Her name is Jónia Presado and she is one of the Top 50 Women in Management Africa, winner ofthe Africa Silent Heroes awardand one of the 100 Most Influential Black Personalities in Lusophony – Bantumen Powerlist 2023. Jónia is currently Marketing, Communications and Public Relations Director at Multichoice Mozambique, managing the DStv and GOtv brands.
Speaking to Profile, Jónia gave her opinion on Superbrands Mozambique and highlighted the challenges and expectations of business marketing in the Mozambican context.
Profile Mozambique: How do you assess the relevance of Superbrands Mozambique?
Jónia Presado: The Superbrands initiative is commendable, and I admire its resilience since it was established in Mozambique (2019), now in its sixth edition for 2023-2024, despite the challenges faced and the interruption during the covid-19 period.
The organization has been resilient in keeping the Superbrands brand relevant in the Mozambican market. This is crucial, as we seek to elevate the brands and their businesses, as well as making the work and contribution of these brands known to Mozambican society.
PM: What is your perspective on the positioning of Mozambican companies in the current marketing context?
JP: Each company defines its positioning based on its strategic vision and objectives. The Mozambican market has become more competitive, dynamic and demanding and companies are forced to explore marketing as one of the commercial solutions to ensure their positioning in the market in which they operate. There has been a notable advance in the area of communication, especially in mobile telephony, pay television, banking, the food and beverage sector and a few others.
We have seen intelligent strategies that have resulted in beautiful work on the part of advertising agencies. We see campaigns that definitely resonate with the market and for that I congratulate the authors and marketing professionals. However, we are not yet a country that can be said to consistently practice marketing in its entirety. We need to explore the various types of marketing, adapting them to the nature of the product/service and the budgetary conditions of each company.
We mustn’t forget traditional media, which despite its limitations, such as the lack of tools to measure ATL campaigns, has served as the main lever for companies to promote their brands and will remain relevant for a long time in our country, where reaching a larger audience involving all social segments and spheres is only possible with traditional media, due to the low penetration of the internet and the high cost of accessing it. On the other hand, digital marketing has been a good bet for marketers not to ignore, as it already gives us the possibility of measuring the value and results of our campaigns. The increase in the number of marketing professionals in the country indicates that there is more demand from companies betting on communication and the quality of the work carried out is evident, both by advertising agencies and by collaboration between brands and media agencies.
Consumers are more aware of their rights and more demanding of the market’s offerings, highlighting the need to improve the customer experience and service. We need to focus on the customer experience throughout their journey, and not just on brands and branding. This is a crucial challenge for institutions and brands. Offering a positive customer experience is fundamental to building customer loyalty and maintaining brand consistency and success.
PM: What repercussions do you think companies that don’t develop a communication or marketing structure might face in terms of competitiveness and market relevance?
JP: Companies must communicate their brand in order to be in the minds of potential clients and consumers. If you don’t communicate, you’re not visible, so you don’t exist. The absence of a communications and marketing department in many African institutions is common due to limited budgets and the misleading perception that it is not essential. However, this gap results in several disadvantages.
The absence of a clear vision shared by everyone hinders the strategic direction of the organization. Although some institutions may have a vision and values, this alone is not enough; the lack of a communications department compromises consistency in communicating and understanding these principles.
Furthermore, it is difficult to effectively identify and communicate the brand and its value proposition to the market without a strategy, something that would only be possible with the existence of a communication structure. This leads to a scattered approach to communication and difficulty in understanding the target audience and adapting products or services to their needs. On the other hand, since Marketing is a support area, its absence diminishes the success of Sales, Retention and Customer Experience, among others.
Only brands that communicate consistently, have a value proposition that meets their audience’s expectations and deliver on their promise, can remain relevant and competitive in the market in which they operate. In short, the lack of a communications department hampers institutions’ ability to communicate effectively, understand the market, stand up to their competitors and achieve their goals.
PM: How is Multichoice dealing with the specific challenges it faces in its sector in Mozambique?
JP: The present and the future intertwine on a daily basis, especially as we move into the era of artificial intelligence. The growing demand for streaming services in Mozambique reflects the search for more for less, where the value proposition often translates into getting a lot for little.
However, this perception challenges the idea of a balanced comparison between price and quality.
While traditional pay-TV operators such as DStv, ZAP, Startimes, TMT and TV Cabo share the market and have perfect competition, the rise of streaming, often pirated, represents an additional challenge for traditional licensed operators. Piracy not only harms legal providers, but also has negative impacts on the entertainment industry, affecting musicians, filmmakers and other professionals.
In addition, the “economic recession” and the demand for more for less, contributes in some way to the demand for pirated content and exacerbates the challenges faced by the pay-TV market in Mozambique.
There is a great need to educate consumers in general about what piracy is, its negative consequences for the consumer as well as for those who promote it, because it steals millions in intellectual rights from authors, artists and inventors, promotes unemployment, makes it impossible to compete with serious companies that invest in research, pay taxes and comply with all legal and fiscal requirements, and consequently sets back the country’s economic development.
