A staple South African street food in 70’s Johannesburg was the ‘Chicken Flattie’ – a spatchcock chicken marinated in hot spicy sauce and grilled. It was an African taste from Portugal via Lourenco Marques (Maputo) and had its epicentre in the Portuguese enclave of Rosettenville in Johannesburg.
It was therefore inevitable that an enterprising Johannesburg Portuguese/Mozambican entrepreneur would decide to counter the invasion of US fried chicken franchises by launching a home-grown Portugese/Mozambique/peri-peri chicken flattie special – Nando’s.
It was a roaring success from the very beginning, but part of the success of the brand has been clever and innovative marketing and branding.
Some of the Nando’s adverts that have entered into marketing legend are:
Last Dictator Standing (withdrawn by Nandos after riots in Zimbabwe)
Shanaaz Nel, CEO of Professional Evaluation and Research, talks to Niki Moore about the reason why Nando’s marketing has been such an integral part of its success.
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