The Sunday News
Prosper Ndlovu in the UAE
ONE of the realities of participating at the on-going Expo 2020 Dubai here in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the cutthroat competition for business attention by countries as exhibitors are trying by all means to project themselves differently.
For Zimbabwe, this expo is both a giant opportunity in terms of exposure to the global market and a big challenge at the same time in terms of the need to transform the way our enterprises do business, package and project themselves to buyers.
Gone are the days where product appeal was largely about quality and monopoly of supply as it were. Expo Dubai has shown that the modern consumer is actually critical, and tends to pay more attention to processes, sustainability issues and unique stories behind the product, which poses a big marketing challenge to many enterprises.
With less than a month left before the six-month long expo closes, more local and international visitors are trooping in at the Expo venue and exhibitors have to thrive to make lasting impressions and salvage the best possible deals.
Here at the Expo 2020 Dubai the Zimbabwe Pavilion is in the ‘Opportunity Cluster’ or district out of the three thematic expo focus areas with others being the ‘Mobility Cluster’ and the ‘Sustainability’ cluster.
The country, however, runs a Zimbabwe project, the “Hamba project”, in the mobility pavilion, which has won the expo live prize and showcases how increased last mile mobility can impact on people’s livelihoods particularly, women.
The Zimbabwe Pavilion is a hive of activity every day and the teams are kept busy as visitors seek to know more about the country and what business opportunities it offers.
Indeed, Zimbabwe presents vast investment and trade opportunities and, according to the country’s pavilion Commissioner General, Ambassador Mary Mubi, more enquiries are being received regarding mining, tourism and cultural heritage, agriculture and related value chains, among others.
Since Zimbabwe is not the only one seeking investments and trade deals on similar sectors, the positive Expo 2020 Dubai feedback must inspire relevant departments and agencies back home to transform and spring into action by taking urgent steps to ensure fruition of secured leads.
The expo must also serve as a wake-up call for local business associations, including our own Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) and individual business leaders to also play their part in enhancing the marketing of brand Zimbabwe as a collective.
Instead of operating as silos, more domestic synergies will be needed to build adequate economies of scale capabilities along value chains and attain expected standards and certification required to breakthrough in the export market.
Beyond the gains of the physical expo presence, our businesses will need to invest more on creative innovation and increase their digital presence not only for marketing themselves alone but also gaining critical insight or intelligence into latest global standards of what appeals more to the modern consumer.
Such insights should inspire our own local operations to transform and be in sync with global trends, which will make brand Zimbabwe sell more.
Expo 2020 Dubai has shown how product packaging wins the game as visitors and buyers are more interested in the story behind the product and more on the processes leading to the final product.
Here in Dubai, products being displayed in all stands have digital (QR) codes that anyone interested can scan using their smart phones and be able to read more about the product offer on their own.
This is an exciting adventure backed up by strong Wi-Fi connectivity both at individual stands and on free access to all accredited participants.
The ZITF should consider more of such digital modelling in its forthcoming trade showcase next month to appeal to local and global visitors in addition to manual information kits.
This means a simple product marketed with a well packaged, brief, and exciting story of its producer and background is more attractive as it engages and entices the buyer. It is all about innovation, uniqueness and creativity.
The global consumer is also more conscious, well-travelled and knowledgeable, which demands that our local businesses be abreast with what is trending and, thus, package their products accordingly so as to enhance appeal.
For instance, the world is becoming more conscious about climate change, health and diet and those products that are produced organically through natural processes appear to be on high demand and tend to fetch the highest price.
Zimbabwe has a higher competency on this given its anti-genetically modified organisms (GMO) policy and stands to reap more export dividend if we play our cards well.
This demands that Zimbabwean businesses fully embrace broader issues of environmental and community sustainability as part of their core values.
For instance, issues of business sustainability now encompass an appreciation of how certain investments and products will benefit the community where the business operates.
We may not overemphasis key aspects of price competitiveness and technology efficiency, which speak to the broader ease of doing as these are overarching and have been more debated on.
As the expo comes towards an end, it has to be appreciated that Zimbabwe’s transformative momentum towards the desired upper middle-income by 2030 would not be delivered by the Government alone but businesses and citizens must all stand up and play ball.
The Expo Dubai experience, thus, should transform our business modelling, enable the country to produce for the global market and be an investment destination of choice.
