Zimbabwe debunks ad industry myths

In February, the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) hosted a Marketers Luncheon which gathered the country's top marketers to discuss about issues affecting Zimbabwe's ad industry.

Christopher Mugaga, CEO of ZNCC, kicked off the Luncheon by giving an outlook of the Zimbabwean economy. He spoke on the need for employing tough economic reforms in order to achieve sustainable economic growth.



Charles Msipa, Managing Director of Schweppes Holdings Limited, then gave a presentation on "Driving organisational performance" from a marketing point of view and debunked some industry myths, such as the necessity of cutting down costs during turbulent economic situations. "We cannot save our way to prosperity by cutting indiscriminately, as we can also cut ourselves to the bone and fail to recover," he said, while stressing the importance for marketing practitioners to understand what contributes to the bottom line.

Another myth tackled was that marketers are on an ivory tower and do not have a clue about what customers really want, with the sales team making the money while marketers spend. The truth is sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin and are complimentary as well as equally relevant to the organisation.

Msipa also talked about doing marketing through S.M.A.R.K.E.T.I.N.G which is an acronym for:

• Strategic Marketing


• Market Focus


• Analysis and Appreciation of the value chain


• Route to market design


• Knowledge and Insights


• Environmental Scan


• Teamwork


• Innovation


• New technology


• Goal orientation

For more information, contact MAZ.