HOW TO MARKET UGANDA

 By Matata Mercy

Recently there was an uproar about the Uganda Vinci Company  which is an Italian firm owned by an Italian investor called Penetti.

 

The uproar was about the coffee  deal that was signed in which the said company was to be responsible for marketing the Ugandan coffee. 

One individual was claiming that how can an Italian firm whose directors and managers who do not know anything about the Ugandan culture market coffee that is grown  in Uganda?  

The fact is that it is possible for such foreign companies to market Ugandan products easily and it is actually better for the Ugandan economy. 

The way Ugandan government is marketing the country is still old fashioned and backward.  

This came out clear when the Uganda Airlines was launched  and it was to begin operations across Africa and around the world. 

Some Ugandan politicians, Ugandan musicians and several other celebrities around Uganda were invited and flown around Africa and the world most notably Kenya as a marketing strategy. 

And a few social media posts were made with photos of these celebrities as an end to the marketing strategy. 

But the truth is that over the years, marketing has changed from the traditional radio and television adverts, newspapers and billboards to the digital forms of advertising.

 By digital forms of advertising i mean the global American companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and others that have created platforms that are being used to market products around the world.

 Marketing is no longer just  about putting the message out there but it also involves analytics and looking at the feedback. 

That means measuring the outcome and the impact. Therefore using foreign firms to market Uganda would be a better option than using the so called Uganda tourism board. 

These foreigners understand the cultures of their people and are the best to promote Uganda.