What happened to Coca-Cola in Egypt

Here's another beverage-related case from Africa: the crisis that Coca-Cola went through in Egypt, in a nutshell.

Coca-Cola has been available in Egypt since 1945 but was then nationalised and produced by government-owned bottling plants until 1994, when the Coca-Cola Bottling Companies of Egypt was formed as a part of the privatisation policy. However, despite its long stay in the country, Coca-Cola has always had a smaller market share than Pepsi in Egypt. Coca-Cola products were identified as symbols of American imperialism, and there was also a general perception in the Arab world that Coca-Cola was for Jews and Pepsi for Arabs.

Since its privatisation, the Coca-Cola Egypt’s PR activities have been focusing on community service and what most would consider a two-way symmetrical philosophy of emphasising feedback through research of relevant publics and recognition that the company must make certain adjustments in its Egyptian operations. Among specific efforts are an employee literacy programme that has produced a 100% literacy rate among its 8,000 workers, and sponsorships and participation with nonprofit projects in the areas of education, health, youth sports, and the environment.

In 2000, Coca-Cola had to face perhaps the most serious accusation any company can endure in an Islamic nation, as a rumour spread through Egypt that Coca-Cola was anti-Islam. An accusation was made that if the Coca-Cola script logo was viewed upside down and in a mirror, it read as “No Mohammed. No Mecca.” This caused outrage and an instant drop in sales of Coca-Cola products of nearly 20%. Literature decrying the company and calls for its ouster from the country circulated in mosques, schools, and on the streets throughout Egypt. In certain jurisdictions, all Coca-Cola signage and advertising was ordered to be removed.

Coca-Cola Egypt’s response to the rumour was immediate, culturally sensitive, and reasoned. They requested to meet with the highest religious figure in the country, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Sheik Nasser Farid Wassel, and also arranged for an official panel of Islamic scholars to consider the matter. The outcome of this was that both the Grand Mufti and the group of scholars ruled there was no substance to the rumour (whose original source was never determined). The Grand Mufti announced this opinion publicly and went on to scold those who were disseminating the rumour for behaviour unbefitting their religion and for risking the jobs and welfare of thousands of Egyptian Muslims employed by Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola took the step of providing its sales force and delivery truck drivers with copies of Grand Mufti’s statement to display and distribute among businesses and customers. The company also followed up with an advertising campaign that included verses from the Holy Koran, running alongside the recently controversial Coca-Cola logo. Just a few weeks after all this, Coca-Cola regained its prerumour sales level and was once again challenging Pepsi for leadership in the Egyptian soft drink market. By realising the severity of the situation and by working with the religious leaders in a respectful and cooperative manner, Coca-Cola managed to avert serious damage and proclaim their innocence and contribution to Egypt’s economy.

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Keenan, K. L. Public Relations in Egypt: Practices, Obstacles, and Potentials. In Sriramesh, K. & Verčič, D. (2009) The Global Public Relations Handbook. pp. 179-195.
The thirsty camel from here.

Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa

It was the Global Public Relations Handbook that gave me an idea to have a closer look at the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA). You can find their website here.
PRISA was established in 1957 and it represents public relations and communication management professionals from the southern African region (registered members in Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and South Africa). PRISA is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, and it also initiated the formation of the Council for Public Relations and Communication Management which is the coordinating body representing various groupings of professionals in South Africa. 
PRISA offers a career path for PR practitioners, encourages skills development, helps plan lifelong learning and has developed a set of standards for the consulting industry with different measurements for small, medium and large businesses, and accredits consultancies based on criteria including transformation, business plans, client campaigns, etc. I couldn't find the standards from the website of PRISA, but you can have a look at PRISA Code of Conduct presented in the Global Public Relations Handbook that describes the code in detail. It looks really impressive! The other fact that caught my eye - the Code of Conduct was accepted by its members in 1976 and the same year the organization welcomed its first Black members.
Looking at the PRISA milestones (by M. Moscardi, 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa: Director of PRISA, reprinted with permission in Global Public Relations Handbook), the overview of organization mission, vision and activities, one could say that PR in South Africa is well-developed and has long history. But is it really the same with all PR activities in South Africa?

PR conflict - Ethiopian government vs. Starbucks

Coffee comes originally from Ethiopia, from a province called Kaffa. Coffee is Ethiopia’s most important export product by 60 % (CIA the world factbook and Fortune).

The following PR conflict is not resent, but it is a very interesting case. All began already in March 2005, when Ethiopia filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the names of its three most famous coffee-producing regions: Yirgacheffe, Harrar and Sidamo. By this the Ethiopian government tried to obtain to its poor farmers larger shares of the sales of those who sell Ethiopian coffee. However Starbucks, the world's largest coffee shop chain, had already an application concerning trademark Sidamo.

The PR war was at its worst in 2006. This was a hit against Starbucks’ ethical image and their social responsibility policies. Trying to defend their profits against one of the worlds poorest countries. Starbucks clarified its good relationships with Ethiopian coffee farmers at its web page.

According to Spiegel “In June 2006, the giant coffee distributor withdrew its application and took a different approach to get its way. According to Oxfam, Starbucks leaned on the National Coffee Association (NCA) to help block Ethiopia's bid. And it worked.”

