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As a Marketer read more fiction-Silvia Tonui

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 10 -On the second episode of Capital FM’s iMarketPodcast, done in partnership with Diageo-owned East African Breweries Limited, and  Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK), Head of Media Futures at EABL, Waithera Kabiru talks to Silvia Tonui, Project Manager Consultant most recently for British Council’s Creative DNA Project and a farmer in her free time.

Tonui, who is also the founder of a Kenyan honey brand called Marigat Gold offers deep insights on her journey in marketing, farming, fashion, and startup with key lessons for newbies and professionals in the ever-changing digital space.

You wear so many hats, you are an entrepreneur, you are in the marketing field, you have worked in the fashion industry.. I am excited to hear the lessons you have for us today.

Give us a snapshot of who you are and what you do?

I am a Project Manager and Marketer, I started my career in marketing in 2009 after graduating from United States International University-Africa with a degree in marketing, my first job was in South Africa, Johannesburg where I was working for Times Media Group and at the time I was working for a fashion magazine. Initially, I started with consumer marketing then I moved to trade marketing.

I then moved to Kenya and worked in the Development sector, fashion, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), and most interestingly worked for the Festival for African Fashion and Arts (FAFA) which was founded after the 2007 post-election violence as a unifying factor because there was a lot of negativity at the time and we felt there was a need to set up a fashion event that would bring designers, artists and have people enjoy beauty and positivity because it had been a bad season.

Since then, I moved to work in agencies, building strategies for selling alcohol, agriculture produce as well as fashion

Besides my professional job, I am also an entrepreneur.

You studied marketing at University, that is great, do you think it gave you a foundation of all the things you have been doing today?

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Yes, I think with marketing, you need to have the fundamentals and basics.

However, most of the things you learn on the job. I think when I graduated, I was certain I was ready to market the most amazing international brands,

But I got to the ground, vitu Kwa ground ni different, I remember my first job, I thought I would be building strategies from week one at work, but the reality is that I was selling magazines, and I had to start from the bottom of the food chain and I remember my first job was to sell subscriptions for magazines at the mall.

I used to think that was lowly- that was arrogant of me- but just to understand the business, I had to interact with consumers to understand what their needs were. That was important for me.

From selling subscriptions of magazines in a mall to wrapping subscription gifts and sending. I didn’t expect that..

Marketing is a strategic engine for any brand, For you to have a strong strategy that delivers business outcomes, you have to understand the consumer. It is important to be on the ground.

You worked in a fashion magazine then came back to Kenya and worked with the Festival for African Fashion and Arts (FAFA), tell us about that?

It was a fashion event set up to lift the spirits of people after the 2007/8 PEV and bring beauty and remind people that there is beauty in unity, diverse cultures, and creative talents coming in one space.

It started as one GALA event bringing fashion designers around East Africa and thereafter morphed into a fashion marketing platform for designers.

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Creatives understand their craft but few understand the business side of the creative business, every week we had a support group, focused group discussions where they discussed challenges and we brought in industry experts.

Secondly, we started promoting their products on Facebook and we had a monthly pop-up market so that designers could sell their products.

We’ve heard and seen over the years creative designs and ideas lifted from Kenyans, Africans, and ‘exported’ to other markets and are commercialized, then we are all up in arms saying, how could they do this. What do you have to say about that?

I have to play the devil’s advocate. Just looking at the creative process of many people, Nothing is ever truly new/unique. I think we ( creatives), draw inspirations from trends, environments.

I feel like sometimes, there is outright copying, for instance, there is these Chinese firms which would take a product, garment, tear it apart and build it exactly the same.

If it’s just an inspiration and you are adding some brand, fashion DNA into that, I don’t see a problem with it.

We can be a bit hypocritical that if the West takes a design, we are up in arms, I think  Loius Vuitton did a Maasai blanket but even our own when Ankara, there was this trend….

I am laughing because I am wearing Ankara and it’s a Western-style cut jacket,, are you judging me. What are you saying around that?

I am not really, but there is a period when Ankara was extremely popular and still is.., I feel we started wearing it when we started adding Western cuts, initially, it was like, that is too Kitenge like, that is too traditional, not modern enough but now we are wearing it to the offices but then in pencil skirts, jackets.

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I feel like if you are inspired with a certain culture, it could be African, I don’t see a problem with that. I am more into the business of fashion than the creative side of fashion.

I know the fashion designers are going to have a problem with that.

Let us talk about the business of fashion, what are you doing to empower creatives in the business side?

I am currently working with the British Council, I am a trained Project Manager, my Masters was in Project Management with my dissertation in risk management for Small and Micro-Entrepreneurs (SMEs).

I am working on a project called creative DNA which is providing business support for young fashion designers. We take three different approaches.

