admin“build better cities”.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of the launch of Lafarge’s new communication campaign in Harare last week, Lafarge managing director Mr Jonathan Shoniwa said due to urbanisation across the world, transformation in their way of doing business was critical.
“We are moving from ‘bringing materials to life’ to ‘building better cities’ and this baseline mirrors the changes happening globally which call for a process of profound transformation. The transformation has a purpose particularly to help us meet the extraordinary challenge of growing urbanisation of our planet with estimates suggesting that by 2050 there will be two billion city dwellers which means that 70 percent of the world’s population will live in towns and cities,” he said.
Mr Shoniwa added that the task ahead needed new innovations while enhancing their capacity through partnerships with financial institutions and developmental partners both local and international.
“Innovation is critical so that we can be able to come up with solutions that will result in the cost of building per unit house going down so that every citizen regardless of their social status can benefit from such an initiative,” he said.
He added that currently the housing backlog in Harare alone stands at about close to a million hence the need to come in as Lafarge to offer assistance in this regard.
Introducing the new brand communication campaign running under the theme “From Circle to Lafarge – The Legacy Continues”, Lafarge marketing manager Mrs Edith Matekaire said the theme was inspired by the need to reassure their clients who were still not familiar with the new brand Lafarge that they still produced the same quality product as they used to produce as Circle Cement. Mrs Matekaire added that effective communication with their customers was critical in achieving their organisational goals.
“At Lafarge we believe customer needs are the foundation for a sound communication channel and for the past two months we have been working tirelessly to come up with the final product. About 84 percent of people interviewed about the company’s activities on a general scale said they recognised the Circle brand as opposed to Lafarge hence we needed to bring awareness about the new brand while reassuring our customers that despite the new name, the product remained the same in terms of quality and reliability,” she said.
Lafarge has an installed capacity of 450 000 tonnes of cement per annum against a national total of about 1,7 million tonnes. They are certified by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe for ISO 14001:2004, Environmental Management System .
Online Reporter