Do you remember the video of Julius Malema’s EFF and the H&M saga? That is a classic example of marketing gone wrong! Marketers had designed a controversial advert hoping to generate huge traffic through controversy-unfortunately it ended up stirring trouble across the globe and South Africa was not spared. You do not want such bad publicity when you are an entrepreneur because it can destroy your business overnight. So how does an entrepreneur create a business post or advert that goes viral without creating unnecessary controversy?

Our case study
The following post has been trending in Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa,  Trinidad and Tobago, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We did post it on Wednesday evening  and the objective being for business followers to while up time and have fun. It also provided useful insights on Digital Marketing.

The question
……………………………………………
Fast Thinking Required: What will be your best option?
Answer A: Stop
Answer B: Proceed.
Answer C: Reverse and drive Back.
Answer D: Hoot and scare the lions

………………………………………………………….

Why did thousands of people respond to the above posts in different countries at the same time?

• Emotions:It draws emotions (fear). Lions draw attention and bringing fear to most people-they represent danger!
• Numbers Game: The fact that the number of lions is more magnifies the fear(emotions). If it was one lion…the response would have been minimal. The more the lions, the greater the danger and the greater the curiosity and responses.
• Risk Taking Decision: The post asks one to make a decision which can be potentially dangerous (Possibility of getting killed or injured by the lions or the lions killing or injuring you)
• Concerned Parties: Concerned parties in the adverts are animal lovers who are forced to respond due to the implication of the advert on animal issues. The implication of someone harming the lions is too ghastly to contemplate-perhaps this maybe the little controversial part of the advert.
• Vulnerability: The vulnerability of the lone car brings emotions of empathy-will the person survive? One car versus more than 9 lions?
• Real Life: You have been asked to be part of the action, you have to make a life saving hasty decision. You can therefore visualize yourself in this real life experience where the focus is on YOU with implications on YOU and NINE lions!
• Its Science: We will explain the analysis above in  our book on investment opportunities coming at the end of next week

Science Behind Digital Marketing

The bottom line in Digital Marketing is that you would like to increase sales! You like to convert interest in an advert into sales for your business and not for people to just see posts or adverts. You therefore need to appreciate Traffic generation,Lead generation,Lead nurturing,Conversions and Measuring. Digital Marketing has a lot of science or art behind it as shown in our viral advert which went viral across the region. This is our third viral advert with the first one attracting millions of views leading to one of our most successful initiatives ever on rug making.

We will explain more on the art and science of designing adverts and also converting them into real business in our book on investment opportunities coming in a few days time. Its a book you pray that your competitors do not get hold of! More trainings on Digital Marketing coming during the month of February.We encourage you to attend trainings in your local areas, read books and research more on this interesting topic.

Below we feature a select few responses from the thousands of responses our posts received…Africans and citizens of Trinidad and Tobago indeed have a bagful humour!

South Africa

Andy Claude Moodley E …GET my mother-in-law to take of make-up and scare those beautiful cats

Simosakhe Chamane Park the car on the side of the road and walk toward the lion greet n play with them

Ntando Tdoz Ntuli Lions get distracted by noise so it will be D

Junaid Yunus Soni B – Coz I’ll be like you better move it or lose it, you vicious man-eating, obstruction-causing carnivores!!!

Erna Kauendji Well i just hope i wont have a breakdown or the engine catches fire. Strange things happen when it is least expected.

Nelson Natasen Spin that car right there , and get the hell out

Avela Tatakamzontsundu Tuta And sing the song (waphuma u Daniel )

Buda Motswiri Proceed nd rev the engine high,wil scare the lions

Malawi

Dhiren Thakrar A. Its a rare sight so i would stop and enjoy the moment!

Elsmore Mtheto Mwenecho PRAY FOR MERCY AS YOU PROCEED

Zaheer Kara make the car fly over them lions like the Sci-Fi movies..problem solved

Cuthbert Chiumia B forward ever backward never no matter the storm stay focused on the goal

Nganya Munyithu Approach slowly. Get out of car and ask what’s for lunch today

Chikko Sekani If you are a trained driver then its not about best option its about what the rules or the laws say.

