Essential services and products were top priority in 2020 to both consumers and business as depicted in the top 10 Business to Business and Business to Consumer categories of the Superbrand Awards.

The essential services and products were ranging from food, health, insurance and telecommunications services.

This year’s awards were held at the traditional venue, the Rainbow Towers on the 27^th of November of 2020.

The awards organised by the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe were held under the theme Evolution of Brands in the Digital Age.

This year’s dress theme was Masquerade Ball and most delegates complemented their outfits with the masks.

For the Top 10 Business to Consumer brands the winner of the category was Coca-Cola, followed by Bakers Inn Bread, Econet, Proton Bread, and Mazoe on the 5^th position.

On 6^th position Nyaradzo Funeral Services followed by Cerevita, TM Pick n Pay, Zimgold Cooking Oil and Gloria.

In the Business to Business Category, the winner is Delta Corporation, on second position is Old Mutual followed by National Foods, CBZ Bank with PPC on 5^th position.

Seedco Zimbabwe is on 6^th position followed by Schweppes Holdings Africa Limited with Dairibord on the 8^th position followed by First Mutual Life and Probrands.

Superbrand Chairperson Mr Denford Mutashu in his speech said essential products took centre stage.

“There has definitely been a shake-up in this year’s results again because of the Covid 19 pandemic effect. Some sectors like the Fuels and Energy sector, Power Engineering and Energy Sector, Electronic Media Sector (TV), have continued to drop in consumer ratings. Taking the centre stage, are retail brands, basic FMCG and essential products and services.

The Superbrand research also showed that there were also a significant drop in luxury brands in 2020.

“Luxury brands have been affected due to shifts in availability, prices and consumer priorities. These movements are reflective of the prevailing consumer experiences as shaped by the prevailing Covid 19 and economic challenges,” said Mr Mutashu.

Mr Mutashu highlighted that after the Superbrand Awards, sectoral reports are prepared highlighting

“After these awards, MAZ will be preparing sectoral reports which give an in-depth comparison of how brands in each sector performed against competition in terms of the Superbrand variables. These will be available for all the brands for use as an information tool,” he said.

He also acknowledged the auditor partners, Grant Thornton for carrying out an audit process in determining whether the ranking of the brands surveyed were in accordance with the rules, regulations and procedures set out by the adjudication committee of the 2020 MAZ Superbrand.

“And we also want to thank Select Research for the research support they put in this project,” he said.

The Superbrand chairperson encouraged brands to continue reinventing themselves, increasing the customer experiences and satisfying their customers.

One critical element that makes Superbrand authentic over a lot of awards is the fact that the process is consumer driven where the participating brands are chosen and rated by the consumers through a nationwide consumer survey.

MAZ would like to congratulate all the winners and thank all the sponsors that made the event which attracted over 500 business executives, a success.

Ends//