Some countries like South Korea face a dilemma in the global market place were consumers are not aware that the brands they consume come from there, (Grave, 2010) The worst part of this consumer misconceptions is that some global brands from Korea are misappropriated as Japanese.

All this left me thinking, how about Zimbabwe? where do we fit it amongst nations striving to be known for excellence in one industry or another. Once upon a time Victoria Falls and its imagery were the difinitive representation of Zimbabwe then things changed and the rest is history, South Africa pretty much owns the selling rights to that in the global tourism market. For a significant half of the last decade we seemed export bad publicity and hyperinflation, do any research on hyperinflation there are vast amounts of academic articles showcasing the Zimbabwean context. Thankfully that’s all behind us now but what next and more positively this time please

A desk research on Zimbabweans contributing and making a change in global development in science, technology, business and academia brings up many notable achievers and achievements. This could be a starting point but the challenge is identifying and defining a coherent message and new brand imagery because the Flame Lily and Great Zimbabwe are tired, Victoria Falls is corrupted with misconceptions of whom it belongs to. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority is supposedly one of the marketers of brand Zimbabwe to the global audience. But my visit to their stand at the World Travel Market found a group of very keen people ill-equiped to sell Zimbabwe to the world as it is today based on my expectations on myself as a customer living in this globalsed market were everything is designed with me in mind. They looked like they have been left behind in the pre-millenium day when tourism in Zimbabwe was flourishing.

So, let’s brand Zimbabwe for tomorrow and beyond. I suspect this will scare people who want to hold on to the past the reality is all present for us to see at  ZTA, we can’t afford to revel in our past glories. The answer, I feel is in;

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