In February 2010, online retail company kalahari.com, launched the Marketplace, a trading platform aimed at allowing third parties to use the kalahari.com site to sell their goods. By May 2012, the success of the venture was exceeding expectations still, Bill Paladino, chief executive officer of the MIH Group, the South African multimedia company that owned kalahari.com, knew that the competitive nature of the online retail industry meant that there was no room for complacency. He wondered how to ensure the continued success of the Marketplace.

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In September 2014, Calum McCracken, chief executive officer (CEO) of Next Generation Network Telecommunications (Pty) Ltd (NGN Telecoms), met with his partners to discuss the company’s Kenyan dilemma.

In September 2012, Khensani Nobanda took over as general manager of Hansa Pilsener, South African Breweries’ (SAB) second-biggest brand. Under her predecessor, Mosidi Seretlo, SAB had developed a highly successful advertising campaign for Hansa, featuring a character named Vuyo who epitomised the positioning of the brand. Conditions in the beer market had changed since the campaign was first launched, however, and Nobanda was now considering options for the way forward. Should she move Hansa’s communications campaign away from Vuyo, she wondered?

South African Breweries (SAB) launched its first light beer in South Africa, Hansa Pilsener, at the end of 1975. While sales of Hansa were initially brisk, the brand’s subsequent performance was disappointing, and despite repeated changes of emphasis in the market positioning of the brand, Hansa struggled to find its appropriate target market. In the mid 1980s the situation changed, however, and sales started to increase. By the end of 1990, Hansa Pilsener had gained a sizable market share, and subsequently grew to become the second largest brand within the SAB portfolio.

In July 2015, Stefanie Pietzsch, guest relations and marketing manager of The Fairway Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, a Johannesburg-based luxury city resort owned by property developer Guvon Investments, considered introducing a loyalty programme to reward her loyal guests. In recent years, hotels in Johannesburg had experienced the effects of slow economic conditions with an overall drop in room occupancy, which had resulted in increased competition.

By June 2010, The Coca-Cola Company’s (Coca-Cola) micro distribution centre (MDC) network in Africa had proven to be incredibly successful. Coca-Cola had built up the network to distribute its products through small, independent local entrepreneurs to even smaller outlets, enabling the company to reach markets that traditionally had been very difficult to access. Now social marketers were approaching Coca-Cola for permission to distribute their own products using the MDC network.

In December 2008, Charlene Lewison, marketing director of the Johannesburg-based family business, Birdi Golf Apparel, surveyed the company’s well-stocked shelves with pride – but also with a growing sense of unease. In the past 12 years, Birdi had become an established brand on both the professional and amateur golf circuits in South Africa.

The first thing Thandie Dhlomo, sales partner at the Rawson Property Group, did when she arrived home on a chilly Friday evening in July 2016 was pour herself a glass of red wine, kick off her shoes and curl up on her couch. She felt exhausted. Her last clients for the day had been Lunga Dlamini and his wife, Sonia. They were looking to move out of their rented house in Soweto and purchase their first home in one of the suburbs of Johannesburg. Dhlomo had helped them to narrow it down to three properties in three different suburbs: Linden, Parkhurst and Fourways.

In 2001, about 2 million people had access to the Internet in South Africa, and Absa, one of the major banking groups in South Africa had an Internet banking client base of 153 000. In a move aimed at doubling this client base and changing the bank’s image from one of e-laggard to e-leader, the group decided, in conjunction with UK IT company, Affinity, to offer free Internet access to anyone in South Africa. Despite widely expressed scepticism about the viability of the project, the uptake was enormous. The projected month-one target of 10 000 registrations was reached on the first day.

In August 2002, Desmond Makondo walked out of the Johannesburg offices of digital products manufacturer, Hewlett Packard (HP), with a digital camera, two printers and an undertaking that he would pay the company R8 000 for the equipment within two months. He had no idea how he was going to do this, but he knew there was no going back; he had no choice. He had to find a way to make this equipment make money. But how?

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