Anaclet Rwegayura Posted Tue, 26 Sep 2006
Addis Ababa – Around 30 Ethiopian firms were actively seeking a common approach to market their country abroad.
The key issue that industries and the government were addressing in the marketing drive was to improve the image of Ethiopia as a location where business could thrive.
Ethiopian entrepreneurs had little to show thus far, but their effort was indicative of their determination to succeed.
The hope of the Ethiopian industries to make an impact on regional and overseas markets lies with the abundance of raw materials, such as coffee, livestock, leather and minerals as well as the new technologies being introduced into the country.
In their enthusiasm to create a new image of Ethiopia, though, both the government and the local entrepreneurs were up against the challenges of competition that include communications, market intelligence gathering, packaging and branding their products.
"There is a knowledge gap of how to sell goods in the global market and stick with it," said Stephan Willms, a German product branding and marketing expert, after conducting a training session for Ethiopian industrialists in Addis Ababa.
"There are very successful companies in Ethiopia, very well-led too in different areas, but their products are not known by consumers outside the country."
Through its capacity building ministry, the Ethiopian government was working to improve the competitiveness of local industries at national and international levels.
In this endeavour, Germany was providing essential support through its Development Co-operation Agency (GTZ) by training managers of Ethiopian industries to develop their own product branding strategies. [For full story Click Here]
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