The Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Announce 2023 Headline Sponsor

The Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards have announced that the awards will be powered up by Standard Bank. This new headline sponsor partnership is a significant step for the awards, as they shine a light on youth excellence.

Taking pride in supporting youth-owned brands in South Africa, Standard Bank aims to deliver sustainable growth throughout the continent. The youth play a huge role in economic growth and putting Africa on the map. The partnership aims to shine a light on the strides the youth is making in South Africa.

Standard Bank’s commitment to growing Africa is summed up through the brand promise ‘It Can Be’. The Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards believe that it certainly can be through empowering and supporting the youth of South Africa and growing their individual brands.

Pat Mahlangu: CEO & Founder (Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards)

“The Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards are an essential platform in today’s South Africa as they celebrate entrepreneurship, particularly given limited employment opportunities faced in the marketplace. These awards are for the ones who worked tirelessly at their craft and stopped at nothing to grow their brands to what it is today. We are delighted to have Standard Bank as the headline partner for this year’s awards contributing to the gold standard of youth excellence” says Pat Mahlangu, the founder and CEO of the Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards.

As the largest financial services organisation in Africa, Standard Bank’s purpose is to drive sustainable and inclusive growth on the continent and is committed to the development of young people.

Lindy-Lou Alexander: Global Head for Personal and Private Banking (Standard Bank)

“We are honoured to support the entrepreneurial energy and drive that are inherently present in the next generation of business leaders as the Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards’ headline sponsor. We’re thrilled to be taking part in yet another significant relationship as part of the 10% movement since it enables us to invest in their potential and assist them in laying the foundation for a more promising and creative future.”, said Global Head for Personal and Private Banking at Standard Bank, Lindy-Lou Alexander

The Top 16 Youth-Owned Brands Awards will be taking place on the 14th & 15th of June 2023. The awards show will be preceded by a two-day festival whereby the largest number of youth-owned brands will be showcasing therein the history of the country.

The benefits of Stokvels as a savings vehicle

Benefits of Stockvel

As the festive season draws closer, top of mind for South Africans is whether they have enough savings to meet the financial demands that come with this period. A way in which many South Africans prepare for the period is through the popular stokvel savings vehicle.

However, the stokvel’s have on occasion unfairly attracted negative stories of members disappearing with money when it’s time to divide savings within the group. A rules-based savings scheme, with the assistance of your bank can avoid these potential situations, Mike Ramolahlehi, Product Manager, Savings & Investments at Standard Bank offers insights on how people can make use of the stokvel savings vehicle through a bank.

Ramolahlehi says that people need to exercise discretion when making decisions about their hard-earned money, and that reputable institutions such as banks, have a variety of stokvel savings formats which offer peace of mind and security for groups who are saving towards a common goal.

South Africans are currently caught in the frenzy of the increasingly infamous WhatsApp and illegal savings scheme, where a lot of members have complained about not getting their money. Although these types of schemes are very popular, they are Ponzi schemes and therefore illegal and there is very high uncertainty when it comes to members receiving their money following initial investment.

According to Ramolahlehi, the benefits of saving as a group through a bank include:

  • Dual authorisation from selected signatories is required in order to realise funds
  • The necessary compliance checks are conducted on authorised signatories before account can be opened.
  • Saving more money faster when you pool your savings from as little as R100 a month into one account.
  • Most stokvel-styled savings products allow funds to be deposited or withdrawn at any time with increasing benefits for you and your scheme.
  • Once a desired amount has been reached, the money can be moved into longer term investments, growing the initial investment even faster.
  • Higher interest for individuals because the group is saving together.

“It can be very tempting to resort to popular but risky schemes in order to quickly bolster your savings. It is far more advisable rather, that people contact registered financial institutions for any credible information pertaining to savings”, concludes Ramolahlehi.

Stokvels harness the miracle that is compound interest, where investors earn a return on their savings as well as their accumulated interest.

The impact of xenophobic attacks on South African brands.

