Analysis of market potential for the luxury industry in the West African countries

For decades, the African continent has been perceived in a negative way and it has not been easy to change this international perception of the continent. During the past few years a deep change has taken place in the continent and in the eyes of the world. Africa is now open for business and Africa is also able to compete effectively in the international luxury market. The luxury market is constantly rising but it is not fully present on the African continent yet. The objective of this thesis is to decide whether or not luxury companies should tap into that new market with a widespread penetration. Therefore, a market entry strategy, followed by a market research was conducted throughout the thesis. The luxury companies' international motives were analyzed. Then their current situation analysis led to the analysis of the geographic zone, Africa. It is about finding if the African market offer favorable conditions to luxury companies by examining the external environment and also the internal environment by analyzing the current luxury industry situation in Africa in order to confirm the market attractiveness of this area. The study was delimited to the West African Region, region that reseals a great market potential and a broad emergence of the middle class in perpetual search for self-esteem, given by luxury goods. African consumers' behaviors were also revealed and analyzed in this study. Thus, recommendations were elaborated in order to give some guidelines to the luxury firms if they decide to enter within the West African market.