Dube has marketing at heart

marketing at heart.
He says his aim is to develop Zimbabwe’s marketing industry and to also ensure that all marketing protocols are observed as the industry grows.
“As a marketer my aim is the promotion of marketing excellence and furthering of professionalism in the industry thereby ensuring that outstanding marketing is implemented at the highest levels for business growth and development of the economy at large,” he said.
Mr Dube is motivated by the development of professionals in the marketing industry.
“I am motivated by the development of the people in the country.
“Also I see a lot of potential for the industry and the country to develop properly trained marketers with proper marketing structures,” he said.
Born on July 21, 1957 in Filabusi, Godfrey Johnson Dube is the first born in a family of six – three boys and three girls. He is married with three children, all boys.
He keeps his relationship with God a special one, and he is a member of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Cranborne where he is also a member of their Business Forum and he also attends the Bible Study Fellowship
He did both his primary and secondary education in Lusaka, Zambia, from 1962 to 1978.
After finishing his secondary education Mr Dube came back to Zimbabwe where he went to Harare Polytechnic where he obtained a City & Guilds of London Institute Diploma in Chemistry and Biochemistry between 1982 and 1987.
He did not stop there and he kept on furthering his studies qualifying as a Chartered Marketer and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK).
He also holds a Graduate Diploma in Marketing (IMM, SA) 1996, a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (CIM, UK) 1999, a Master of Business Administration degree (NTU, UK) 2000, a Master of Arts degree in Marketing (UCE,UK) 2005, a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing 2008 and currently he is working on his doctorate in Business Administration.
Mr Dube, however, says he has not always been passionate about marketing.
“Growing up I wanted to be a laboratory technician, but I suppose destiny had set a different route for me,” he said.
Mr Dube has worked in the fast moving consumer goods (FCMG) industry in the sales, marketing and supply chain for over 25 years.
He recently left Nestle Zimbabwe where he was part of the Nestle Zimbabwe senior management team in charge of supply chain-customer services exports distribution, consumer service, demand and supply planning and national sales management.
He is currently the managing director of GJD Marketing and Business consulting service.
He is a part-time marketing lecturer on the MBA (NTU, UK) courses at the Women’s University in Africa and the Zimbabwe Institute of Management.
The MAZ president views the economy as improving from where it had gone the past decade and he sees the economy improving if the captains of industry are given the necessary tools.
“Since the inception of the multi-currency regime there has been quite an improvement.
“There is need for people to come together and develop strategies that can sustain economic growth.
“The Government should also support local industry so that we can increase capacity utilisation and reduce costs, hence the need to promote initiatives such as the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign,” he said.
He expressed concern on the cheap imported goods that are flooding the market bringing unfair competition to local brands.
“Then you see a proliferation of imported goods of poor quality flooding the market . . . I think the Government should come up with laws and regulations that will protect local industry.
“Some countries are using Zimbabwe as a dumping site looking at the products that are being imported to Zimbabwe,” said Mr Dube.
At the moment he is involved in consultancy work with the MAZ where they are offering marketing consultancy to local companies from the motor industry, manufacturing and even in the media world assisting them on perfecting their internal marketing skills.
Mr Dube says he is saddened by some local organisations that are operating without proper marketing department and structures and urges them to implement them in their organisations so that they can grow as an entity while the economy also grows.
Through his involvement in the Buy Zimbabwe Campaign he is encouraging local companies to come up with their own brands that can compete with international brands and that can stand a chance to win at the next Superbrand awards.
In terms of inspiration both locally and internationally Mr Dube singled out OK Zimbabwe chief operating officer Mr Albert Katsande for his zeal as he has managed to put OK where it is now.
He also draws inspiration from Mr Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of Econet, and Mrs Grace Muradzikwa, the NicozDiamond boss.
At the international scene there is Professor Michael McDonald and David Jobber.
He admires them for their writing in marketing.
In his parting words, Mr Dube said:
“Marketers should uphold good norms and ethics, practice professionalism and justify their existence in the world.”
Good words for a profession whose role is traditionally underestimated.