STRATEGY
The African Queen AQ (Co) Ltd, from here on in, referred to as the AQ (Co) Ltd, will be a unique business in that it will retain rights, through international trademark registration, to staging and exclusively marketing the biggest, and most hotly contested annual beauty pageant on the African continent. As a spin-off, the AQ (Co) Ltd will develop and market AQ brands and merchandise into the lucrative fashion, hair and beauty markets in Africa, Europe and Northern America. By focusing on building commercial and ethical value into ‘positive’ news and development issues from Africa. The AQ (Co) Ltd will offer an outstanding product range to Africa and the African Diaspora, and the developed world as a whole, and prove a substantial and increasingly lucrative investment for discerning financiers looking to invest conscientiously in Africa.
On a purely commercial level, the AQ (Co) Ltd will form strategic partnerships and sponsorships with corporate black hair and beauty brands such as Dark and Lovely, Revlon, Fashion Fair and Clear Essence etc, and seek to have major commercial influence in the mainstream fashion, hair and beauty industries. It is envisaged that apart from the annual pageant, the AQ (Co) Ltd will look to produce the following products:
AQ (Co) Ltd products:
Yr 1 onwards
· THE SHOWCASE HEADLINE Annual Pan-African Beauty Pageant “Ms African Queen 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010...”
· Goodwill ambassador PR, Profile (Fund raising. A key role of the Queen will be to raise funds towards the African Queen Foundation, a charitable foundation aimed at supporting women and children projects in Africa)
· Bi-annual AQ Magazine
· Website
Yr 2 onwards
· Merchandising
· Hair Products
· Beauty Products
· Clothes Lines
· Jewellery
· Perfume
Corporate customers
As outlined earlier, the AQ (Co) Ltd will offer sponsorship opportunities to corporations looking to associate their brands with the African Queen’s physical and visual attributes that epitomise beauty pageants, hair, make-up and fashion. Moreover, the African Queen’s strength lies in being able to evoke long existing mythological narratives that are both ethereal and earthly, and offers corporate brands a wealth of imagery to draw upon for their existing and future campaigns. In addition, because the African Queen stands for the woman, and the positive development of Africa, the Queen offers, for the cynics, great corporate PR, but for the enlightened corporation, a solid ethical investment.
Organisational and non-governmental customers
Whilst not as obvious as corporate and consumers, institutional customers such as the UN and World Bank funded projects are always looking at ways of highlighting and raising preventative awareness campaigns on pressing global issue such as HIV AIDS, child poverty, infant mortality, malaria to name just a few. The annual pageant will provide an outstanding platform for such campaigns with Institutional and non-governmental organizations becoming key strategic partners, and important organizational clients.
Consumer customers
AQ customers are not just Africans living in the Diaspora wanting to buy into the positive news, or Africans living on the continent, but everybody, particularly women who want to tap into the energy and values of The African Queen. The African Queen brand has the potential to offer something very unique and distinctive within the world of fashion, hair and beauty industries globally. The AQ (Co) Ltd will be the custodian of a positive news brand for Africa, and as such command significant social and commercial value.
Suppliers
Initially, staging the 2007 event will require the following service suppliers.
Audio/visual companies
Web designers
Lighting companies
Graphic designers
Hotels
Catering
Craftsman
Producers
Airline Companies
Talent (artistes performers)
PA Systems companies
Camera Hire Companies
Camera Operators
Lighting hire companies, lighting designers.
Make Up artistes
Fashion Designers
Seamstresses
Office furniture companies
Computer equipment companies
ICT
Etc…
However as the company develops into other areas such as merchandise marketing and manufacturing, the company’s suppliers will become even more diverse.
Market analysis
The uniqueness of the AQ (co) Ltd’s business means that it will be pioneering in almost all of its business activities, and creatively forge new markets and revenue streams of its own. Whilst the Ms World beauty pageant commands billions of viewers annually, the African Queen pageant will steadily grow viewer ship through forming strategic institutional partnerships and links with grass roots and black interest channels, mainstream broadcasters, NGOs and intercontinental organizations such as UN and World Bank. Because there is no comparable event to the Ms African Queen pageant, the AQ (Co) Ltd is in the unique position of creating a new worldwide industry.
