World Report

Yvonne Johnston
CEO of IMC

“Our job is to create consistent messaging. It’s a huge task”

rojecting the right image is vital if South Africa is to succeed in its drive to increase levels of foreign investment and tourism, and sell more of its products abroad.

Brand South Africa is aimed at promoting the unique identity of a people who have replaced division with democracy. It seeks to portray a modern economy with a skilled workforce and a can-do attitude, whose goods and services are competitive in the global marketplace.

A three-word logo sums up the message. South Africa is a country ‘Alive with Possibility’.

This, however, is far more than just a simple marketing strategy. Crucial to the success of the project is the involvement of ordinary South Africans, from the diplomat and the businessman to the maid at the hotel and the waiter in the restaurant.
It needs to be a national effort, with everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. That means getting the message across to South Africans themselves and developing their own self-image and sense of national pride.

Government and industry are working together on the project, which is spearheaded by the International Marketing Council (IMC), a public-private partnership.“Our job is to create consistent messaging and to bring everybody together,” says the IMC’s Chief Executive Officer, Yvonne Johnston.

The challenge has been to be inclusive, to create a brand that will resonate with everybody. “It’s about how we see ourselves in the world, what our key selling points are. It’s about the people of the nation, their ability to forgive, their tenacity and determination to succeed and their sense of perpetual optimism.”

Ms Johnston says the process will be a long one and has only just started, but that it is already beginning to make an impact.

“Our key objective is to change perceptions of South Africa and, over the past three years, we have seen that this is beginning to take effect.” She continues, “There have been significant changes in this regard, from both a domestic and a global perspective, in terms of the perceptions and attitudes of South Africans, friends of South Africa and other important audiences.

“The tide of positive sentiment towards South Africa and what she has to offer is rising continually,” concludes Ms Johston Government departments dealing with trade and industry, foreign affairs and tourism are seen as key stakeholders in the process. “All of these people are in one way or another portraying the brand. Have we had cooperation? Absolutely. Do people buy into what we are trying to do? Absolutely.”

Negative perceptions based on South Africa’s well-publicised problems need to be balanced with positive ones that reflect its less widely reported achievements and successes. “Every country has issues, but what you are doing about them is what is important,” says Ms Johnston. “Our job is to take what is being done about them and to articulate it.”

A useful tool in spreading the Brand South Africa message is the country’s web portal, southafrica.info. Some idea of the level of international interest can be judged from the fact that even at this early stage it currently receives almost a million hits a month.

In the UK, the campaign has manifested itself in the form of London taxicabs branded with messages such as: “If you want to do business in South Africa, we speak the same language” and “Think of South Africa as South Kensington with over 200 beaches.”

Not surprisingly, the choice of South Africa to host the 2010 World Soccer Cup is viewed as a major opportunity to showcase the country. “We will be on television screens all over the world,” Ms Johnston enthuses.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us and there’s also a unifying factor. As a previously divided nation you have to look for things that are going to bring people together, and I think soccer is going to do just that.”