  • -The first one is business incubation –providing support for young designers, we provide basic training in book keeping, how to do your taxes, how to register a business, pricing, and digital/ traditional marketing.
  • -The second one is we do research into sustainable fibres, there is this conversation of climate change with fashion being the largest contributors of climate change and environmental pollution through landfills- clothes, synthetic ties that go into water ways. We are currently doing some research into sustainable fibres from more natural sources like barks of trees, leaves, mostly traditional systems which Africa had been practicing for a while.
  • Thirdly, we provide business support, how designers can make money setting up online shops

Do you have any good stories that have come out of this business incubation?

Yes, yes, we have a lot but I would pick a few.

We did an online campaign called wauzine, you can see it online, there are a lot of photoshoots that are stereotypical, it would be like in the African savannah but then we created a digital campaign with fashion designers who were like… we are young people, we don’t wear Masai. Nothing wrong with Masai, but a progressive look at it.

We co-developed a campaign, we did the shoots with a Nairobi backdrop- Matatu culture, Uhuru Park … and we came up with beautiful contemporary imagery and we promoted that.

Some of the young designers featured included we.are.nbo who does really beautiful jewelry, Epica who does beadwork, and that helped their sales and they are exporting through their own platform, we trained them how to sell through Instagram and Facebook.

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Three out of 11 brands are selling internationally- not on a large scale but they are getting orders abroad. That was exciting

That is fantastic, it speaks on the impact of the internet that brings the world together, these days we buy clothes via Instagram.

Yes, I am actually wearing a clothing I bought from Instagram, Pre-covid I used to prefer walking to a shop, I didn’t trust online selling.

You mentioned that you are a startup founder, tell me more about that.

I grew up in the village called Chepkolon in Kericho county and I have always said I will always go back to live in the farm, I got married in Baringo, my husband is from Baringo and when driving upcountry, we saw a lot of women on the roadside selling honey.

Baringo is abundant in high-quality acacia honey but in really unattractive packaging, mostly upcycled alcohol bottles.

I decided to build a brand, attractive packaging for honey that can compete with any international brand on the shelves.

I did my research and decided to set up, while doing that, I started speaking to buyers, supermarkets and once I got the requirements I decided to set up the business.

I was extremely lucky, I think in life and in business, you can build all the best strategies but luck plays a critical role.

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Why do you say that?

I was incubated at Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI) and I didn’t know about that until I met someone who was incubated there, I was asking him a lot of questions and he is like, you know what, there is a one-stop shop and you can get all these questions answered.

So, I don’t call that luck Sylvia, I call it you talking about what you are doing and all struggles you are having to everybody and getting people saying..I can connect you to this person..  So are we talking enough about what we are doing and the challenges we are facing?

That is very true because right now when people ask me for help, I am very willing to help to offer it, When I was starting out, I struggled like you’d ask someone something as simple as where do you buy your packaging or where do you print your labels, and they would be extremely vague.

So I think you are right, just talk about your business and struggles to people.

I  like what you are saying that you were incubated by KIRDI as a result of the interaction with someone who had been through it. Are there other govt agencies and technical support places that helped you?

Yes, I got a certificate in beekeeping from the Beekeeping Institute, marketers play a big role in business, you can build the most amazing product and if people don’t know about it, it’s pointless.

For me to market my products efficiently, I need to understand the entire value chain, I felt I need to understand the entire value chain of honey production so I started at beekeeping institute, getting my certification, moving to KIRDI, and with that, they give you a government scientist to help you.

So they will help you with the processing, they will get KEBS to come and do the inspection so you understand all the tests that go into honey production.

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Another govt agency has been KEPROBA and they have provided support in B2B marketing, currently, I am on Alibaba for international wholesale selling, they facilitated that.

Just as we speak, I am ready to go to the Expo2020Dubai and they facilitated with shipping our products in June, now I am headed to sell on the pavilion.

That is fantastic, things seem to be going well, however, can you tell me a time when things maybe didn’t go well and there was an element of something that didn’t go as planned?

You know, most entrepreneurs and founders say that cash is king. When I say we I mean my partners-( I started the business alone and then I ran out of money and approached my two sisters, we are now three partners in the business).

We initially started by buying from smallholder farmers, then there was a drought in 2017, we had done the groundwork in acquiring customers but we struggled with the supply side, because of that, we set up our own beehives, but it’s not enough because of the huge demand of honey in Kenya.

When I started out, I wish I had raised or saved enough money, sometimes you have huge orders but you don’t have the cash to buy from smallholder farmers, that has been one of the biggest lessons.

And then on a lighter note but not really cause at the time I wanted the world to swallow me whole, I was lucky enough I got into Mandela Fellowship Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) through the US embassy.

I was invited to pitch for investment for my business in Johannesburg at the Jo-burg stock exchange through a company called Lantech which is a venture capital firm.