You are probably wondering what the xenophobic attacks have to do with brands. Well… the answer is EVERYTHING, because in this world nothing ever works in isolation. The impact may be direct or indirect and its magnitude may differ but the bottom line is that there is an impact. According to Otto Sterlik founder of the Protea Group, xenophobic attacks not only have an effect on the tourism industry but the entire South African economy.

A report by Ernst & Young states that Africa is an important growth market that no consumer products business can afford to ignore. More and more global companies are establishing business in Africa. South Africa, being one of the largest economies in the African continent, is often used as a “gateway” to Africa. The companies first set up base in South Africa before penetrating other African markets.

South African companies are also making inroads to the entire African continent as part of their growth strategy. The spell on fellow African brothers and sisters is therefore not only detrimental to the foreigners but to the companies that have already established themselves in other African countries and those that have plans to enter other African countries.

Over the weekend I received a very disturbing voice note from a friend. The man speaking on the voice note (whom I assume is a Nigerian national) is calling on all other African nations to “bomb” South African businesses in foreign countries if the South Africans don’t stop attacking foreigners. Last week, the MTN Head Office in Abuja, Nigeria had to shut down after they were invaded by anti-xenophobic protesters.

Nigeria is MTN’s largest and most profitable market. In 2013, MTN Nigeria reported more profits than MTN South Africa.

MTN is not the only South African brand that could be adversely affected by the wake of the xenophobic protests. Shoprite, a leading retailer in South Africa has about 7 stores in Nigeria compared to the 600 store in South Africa. The giant retailer sells more bottles of Moet and Chandon Champagne in Nigeria than in all liquor  South Africa. This is an indication of how significant the Nigerian market is.

Nigeria is not the only market that South African brands have successfully established business in. Countries such as Angola, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique and so forth, have also opened their boarders for South African brands that are doing quite well.

If the xenophobic attacks continue, the growth of brands such as Standard Bank, DSTV, Woolworths, Tiger Brands and many others will be impeded. The brands will lose out on the investments already made in other African countries.  South Africa’s GDP will drop and ultimately more people will become unemployed. The consequences are just undesirable.

South Africans need to unite against the few culprits of the xenophobic attacks to prevent South African brands being attacked in other African countries.  I would also like to urge the South African brands to use their influence in their respective industries to educate and help curb the xenophobic attacks.

Kwame Nkrumah was famously quoted as saying “the forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart”. Unemployment, corruption and drugs are all global problems. It is time for Africa to unite, because we are one!

Remember to leave your comments below about your thoughts on how the banks acted on the budget speech. And if you like this article, please SHARE IT! Don’t forget to get in-touch with @PatOnBrands on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat.

How the banks took advantage of the 2017 budget speech

Yesterday was one of the most important days in the land. The Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan presented the budget for the 2017 fiscal year. The budget speech sets the tone for the year, as to how government will spend money and aim to address socio-economic challenges such as high-unemployment rate, education amongst others. Above all, how the changes will have an impact on an average consumer’s pocket.  Experts in the finance industry also made speculations prior to the speech as to what the minister will say about various economic factors. Some were on point and some completely missed it. There are already missed reactions on the actual budget speech as usual. Be it as it may, we can only remain positive as a nation and move forward.

In the midst of the budget speech, some brands particularly the banks saw an opportunity to increase brand awareness online. Here is how the four major banks in the country leveraged on the budget speech:

1. ABSA – The bank owned the #Budget2017 by promoting the hashtag on Twitter.  The hashtag trended number one on Twitter for the whole day. If you were to search #Budget2017 you will see an ABSA ad at the top.

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2. FNB – Instead of promoting a hashtag, FNB focused on pushing of FNB branded images around the budget speech from the beginning to the end of the Minister’s speech. The aim was to highlight the key points in the budget speech.

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2. Nedbank – They ran a Budget Speech competition in partnership with Old Mutual. The competition was aimed at economics students registered at recognised institution of higher learning in South Africa either studying full-time or part-time. The winners were announced yesterday.

