adminpreferred brands that were tailored for their specific needs.
“Markets can be complicated, with different ethnic groups that have different needs, so you should take time to segment and understand the market and build an emotional brand connection wherever possible,” he said.
He noted that although brands usually compete on products and prices, brands that delivered on experience and social responsibility would build trust, loyalty and love with the consumers.
Mr McCoy reiterated the need to embrace emerging technologies and for marketers to start thinking beyond traditional advertising.
“We can embrace traditional forms of communication but there is need to also think about integrated communication and embrace the new technologies as well. Technology is evolving and we need to move with it,” said Mr McCoy.
He said if marketers are strategic, they would be able to pick the right channels and platforms of technology to grow their brands. He also added that Africa had a great potential to tell a story and marketers could engage the community instead of waiting for the media to do it for them.
“Think beyond traditional advertising and drive the power behind story telling. Create content for advocacy-based and inspiring marketing stories,” he added.
Unveiling the new Superbrand concept, the executive secretary for the Marketers’ Association of Zimbabwe, Mr Gillian Rusike, said the concept had been revamped to align with international trends to the advantage of local brands.
He said although the Superbrand concept had been running successfully for the past three years, it had been faced with challenges that had necessitated the adoption of the new concept.
“We experienced challenges of non-participation of other major brands because of the participation fee that had to be paid. This resulted in the recognition of other smaller brands and painted a ‘not-so true’ picture,” he said.
He said there had also been negative sentiments from the losing brands especially those that did not participate.
“These challenges encouraged us to adopt the Superbrand International System which is followed in over 83 countries worldwide,” he added.
Mr Rusike said the Superbrand concept was meant to promote the discipline of branding in the country, as selected by consumers and industry experts and was aimed at identifying those brands that were performing above and beyond others within the market.
He said with the old concept, analysis of data was wholly scientific and there were too many categories to classify the brands under but the new concept would make it easier to put brands in the right categories.
“A team of expert adjudicators from the branding, marketing and communication fraternity will screen the brands that have to qualify for data gathering and analysis,” he said.
He said the adjudicators would screen the brands based on brand equity, economic impact, corporate social responsibility, top of mind awareness and quality of the brand.
Mr Rusike said the top 200 brands would then qualify to the next stage where consumers can vote for their favourite brand online and through an SMS platform.
He added that although the selection process involved local and international brands, the association had taken into consideration that local products cannot compete with international brands due to lack of funding for local products.
“From the top 100 brands, we will have the best 20 local brands in a category of their own and the top 10 upcoming brands will also be awarded in the spirit of promoting new brands on the market,” Mr Rusike said.
Online Reporter