out and sing songs that worship money yet no Jesus in the song.
My Pastor, ’ Bowale Abrahams gives four characteristics of what a gospel song should be like;
i. Glorify God
ii. Mention Jesus
iii. Revelatory and Sings of the Word
iv. Edify the spirit of the singer and of the listeners.
If you listen to any song that doesn’t fall into these categories then you need to stop listening to that song fast! We need to pray for many of the gospel muscians that have blessed us but now begin to falter because of the cares of the world, we need to raise a new generation of gospel muscians, a crop dedicated and that have pledged allegiance to the lamb, and have the desire for the nations to worship God!
We need to raise more Hillsongs, more Brooke Fraser’s, more Sinach’s, more Israel Houghton’s,more Jesus Culture’s, more men that know their GOD!
Is your local church/pastor conscious of this? does your local choir sing songs that inspire faith in men or are they just song re-mixers? I thank God for my pastor, ‘Bowale Abrahams of The Burning Church Nigeria, and our music teams, Hark N Herald and Deloo team, and what God is set to do through them. Many more pastors need to be conscious of the role of Music in evangelizing the world, that’s why the devil continues to take the youths away through his mimshack anointing, when the people God has called are not conscious of their Mimshack anointing, the influential anointing that God has given them.
When the Gospel Musicians are failing, what will the world do? Are we ready to Fight For Love? “Love is War” is what the Hillsong United writer says, and I begin to see this when I look at this generation, its time for men that are ready to fight to follow, ready to fight for his love to be raised!
Are you with me on this? Let’s raise some Jesus Conscious Gospel Musicians #JCGM
Thank You Jesus
StartUp Spotlight: Latrendy.com.ng; Events Management/Planning
Startups are companies set up to test business models developed around new ideas, and latrendy describes itself as a “Startup firm committed to Innovation and Excellence: “Paint the picture…we’ll make it happen”
From White Weddings, Traditional Weddings, to Corporate Meet and Greets, La Trendy is your number one choice for event management
They are offering four special wedding packages; Gold Mega, Silver Jumbo, Platinum Elite and Bronze Summer, and each plan is tailored to meet your differing wedding needs. Check out their packages on their corporate website; www.latrendy.com.ng.
Speaking to the CEO Esther Nwaokolo who has several years experience in planning events, she explains Latrendy’s motivation behind their special wedding discounts.
…”Latrendy wants to plan the Wedding of Your dreams; everyone deserves to have that one memorable unforgettable day without having to worry about drinks or food getting to everyone, without worrying about missed deadlines, at latrendy, every event is unique, and every concept is original, the outcome should be spectacular, even though we aim for the stars when we organize our wedding/events, but we still manage to deliver cost effective events to our clients with the goal of managing memorable events, so call us, email us, lets plan the wedding of your dreams”.
Latrendy can be found on Facebook and can be contacted via email- care4latrendy@gmail.com and on 08182775626,08028317312
African Gaming Startups Kuluya and Maliyo Games; A Lesson in Wrong Online Business Strategy
First question to ask and answer; does the internet render established rules about strategy obsolete?
This is a question I have often asked myself and I am sure most internet strategists have had to ask themselves at one time or the other, different people have reacted differently, with varied degree of success achieved so far, while some assume that the internet changes everything(an often dangerous assumption), other have threaded more cautiously.
To me, the question is not whether to deploy Internet technology—companies have no choice if they want to stay competitive—but how to deploy it, and this brings me to the two companies in question, Kuluya.com, and Maliyo games, they are both Casual Gaming start-ups from Africa with similar motives, whether sharing the experiences of everyday Africans with a global audience or creating games developed with african players as the key focus.
Maliyo Games was the first among the two to venture into the casual gaming scene, and they currently have about ten titles with names like “Okada Ride”, “Aboki” in their arsenal while Kuluya.com has over 50 titles in their arsenal with awesome titles such as “Sisi Eko”, “Mama Put” “Vigilante”, “Linda Ikeji Vs The World” amongst others making them the major players in the casual game scene in the African tech space, but as we have seen with the likes of Myspace VERSUS Facebook, being the first doesn’t keep you at the top, but continuous evaluation, optimization and reviewing, like Facebook just did with their news feeds, is what will keep you at the top, and these two certainly seem to be enjoying the present position that they occupy( or are we wrong).
