MOSHE KOLA | Why township businesses struggle to build strong brands

Visit any township in SA — Soweto, Alexandra, Khayelitsha or Umlazi — and you will come across hundreds of businesses: spaza shops, hair salons, shebeens, car washers, bakeries and clothing stalls. Energy is everywhere. Hustle is everywhere.

However, there is a shortage of strong, well-known local brands. Ask yourself if you can name five township-born brands that you know beyond your street corner. Not franchises. Not national chains with township branches. Real, grassroots township brands that have grown into something bigger.

It’s harder than it should be. This is not because township entrepreneurs lack passion or ideas. It is because the system, environment and rules of branding are stacked against them.

Let me explain why — and what needs to change.

Trust without visibility

Most township businesses operate in survival mode. The owner wakes up worrying about stock, rent, electricity and loan repayments. Branding — logos, packaging, social media, customer experience — feels like a luxury that can be afforded by “big businesses”.

I understand this. When you are deciding between buying stock for tomorrow or printing branded bags, stock wins every time. But here is the truth: branding is not decoration. It is protection.

A strong brand means:

• customers choose you even when the shop across the street sells the same products;
• you charge slightly more without losing customers; and
• you are remembered.

Township businesses stay small because they treat branding as a non-essential expense instead of looking at it as an investment.

Township businesses have one thing many big brands desire desperately: trust. That spaza shop owner who gives you credit on a Tuesday? Trusted. That shebeen owner who lends you a chair for a family funeral? Trusted.

Township businesses struggle because they never make the small, cheap investments in being visible

But trust without visibility is invisible to anyone outside your immediate street. Township businesses struggle to build brands because they rely entirely on word of mouth within a tiny radius. No signage that stands out. No social media presence. No packaging that tells a story. No consistency in how they show up.

Meanwhile, a big brand enters the township and spends millions on visible, consistent branding. They don’t have more trust than you. They have more visibility.

There is a misunderstanding that “informal business” means “unbranded business”. That is false. I have seen a chicken seller in Diepkloof use the same bright yellow branded umbrella for three years. People now call him “that yellow chicken man”. That is branding. It cost him one umbrella and some consistency.

Township businesses struggle because they never make the small, cheap investments in being visible. Try finding a brand strategist, graphic designer or packaging specialist who works within a township budget. Go ahead. I will wait.

Most creative professionals charge fees that are completely out of reach for a spaza shop or a small bakery. And the ones who would offer affordable services? They don’t exist in the township ecosystem. This is a market failure.

Township entrepreneurs are left to design their own logos on free apps, print poorly cut banners at the local internet café and hope for the best. The result? A hundred businesses that look and feel the same. No differentiation. No brand identity. No loyalty.

Township entrepreneurs invent solutions every day. But because they don’t brand them, name them or protect them, someone else does.

There is an unspoken fear among some township business owners: if I brand myself too big, people will target me. This is real. Jealousy, crime and community politics have made some entrepreneurs hesitant to stand out. The logic is understandable: “If I look like I have money, I will attract problems.”

But here is the hard truth: staying invisible keeps you safe, but it also keeps you small. The brands that succeed are the ones that find a way to grow visibility while staying rooted in community protection. It is harder. But it is possible.

This is the most painful one. How many successful products started as township innovations — only to be copied, packaged and sold back by big companies? Township entrepreneurs invent solutions every day. But because they don’t brand them, name them or protect them, someone else does. By the time you realise your “secret chicken spice” or “homemade body lotion” could be a brand, it is already on a shelf at a major retailer under someone else’s name.

What needs to change

Branding is not just about looking professional. It is about protection before someone else does.

Township businesses will continue to struggle with branding unless three things change:

• Professional creative services must be available locally. This means graphic designers, packaging printers and brand strategists who work within township budgets or subsidised programmes that make these services accessible.
• Training must include branding. Not just bookkeeping and stock control. Real, practical branding: choosing a name, designing simple logos, using colours consistently, telling your story on social media.
• Mindset must shift. Branding is not for “when I am big”. Branding is how you get big. The R200 you spend on a simple sign today could bring you R2,000 in new customers who remember you tomorrow.
• Township businesses have something no big brand can buy: community trust and proximity.

But those things alone do not build a brand. You need visibility. Consistency. A name that people remember and repeat. It is time for township entrepreneurs to stop being the best-kept secret on their street. It is time to be seen.

Because a strong brand is not a luxury. It is a shield against competition, against forgetfulness, and against being replaced by the next person who opens a shop tomorrow.

• Kola is a marketing strategist and founder of Movelu Consulting