The Sunday Mail
Clemence Machadu Insight
Howdy folks! If you were Zimbabwe, where would you place yourself right now on the reputation ladder? Or, rather, what comes to your mind when you hear the name “Zimbabwe”? Safe country? Corruption-ridden? Friendly people? Uncompetitiveness? Just what would make it into your top five?
As I ask these questions, Zimbabwe is working on a framework that envisages branding itself as a tourist, trade and investment destination of choice. The initiative is being spearheaded by the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Ministry, with a couple of other economic ministries also being roped in.
There is something wrong with the status quo of our nation’s brand. For instance, when you hear Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa saying, “We have absolutely nothing to show for our diamonds despite years of mining the resource”, it points to the fact that our brand is identified with corruption.
I can mention many other realities and perceptions that we are identified with as a nation, but the bottom line is that identity feeds into the nation’s brand.
Folks, we now live in an era where countries have to battle for their place in the global arena and to create conducive milieus for their citizenry. All this points to the need for countries to develop and manage national brands as an integral element for the attainment of positive socio-economic outcomes.
You cannot grow your economy with a dark cloud of poor nation-branding hanging above you. For a country like ours, which is desperately seeking to rapidly grow its economy so as to break loose from the dungeons of poverty and its subsequent ills, nation-branding should cease being the least of our priorities.
Last week, I mentioned that if Zimbabwe maintains its current growth trends, it may have to go for 2 722 years before it qualifies to be a rich nation.
And if we are to divide that number by our life expectancy of 58 years, it implies that it may take the 47th generation to realise what a rich Zimbabwe feels like. We will die and another generation will come and die . . . until the 47th generation.
In other words, we would be much worse than the Israelites who sojourned only 40 years in the desert before their next generation started to taste the promised land’s honey and milk.
The only difference is that we have the power to alter our destiny, such that even the current generation may witness a rich Zimbabwe. The current generation should, therefore, make the hard decision — either to cede the enjoyment of prosperity to future generations or rewind it to start with itself.
The onus, therefore, squarely lies in the hands of today’s generation to start taking nation-branding seriously, as one of the indispensable elements in accelerating the growth and development of Zimbabwe.
Nation-branding consists of developing the image of a country and communicating it, both internally and externally, based on a country’s positive values and perceptions.
As already alluded to, nation-branding has to be informed by our national identity or our mutual objective as a nation. The values and principles on which Zimbabwe is founded, as espoused in our national Constitution, set the tone for the kind of brand we want for Zimbabwe.
You can never enjoy life in a country with a bad brand. Zimbabwe is not yet considered for measurement in the Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index, but is ranked number 138 out of 163 in the Good Country Index.
Bad brands, as we learn in the business world, simply do not sell. It is unfortunate that when it comes to country level, branding does not normally get the attention it rightfully deserves.
It is normally companies that seek the services of reputation management companies and consultants to improve their images. Companies realise the need to take their reputations seriously as it is the hallmark and foundation of business success.
Countries like Japan realised early that nation-branding cannot be an exception for sustainable progress in the 21st century, which is why that country has since the turn of the New Millennium been advancing the initiative.
Japan clearly defined its goal of improving its image and reputation, turning it into a nation that is loved and respected throughout the world.
Japan’s focus has also been on the lifestyle and the overall power of its cultural assets. The results have been very impressive for the Eastern tiger which once incurred long episodes of deflation.
A well-managed country brand can have a far-reaching positive impact cutting across the tourism, foreign investment, competitiveness, and geo-political spectrum. It should be noted that nation-branding is really not about white-washing bad policies with good public relations. Rather, it begins with you and I cultivating a good personal image, unconditionally supporting our country wholeheartedly.
It is the duty of every citizen, to the best of their ability, to defend Zimbabwe and its sovereignty, according to Section 35 (4) d of the Constitution.
We can then move on to identify our unique characteristics stemming from our unique identity as Zimbabwe to be part and parcel of our nation’s brand.
Zimbabwe also needs a robust communication and reputation management system to foster meaningful nation-branding,a system that is quick to regularly sink the lies and excesses that may be peddled against us and come up with effective and timely responses.
Such a strategy should also cover crisis management methodologies.
Disasters are inevitable, and if not properly communicated at national level, may cause needless despondency internally and also result in the nation being externally shunned in different respects. A good example is the current United States dollar cash shortage.
We are suffering from the Zimdollar hyper-inflationary hangover because we did not bring concrete closure to the issue. This is not good for building Brand Zimbabwe.
As long as we lack a robust crisis management framework and concrete communication tools to manage sentiments, we may find ourselves creating more confusion when we endeavour to clarify matters. People sometimes end up believing just about every lie peddled on social media because no effective communication would have happened in the first place.
If it takes a week or month for clarification to arrive, we would have succeeded in creating a big vacuum in which some opportunists may seize to fill the gap with messages that satisfy their selfish agendas. The truth cannot continue travelling at a snail’s pace, it should start running much faster than lies if Brand Zimbabwe is to succeed.
Proverbs 22 verse 1 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches, to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.”
Later folks!
