Advertising African Coffee. Branding strategies between Pity and Colonial Fantasies

The country-of-origin effect is a marketing strategy which is also used to promote African coffee. But unlike other cases, when it comes to Africa product, quality is only rarely the central selling point. More often the promotion is based on colonialist images of Africa as in the fair trade market with its patriarchal attitude, resembling all too much the colonial ideology of the White man’s civilizing mission or in the mass market where “Africa” remains the projection screen for White wishes and dreams as it has been for centuries. The present article focuses on the names under which African coffees are sold and it will be shown that the naming strategies used by different market segments are good indicators of the way Africa and African people are presented in the relative advertising copies.