South Africa needs to build on its highly positive brand image, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday in his first ANC Today online letter of the year.
He said an international Gallup poll at the end of last year found that 60% of South Africans were optimistic about their future, believing this year would be better than the last one.
This was double the figure recorded in 2002, and put South Africa eighth in the world in terms of the level of country optimism.
South Africa has also been listed by respected United States travel company iExplore as one of the top 10 world travel destinations.
”The message communicated by the Gallup international survey and iExplore is that our country has a highly positive brand image, to use the language of the marketing world,” Mbeki said. ”This holds true both within our country and internationally.”
He said South Africa has to continue advertising itself as a country ”alive with possibility, which is basking in a season of hope that communicates an optimistic message to all humanity”.
”However, we must take the greatest care that we do not conduct an attractive advertisement campaign, only to find that ours is a poor product.”
In marketing terminology, there should be a situation in which the ”market” at home and abroad identifies with ”the people in the company” — the ANC and the government — and the degree to which they could be trusted to deliver the brand promise of a better life for all, Mbeki said. – Sapa