Both Maliyo games and Kuluya.com seem to have something in common, they seem to be concentrating on creating browser games.
Now looking at the major use case for casual games, it would definitely scream MOBILE, not just because of the bandwidth requirement for playing browser games, but also because of the class of users that will be playing the kinds of games being created. Let us take a look at Zynga, makers of top titles like “Mafia Wars”, “Zynga Poker” “FarmVille” and many other awesome games, now let us look at the strategy adopted; the company develops social games that work on mobile phone platforms such as Apple and Android, on the Internet through its website, Zynga.com, and on Social media websites such as Facebook, Google and Tencent. Zynga states its mission as “Connecting the world through games. Zynga has gone on to be one of the biggest creators of Casual games in the world, signing major deals with different platforms and expanding their reach continually.
I tried to visit “m.kuluya.com” and “m.maliyogames.com” and both urls failed to open, now I am not discounting the fact that these guys might have these plans somewhere in their future, but with the internet, time and correct deployment are very important.
Both Kuluya.com and Maliyo Games have been around for a little while, and while Maliyo seems to have lost their momentum, Kuluya seems to be sticking to their strategy of “build the game, the users will come”, they have even started Facebook advertising, but with the recent talk of a new player with over a hundred similar titles in the works and most importantly with a mobile/social media first strategy for casual game deployment, their existing strategies are about to be tested, and I hope the smiles on the faces of the young people in the picture above won’t be wiped off soon.
How the New Facebook News Feed Will Impact Brands
“Goodbye clutter. Hello bright, beautiful stories.”
That’s how Facebook has positioned its revamped news feed announced Thursday. Facebook set out to breathe new life into the news feed and give it a cleaner, fresher, more visual appeal and personally I think they’ve got it spot on.
In case you missed it, here is what I would take as the key points of the new design:
- Separate content feeds
- More visual design
- Consistent look across devices
- More prominence to other social apps
But what do these changes to the biggest area of Facebook mean for brands? Let’s talk them through.
Separate content feeds
This is probably the biggest change in terms of how people will actually use the site. Or at least in terms of how Facebook hopes people will use the site, and this could be a challenge.
Facebook highlighted that you will have your news feed, but also separate feeds for ‘Most Recent’, ‘All Friends’ (which gives user the chance to see everything their friends are posting to Facebook again), as well as Music, Games and Photos. There will also be a ‘Following’ feed, which is where all posts from brands will appear.
The Following feed has one immediately obvious benefit to brands – Facebook confirmed that users will be able to see all posts from all brands they follow in this feed. No more only reaching 10% of your fans. But, how many users will actually access this feed? And how often? Do users care enough about what brands are saying to go to a feed specifically to see that? We’ll have to wait and see. The posts in this feed are ordered chronologically too; whether that’s a good thing or not is likely to depend largely on your social strategy.
I’ve seen a few comments already by people worried about brands being pushed out to a separate feed, but I don’t think that’s the case. While this is a dedicated feed for pages, I didn’t hear anything to suggest that brand posts won’t appear in the main news feed as they do now. I’d suspect they’ll still fit there and in the photos feed.
More visual design
As you’ll see straight away from the screenshots, the whole layout is about becoming more visual. Images are made bigger with status updates overlaying them; links have got bigger with better previews; check-ins are now shown with a map; even new friendships are shown with a cover photo.
I’d expect with Facebook’s big emphasis on showing beautiful stories, there could be changes to the EdgeRank algorithm, with visuals given even more prominence.
In a way this isn’t a big change for brands; at HPS, we’ve already been telling our clients for some time that visual stories work best on Facebook. This just becomes even more important with the new update. Bigger and better link previews should be good for brands though that are linking out to their websites, but it does mean you need to give more thought to what thumbnails will pull in with the link preview.
One big change on the visual side though is the addition of a photo stream. It’s not yet known whether brands will have a space in this, but I suspect they will. The important part of the photo feed for brands could well be if Facebook integrates Instagram into this feed too. This brings us on to the next change.
