Anne Joy Michira, former Head of Beer at East African Breweries Limited and current Acting Marketing and Innovative Director shared recently shared her career journey with Waithera Kabiru, Head of Media Futures and DigiTribe at East Africa Breweries Limited.
After graduation, Michira started her career as a British American Tobacco Sales Representative in Kilifi. Her work was fully on ground as she drove a truck 120 – 150Kms a day selling cigarettes in bars and kiosks. She describes it as a “fun and empowering time”. When she started out, there were 45 Sales Reps: 3 were women! Nowadays, sales teams are 50% women, a move in the right direction.
Listening to the iMarket Podcast, the themes highlighted in her marketing career were threefold:
Strategic Marketing
Michira’s marketing journey started on-ground and now, in the digital information age, she noted that as marketers we are now more consumer focused and the digital world has forced us to think about communication as conversation and not as passing a message. Marketing is no longer a show what you have and hope for the best, it’s show what you have and the consumer must understand and act upon it. We post our brands and we can see how much impact it’s having because of immediate response by way of likes, shares, and honest feedback.
Her proudest moment as a marketer was the success of Chrome Vodka. She built the brand from the ground up. It was daunting but Chrome had all the hallmarks of success: fantastic packaging, pricing and great trade margins. She used her meager budget to form a partnership with Sauti Sol and the message wasn’t “be cool like Sauti Sol through Chrome Vodka” the campaign was “dream big, but be even bigger”. The overall purpose of the brand was “fulfilling your full potential”.
The strategy of pairing music with the brand worked extremely well for the target audience. 80% of the budget was used to sponsor Sauti Sol during their Live and Die in Africa tour. A risky move, but one that paid off because Chrome became the number one brand in Kenya.
Personal Brand
It took some time but Michira found her purpose. She developed her personal brand and built it through mentorship. At 27, she wanted to be an MD of a huge company; for the title and the status alone. She found someone she shares a value system and who inspired her to be great.
What helped her get to this point was great mentorship and the consumption of a lot of material. She reads Robin Sharma’s Leadership Wisdom every six months and she soaked up the teachings of Sunny Bindra’s The Bigger Deal. She describes her purpose as having integrity, enjoying yourself as you do your job and live your life and making sure you’re making something better.
Transformational Leadership
She is very passionate about Kenya and about Africa. She wants to start building transformational African leadership so that she can change Kenya and Africa. She wants to shine a light on the beauty and the strength of our country and continent. Leadership starts with the self. What you determine for yourself and what you do with what gift you’re giving the world is what makes you an exceptional leader. Leadership starts with a value system and that’s she thinks is broken.
The right thing is not always easy, convenient or enriching. Sometimes you get in trouble for doing the right thing. Ask any great leader. That’s why integrity is difficult. If you focus on what’s right, in marketing it’s the consumer, you increase your chances for success. She also shares that she enjoys what she does, it’s imperative that you enjoy what you do because this aids in creativity and innovation.
Her last thought is that she consumes a lot of media using her phone and she has always loved animated stories because they bring magic and hope, which ultimately helps in creative storytelling
