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Rebranding, Thanks to You!

Katharina S.
July 27, 2022

At Africa GreenTec, we are always trying to improve, not only in terms of our products and services, but also with respect to our image and communication. The brand of a company is a decisive factor for success; in the best case it creates recognition and trust. In order to discuss the further development of our brand with you and to find out what you, as part of Africa GreenTec, think about this issue, we have launched two surveys in recent weeks. At this point, we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated.

The evaluation of the survey was very helpful and we have put some thought into your comments. Now we are happy to present you our results of these successful surveys:

Your Associations With Us as Africa GreenTec

But let’s start from the beginning: first we asked you about the values you associate with Africa GreenTec. Clear winners are: Sustainability, Impact, Climate Protection and Empowerment. These four values stand for Africa GreenTec and play a big role in our work and philosophy. A positive and sustainable impact for our customers and the climate is our central mission. We look forward to achieving this mission with you.
Some values, such as diversity and women’s empowerment, tended to be associated less with Africa GreenTec in the survey. However, these topics play a big role in our work, and we try to reflect this to the outside world. As we might not quite have succeeded in doing this in the past, we have been working on improving our methods. Or maybe you have some ideas? Then let us know!
But you also connect other values and themes with us, like:
“Change the system” and “at eye level with partners in Africa”.

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Why "WE DO."?

We wanted to know which statement or claim you associate most with Africa GreenTec. By a wide margin, our claim “WE DO.” is way out in front.

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Results of the survey

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“WE DO.” stands not only for the literal translation “we do / we make”, in our opinion, but also for empowerment, innovation and authenticity. Just as important as the DO is the WE, because only with our partnerships, with you, our community and our clientele together can we achieve sustainable impact.

We work to empower as many people as possible. In doing so, it is central for us to meet our clientele at eye level. We value cultural Differences as enrichment. For optimal understanding and exchange with each other, we communicate with our clientele in their language and in a manner adapted to their culture.

We also want to provide people with the means to cope with the climate crisis. After all, the areas where our clientele live are already severely affected by the effects of the climate crisis, and yet a large proportion of their electricity is generated by diesel engines.

For us, innovation is not only what we ourselves offer in terms of solutions, such as our ImpactSites, or ImpactProducts. But also the possibility to act globally and to combine technology and different cultures as a German social enterprise.
Authenticity is at the heart of everything we do. We like to use platforms like social media, our website, events, but also our crowdfunding to give people the opportunity to participate and be part of what we do (what WE DO.). We want to inspire people with our work and encourage them to take action together for a better future.

Our WE DO. Hoodie

What Is Happening With Our Logo?

Why are we even considering changing our logo, some may ask. One reason is that Madagascar is missing from the map of Africa in our current logo. This is not only a problem because Madagascar is of course a part of Africa, but also because we as Africa GreenTec work in Madagascar. Since the end of December 2020 we have been active in Madagascar and have started our first pilot project together with our partner Polarstern.

On the other hand, our current logo does not work optimally digitally, for example on mobile devices and social media, because it is very small and so individual details like the solar panel pattern are no longer recognizable with a small display. You see it the same way: “The solar panel pattern is not clearly recognizable as a solar panel.” Therefore we are happy that about 80% of you can understand our decision to adapt the logo.

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Results of the survey

We don’t want to completely redesign the logo, but rather evolve it and keep the core elements that make it. On this topic you were unanimous, almost 88% think that the recognition value of our logo lies in the representation of the Africa map. This opinion is a great benefit for our work, as we can have been discussing for some time whether and how we want to redesign our logo. Therefore, we are leaning towards a simplification of the logo, which many of you also see similarly:

“A bit cleaner, less details…”
“Too complex, should be simpler…”
“Simplifying”
“simpler would be cool”

We’re not quite sure yet what our new final logo will look like, but we’re working on it and hope to present it to you soon.

A New Coat of Paint for Our ImpactProducts!

We have been thinking about new Solartainer^®, Cooltainer^® and ImpactProducts colors for a while now. Although we really appreciate our previous colors and are aware that many people associate the yellow-green-red containers with us (according to our survey, almost 40% associate this traffic light combination with Africa GreenTec), we have decided on a new color combination.

At that time, we derived the yellow-green-red color combination from the colors of the Pan-African flag. But this color combination is often misinterpreted. Many people in our project countries associate these colors with the national flags of Mali or Senegal, which leads to problems in other markets where people also want to see our products in their national colors. But we want our ImpactProducts to look the same in all markets. This is not only more efficient, but also better for the recognition of our brand.

But which colors did we choose? The decision was neither easy for us nor for you! In the first survey we saw that some of you really like the existing yellow-green-red color combination, yet over 50% voted for the yellow-green combination. That’s why we thought to start a second poll with a runoff between these two options. The result was a clear decision of almost 80% in favor of the new combination of yellow and green.

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Results of the survey

Green stands not only for us, but also in the general public for sustainability and a “green vision”, which we strive for with our work. Yellow on the other hand symbolizes the sun, the driving force of our company.

Accordingly, we may now present our new product design to you here, using our solar container as an example:

The new colors using the example of the Solartainer

What We Generally Learned From the Survey:

The survey was a final important step for us to share our ideas with you and test assumptions. When we adapt our appearance, it is never for an end in itself, but the goal is always to be able to work more efficiently and address all our target groups equally without excluding anyone. Our ideas and their implementation are mainly managed by our international Brand Communication Team, with as few external service providers as possible, for an authentic brand and cost-efficient processes.
Africa GreenTec lives from the community, our employees, our clientele, investors and above all from those who give us their attention and trust. Therefore, it was important for us to involve exactly these people in our decisions about our strongest brand symbol. The result is one that we feel comfortable with and can identify with. So a big thank you to all the people who support us and took part in our surveys!

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Rebranding, Thanks to You!

Your Associations With Us as Africa GreenTec

Why "WE DO."?

What Is Happening With Our Logo?

A New Coat of Paint for Our ImpactProducts!

What We Generally Learned From the Survey:

NEWS

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