African Dream: Tanzania’s ice cream entrepreneur Mercy Kitomari
Quite an Incredible story, you may not want to miss, please read on. She is a charming Lady who I got to know about from one of the YouTube video posted by Tayo Aina a Vlogger, checkout the Video here. I was inquisitive to know more, to my surprise she was all over the net. So I dug deeper to understand the journey and how has she been able to flood the internet to this level. To my understand quickly I realized she had an incredible story, so this demonstrates how important it is to have a well streamed story, People get connected to you easily and want to know more.
The first story I read about her was from BBC news site :
Mercy Kitomari is the entrepreneur behind an organic ice cream company based in Tanzania.
After completing her degree in marketing, Ms Kitomari briefly worked in finance before daring to turn her dream into reality.
After taking courses in the production of ice cream, she saved for a machine and set up Nelwa’s Gelato – a company making homemade ice cream.
Tanzanian Mercy Kitomari quit her banking job in 2013 to pursue her vision of making frozen desserts. She is founder and CEO of Nelwa’s Gelato, an ice cream business operating in the financial hub of Dar es Salaam.
howwemadeitinafrica.com
Her interest in ice cream began while she was studying for an MBA in the UK. She worked part time as a tour guide, and after every sightseeing trip she would take visitors to ice cream parlours at Leicester Square in the heart of London.
“There were ice cream parlours everywhere,” she recalls. “[In Tanzania] we drink a lot of tea and alcohol. But my mission is to influence a culture of frozen desserts. I want frozen desserts to be a normal indulgence, not a luxury. And I want to see ice cream parlours everywhere.”
Since Kitomari cannot currently afford to open many physical outlets, she has also partnered with bakeries to expand her reach. She provides branded freezers to independent bakeries, which then buy ice cream from her in bulk.
“If I see the location has good traffic I just give them my branded freezer and I train them how to make waffles and milkshakes, and how to scoop ice cream. This is the bigger picture. When we get to factory level we will just supply to such businesses. This would make it easier for me to have a wider geographical reach in Tanzania, and Africa. It fits well into my goal to have ice cream parlours everywhere – just like I saw them in Leicester Square.”
So how has she Used the Internet to boost Her Business ?
She has optimized most channels except owning a website, a decision we are yet to find out as we dig deeper, But as you already may be aware she is all over the news, this doesn’t happen overnight, there is some planing and strategizing. Her brand is big on social medias, so optimizing your social media presence is important in your business because this is were you get to understand your customers; their concerns and favorites of the service you offer.
This is important, we shall have a blog describing all the techniques that can help you build a strong brand on social media.
She set up google my business, this is also very important in fact one of the activity you ought to do as soon as your business is up and going. We plan to dig deeper on this matter.
I would recommend you go read up about her brand and get a better understanding on how she has managed to gain our attention.
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