On Samsung and its Refrigerator: Designing Products for Africa or Dumping Products in Africa?

Africa as a continent continues to be diplomatically hailed as a growing hub of investments while logical realities are pointing otherwise. Africa is a continent where economic growth is always at a constant war with economic development. Standard of living and per capital income among Africans are extremely relatively the lowest in the world. The poorest of the poorest nations are also in Africa yet the swindlers claim Africa is growing fast. This will be so anyway for as long as it is yielding profits to them and them alone.

Foreign multinationals have dominated Africa with the strongest of grips. Africa is a potent market where all sort of goods can be imported even the ones with no real standard check or verifiable authenticity unlike what is obtainable in the countries where the substandard goods are coming from as regards their own importation. However, Africans are part of the arrangement to always export fake and substandard goods into their countries especially Nigerians.

Reuters reports that Samsung Electronics is betting on a top-end refrigerator designed not to lose its cool in Africa as a way into the continent's consumer markets, where there is growing demand for prestige products which meet local needs. The refrigerator comes with a sticker saying it is "Built for Africa", meaning that while it is basically the same flagship product on sale elsewhere in the world it has been tailored to suit local conditions.

The South Korean firm's strategy is simple, and increasingly followed by a number of multinational firms looking to sell in an expanding African market - lay off the cut-rate goods, launch major products in Africa at the same time as the rest of the world but give them local appeal to build brand allegiance among consumers who are set to move up the income ladder.

"Africa is not a dumping ground for technology. You always have to keep in mind that you are creating your market for the future," said Thierry Boulanger, a director for Samsung at its African headquarters in Johannesburg. Samsung's "Built For Africa" refrigerators come with an extra layer of insulation guaranteed to keep food in the freezer frozen for a longer period of time without being powered.

Rolling blackouts are not uncommon in major urban African centres as power-strapped utilities try to lighten the load during peak demand. As a result the "dura-cool" refrigerator has boosted Samsung's standing in Africa's refrigerator market to a 23.5 percent share, with the company leading the sector for two straight years, Samsung says.

Also in the "Built for Africa" product line are certain flat-screen TVs and monitors and air conditioners with built-in protectors to avoid damage from the power surges that follow outages, and built-in solar panels for netbook computers.

Consumers in Africa, apart from the few rich individuals, usually do not have the wherewithal to purchase the ostentatious articles with standard labels due to the harsh economic realities. This is the bane of the flooding of the continent with substandard products. It has been said that even the soft drinks like Coca Cola among others produced elsewhere outside the shores of Africa are different from the ones produced in Africa especially those produced in Nigeria.