Fundo Chiwaula WG Go close, stop and step out of the car and greet them

Kambale Ulemu Continue moving forward at a high speed, ithawa yokha mikangoyo.

Smith Banda You just stop A I had the same scenario in mikumi national park in Tanzania I met 2 lions sleeping in the middle of the road at night I just stopped and waited for close to 15 minutes till they moved out of the road themselves.

Arrow Man None of the above. The best is is to stop . take a selfie with them lions . And post on social media captions ..#afewcandothis

Fumban Dicquez Drive slowly and talk to the lions nicely….they will pave way….kkkkkk

Namibia

Jay Hedge Lions are strong but only relative to the animals they hunt. Unless you are driving an open-top car or a pick up without a canopy and there are passengers at the back, there’s absolutely no reason to fear this encounter. Its very unlikely that these lions will attack the car. Just keep the doors locked, windows up and approach at a slow speed while hooting gently. Surely they will move out of the way.

Yolande L Fourie Stop! Enjoy the moments! At the rate they are killed in Namibia , you will only be seeing them on the covers of some books soon.

Nancy Carine C. What if there are more waiting ahead?

Trevor Ncube Non of the above.in such a fast big moving object,lions will go out of the road hence for safety of the car and lions one can hoot to give a warning of the incoming vehicle.

Shahbaz Ali Drive slow close to them take some pictures buye go Ahead ….?

Sandratjiuira Kapazu Kaurandua C….but if i have people at the back I will reverse n back..if nobody at the back the answer is C

Franz Tumuna E…will get out and scare them away

Bernice Grobler Sit and watch them for the whole time tbey are there

Werner Abraham Proceed but very fast and hold the steering very well and hoot, they will run away.

Werner Abraham If you happen to go for other option then you are finished, if you proceed fast and hoot, they will run for their life, they will see that this coming thing is also serious, they will not have other option other then to run away, remember that they are also alive and can be in fear also.

Zambia

Ituri Ole Semuliki Approach the lions in full speed, lights on hooting @ 100kph.

Oni Kappisy Mutelele I was once in such a situation….. Just drive proceed slowly

Andy Mphande Make sure the windows are closed and drive at a fast good speed so that you don’t crush otherwise it’s tricky

Godfrey Nchemba Show the lions you are man enough. Come out of the car and say hello. . Politely ask them to give you way. Kwamana. All the best.

Ntombi Dlamini E. Drive like Schumacher and see what happens

Kamfwa Mubanga Hamooya D, lions are not like elephants. Elephants you stop wether you like it or not.

Davies Lunda Lions are not so scary, you just drive by_passing them at a moderate speed but keep on honking

Musa Kalinda If you have been to Dar es salaam before we pass through a park called mikumi……thy always come by the road side….just stop and do not anything….stay put no noise…..A distance away….thy leave the road eventually.

Musa Kalinda I have been in such an encounter before…..basically stop thy go out of the road…..just stay a distance away

Andy Mphande Make sure the windows are closed and drive at a fast good speed so that you don’t crush otherwise it’s tricky

Our forum has made an impact in Durban where we have hundreds of followers and this is not surprising after our trainings last year that affected thousands of women in this KwaZulu Natal Region. The spirit of entrepreneurship is high in Durban, sisters there are hardworking and go getters. The best entrepreneurs for South Africa are likely to emerge from this region in the not so distant future.

Digital Marketing is still in infancy in Durban and we urge sisters there to embrace it and use it to their advantage. Attending a course on Digital Marketing is therefore a must if you would like to be successful as an entrepreneur. Digital marketing is an efficient way of reaching out to a broad market in an effective and efficient manner.The old way of marketing involves opening a shop and waiting for local clients to come in and buy goods or services. This limits the number of people you can reach out to  because if you open a shop  in Durban how will you reach out to clients in Johannesburg? How about Cape Town or East London?

