admindifferent tastes of every distinct market.
In a presentation at the annual Marketer’s Association of Zimbabwe convention in the resort town of Victoria Falls, Zimpapers chief operating officer, Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said Zimbabwe should become more competitive to make its mark on the highly demanding global markets.
This process, he said, can be aided through e-marketing. The convention ran under the theme “Sustainable growth in global marketing for Zimbabwe-Marketing Perspectives.”
“Companies should not lose sight of the fact that the whole world has become a global village with one global market,” he said.
“Access to this market is now possible through transitions from traditional sources of media to new and emerging alternative sources of the media that include digitisation.
“There is therefore an urgent need to quickly move on to current trends so as to maintain and expand markets.”
Mr Deketeke said over the years, marketing trends had changed with greater focus now being placed on online marketing as the technical audiences had migrated to the Internet.
In line with this assertion, Mr Deketeke said Zimpapers would soon be digitalising its operations, while upgrading current network servers, to cater for the growing number of new communities emerging as a result of communication mobilisation.
He said the company had reached the decision to digitalise operations after statistics released last month revealed that The Herald edition recorded 52 million hits on its online edition. “In order to reflect the different tastes of every distinct market that is being created by consumer migration to the Internet, there is need to move with the current trends.
“Statistics released last month on the online edition are testimony enough that there is need to upgrade services in order to cater for the new communities.”
Mr Deketeke added that to further improve operations, Zimpapers, in conjunction with Econet Wireless, was currently working on a facility called Txt Classifieds, a service that he described as a convenient way of placing advertisements through mobile facilities.
“In a move meant to cut down on time and travel costs, the company will soon be launching the Txt Classifieds so as to facilitate the easy placing of classifieds through mobile phones,” he said.
To further create relations, innovation and adapt to the market needs, Mr Deketeke said plans were already underway to establish a radio station, whose operating licence had already been applied for.
Online Reporter