More prominence to other social apps
In their announcement, Facebook acknowledged that people are using other social apps outside of Facebook. With the redesign, they’ve looked to incorporate them more. I thought it was quite interesting that they used Pinterest as an example of this. Other apps you use will be featured within Facebook with a new look and feel. So with the Pinterest example, when you share your pins to Facebook, they’ll now look more like they would on Pinterest. With Facebook owning Instagram, you’d think that must get the same treatment too. This looks like good news for brands who use multiple social media channels, as it should allow you to share your content more easily on Facebook.
They mentioned this third party app integration will help you feature images, videos and text, so it will be interesting to see what they do with tweets. This is all designed to keep you on Facebook for longer, so it’s a shrewd move. More time on Facebook means more time to see adverts too.
Consistent look across devices
As with many new website designs, the Facebook team said this was built from a mobile-first standpoint. They want to make the Facebook experience more consistent across web, mobile and tablets.
This won’t directly impact what brands are doing with their pages, but it does serve to re-emphasise the importance of thinking about mobile as part of your content marketing strategy.
Personally, I think Facebook has done really well with the redesign. Every time Facebook makes changes they face public outcry, but I don’t think the changes they’ve introduced are radical enough to turn users away, yet they’ve changed enough to keep the site fresh and find ways of putting more content in front of their users. It seems like they really have listened to what users want with this.
I think this is a good move both for businesses and general users. What do you think of the new Facebook News Feed? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @TheHPSGroup.
This article originally appeared on the HPS Group Blog.
Pastor Bowale Abraham’s Prophecy For 2013: The Year Of The Christ & The Seven Fold Light
Many False words shall spring forth from many false prophets with a lying spirit in their mouths like 2 Chronicles 18: 22, many of them with a purpose of deceiving God’s people and enriching their pockets, but the Word of the I AM will stand and will come to his people through his chosen Vessel.
…And i saw as in a vision a cloud moving as water, and heard a voice which was followed by a noise but it was the moving of the clouds. And the voice that talked with me said
“The greatest cloud is gathering over My church in the year in front of you, with chariots of war descending as an army”.
And I saw another cloud above the former cloud descending, pushing the former away with chariots.
Suddenly, the fires of Great light like comets proceeded from the North over the new, like a great sun, and the voice said, “This is the cloud of glory, war and rewards. It shall war against religion, and the spirit of Egypt. It shall shine until victory is won. Rejoice! For the new cloud, for it’s a year of good report, mighty victories, and completion, feasts of manifestation shall break forth. For it is time of birth. This is My cloud of rains after drought, a season of ease instead of suffering and an abundant outpouring of My power. AND I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH. The Seven Spirits shall be in display in the body of Christ and the church shall bear witness of the Light with so Great power (in your 4th year), special lights shall spring forth. It’s not the same light that you have known (Gen. 1:14-19).
The ordinary sun shall no more be your light, nor the brightness of the light that you operated before. Behold! The shining of the Sun that shines with perfection.
My church shall explore a new acres of the anointing from the sacred mount as of before. The great Light shall scatter the works of darkness, and a new level of intercession shall be experienced, for there is a climate change in the spirit. My church shall operate unrecognizable dimensions on earth. The legions of hell shall fall before the manifestations of My children, the shift in the cloud shall evoke new definition of the post-apostolic spirit. The Greater Light will shine to terrify religion and hell. Persecutors will fail in this Light. Koinonia shall hence rise to a new level in My church.
The church shall like never before not be defined by what a man can do but by My glory. The ungodly shall be terrified by my Glory, the lights shall be fiery to them. They shall see the power of the lights shining unto their salvation. A new phenomenon in the spirit is going to change history of My church. Many will give up Faith for My Church shall fight war against the flesh but Stand firm in My love. Move into realms in My word.
