Africa-Press – Botswana. Stakeholder realignment remains pivotal to the success of the ongoing refinement of nation brand strategy, says Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) executive director – brand management, Ms Kutlo Moagi.
Speaking during the nation brand strategy final validation workshop on Tuesday, she said they anticipated more stakeholder engagement beyond the validation workshop to understand the role of various institutions in the implementation process.
Ms Moagi said their continued partnership with stakeholders enabled implementers to understand the programmes and initiatives driven by various institutions to avoid duplication of efforts.
She said in an effort to build unanimous messages across board, there was need to align programmes and find out from stakeholders what campaigns were already existing aimed at selling the country to the world. She said if alignment was not successfully implemented, promotion of the country would never be reached as per the desired goals.
She said issues around mindset change and negativity amongst citizens were propagated by lack of engagement at institutional level.
“Sometimes other stakeholders feel we are encroaching on their space or it is their mandate and we always struggle to get them appreciate that there is only one Botswana which as Brand Botswana we are striving to develop, package and sell better to the greater world,” she said. Ms Moagi said this compromised efforts to build a robust national brand strategy as institutions were competing instead of collaborating to sell Botswana.
Further, she said citing there was need to align purpose and effort to succeed in promoting Botswana.
In addition, she said they had started working with Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to get citizens on-board with current developments on nation brand strategy. She said it was important to have national culture being shared by citizens and packaged well to promote Botswana and sell her story to the world.
Based on the latter, Ms Moagi said Nation Brand Strategy referred to a set of coordinated and proactive efforts undertaken by a country or nation to build and promote its image, reputation, and identity on the global stage.
She said it involved developing a comprehensive understanding of a country’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and identifying the unique aspects of its culture, history, economy, society and people that can be leveraged to create a positive and compelling brand.
“The goal is to create a consistent and appealing image of the country that resonates with different stakeholders, including tourists, investors, business leaders, policymakers and cultural influencers,” she said.
Ms Moagi said a successful nation ‘s brand required a long-term commitment, collaboration across government agencies and private sector organizations, effective communication, and a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances, and feedback from stakeholders.
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