Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide book publisher in the world, has recently ranked Malawi as the fifth top country in the world for travelers in 2014 .Where do we go from here? , must we relax and let it sell itself via the generous Lonely planet friend. Time is ripe to take our marketing strategy to another level. Marketing this destination has to feature a more creative touch of packaging our product and service to maintain relevant in the eyes of the consumer beyond this 2014 accolade in the ranking. Malawi must consider a more placed strategic destination branding.
Destination branding; according to Liping Cai of Purdue University describes it as a continued process of creating unique tourist experiences and build a sustained image that emotionally bonds with the host community, stakeholders and resonates with target market. This definition may be short or longer than we think but touches on the real functions of what should or can be done in branding a country such as Malawi. It should help us drive in more tourists traffic , promote the bond that is created once they taste the product and service and influence their decisions of destination choices among African countries in the future to them or be Melawi’s walking, talking billboards wherever they go.
To date I view Malawi as a paradise that at fifty years old is still intransit, enroute to comprehensively putting together a good selling plan. Malawi still tells the same storyline of selling itself as a destination without changing a word. The warm heart of Africa, yes, with Lake Malawi with fresh waters, bilharzia free zone and unique tilapia fish called (Chambo) you will never find anywhere in the world, with Mulanje Mountain-an island in the sky ranked the seventh in tropical southern Africa region, the big five and friendly people-thanks to our slogan “warm heart of Africa”. It sounds a brand leader own its own amongst Zambias’”the real Africa” slogan so far . Malawi as destination has overused some of these words that they have lost meaning over the years. That might be a challenge to most destinations in the branding task but we have an opportunity to fix this marketing fallacy ingrained in our system. Bill Baker (2007) has listed some of the words that are used to make a marketing buzz in different so called “branding exercise’; Discover, enjoy, explore, friendly, gateway, historical and natural among others. One or two words on this list, if not all must have been appearing on our short-lived adverts or our neglected websites, blogs and other social networks. All those efforts may lack what destination branding professionals call values such as or not limited to being;creative,credible,contrasting,passion,charming,vibrant,quality,soulful just to name a few. We should move from a brand that just designed a logo and catchword to it. Destination branding must go beyond a graphic design and slogan. Malawi is still in the comfort zone, with numbers of consumers in trickling in from foundational efforts of marketing soon after independence, as a beginner and infant in making inroads to the world market. Malawi should not wait for another Madonna to put it on world market.
This is the time for Malawi as a destination to justify why it says its the Warm heart of Africa in 2014 than fifty years ago when it started to smile to the world. One would agree if the statistics from 2000 to 2005 are anything to go by.In five years Malawi only managed to grow by 209,784 and yet by year 2010 out of 746,129 non-residents guests only 189,239 were holiday makers (Quarterly Statistical Bullen 2011 pp 27). We all know what kind of country politically as well as the economic terrain turned into in 2010 ,the fact that our politics is unpredictable Malawi can find solace in destination branding to let it beckon the tourism consumer without much ado from the political heads’bureacratic ,retrogressive agendae. There are only doable five phases of branding that will and can transform the way we view and sell Malawi in a couple of years. Firstly market analysis, investigation and strategic recommendations, Secondly develop the brand we have chosen among the available options in the mix, then brand Launch and communication, lastly monitoring and evaluation and improvements.(Morgan and Pritchard 2002 pp 26-30)Sounds academic? It’s a model that has been applied by the now leading brands in the tourism industry.
Malawi can learn how countries like Seychelles, India,Spain, Australia and Newzland successfully managed to rebrand their destinations. Malawi is not entirely unique from other neighbouring African destinations all we need to do is recraft what is communicated by the forefronters of tourism.
The reputation that will be created from this activity of branding should be centered on the principles such as communication of the brand itself, how do we tell a unique story for Malawi and not the obvious .The things that we cannot change about Malawi must not be juicy story to tell aver and over again .It should be something that will make Malawi different from the rest of its peers in Africa. However, people ,environment, places of interest remain the bits and pieces among others that will aid a destination to brand perfectly, how to do it is the question that should be left to our marketers to answer professionally or risk lowering numbers of our tourism consumers from whatsoever segment years to come. Naturally God will never give us another Lake, mountain or people hence we must polish the stone that we have to shine like a sparkling diamond.
The challenge that destination branding pose for Malawi is that it demands sound policy and leadership of Destination Management Organisation(DMO). In this case it should start from the political heads and government institutions mandated to run this rewarding show.Malawi to date is short of that resource.Corrupt leaders, lack of reliable security system and unpredictable economic policies will keep dogging Malawi from attaining its highest potential of prosperity. All the work of mounting mammoth billboards abroad and within, run rich content slots of adverts on the international media like CNN and BBC can propel consumers of tourism from business to holidaymakers if the hostility and fragility of our politics cease to be. Malawi should encourage transformational leadership that looks at issues objectively and its sustainability rather than geared to only score political points. Malawi may not grow in terms of tourism because it’s not only a product that is packaged for a dollar, service is another massive intangible thing at stake. As we go to the polls this May 2014 each leader must not let go of Tourism and destination branding apart from agriculture, education, health, infrastructure and industry.