Digital Marketing enables you to cover all four corners of South Africa, what is more? You can also reach out to clients across the world like what one of our trainees Bongiwe Xaba does. She makes traditional Zulu Attire and sells it to Europe! She gets clients through Facebook boosting and ships her material abroad. She takes advantage of the fact that the world loves South Africa and millions tourists visit South Africa every year. The interest in Heritage Day  by the international community opens markets for South African based entrepreneurs to make clothes or arts and crafts for sale to international customers in Europe, Asia, USA and Australia.

E-Commerce a must

A good number of sisters have embraced part digital marketing and advertise goods on popular Facebook Groups such as Durban Factories which has a membership of 350,000. Facebook and Whatsapp advertising has limitations though in the sense that you have to manually register members and follow up with them. This is an efficient way of marketing as many clients can be lost to rivals. Most people who visit  Social Media when they make a decision on buying a product, they often want to do so immediately. Therefore an entrepreneur must be organized and have a website where potential clients can view all the details they may need. The website must be a shop as well allowing people who have shown interest in buying to do so immediately!

We therefore urge our members and followers to be efficient when selling goods and services and upgrade from manually  placing Facebook Adverts and wait for responses.Open a website that is E-Commerce enabled and have a shop that runs 24 hours a day and  7 days a week. This is how you can increase your sales in Durban and everywhere else across the globe.

Popular Business Ideas in Durban

1. Sisters in Durban want to look good and trendy clothes, shoes, handbags come top
2. Hair products, related to the top one-its all about sisters looking great
3. Kitchen ware is hugely popular especially Tupperware
4. Herbal Medicine-(Forever living, Teaguard,Longrich, Esylife,Herbal life) products and Chinese made products are popular
5. Perfume Making and Selling-emerging and fast business idea (Avon,
6. Buying and selling jewellery (some are now making jewellery)
7. ICT gadgets
8. Household furniture
9. Baking cakes for sale
10. Arts and Crafts –Tapestry

This list is obviously long but we have chosen a few small business ideas that are making a mark in Durban and the whole of Kwazulu Natal. The sisters want to look good and enjoy a good life-therefore if you try and address this-you will never go wrong! They want their homes to look neat, tidy and trendy and will therefore invest in this area.

It was also interesting to find sisters traveling all the way from East London to  Durban inorder to buy clothes and  shoes for resale. Having traveled to most provinces in South Africa the conclusion that we have is that Durban (KZN) has more opportunities for entrepreneurs than most provinces in South Africa, the economy is better, the buying power also better than in most areas.

We however urge entrepreneurs to improve and diversify. Buying and selling business is elementary stuff. You should move on and tap onto opportunities presented by the tourist sector. Do set up travel agencies, build homes or hotels and take advantage of high tourist arrivals. Carry out more studies on this area and develop plans to tap into opportunities that exist and set up start up companies.

Room for New Business Ideas

Do not be afraid to introduce new business ideas or concepts. Our forum introduced the disruptive technology on carpet making in Durban and the programme went viral with more than 20,000 people responding. We followed up the interest by training a champion group that cascaded trainings to thousands of women across the region. We followed up with the hybrid paw paw growing project which also showed that there is high interest in Agriculture by Durbanites. Our organization will therefore be bringing you more information on opportunities in the agriculture sector in the coming months. So the spirit of entrepreneurship in Durban is high and we experienced it, we compared it to the other regions and came to the conclusion that Durban is Number 1. Entrepreneurs need to carry out detailed studies before rushing investment decisions.

We urge caution on schemes such as Online Forex Trading-it is a legitimate money making venture but you can easily lose your money to fraudsters. Learn how to do online forex trading on your own and never give funds to anyone to trade on our behalf. The same applies to Bitcoin, do not lose money to people who claim they can invest money on your behalf. Therefore be vigilant, whilst opportunities are high, so are risks especially on Social Media-always view everyone you find there with 99% suspicion and be vigilant.

This post is covered in the upcoming book on investment opportunities for women in Southern Africa, do not miss the e-book which captures the inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs in South Africa which is coming out at the end of February 2018.