admin
The Herald and The Sunday Mail, which have dominated the awards and new kid on the block Star FM will have to battle it out with 197 other brands that have been selected for a chance to be among the 20 most recognised brands in the country.
The awards ceremony will be held in December.
Speaking at the unveiling of the top 200 brands that qualified for the national research in Harare yesterday, Marketers Association of Zimbabwe president Ms Ruth Ncube said consumers would have to vote and choose their 20 favourite brands.
“This means we will now be working with these 200 brands. We will take them back to the market and the consumers will speak on these brands and only 20 quality brands will make it into the Superbrand,” she said.
The Superbrand has been running for the past three years and this year adjudicators will screen the brands based on brand equity, economic impact, corporate social responsibility, top of mind awareness and quality of the brand.
Ms Ncube said Superbrand gave an opportunity for local companies to become innovative in a bid to outdo the previous winners and become a Superbrand.
“This has brought in a new quality into the local brands, a movement from where they were to a new level. Companies have innovated and re-looked at what the other brands have been doing that they have not and this has made brands better for the consumer and the market,” she said.
“We have begun to realise value from a national perspective from the brands that were elevated by this concept and we hope that will continue into the future for Zimbabwe to get more and more stronger brands.”
She noted that branding is defined by the consumer so it was a barometer for companies to measure how good their brands really are.
The Superbrand concept is meant to promote the discipline of branding in the country, as selected by consumers and industry experts and aims to identify those brands that are performing above and beyond others within the market.
Other brands that made it to the top 200 include Baker’s Inn, Econet Wireless, Coca-Cola, Mazoe Orange Crush, Geisha, Power FM, NewsDay, Olivine Cooking Oil, Zambezi Lager, Colgate, Mercedes-Benz, Seed Co, ZTA and Mbada Diamonds.
Online Reporter