The African consumer is receiving a lot of attention from researchers as countries across Africa post growth and advertisers look at how they actually market to Africa's growing and aspirant consumer base. There is a
cultural shift happening from brands as they recognise that not all their communication is effective and they need to recognise and respect that the different target markets across the continent are evolving and they need to do more to connect. Over 70% of marketers, in fact, believe that their own marketing is ineffective in marketing to African women.
The Zimbabwean government is trying to flex its social media muscle by charging and imprisoning a young American journalist, Martha O'Donovan, for an alleged negative tweet about Robert Mugabe. It's spawned the #FreeMartha hashtag and put the global spotlight on human rights violations and freedom of speech abuses in Zimbabwe.
It's the massive AfricaCom conference in Cape Town this week and the Bizcommunity.com team will be out in full force to bring our readers all the news. With 18 conference streams under one banner, dealing with technology, banking, the television market, leadership and much more, look out for our special AfricaCom section on Bizcommunity.africa, sponsored by Macrocomm.

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Have a great week!
Louise Marsland
Africa Editor: Bizcommunity.com

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