Public Relations and Strategic Communications firm, Calla PR, has launched a solution dubbed “Try it in Nairobi,” an innovative concept designed to transform how businesses test products and solutions before launching in the region and the rest of Africa.
The service will see Calla PR support businesses of all sizes including large corporates, SMEs, multinationals and innovators to find the right people in the city for implementing pilots and assessing their efficacy, finding suitable locations for implementing pilots and supporting communication and visibility of the pilots to attract buy-in of the markets and most importantly bringing together the right people for a successful project implementation including primary customers, partners and potential investors.
“Businesses exist to fix gaps to clearly defined problems and they do this on a daily sometimes with normal pressures to release products or services to the market. However, many times they face challenges in testing their solutions with a live market to ensure efficacy and consequently adoption,” said Calla PR managing director Kevin Otiende.
This groundbreaking initiative empowers both businesses with ready products or services and individuals with innovative ideas to test them with in a live environment in a bid to gain experience and insights to transform these ideas to market success.
“Launching blindly can be a gamble that would erode customer confidence, damage brand reputation and even result in costly legal repercussions which is why rigorous testing mitigates these risks ensuring reliability and market readiness,” he added.
Companies stand to benefit from this service through strengthening of their customer understanding, support for acceleration of developing new solutions and a facilitated guidance in testing the same.
The launch of “Try it in Nairobi” cements the agency’s commitment to innovation, leveraging Nairobi’s position as the economic and technological hub of East Africa to offer a unique concept validation process. Key sectors being targeted include banking and finance, manufacturing, technology, agribusiness, retail, supply chain, real estate, communication, education and healthcare.
“Multinationals looking to tap into Africa’s dynamic market also face unique challenges from understanding diverse consumer behaviors to complex trade channels. Calla PR’s Try it in Nairobi offers them eyes in a key African hub, enabling multinationals refine their strategies with real market insights to maximize success in the fast-growing African market,” Mr Otiende added.
According to Forbes, over 30,000 new products or solutions are launched globally each year, but more than 80% fail, often due to inadequate market testing or research. Meanwhile, McKinsey reports that more than 25% of total revenue and profits across industries come from successful new product launches.
The U.S. International Trade Administration (ITA) describes Nairobi as the gateway to East and Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting its digital connectivity, financial infrastructure, and logistics capacity. The city also boasts a young, educated, tech- savvy and English-speaking population, an abundant supply of renewable energy and a growing middle class willing to experiment with new products and services—all of which make it an ideal destination for piloting innovations.
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