It’s time for firms to shine again

The calendar months of April and August each year are synonymous with a two exhibitions that take place in major cities of the country especially Harare and Bulawayo. These are not just mere exhibitions but the biggest events on the country’s annual events calendar. The month of April brings with it the acclaimed Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) and August the Harare Agricultural Show (HAS).

These are flagship exhibitions that have presented many companies an opportunity to market themselves as well as generate business over the years.

While the industry is currently gripped with labour rationalisation issues, the start of the Harare Agricultural Show (HAS) will certainly shift focus back to business.

Exhibitions are an effective tool of public relations which provide different and special environments for business which favours both the organisation and its publics.

An exhibition is an event organised in order to showcase an organisation’s products or services and interact with all its publics to achieve business excellence.

It provides an opportunity for organisations to relay messages or information about their work to their publics.

It represents a business rendezvous that aims at refining and sprucing up the organisational image and reputation to achieve business excellence.

While PR excels in crises and challenges, the industry’s PR units should take their stand and give organisations a chance to shine whenever opportunities to exhibit arise.

As the HAS approaches it is prudent for PR units to strategically plan for such exhibitions. It is not a case of making up the numbers but an opportunity to invest time, resources and space to achieve business excellence.

Organisations need to know why they want to exhibit. Is an entity exhibiting because its reputation and image has been damaged?

Is it because its product has been wrongly packaged with wrong information? Or is it because there has been an unfavourable regulation passed?

There is need to be clear on the organisation’s objectives. What are the objectives? Which are the best ways to achieve these objectives?

And will our message reach our targeted publics? PR practitioners should be aware of all this and the direction that the company is heading.

For example a company like Telecel should use the Harare Agricultural Show to update its subscribers about the status of its license and impending takeover.

PR practitioners should lead in knowing the best way or exhibition to achieve organisational goals.

It is important to know which type of exhibition the organisation will participate in; whether it’s a public, trade, outdoor and private exhibition, small expos or mobile shows?

It is the PR role and duty to determine which exhibition to participate in for the good of the organisation.

It is in this determination that other departments like marketing, human resources, training and other technical departments are roped in.

Today, the industry is even limiting the exhibitions they participate it to those that relate specifically to their line of business such as health expos, IT expos, mobile phone expos, just to name but a few.

Therefore it is, thus, prudent for organisations to decide what they want to achieve, select their showcase with care, and undertake careful planning to ensure that they make the most of the event.

HAS is inclusive, provides variety and accommodates every entity that wants to showcase its business.

Besides, the annual exhibition also include conference platforms and business days where organisations can make presentations as well as bring a competitive momentum to the exhibition with a variety of competition trophies on show like the ZIPR PR trophy, the Association of Health Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) trophy and other agricultural sponsored trophies.

In such competitive frenzy, surely the exhibition breezes in a fresh start for many corporate players.

As the country goes through this tough economic phase, the corporate world should not mourn over this liquidation period but focus on ways of breathing life into their business operations.

And the PR tool of exhibitions is one that can offer that fresh start with confident showcasing and marketing of the industry’s business.

This article has been prepared by the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations. For feedback, comments and inquiries on ZIPR, please email [email protected].