With personal branding, people buy you, and eventually this comes with its challenges but Vava says she does not imagine herself not being the brand. It can get exhausting but it is a strong way to have a brand. This goes without saying for someone like Vava, who has a strong presence accompanied by her funky style and colours- something like the blackcurrant notes we taste in coffee.

We explored in Part One that storytelling is the centre of how the Vava Coffee enterprise is run. Being the face of her brand falls into this principle because we do not quite hear the stories of the struggles African entrepreneurs went through to build their brands. “In our societies speaking of failure is like a taboo. We do not often get to hear the stories of someone failing 50 times before finally making it. It’s like you had been thinking about this idea then all of a sudden, you made it,” Vava jokes. But the reality is that most businesses are a ‘ten year overnight success’.

Vava has faced all there is to face: being late on payments and not meeting targets, but being the brand reminds her why she needs to get up, dress up and show up. This also gives investors more confidence that she would ride the ship to the end.

But it does come with a flip-side. Sometimes people expect to see you personally in all meetings and are not content with you sending someone from your team. Even worse, pitching your ideas and trying to disrupt the industry – added to being a woman – is sometimes met with antagonism. “Who does she think she is … is she the UN for coffee. Who died and made her queen of knowing all things coffee,” is the attitude Vava depicts.

CONSUMERISM VERSUS SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

The emerging market syndrome means that, using the case of Nairobi, all sorts of FMCG and High Street fashion brands take the space in evolving mega-malls and on supermarket shelves. This breeds a culture where people associate their status and lifestyle vis-a-vis being able to access these items. When almost everything is overtly or subtly commercialised, consumerism becomes a lifestyle disease: one more shirt, one more packet (because it comes with a 50 grams free sachet), one extra serving of chips because the combo is “more economical”. For others, it’s merely a matter of accessibility with Nairobi’s growing congestion: where can they get the thing they require swiftly under one roof.

The consequence is enterprises shifting toward becoming entities that do not particularly care to touch the consumer.

On the other hand, is a growing trend of people, who are concerned about where the things they consume, utilise and wear are coming from. How is it grown? Who grows it? Who processes it? Who represents it? This becomes Vava’s niche.

“I stay genuine in how I present myself as a company. Kenya is still a young market in appreciating social enterprise and giving back, because we are a strongly capitalist nation; we still think what is good is what is foreign,” explains Vava. As much as the coffee industry is still a long way to increasing sustainability for small-holder farmers and enterprises, there is also an increasingly growing following of people who value local products.

This brings the coffee stories to an end, but we can chat more over a coffee. Send an email or leave a comment. Find Vava Coffee on their website.

byawoman is dedicated to enriching our lives by the stories we share and would be pleased to hear from you. If you liked reading this, and have experienced the impacts of the emerging market syndrome, you might also enjoy this story on why we need new and authentic stories.