Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Use professional marketers, ZIM advises govt

Use professional marketers, ZIM advises govt
By Kabanda Chulu in Kitwe
Tue 26 July 2011, 13:59 CAT

ZAMBIA Institute of Marketing (ZIM) has advised the government to utilise the professional expertise of marketers in the quest to market and brand the country as a good and stable investment destination.

And ZDA director Glyne Michelo has challenged marketers to increase their marketing activities because the designation of the country as lower middle income will result in increased trade and investment for Zambia.

During the Copperbelt regional marketing conference in Ndola, ZIM president David Kombe said marketers were major stakeholders in all developmental programmes.

“It is for this reason that as marketers, we have been and will always be ready to take up the challenge when called upon to offer professional advice on the marketing and branding of Zambia,” said Kombe.

“We must admit that the opportunity to work with government has always eluded us due to various unknown reasons but we hope that this can be a starting point for collaboration between government and ZIM. We know that there are numerous developmental projects in government that are marketing related and ZIM can take up and offer professional advice and direction for effective results.”

Presenting a paper titled ‘Business and investment opportunities on the Copperbelt: role of marketing’, Michelo said marketing and trade play a vital role in the economic growth and overall development of a nation.

“Marketing creates a platform for Zambia to undertake export promotion in areas where it has a comparative advantage. Marketing creates the platform to undertake market research on viable markets for Zambian produced goods,” Michelo said.

“With Zambia now being designated a lower middle income country, it is envisaged that the marketing activities will increase since it is visualised that Zambia will record an increase in investments which will lead to an increase in trade and therefore this will require an increase in marketing activities.”

He said government was putting in place measures to enhance investment promotion on the Copperbelt.

“There is need to introduce a one-stop shop on the Copperbelt by ZDA to assist business houses bring down the cost of doing business in the short-term and reduce gaps in policy implementation thereby assisting local manufacturing sector respond to overcome challenges on the ground,” said Michelo.

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Monday, November 08, 2010

Puma urges sustainable regulation of marketing

Puma urges sustainable regulation of marketing
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Mon 08 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT

REGULATION mechanisms need to be put in place for marketing to be sustainable, commerce deputy minister Lwipa Puma has observed.

During the award presentation gala dinner for Zambia Institute of Marketing (ZIM) at the Zambezi Sun Hotel on Saturday, Dr Puma said ZIM had continued for many years to encourage rigor, passion and excellence in what he termed “a noble profession of marketing through awarding excellence”.

“Marketing being a highly dynamic and fragile profession in terms of ethics, passion and professionalism, highly contemporary and inspirational, regulation mechanism needs to be in put place for the profession to be sustainable, and one such mechanism is awarding excellence,” he said.

Dr Lwipa said one of the best ways of ensuring sovereignty and integrity in the marketing profession was by awards as this brought sanctity and admiration by others within the domains of the profession.

He added that Zambia was poised for greater economic future following the bold and strong economic policies pursued by the MMD government over the past years.

“With inflation hitting the lowest of just over seven per cent in the month of October, the lowest ever for the country, it simply means that the country is having a turn around and repositioning itself in the sub-Sahara African region as both an investment and tourism destination worth for consideration by global prospects,” said Dr Lwipa.

The best marketing sponsorship excellence award of the year went to National Milling while the best customer service organisation of the year was scooped by Zain Zambia, beating Post Newspapers into second place with MultiChioce getting the third slot.

The best marketing student of the year went to CBU’s Ngambo Lizebete as Hellen Ng’andu of Muvi TV beat Maria Banda of NECOR Zambia for the emerging marketer of the year while Mwabashike Nkulukusa walked away with the award of the marketing personality of the year. Others are Agatha Sibalwa and Mofu Mukuka who shared the best marketing students award of the year.

The best brand marketing campaign of the year was ‘No matter who you are, we listen’ by Zanaco. Mazhyandu Family Bus Services scooped the best SME organisation of the year, beating Muvi TV, while the best public service delivery organisation award went to Zesco as Standard Chartered Bank walked away with the best product launch award in priority banking.

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