BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

The obvious starting point for the marketing of South Africa is to decide what the marketing objectives are. This presupposes that the right ‘product‘ has been created to suit the requirements of the target customers. What does the nation not just want, but need in order to attract tourists, investors, immigrants, etc.? Fancy slogans and logos will do nothing for the country if South Africa Inc., the product, is not right, and the strategists have not paid sufficient attention to what the country needs to achieve in this context.

Moreover, the people of South Africa should be brought into the process to support this initiative, and they have to be made aware of the importance of their role in trying to attract and keep customers for the country. Internal marketing therefore has a role to play in shaping the perceptions, beliefs and actions of the citizens of this country in a collective effort to make the country more competitive in the global marketplace. Read the rest of this entry »

The domestic investor is yet another class of customer. In June 2004, Allister Sparks, veteran journalist and political commentator, asked the following question: ‘Why do our business leaders seemso reluctant to invest in the new South Africa?’ In marketing terms, his question was really, ‘Why don’t our domestic investors want to buy South Africa, the product?’ Sparks quoted a figure of R392 billion — nearly a third of South Africa’s GDP — which is sitting in the balance sheets of South African corporations and that could be invested in the country. The truth of the matter is, as a custome_rof the country, a domestic investor is going to weigh up the kind of returns to be received and the risk to be faced before this ‘product‘ is consumed. Read the rest of this entry »