UNILEVER KENYA RECOGNIZES STUDENT'S EFFORTS

Unilever Kenya got a chance to award some of the best students in The University of Nairobi in this years’ prize giving award ceremony. This year they awarded one of the best overall students in the year 2010/2011 Ms. Millicent Mapili.

In addition they awarded four categories of students namely; Outstanding Scholar Award, Marketing Prize, Business Administration Prize and Chemistry Prize.  They awarded a total of eight students. Unilever Kenya has participated in this award giving ceremony in order to maintain a good rapport with the institution and also to train the students for the job market in line with vision 2030. By this they intend to partner with the learning institutions to develop innovation. This will be achieved through awarding the best students not only wish money but also trophies.

Being one of the longest serving donors for the prize giving event, Ag. Vice-chancellor Prof. Peter Mbithi said that he would love Unilever Kenya to support the University by giving the students scholarships to further their studies, give them internships and even offer employment opportunities to them. Lastly, he urged the company to partner with the university faculty and work closely with the students so that when they graduate they are recognized as legitimate graduates and not frauds. Unilever has plans to participate in career fairs and engage with learners to share knowledge through top management speaking to students to shape their thinking.  The company has also committed to invite students for factory visits so that they can experience the realities of industry.

In a chat with Prof. Peter Mbithi I was able to discover that in order for university to achieve vision 2030, they are developing a strategic plan aligned with the new constitution. He also mentioned that a plan was underway to invite different industries and companies to join the faculty in order for them to review the curriculum so as to package the graduates well for the job market. The students are also to be involved in the review of the curriculum as well as the external examiners who set exams for the university.

PR Goals, Strategies and Tactics

PR Goals

What are the goals?
As a consumer company,  what do you need a PR agency to do so that your sales of a new product can increase and you may also add ontothe number of your consumers. This can be:

• Have an event to tell your consumers more about the product
• Run a social media campaign on facebook and twitter to make consumers engage
• Have bloggers to blog about the new products and review it

PR Strategy

How about this one? (The verb)
So now we have well laid out goals, so what next? There are a number of different ways to come at this, but strategy tends to encompass a group of actions aimed at achieving the previously defined goals. 

• This is where you decide if a celebrity can endorse the product due to his large number of funs ( For example the artist Nameless who endorsed the Zoe body lotion) 
• Another way is packaging the product to suit a particular audience example ( Nivea body lotion for men and women)
• Alternatively there can be a launch which will invlve the media to come and cover.

PR Tactics

Now this is the doing word of it all. ( The adverb)

Tactics are really just the strategy on wheels.Generic tactics in this case might be to:

• Have a compeption on the social media where consumers can participate and win
• Carry out intervies for the top officials of the company to give more insignt on the product
• Have product give aways to bloggers and reporters who review the product
• Stage a model or a beneficiary of the particular product to give their testimony during the launch and after a persion of time.

I hope now this give a clear differenc and cut line for goals, strategies and tactics of a PR campaign to the audience. They all marry into each other but they consistently follow each othe. One cannot be without the other.

THE IMPACT OF CHINA’S INVESTMENT IN KENYA

I believe most if not all Kenyans are familiar with the work the Chinese have done in the country. This is mainly in terms of infrastructure and technology growth. Well incase you don’t know there are so many products that come from China that we have here in our country. This range from utensils, clothes, stationery among other which were the first products to come to Kenya from China.

The ones we mainly recognize now because of their visibility and daily use are the electronic gadgets and the roads they have constructed in many parts of the country. This is an investment they have made as a country in major towns and areas of Kenya.  The likes of Thika super Highway and Mombasa road are attributed to the China. China has also brought in employment opportunities in the motor and technology industry. They have also contributed to the communication industry in terms of manufacturing affordable phones and increasing the number of mobile phone users in the country. China is continuing to expand its presence in Africa. Kenyan and Chinese officials announced a deal worth $5 billion for China to build a railroad, an undisclosed energy project, and to assist with wildlife protection. 

In a meeting with the Kenyan government, China is set to become the world’s largest oil importer as early as October and with new oil discoveries in Kenya, the country will be the first oil exporter in East Africa by 2016 with deposits topping 10 billion barrels, or three times more than the United Kingdom’s remaining oil reserves.  Statistics by the Kenya Investment Authority (KIA) showed that at least 18 Chinese companies have set up shop in Nairobi in the past two years targeting diverse markets such as footwear, consumer electronics and beverages with an initial investment cost of over Sh7 billion.

In a recent development, vehicle manufacturer Foton Motors is putting up a Sh1.2 billion assembly plant in Nairobi. Other firms such as battery maker Golden Lion and technology firms ZTE, Huawei, and Aucma top the list of Chinese firms with a strong presence in the Kenyan market. Data showed that Chinese companies have in the past five years alone established a strong local presence in Kenya’s telecoms infrastructure, automobile, battery, food and beverage markets cutting down the dominance of subsidiaries of western multi-nationals. Many Kenyans have gotten an opportunity to be employed in this firms thus putting food in their tables an improving their lifestyles.

Despite all this, the investment has also brought with it disadvantages in various sectors. For instance in the infrastructure industry, many engineers in Kenya have lost contract opportunities because all road construction project are given to the Chinese government thus rendering them unemployed. They feel frustrated because their efforts are not recognized and as a result enrollment into causes related to road construction in higher learning institutions has gone down.  China has also started producing counterfeit goods and this has worst hit the mobile phone industry.

The phones are of poor quality and cheap which is what many people tend to go for thus making the original phones to loose market because of their high price. Last year Kenya had an initiative of switching off all the counterfeit phones so as to boost the market for original phones. The initiative kicked off and well a huge number of phones were switched off, unfortunately there are still shops that sell them and people are still buying them. It is like the government did a zero work.

It is for this reason that there is a cry that is going out to the Kenyan government from its citizens, that as much as the China government is making beneficial investments in the country, Kenyans should be given first priority since this is their homeland. As I think out aloud also the china government may also just be making this investment to benefit their country so as much as the deal is so promising and lavishing the Kenyan government should ensure that we don’t sell out country to the China government meanwhile lets enjoy the investments we are getting from China.