Initiative has potential to become more than campaign
LUGHANO MANGWEWO
ZAMBIA has a story worth telling, but more importantly, it has products, people, destinations and economic opportunities worth selling to the world.
The recently launched Brand Zambia initiative therefore comes at an important time. As the country pursues the Grow Zambia Agenda, the national branding initiative has the potential to become more than a campaign about how Zambia is perceived. Properly implemented, it can become part of the machinery that helps the country attract investment, promote local products, grow tourism, expand exports and create jobs.
At its simplest, Grow Zambia is about growing the productive capacity of the economy and ensuring that growth translates into better opportunities for citizens. Brand Zambia can complement this by helping answer a critical question: Why should people choose Zambia?
Why should a tourist spend their holiday in Zambia? Why should an investor put money into a Zambian business? Why should a regional supermarket stock Zambian products? Why should a Zambian consumer choose something made locally?
These questions may appear to belong to marketing, but they have a direct connection to economic growth.
Take tourism, for example. Zambia has some of Africa’s most remarkable natural attractions, from Victoria Falls to Kafue National Park and the country’s many other wildlife and cultural destinations. Yet the value of tourism is much bigger than the number of visitors entering a national park.
Consider a visitor travelling from Lusaka to Kafue National Park for a few days. They pay for transport, accommodation, meals, activities and, perhaps, local crafts. The lodge buys food from farmers. A local driver earns an income. Young people find employment in hospitality. Communities around the tourism destination benefit from increased economic activity.
One visitor can therefore create income for several people and businesses.
If Brand Zambia can consistently put these experiences in front of regional and international audiences, it can help turn Zambia’s tourism assets into greater economic activity.
The same thinking should apply to agriculture.
Zambia has the capacity to produce maize, soya, wheat, sugar, beef, honey, coffee, fruits and many other products. But producing more is only half the job. The country must also develop markets for what it produces and build confidence in the quality of its products.
Imagine a small farmer producing high-quality honey. At the farm gate, it may be worth relatively little. But once processed, packaged, certified and marketed as a trusted Zambian product, it can reach supermarkets in Lusaka and potentially markets across the region.
The economic opportunity is therefore not only in producing honey. It is in building a product that people recognise, trust and are willing to pay more for.
This is where Brand Zambia can complement the Grow Zambia Agenda.
A strong “Made in Zambia” identity could help local businesses compete by creating an association with quality, authenticity and reliability. But this will only work if the promise behind the brand is real. A national brand cannot compensate for poor quality, unreliable supply or weak customer service.
The brand must therefore be supported by performance.
The same principle applies to mining.
Zambia is internationally recognised for its copper, but the country’s ambition should increasingly be about what happens beyond extraction. Brand Zambia can help position Zambia not simply as a country that produces copper, but as a destination for investment across the copper value chain.
An investor looking at Zambia should see opportunities in mining services, processing, manufacturing, technology, logistics, skills development and other businesses that can grow around the mining industry.
That is a much more powerful economic story than simply saying Zambia has copper.
It is a story about jobs, enterprise and value addition.
The same applies to the country’s emerging opportunities in renewable energy, manufacturing, technology and creative industries. Zambia’s young entrepreneurs, innovators, artists and businesses need platforms through which their work can be seen and understood beyond the country’s borders.
A young Zambian entrepreneur who develops a successful digital business should not have to build their reputation from scratch without the benefit of a positive national economic identity. A Zambian manufacturer should be able to compete with confidence in regional markets. A tourism operator should be able to leverage the country’s national story when attracting visitors.
Brand Zambia can provide part of that platform.
There is also an important domestic dimension.
A national brand should not only be designed for foreigners. It should also make Zambians believe in Zambia.
When a consumer chooses a locally produced product, they are supporting a business, which supports workers, suppliers and families. When a family chooses to spend a holiday in Kafue rather than travelling outside the country, money circulates within the local economy. When a business chooses a Zambian supplier, it helps create a market for another Zambian business.
These decisions may seem small, but collectively they contribute to economic growth.
This is why Brand Zambia should be closely connected to the practical objectives of Grow Zambia. It should help create a culture in which producing, buying, promoting and investing in Zambia become part of the national economic conversation.
For this to happen, however, Brand Zambia must belong to more than government.
Government can provide leadership and coordination, but the private sector, farmers, tourism operators, manufacturers, exporters, entrepreneurs, professionals and ordinary citizens must all have a stake in the brand.
The strongest national brands are not created by advertising alone. They are built through consistent experiences.
If Zambia says it is open for business, investors should experience a business environment that supports investment. If the country promotes itself as a tourism destination, visitors should encounter quality hospitality. If Zambian products are promoted abroad, they must meet the standards expected by consumers. If Zambia wants to be known for innovation, its young innovators must have opportunities to develop and commercialise their ideas.
In other words, the promise of Brand Zambia must be matched by the reality of Zambia.
This is perhaps the most important opportunity presented by the initiative.
Brand Zambia can help bring together the different economic stories that are often told separately. The farmer, the miner, the manufacturer, the tourism operator, the entrepreneur and the exporter are all part of the same national economic story.
The Grow Zambia Agenda is about increasing production, investment, jobs, enterprise and incomes. Brand Zambia can help give that growth a face, a voice and a market.
Ultimately, Zambia does not need to market itself simply for the sake of being better known. It needs to be better known for what it can produce, what it can offer and the opportunities it can create.
The country already has many of the ingredients: natural resources, productive land, tourism attractions, a growing private sector, talented people and access to regional markets.
The task now is to package these strengths into a compelling proposition and then deliver on that promise.
If Brand Zambia succeeds in doing that, it will be much more than a national identity initiative.
It will become one of the tools through which Zambia can tell its story, open markets, attract investment, support local enterprise and, ultimately, grow Zambia in ways that ordinary citizens can see and feel in their everyday lives.
The author is a communication specialist and an international relations expert.
