Chronicle Editor
Sam Matema, Correspondent
A politician as a product or a brand has a life cycle, and it is pertinent for starters, that a politician should establish, identify, define, launch, relaunch and position themselves as a brand.
They must therefore work towards building the brand value, brand equity within the context of a critical SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the same, hinged on the expectations of the broader political market.
As we operate in a fast-changing and fast-paced environment, brands and products evolve in sympathy to the changing consumer tastes and preferences. It is in light of those changes that politicians and political parties should also evolve, learn, unlearn, re-learn and flow with the current if future political success is ever going to admit them. The same applies to political parties. Zanu-PF is a brand, a very strong one for that matter, with strong brand presence, visibility, preference, appeal and recall.
The Life Cycle
This basically speaks to the stages through which a politician transitions from the time of their entry into the political arena right up to their time of exit. Understanding these stages is critically important as far as it informs decisions and overall strategy.
There are principally five stages, that is, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation and decline.
It does not necessarily mean that you go through all the five stages. There are politicians and political parties who have failed to mature, some fail as they are introduced. All opposition parties and their political leaders in Zimbabwe have hit the decline stage before maturity because of a confused and confusing positioning strategy bereft of some ideological grounding and the capacity to regenerate and reproduce.
Political Introduction
Introduction is on account of some strong selling proposition that differentiates the candidate from the crowd. Celebrating and amplifying the strengths of the new entrant and the opportunities that they bring to the political market, it is at this stage that critical questions must be answered. Who are they? What is it that they have achieved at a personal level, family level, community level, district level, provincial level and at a national scale? How do those achievements relate and resonate with the broader political expectations of the masses and how do they feed into the national agenda, converge and intersect with the national narrative? What is it that they stand for/represent?
Those that are for the new entrant, will celebrate them as the best thing to ever happen. On the contrary, this is the stage where the weaknesses of the new entrant are amplified and how they are a threat to the greater good. On that account they are projected as a bad steward and sometimes as a dangerous potential leader who will take the entire crowd and place down a political precipice.
Political Growth
Past experiences should help them learn, unlearn and relearn in an effort to consolidate those experiences that will shape the future, putting the candidate and political party on a profitable footing. The growth is anchored on clear deliverables that resonate and address real issues of the broader political market.
Political Maturity
Manifesting in the quality of decisions, choices, soft skills, what they do and don’t do. The majority of people can relate to the works on the ground and would want to be identified with the candidate. The political base will be going north and with the political winds in their sail, they consolidate on such gains. On account of positive delivery, they cause those who opposed them yesteryear to come into the fold, and it is those adversaries of yesteryear who will celebrate and buttress the success stories of the candidate or political party. They emerge as brand ambassadors, they bring in brand endorsements, they become advocates of the brand. The number of times that the MDC in its original form split to form splinter groups, shows political immaturity whereas political maturity was on display, epitomised by the 22 December 1987 Unity Accord between PF-Zapu and Zanu-PF.
Political Saturation
This is a political plateau, and at this stage, the politician is caught up in a love affair with their own thinking that does not add any value, lost and divorced in time and from the direction of travel as well as the fast changing tastes, preferences and expectations of the political market, there is zero incremental value.
Because there is no value addition and incremental value, this is the stage where a brand needs some repackaging, rejuvenation and repositioning to avoid decline. You may need to discontinue a product, and politically you may need to abandon a particular political path for an alternative. Chama Chama Mapinduzi in Tanzania, when it saturated, when it reached the plateau, it introduced young blood in its ranks to appeal to changing demographics. This enabled it, just like Zanu-PF, to reap the demographic dividend finding expression in the surge in the youths that voted for the ruling revolutionary parties in past elections in the respective two countries, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Political Decline
This marks the end of the political beginning and the beginning of the political end. The end will be predicated on irrelevance, incongruence, failure to deliver, failure to read the political mood, poor decisions, wrong choices, wrong company and poor timing, etc. The poll numbers will take a downward spiral, you do worse than previous elections, endorsements will begin to shrink, some members from your inner circle will cross the political aisle and support competing candidates or political parties. This is the stage where you locate the opposition movements in Zimbabwe. This is their current political space.
Strategy development and political decisions
A good dancer knows when to exit the dance floor or the stage. One Eric Cantona hung his football boots when Manchester United fans were still “worshipping” him. They remember his highs and not his lows. Emissaries were sent by the Manchester United Supporters Association to persuade Cantona to stay and play for Manchester United for one more season. Of course Cantona did not accede to the request. History will always record the highs of Eric Cantona, and that he left football when he was at his peak. It is a fact that the law of variable proportions (diminishing returns) sets in with time, and this applies to politics as well, in the absence of some serious recalibration, realigning, rebranding, repackaging, relaunching and repositioning.
Strategy development in light of the life cycle should be able to address fundamental questions; where are we now, where do we want to go, how do we get there, which way is best and how do we ensure (safe) arrival?
History is so unforgiving in its judgement and politicians should be alive to this fact, whatever they do and don’t do. The end is what people always remember and it is therefore critical to end on a high. History will always record that the Second Republic under the able leadership of President Mnangagwa managed to steer the Zimbabwean ship on all fronts through crocodile-infested waters to terra firma. And on solid ground we stand, ready to fly. Fly high we will. Inevitable!
Rejuvenation
This is executed on the back of some serious political repackaging, repositioning and relaunching that is carried and effected by the politician or political party. A politician should be able to breathe a new lease of life in their way of doing things. Take a new direction and move away from the mundane. This enables a politician to appeal to a different political market segment on account of having a different appeal.
The Unity Accord in 1987, National Youth Service, Land Reform, Pfumvudza/Intwasa, Chitepo School of Ideology, etc are some of the Zanu- PF-led initiatives that managed to give it a new lease of life giving its leadership some serious orientation and grounding.
Divesture
This is a decision to move away altogether from the political field having realised that there is nothing new to be offered and that there is no value addition to be realised. The law of political diminishing returns having set in and having realised that they can do well elsewhere outside the narrow and party politics. This decision speaks to political maturity because it shows that the politician knows when to leave the political dance floor. As a brand, you try your hand on other things leveraging on the brand value of yesteryear. Those that would have exited the political arena voluntarily will carry the respect of the broader political market beyond their service in politics and they will do very well as ambassadors and emissaries on many fronts. The late Dr Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania are very good cases in point. They became very active and big on the international stage.
Sam Matema is the Member of Parliament for Buhera Central Constituency and Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial spokesperson. He writes here in his personal capacity.
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