Author :

Geoff Bick

Pages :

14

Product Type :

Teaching note

Reference # :

WBS-2007-4

Teaching Note :

Institute:

Wits Business School

Setting:

Year:

2007

Keywords:

Doing business in Africa, marketing, global marketing, international business, strategy, cellular communications.

Summary/Abstract:

On 17 April 2005 African cellular telecommunications company MTN finally launched its new ‘everywhere you go’ pay-off line across all of its African operations. Three months later, with the rush over, MTN’s group executive director: marketing, Santie Botha, reflected on the company’s two-year journey towards adopting a global brand identity with locally relevant communication – the so-called ‘glocal’ approach. The journey had provided interesting learning about doing business in Africa, but she wondered whether the model MTN had developed would also be suitable for MTN’s recent business expansion into the Middle East.