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Michael Tome Business Reporter
Local companies should invest in digital marketing to overcome geographical boundaries in promoting their products and services to enhance competitive advantage internationally.

This was said by the senior principal director in the Department of Public Affairs and Knowledge Management in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Ambassador Mary Mubi, while addressing participants at the unveiling of Marketers Association of Zimbabwe’s Superbrands 2019.

“Superbrands” is an international concept that was adapted by Marketers Association of Zimbabwe in 2010.

It aims to identify brands that are performing above and beyond others within the market. It as well  recognises brands that have established the finest reputation in a particular field, offering customers with significant advantages over its competitors.

Ambassador Mubi bemoaned the lack of local companies’ visibility on the international scale citing an experience with the tourism sector, which she identified as an area that needs to enhance its digital marketing systems to leverage on the international market potential.

“We should develop our digital marketing, such that at the click of the button global citizens can find Zimbabwean companies, as marketers it is our responsibility that we up our game, in terms of projecting what the country has to offer.

“Recently our tourism sector went to Dubai to showcase products and I recount our digital presence is what we should invest in, in terms of competitiveness,” said Ambassador Mubi.

Two hundred top line companies have been unveiled as Superbrands locally, covering diverse sectors ranging from agriculture to logistics.

Pepsi was the latest company to be unveiled along with traditional companies that have been categorised as such previously.

Clothing and  fashion, beverages, motor dealership, construction, security, banking, cooking oil, fuel and energy, mining, telecommunications, internet and data services, retail supermarkets, and hospitality sectors are some of the areas that companies will contend for honours.

Speaking on part of the adjudication team Standards Association Zimbabwe (SAZ) director general Eve Gadzikwa, said a number of determinants would make a company conquer.

She indicated that customers are the underlining factor in determining product dominance on the market.

“We urge brands to continue reinventing themselves, and satisfying their customers.

“I would like to emphasise that from the very beginning the consumers are very much a determinant factor in this research. It is the consumer who continues to be the backbone of the process,” said Ms Gadzikwa.

A plethora of conditions determine brand prowess and these include perceived market dominance, resilience, goodwill, customer loyalty, product service experience, product services accessibility, product service pricing, loyalty and product innovation.