After many years of marketing South Africa with the senseless slogan ‘Alive with Possibility’, followed by the short-lived ‘More than you can imagine’, which had to be canned as it had been used by various other countries/cities/brands, our country has a new slogan: “South Africa: Inspiring New Ways”, which was approved by the Cabinet earlier this week.
Brand South Africa CEO Miller Matola said: “It’s a challenge to all South Africans, from business, government and civil society, to build on our reputation for inspiration and innovation”. The organisation conducted market research to test which one of five finalist slogans was most suitable, having consulted widely to create the slogan short list.
The organisation responsible for marketing South Africa, previously called the International Marketing Council, has itself been rebranded as Brand South Africa, and has a new CEO. The company ‘lobbies and networks extensively among global opinion leaders to shift perceptions about the country and the continent’. With TIME magazine Brand South Africa brought global business leaders to the World Economic Forum at Davos, to debate the role of Africa in global transformation. Similarly, during the Mining Indaba held in Cape Town last month, Brand South Africa partnered with the Financial Times of London, to debate the future of mining in Africa. International journalists are brought to South Africa, to connect with local government officials and business executives, to experience our local life and culture, and to learn about technological developments.
Although the new slogan has just been approved, Brand South Africa is patting itself on the back for its success already, in having moved up one place to 36th of 50 country names measured by Anholt-Gfk Roper Nielsen on tourism, culture, people, exports, governance, and investment/immigration, ‘confirming the steady improvement in the country’s reputation’! Majola is quoted as saying that his organisation’s focus is ‘on positioning the country more as a business destination and an attractive emerging market on the African continent’.
One must seriously question the slogan and what impact, if any, it will have on the marketing of South Africa by SA Tourism. Our country appears to be developing a series of meaningless marketing slogans, no doubt developed by a branding agency at great cost to taxpayers!
POSTSCRIPT 9/7: Details of the new International Marketing Council TV commercial, flighted last week for the first time to launch the slogan ‘Inspiring New Ways’, have been made available by Bizcommunity.com. The TV commercial features better and lesser known South Africans that have ‘Inspired New Ways’: ‘Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Baby Jake Matlala, Natalie du Toit, Trevor Noah, Lucas Radebe, Brian Mitchell, Greg Minaar, Trevor Rabin, John van der Ruit, Shaun Thomson, David Tlale and Khotso Mokoena and lesser known ones who have also defied the odds to become top achievers in their fields – such as Toya Delazy, Colin Thornton, Oyama Matomela, Andile Dube, Andy Higgins, Tebogo Skwambane, Nhkensani Nkosi, Emile Engel, Simon Ratcliffe, Zibusizo Mkhwanazi and Fatima Vawda’.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
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Morning Chris
I hope that you had a good turn out for the books, what with the past week ends Argus Cycle tour. Interesting read again. I was wondering since you are deeply involved in the tourism industry and rub shoulders with the actual tourists, what would you say the slogan should say? what would you like to see coming out as a branding slogan for SA, that would hold meaning for the tourists?
Nice to hear from you Rose.
I am not sure that a slogan makes any difference to any visitor to our country or business person. But then all brands have a slogan, and one can argue that they are equally meaningless/useful.
To come up with an alternative slogan is difficult, as it has to be used in tourism and business applications for ‘South Africa’. I am also not privy to the research which has been conducted to develop the slogan.
Chris