Lizzie the Rhino

I wrote a few weeks back about Walter Palmer, the puller of teeth and slayer of Cecil the Lion. Beyond my absolute disgust for him, I also poured scorn on the PR agency he hired. He was badly advised in the immediate aftermath of the killing and he was badly advised again when, emerging from hiding, he feebly explained, “I didn’t know the lion had a name”. 

The rhino in the photo is called Lizzie. When my wife and I left her she was happily and peacefully going about her business somewhere in the Kruger. The reason she is sleepy and we have big smiles on our faces is that we had just participated in her being darted so that she could be DNA tagged and given notches in her ears (under anesthetic, it doesn’t hurt). This means she can be monitored, the notches are a code that reveal a number, and if in the tragic but sadly all too possible event of her being poached the horn can be identified and the culprits, throughout the whole supply chain of this vile practice, brought to book, as has just happened recently for a rhino taken in the same area.

I cannot begin to tell you how moving and satisfying this weekend was for us. My mate Ali Hewitt from Castle lager, the brand that sponsors Mark Boucher’s conservation initiative to save the rhinos, warned me it would be emotional. I was the first person, the first ever human, to touch this rhino after she was darted. I covered her eyes to prevent any distress, rubbed the soft skin behind her ears to soothe her, put the ointment on her eyelids so they don’t dry out during the procedure. Not so easy when your own eyes are anything but dry.  

So what does all this have to do with marketing? Quite a lot. I’m not, as it happens, referring to the sponsorship although that is inspired. The triangulation between the Castle brand and the associations it carries, the legendary South African cricketer Mark Boucher and this growing outrage about rhino poaching is perfect. The source of the outrage among some (not all sadly) South Africans stems from the passion they have for this beautiful nation, something for which Castle has always stood. The bush symbolizes that, the rhino is one of the world famous Big Five and the rhino is under serious threat of extinction. We need to protect the rhino, because we need to protect the bush, because we need to protect certain unique aspects of African values and humanity. It has become a passion for some, admittedly a particular socio-demographic group, it represents their passion for their home. Sport is a passion, Mark Boucher is a sporting legend and proud South African,
Castle sponsors cricket. The tag line for Castle is “It all comes together with a Castle”, this just adds a deeper layer of meaning to that already rich insight. Oh and by the way, a cold Castle when the sun goes down in the African bush as you bond with your mates, old and new, is just about as good as beer will ever taste. Talk about nailing the drinking occasion…

So, great sponsorship, and great insight about brand passion and how to live it not just try to assert it. But the marketing point I want to make is about naming the rhinos. The night before the rhino tagging we sat around the fire and listened to the story behind this initiative. A few stats to give you the context if you don’t already know them. The Asian rhino is all but wiped out. There are only 20,000 white rhinos and 4,500 black rhinos left in all Africa. They are being poached (in the most cruel manner imaginable) at the rate of over a 1000 per year, a figure that shot up after some high profile Vietnamese decided rhino horn cures cancer. Despite recent efforts to debunk this by the Vietnamese Health Ministry, rhino horn fetches $100,000 a kilogram, which puts a price tag on the head of every rhino of close to $1 million. In rural areas of Africa that have crippling unemployment, violence against women, corrupt local government and lousy schools to name just a few issues, that kind of money, backed by ruthless international syndicates, buys you a lot of local help to poach rhinos.

Of course the eventual solution lies on the demand side, governments in China, Vietnam and elsewhere could do a lot more to educate and legislate. But that will take time and in the meantime we have to protect the supply side or we will lose the rhino altogether. Passionate people like Mark Boucher are leading the campaign to raise awareness and raise money to DNA tag and numerically identify all the rhinos. We were to tag 3 rhinos in this one area, their numbers were 251, 252 and 253.

And that is when I recalled what Palmer said, the lion had a name, and that, the most basic rule of branding, gave me an idea. “We must give them names not just numbers” I said, and we did, Lizzie, Sarah and Ruby (they were all girls).

I am going to go back to the Kruger to check on Lizzie the Rhino. We are going to get more people and big corporates to name and sponsor each and every remaining rhino. And if any body touches them we will come after them, because they are our rhinos, they have names. And we know what happens to people who kill animals that have names – thanks for that Palmer. 

And by the way Walter, if you think your weekend shooting a lion at close range (and still making a mess of it) accompanied by two local scumbags who led him to you was fun then you are indeed a sad little man. I hung out with 18 warm, passionate people and dedicated professionals, there were (dart) guns and helicopters and wild chases through the bush, I got to hold one of the most ancient and special animals in the world and I helped save it. It was so special it brought tears to my eyes but I also learned and laughed and made new friends – and my cold beer tasted like nectar.

The art of positioning is to reposition the competition. What I did was modern macho, trophy hunting is old school saddo, and thinking that rhino keratin (a bit like fingernails) cures cancer is just plain thicko. But it does show the power of word of mouth. I wonder if people know there are also rumours that rhino horn makes you impotent or even causes cancer? Pass it on…..

Read more from Mark Sherrington in our Clubhouse.