At the end silent stakeholders proved their power when Oxfam, a British-based not-for-profit organization, collected more than 96,000 signatures demanding Starbucks to complete a licensing, distribution and marketing agreement with Ethiopia for the three of Ethiopia's specialty coffees.

This case proofs that you cannot build trust based on economical decisions only – you need to consider the ethics of your public relations.


Photos:
1. Ethiopian farmers
2. Ehtiopian coffee

Other sources:
ABS News
Alternet
BBC news
CorpWatch
FPIF
Guardian

PR media in the developing Ethiopia

Even if it seems that PR in Ethiopia is very little researched I want to stubbornly continue with this case country for two reasons
1) this is a challenging and an interesting learning experience for me
2) I hope to be able to give you my readers a bit different case.

Today still a bit of a background information - a few general points about PR media in developing countries and some of my thoughts about the challenges PR in developing countries may mean. I have a very good reason to believe that these challenges concern also the PR in Ethiopia.

According to Baines, Egan and Jefkins there are three ways of looking at public relations media in developing countries:
1) the dearth of Western-style mass media
2) the limitations of the existing mass media
3) the problems, special needs and special techniques of communicating with illiterate people and those, often remotely located, of different ethnic groups, languages, dialects, religions and lifestyles.

In addition to television and print media Baines, Egan and Jefkins list other medias of PR. They include:
1) Radio
2) Other mass media: pictures, diagrams, leaflets, posters, cartoon drawings
3) Folk, traditional and other localized media: i.e. market gossip
4) Open-air events
5) Video, DVD, CD-rom, Internet
6) Conferences (sponsors)
7) Seminars
8) Exhibitions

Today we learned at Kaja Tampre’s lecture (Old lecture slides:Grunig-and-his-theoretical-ideas) about the importance of creating trust in PR practices. I think that PR practices in Ethiopia may be challenging for at least three reasons concerning creating trust:
1) organization’s stakeholders are very divers (communicating skills, languages, location etc.) and thus it is hard to send univocally understood messages
2) there are often many intermediaries delivering the message, thus the message may change along the way and the intermediates can influence on the message
3) due to propaganda and the government’s control people may already lack trust on the received messages.

A friend of mine who works in Ethiopia told that relationships are the key to everything. I guess this is also partly about trust – it is easier to trust the messages you hear from people you know. So one might say that PR over there is not so much public relations as it is private relations.

-Anna-

Photo: PR at a market place in Konzo village

Kenya comes to Jyväskylä

Just received the following invitation to my e-mail from the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy:

GUEST LECTURE: DR GODWIN MURUNGA: "SPONTANEOUS OR PREMEDITATED: THE ROOTS OF POST ELECTION PROTESTS IN KENYA"

Thursday, 12 November 2009 from 14-16, MaB102

Summary of Presentation:

On 27th December 2007, Kenyans went to the polls to elect civic leaders, members of parliament and the president in what turned out to be a very smooth and peaceful process. But on the 30th December 2007, the ‘winner’ of the presidential race was announced in a controversial manner following a vote tallying process that was anything but transparent and fair.  The country exploded into protests and violence as had never been witnessed before since independence. In explaining the character and manifestations of the protests and violence, two general positions dominate. There are those who see the violence as a spontaneous response to a flawed tallying process while others consider it premeditated and organized by the political class. This lecture will focus instead on the motives and motivations of actors and perpetrators to illustrate that there is no fine line distinguishing one form of protest and violence from the other.

Godwin R. Murunga teaches in the Department of History, Archaeology and Political Studies at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. He is is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). and has written and published extensively on Democratization in Kenya, Gender Politics and Conflict in East Africa. Most recently, Dr Murunga has edited two books entitled "Kenya: Struggles for Democrac", (Dakar and London: CODESRIA in Association with Zed Books, 2007) and a collection of Issa Shivji’s essays entitled "Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa" (Oxford: Fahamu Books, 2009). Dr. Murunga is currently a visiting scholar at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden.

All those who are interested are invited to attend. Welcome to MaB102 on Thursday, 12.11 from 14-16!

Media in Egypt

The beginnings of modern mass media in Egypt date back to 1798, when the first mass circulation newspaper in Alexandria was established by Napoleon Bonaparte. Today, the Egyptian press consists of national daily and weekly newspapers and regional publications centered in the larger cities. Most media are in Arabic (the official language of Egypt), but there are also a daily and weekly newspapers in English, and a daily newspaper in French. Overall, of course, one has to understand that the newspaper readership is naturally low, explained by the literacy rate.

The areas of media outreach and media access are closely tied to media control in Egypt. Since the times of Nasser, the Egyptian media have been owned/controlled by the state. Privatisation of Egypt’s economy hasn’t really included the mass media industry, though some suggest that the process will just be slower as far as the media are concerned. The government today are less able to control what Egyptians view, now that the Internet and satellite television have been introduced.

The PR profession is continuously growing in Egypt. Some obstructions remain that will constrain the growth, and it is explained that it’s not likely that Egyptian PR will ever mirror the Western model completely. However, as the economy continues to move in towards privatisation and as the Egyptian government, culture, and the media become more welcoming of the conditions that accompany the privatisations, PR will find an environment where it’s increasingly welcome and necessary.

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Kevin L. Keenan: Public Relations in Egypt: Practices, Obstacles, and Potentials. In The Global Public Relations Handbook.