Buy Zimbabwe Christmas promo set for November

The Buy Zimbabwe Christmas promotion which is scheduled for November as a month-long promotion running into December, promises lots of excitement not only to consumers but for the retailers, financial institutions and manufacturers of local brands.

With the festive season upon us more retail activity is anticipated as consumers stock up for Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Despite being hard pressed financially, local consumers take this opportunity to indulge in the finer things and spoil their families.

Buy Zimbabwe and its partners confidently feel that this is the perfect opportunity to reward loyal consumers.

While the main purpose of the Buy Zimbabwe promotion is to aggressively showcase leading local brands and ensure that these compete favourably on the local market, the promotion also seeks to utilise the festive period as a time to reward consumers for being faithful.

Buy Zimbabwe Promotion objectives include promoting increased consumption of quality Zimbabwean goods, showcasing and raising brand recognition on quality Zimbabwean products and services and acquainting customers with new and relaunched local products.

It also involves rewarding consumers through prizes and gifts, strategically promoting local brands through leading retailers and increasing consumer confidence in the formal retail and financial systems.

The month-long promotion culminates in a "WEEK" of prizes put together by Buy Zimbabwe partners as a way of saying "thank you" to shoppers who continue to support proud local brands.

One of the key components of this promotion is the spirit of camaraderie amongst retailers, manufacturers, financial institutions and our Buy Zimbabwe partners which is clearly represented by the Buy Zimbabwe matrix. The Buy Zimbabwe Promotion is also an awareness campaign where local businesses partner to create a better understanding on the benefits of buying local products.

Borrowing from the words of former chief executive officer of Proudly South African Ms Manana Moroka, "Creating a better understanding of how local purchasing helps to grow our economy and promotes business competitiveness demands a long-term investment in consumer education."

Still on the subject of creating awareness, I would like to commend Olivine Industries and Motira (Pvt) Ltd for their remarkable efforts towards increasing consumer brand awareness.

Last week, I was part of a team of media personnel that were hosted by the two Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) subsidiaries during a media tour of their operations.

The managing directors of Olivine and Motira, Mr Jonas Mushangari and Dr Hossein Fazlollahi respectively, were on hand to respond to questions from journalists.

But what really impressed me the most was how the two gentlemen openly offered information to the media.

Clearly, this is a sign that they are proud of the effort their teams are putting into their brands.

A quick scan of online, print and broadcast media will reveal that the tour received a lot of coverage, which should help address some of the issues affecting the industry.

The main focus of majority of journalists on the Olivine tour was the short supply of soyabeans in the country and I must say rightly so, because this has affected the competitiveness of Olivine.

My hope is that the Government will make good on the reports and assist where it can.

What is encouraging though is that leading producers of oil in the country are taking action.

Mr Mushangari informed journalists on the programme by the National Soyabeans Association, which is working to address the challenges in the industry.

Although not much has been said in the media about the Motira tour, it was equally a very rich experience.

I knew about the Motira brand since its launch by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I had very little knowledge about its specifications.

It was interesting to find out that all Motira spares are compatible with the Massey Ferguson tractor and they have a full service back-up team that can attend to all repairs across the country.

With just over a year since its launch, Motira products have received a very positive response on the domestic market.

Plans are underway to set up a manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe, a gradual process which will entail training of citizen engineers and acquiring of highly technical equipment used in the manufacturing process.

On to a different subject, I wish to direct readers to the new-look Buy Zimbabwe website.

Our website has been re-organised and re-designed to make it easier to find the information that one may need on Buy Zimbabwe.

With a new navigation menu and a lot more content, visitors will find it to be a more useful point of reference.

This new design makes it possible for companies to promote goods via our interactive product directory.

We intend to grow this site into the biggest portal and the most reliable reference for Zimbabwean products and services.

For companies that have their own websites we are more than pleased to create links to our website.

Those that do not have sites but would like to increase their online presence should contact the team for assistance.

Go Zimbabwe Go . . .

God Bless.

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Robert Muganda is the Media and Communications Executive for Buy Zimbabwe. For comments, contributions and membership contact Buy Zimbabwe on: Email: robert@buyzimbabwe.org.zw or buy.zimbabwe@gmail.com, cell: 0772 714 233 or visit 22 Broadlands Road, Mount Pleasant, Harare. Website: www.buyzimbabwe.org.zw