Botswana: Govt Departments Defy Branding Efforts

12 September 2016

Government Spokesperson Dr Jeff Ramsay has criticised government departments and other state bodies for failing to act in unison in their branding efforts. Dr Ramsay was speaking at the Fifth University of Botswana BOT50 Lecture series, titled; The Creation of a National Brand, held in Gaborone on Thursday. For a difference, Ramsay who is a historian and communication expert put aside the defense armor synonymous with him and the numerous rebuttals he has over the time penned down to defend government against alleged wrong doing and rather leveled salvos and took jabs at the uncoordinated branding efforts by government departments which he says has since frustrated efforts of a creation of a national brand.

Although Ramsay acknowledged that logos and symbols are not necessarily what constitute a brand entirely, he lamented that symbolically the Botswana government is just not coordinated. This he says is shown by the various symbols and logos that various government ministries, departments and parastatals have adopted and want to be identified with, away from what the government use as its brand logo; the coat of arms and the national colours."We are a government that seems to be going in all directions," he said. The various symbols according to Ramsay bring confusion and may lead one to wonder if there is one government or many. "But branding a country is of course more than just the display of official symbols. It is about the marketing the country to itself and the world, establishing a positive profile in the context of such social attributes such as social harmony and progress, heritage and culture (both traditional and modern), openness and tolerance, productivity and competitiveness," he said.

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