As a marketer, I got all my collateral ready, developed a beautiful brochure, did all my pullup banners, business cards.

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Just like many startup founders, I approached a relative to set up my website, which was a simple landing page with our contacts, I did not have control of that, the domain was expiring and we somehow did not pay on time.

I had printed all this information with website info, three days before we leave, my brother calls me and he is like have you gone to your website, and I am like what do you mean and he is like its showing adult content.

This is three days before I travel to Johannesburg and all the stuff is printed with website info on it, I called him and it was too late, a Chinese firm had taken the site and couldn’t take it down.

How did you manage it at the event?

I called my brother in law and he told me there was no way we could get it back but what we could do, was set up a  new domain.

I love working with Kenyans- if I can compare with SA who said the work could be done in seven days- I called my printer who re-printed everything within 24 hours.

What lesson did you learn from that?

Teamwork, getting the right team, I got a web developer who was ready to change everything and the printer and designer who empathized with me.

I had built trust over time and it’s all about human relationships all the time, it’s my nature to build relationships, especially in marketing, and understand how you have to be agile in your strategy formulation and creation.

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It’s important to build strengths, we hire for attitude versus aptitude.

Yes, a lot of Kenyan SMEs have a great attitude.

You also run a podcast?

Yes, If you look at a lot of brands, either luxury. Something they have in common is that they have great storytelling, even in fashion industry, sometimes the definition of luxury could change but the one thing that doesn’t change is great storytelling.

Having listened to podcasts, I decided why not set up a podcast studio because there was a demand for it.

We set up a podcast studio called Trio media and once we imported the equipment and did some market research, we realized that many young people wanted to tell their stories especially during the covid-19 period when people had a lot of time to create content.

We opened up to other podcasters and now we have close to 14 in-house podcasters working with us.

I am curious to know, what is the business model?

It’s simple, we have a subscription fee of Shs 4,000 per month for all you can record but the reality is that a lot of them are recording weekly.

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What is the name of the actual show?

The actual show is called Upside Down-its about failing fast.

Which startup founder locally do you admire?

Wandia Gichuru of Vivo-she built a high-quality mass-market product that is affordable and attainable for many of us.

Her marketing strategy has been right, her expansion, and how she pivoted during Covid-19 when she set up an online shop.

Tell me that one book that you think marketers should read to stay ahead of the game?

I would encourage marketers to read more fiction, I feel like when you read fiction, you are more creative.

There is more need for more creativity in our copy, for our Ads, our digital communication, and I feel like you get that from reading diverse genres of writing.

It’s easy to pick up a marketing book and read principles of marketing and know what is trending but I think we need to read more fiction.

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Which marketing campaign have you seen in the last 12-18 months that you’d say is truly award-winning, locally or globally.

Eliud Kipchoge’s No Human is Limited campaign, I love that one, there is one line he says any human being can go beyond his limits and thoughts, that spoke to me,

We can apply that to any aspect of life, especially if we are building brands.

It was an emotional campaign that tells a human story, that he overcame limits and his own mind to run under two hours marathon.

It’s just the power of familiarity and the emotional connection that I had with that campaign.

Last partying shots?

The best quality that you can have as a marketer is agility because things change so fast, trends happen so fast, I am glad that in the social media age that you can so easily find your trend and that supports the agile nature of marketing.

Covid-19 period taught us a lot; simple forms of storytelling through podcasts and setting up online shops for our products.

Before you go, What is your all-time favourite song?

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Come away with me- Nora jones

I am a village girl at heart, when Nairobi gets too hectic, too noisy when I listen to this song it takes me back to quiet, calmness.

Silvia Tonui’s Profile

Silvia Tonui is a Marketing & Project Management consultant who started her career in 2009 at Elle Magazine, South Africa in Trade & Consumer Marketing, managing Marketing campaigns for clients like Esteè Lauder, Mr Price Young Designer Search, Clinique and many others. She moved back to Kenya in 2012 and worked as CEO of FAFA (Festival of African Fashion & Arts), responsible for creating a market for East African fashion designers both locally and internationally, providing fashion training for young designers through the FAFA Insight Project and planning Kenya’s biggest fashion gala, FAFA.

She is currently a Project Manager Consultant ,most recently for British Council’s Creative DNA Project, responsible for planning and overseeing three major Fashion & Textile projects.

She is a farmer in her free time and the founder of a Kenyan honey brand called Marigat Gold. She plays a major role in providing Agribusiness mentorship to Kenya’s youth, having been part of Safaricom’s Entrepreneurship Program, “BLAZE Be your own Boss” for 3 years. Her mentorship focus is on value addition, branding and market access.

She has a degree in International Business Administration from The United States International University and an MSc in Project Management from The University of Salford, Manchester. She is a Mandela Washington Fellow and was listed in Business Daily’s Top 40 under 40 Women in Kenya in 2018.

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