Behold, I move in the clouds over My church until the former clouds are gone and the church will shine as city without light where prosperity and sufficient authority flows. Rejoice for the sunniest day, the brightest and unclouded days are in front of you. For it shall no more be said that the evening was or morning was, for My Divine light shall shine in the evening and as it will in the day. Selah
Moreover the light of the Moon Will be as “the light of the day and the light of the sun will be “seven fold” As the light of the seven days” of…(2013)
In the day that I, that I AM binds up the breach, the fracture of “My” People and He healeth the stroke of their wounds (emphasis added) Isa 30:26, Zechariah 14:7
For the year in front of you shall be the year of the Christ and the Sevenfold Light.
Congrats God’s People.
Pastor Bowale Abrahams
The Burning Church, Nigeria.
Linda Ikeji Gets Immortalized by Lagos Gaming Outfit Kuluya.com in New Game: LINDA IKEJI VS THE WORLD
Innovation is the fruit of great minds, and that’s certainly what the team at Kuluya.com seem to be up to, rewriting African Gaming History, and having fun at the same time.
According to this interview they had with Techloy , they are focused on creating original African game themes going for cultural simplicity, these themes come from themes that pervade the everyday life of an average Nigerian and also Africans at large, they basically take a commonly known theme and model it into a game and make it as fun as possible.
The latest addition to their gaming collection is a game to immortalize popular celebrity blogger “Linda Ikeji”, from the information reaching us on social media, they will be releasing a new game called “LINDA IKEJI VS THE WORLD” on Monday 22nd October 2012.
Based out of Lagos, Nigeria, the gaming start-up which raised $250,000 in seed funding claims to have over 100 titles with African characters and themes such as Monkey Run, Bush Meat, Agbero, Ole, Point & Kill, Zulu 
and Mosquito
VIDEO: Air Nigeria Asks Passengers To Donate £40 Each To Buy Fuel For Flight To Lagos
In a scandalous twist of events, SaharaReporters learned that an Air Nigeria crew at Gatwick Airport yesterday asked passengers to contribute £40 each to enable them purchase fuel to depart for Lagos several hours after the flight’s takeoff was delayed.
About 190 passengers on Flight LOS-VK 0292/08
The flight, which was scheduled to fly out of London at 9:50a.m, eventually did so at 5p.m., arriving in Lagos at 12:30a.m. But the ordeal of the passengers was hardly over.
A passenger, Lekan Fatodu told SaharaReporters that when they arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, they discovered their baggage had not arrived with them. They were left stranded for several hours before an official of the airline told them to return the next day for their luggage.
It was learned that the airline’s bag handling service, Swissport, refused to provide ground-handling services to the airline because Air Nigeria had not met its obligations to the company.
Air Nigeria’s embattled owner, Jimoh Ibrahim, last week announced the sacking of over 500 workers at the airline and suspension of all flight services starting from tomorrow, September 10.
Press Release: THE STRATEGIC MOVES IN JUMIA (FORMERLY KASUWA AND SABUNTA)
This is the official press release from Jumia.com.ng, formerly two separate entries-Kasuwa and Sabunta .
In recent weeks, Nigerians have been rocked with the news about how some of the biggest e-commerce and fashion companies have restructured their operations, there by letting go some of their staff and changing their name. We can report to you that this is true! Arguably the biggest stock of fashion online in Nigeria (Sabunta.com) and the biggest stock of general merchandise (Kasuwa.com) have come together to create a mega online retail store called Jumia – (http://www.jumia.com).
We have gathered reports that this process has come from the backdrop of recent expansion plans to reach other parts of Africa collaborating with sister companies in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and many other countries under the new name – JUMIA.COM
Also, there is word around town that this strategic move is for Jumia.com.ng to completely solidify their market share in the minds of their customers after several competitive online retailers have started springing up to compete for the buying heart of Nigeria.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THEIR CUSTOMERS? Reliable sources at Jumia.com have informed us that the new structure is optimized to deliver more efficiently and continue to grow its customer base as a result of the following:
- A more effective team to meet the growing needs of their customers nationwide
- An improved/faster delivery system that will continue to see same day delivery in some states in Nigeria.
- And most importantly, a wider selection of brands and products that cuts across fashion, mobile phones/devices/accessories, electronic, games, beauty, books and general merchandise.
