Keynote Address by Honourable Premier TSP Makwetla at the Mpumalanga Brand Launch
Botanical Gardens

28 November 2007

 

Programme Director,

Honourable Members of the Executive Council,

The Speaker and Members of the Provincial Legislature,

Executive Mayors and Councillors,

The newly elected Chairperson and Members of the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders,

The Director General, Heads of Departments and officials in the Public Service,

CEO’s of parastatals and Board members,

Government’s Social Partners,

Ladies and gentlemen

 

Let me extend a warm welcome to everyone who is part of this extra-ordinary moment, the Mpumalanga brand launch this evening.  After months of hard work, engagement and reflection, today marks the first step in establishing the Province’s brand that will give depth and add sustainable value, to Mpumalanga’s product offerings to our country and the world.

 

Programme Director, experience has shown that, in many instances, powerful corporate brands contribute to the organic growth and success of organizations. An effective branding strategy enables the organization to develop and communicate a consistent set of messages that attract the target audience, and create confidence in what the brand represents with respect to delivery promise, credibility, and expectation of performance.

As it is often said, brand is a promise to the customers and stakeholders, as well as a mark of integrity and reputation for products or services that the organization is offering.  In this context, brand equity represents the value that customers perceive in a given brand, and is an indicator of how much trust customers have in that brand. A recognizable brand provides an effective platform for marketing products and services.

The concepts of branding and marketing in private sector organizations indeed apply similarly in the public sector context too.  Mpumalanga, as an administrative entity, is a brand linked to a territory or specific geographic space in South Africa.  This space relates to citizens and institutions, services and stakeholders.  Mpumalanga’s brand features draw on its cultural and natural heritage, its people, its topography, its infrastructure and its aspiration.

NB: Land of the rising sun – pioneering spirit.
A region of early processes of statehood;
The womb of South Africa’s industrialisation;
The home of South Africa’s conservation movement.

Government has a constitutional mandate to deliver services, and to create an environment that stimulates socio-economic development for the benefit of the citizens. The challenge therefore is:

• What does the brand Mpumalanga conjure up in the minds of people living in the province, and to what extent the brand image matches the expectations and aspirations of the people of the province?
• How are we able to galvanise citizen involvement and participation in promoting Mpumalanga as a brand, and enable the communication of consistently positive messages about life experiences in the Province?
• To what extent does branding and marketing of the Province present prospects for accelerated tourism growth and increased investment, as well as enhancing government’s communication with the citizens on development and service delivery initiatives?
• How do we exploit Mpumalanga’s vast and untapped brand features to foreground the Province’s differentiation based on the experiential value of its product and service officerings in the economic, natural, and socio-cultural dimensions?
• Most critically, it was important to develop a provincial brand architecture that fosters brand alignment across the public sector institutions, development agencies and private sector players so that sub-brand messages are consistent, and in line, with what the Provincial brand represents.

Ladies and gentlemen, in developing the Mpumalanga brand that we are launching today, we have prioritised four strategic pillars to anchor key brand messages. These are:

1. Attracting and developing investment and trade

Resources, power, worker co-operation, market access, transport links, available land, developing infrastructure, and the investor-friendly environment present endless opportunities for business development and expansion.

The prioritisation of Maputo and Moloto development corridors as part of the Big Five flagship projects will key to unlocking opportunities for infrastructure investments and business development along the corridors.

2. Promoting Sustainable Tourism

The Heritage, Greening Mpumalanga and Tourism flagship project will be an essential catalyst in enhancing brand features of rich cultural and biodiversity heritage, and increased tourism attractiveness to local and international travellers.

 

Mpumalanga boasts the exhilarating scenic beauty, exciting activities, tranquil evenings and the perfect place to put you back in touch with yourself;

3. Fostering citizenship and pride through participation of its people

There are real shared values in the province as this is a place where natural beauty, lifestyle, dignity, respect and participation come together and create people who are supporters of each other and of the province.

4. In terms of People, we need to encourage inwards migration of strategic resources required to develop the Province.   Mpumalanga is an attractive place to work and stay in.

In communication and marketing messages in the Province, our brand strategy positions Mpumalanga as:

• The giving province
  It provides a playground for South Africans, the majority of the power that keeps the country moving and its people have travelled, settled and are working all over the country.  It is the big hearted province that keeps on giving.
• A can-do province 
  The one that is hungry to learn and willing to try.  Its people are friendly, accessible and adaptable.  Willing to join in and make a difference.  It loves a challenge and rises to it.
• A province of natural assets
  Resources, power, worker and infrastructure combine to create the best environment for business.  Scenic beauty, exciting activities, tranquil evenings provide a perfect to reinvigorate and rediscover oneself.  It’s lifestyle, pace, multiple cultures and attitude come together to support the values that create a balanced life.
• A province where wisdom lives
  With its contrasts and changes. It a place where there is evidence of continents being ripped apart and divisions being mended.  Peoples have come and gone and made this a place that is used to dealing with the new but that never forgets the lessons of the old.  It is the province where wisdom lives.

Ladies and gentleman, we believe that the people of Mpumalanga at every level of society should be empowered to be brand ambassadors of the Mpumalanga brand that we are launching today. Going forward, we hope to ensure that there is institutional collaboration in enhancing the brand and ensuring alignment in all brand communication and marketing messages throughout the Province. In that way, we will able to build a strong brand that adds value to the vision and work that Mpumalanga is committed to achieve.

 

Programme Director, it is an honour and a privilege for me to unveil the new provincial LOGO of the new Mpumalanga brand.

 

Thank you.

 

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government