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4. Standard Bank – The whole News 24 site was painted blue yesterday, all thanks to Standard Bank. On the popular news site, the bank put up digital banners highlighting the budget speech and also a call to action for the visitors to site learn about budgeting and the investment and savings packages that Standard Bank offers.

standard bank

It is important for brands to start targeting major events such as the Budget Speech to boost brand awareness particularly on social media as it is cost effective. The banks get a Pat for taking initiatives to leverage on the budget speech as it is aligned with their industry. Even though the banks got brand awareness, consumers also benefited from the initiatives as they get informed.

Remember to leave your comments below about your thoughts on how the banks acted on the budget speech. And if you like this article, please SHARE IT! Don’t forget to in-touch with @PatOnBrands on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat.

Brands and racism: A Pat On Brands perspective

Racism is one of the most sensitive topics in the world, and more often than not, many people would prefer not to talk about it. According to Sipho Hlongwane, blogs editor at Huffington Post South Africa, racist acts occur daily in South Africa. When a racial incident involving a high-profile individual or a brand takes place; people are quick to take it to social media while brands, on the other hand, keep the distance.

For many years, brands have been accused of racism; whether through statements (online or offline) that were made by executives and/or producing “racist adverts”. For example in 2006, the MD of Cristal champagne Frederic Rouzaud  made a statement that Hip Hop artists (mostly black) used the champagne in a way that could be detrimental to the brand. This statement saw Jay-Z calling for the brand to be boycotted.  In South Africa, earlier this year (2016) Standard Bank’s economist Chris Hart was suspended by the bank  after he tweeted that “25 years after apartheid ended, the victims are increasing, along with a sense of entitlement and hatred towards minorities ”.  The tweet offended many people and some political parties marched to bank’s head offices. Standard Bank distanced itself from the statement by tweeting that they do not endorse such.

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A classic example of a racist advert would be the TV commercial produced for a Chinese laundry detergent brand, Qioabi. The commercial shows a black man and a young Chinese woman are flirting, as he leans in for a kiss she thrusts a detergent capsule in his mouth and bundles him into a laundry machine.  She sits atop the machine as the man spins and screams inside until, to her apparent delight, out pops a handsome Chinese man dressed in a clean, white t-shirt. The advert caused an outrage all over the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X27dvuBSyXE%20

Source: YouTube

Brands are driven by people and how a brand “behaves” is a result of the people who run it. If a brand is perceived to be racist, it means the people behind it are sadly racists. In most cases, when a brand is associated with racism, the executives of the brand are quick to put blame on the individuals working in the brand. Let’s take The Bungalow , Cape Town restaurant racial profiling incident, where two black patrons were labelled “2 Blacks” on their receipt . The patrons took offense of being labelled according their race and accused the restaurant of being racist. When they asked the restaurant manager why they were labelled according to their race and they were not satisfied with the response. They then took to social media and that caused a huge uproar on social media and most major news  wrote articles about it. Some people who visited the restaurant vowed to never set their foot at the restaurant again. The owners of The Bungalow came out in their defence saying it was the waiter’s fault and they have a clear policy of non-discrimination on the basis of gender, race or religion or sexual orientation.

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Here is  the thing, as a brand owner you need to be aware of what your brand is associated with and what is  on everything that carries your brand name even receipts. It is  understandable that one cannot control who buys and uses your brand and in what way. However, brands need to make their stance on certain issues clear before they even occur. This can be done by having company core-values that every employee working for the brand will be familiar with and lives by. Some people would argue that a brand cannot be held accountable for how its employees behave. The main thing is that, the brand has influence over their employees and that matters.

According to Bruce Crutchfield, brands have a bigger role in fuelling democracy.  This means that, brands have a moral obligation to stand up for basic human rights and the protection of the environment in which they operate. It is therefore important for brands to take a proactive stance when it comes to issues of race than being reactive because the impact can be very detrimental. As the adage goes, people are more likely to forget the things you say to them but they will never forget how you make them feel. If your clients feel that there are elements of racism in your establishment, they are more likely to avoid visiting it regardless of what you say because 80% of purchase decisions are influenced by emotions.

Please let us know about your thoughts on brands and racism and share your experiences around the topic by leaving a comment below.

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