Lifting Africa Clothing

Discuss the importance of internal marketing and the role of employee involvement in shaping the perception of the brand.

Role of the employees of Lifting Africa clothing brand

Living, understanding and selling the brand with its values and culture.

Importance of internal marketing for Lifting Africa

First the identification of the brand values that the employees must live too. Value creates culture.  Always invest in training and motivation will able employees to serve the customer well.

The business start from the inside as the employees are the first client /customer of the brand, the must believe in the brand and it value for then to live and sell the brand. The value chain starts from the leader /founder /CEO. A good leadership must,

·         be visible

o   meaning the presence of the leader is important the in day-to-day business. He manages the internal marketing of the brand to the employees

·         express passionate customers service

o   the employees are the first customer of the brand. When they believe in a brand then its easy to live the brand

·         the employees are the greatest assets of the company

o   without employees the brand /company cannot survive

·         hire for attitude

o   hire people that resonate with the brand. Lifting Africa is a sport clothing brand. You need people on the move that enjoy gym, healthy leaving and excising

·         empower your employees

o    giving the employee to sell the brand as if is their own and understanding the brand.  

·         engage in social media platforms

o   its good to have internal social platforms that you engage with employees about the brand and how to move the brand to the next stages. Always having a personal touch to the brand that translate to the customer.

·         have fun

o   employees must always have fun doing their job. A happy mind produces happy result. Having fun being the custodian of the brand.

What improvements could be made?

Have an office that is fully operating, create proper working structure with clear responsibilities for the employees, have enough stoke locally as importing comes with its own challenges, improve their online store, improve their social media pages as it their biggest selling point of the brand.

Reduce the number of bran ambassadors that they pay or intensifying them with clothing and start encouraging the employee to be the brand ambassadors even rotating the role among them selves that one way of including the employees in the business to sell what they know and understand, living the brand

What does the brand do well?

They have identified few sportsmen to drive the brand on social media as brand ambassadors. They leave what the brand is aiming at to be a sporty clothing brand, e.g., Tawanda Nate from a small town in Zimbabwe a personal trainer his Instagram page Tawanda_nate and Kweku Borties an Athlete from Botswana Instagram page is kweku_bortsie. They have also partnered with Takealot to make the brand it more accessible locally and internationally.

They have an incitive that every sale made a percentage of the income goes towards a charitable foundation that gives food parcels and sanitary towels to the less privileged in the township. Is one of company selling point of the brand that its not all about money but also sharing with the needy. In their future they will want to build fitness facilities in the township to encourage fitness and healthy leaving and keeping the youth from the street.

What doesn't it do well?

This is an international and local sport brand clothing. A brand like this needs full time management to put in place the company’s vision and mission and give direction of the brand. The founder is located in Europe and the brand is based in South Africa. Communication with employees is a challenge they are time difference between two countries and employee are challenged to communicate issues they might face.

How to the manage sales, customers’ needs and expectations being in the UK and the level of commitment of the employees in living and communicating the brand and being the custodian of the brand? How do they measure the success of the brand?

Website: www.liftingafricaclothing.com

https://www.instagram.com/lifting_africa_clothing/

https://www.facebook.com/liftingafricaclothing/