It is that time of the year when the Marketers Association of hosts the Superbrand Business
Breakfast Meeting where it unveils the Top 200 Zimbabwean brands.
The unveiling of the Top 200 brands culminates to the Superbrand Awards ceremony at the
end of the year.
This year’s unveiling of the Top 200 brands is set for May 26 at the Monomotapa Hotel from
0730hrs to 10:30hrs.
Guest Speaker at this very important event that marks the Second phase of the Superbrand
Awards is ZB Financial Holdings Chief Executive Officer, Sheperd Fungura.
This year’s Superbrand Breakfast Meeting will be held under the theme ‘Anchoring Brands
Success on ESG’.
MAZ Executive Secretary, Gillian Rusike highlighted that this year’s theme focuses on brands
that are environment conscious.
“The marketing game has to immediately take a different look and feel because of the need
for brands to be sustainably oriented. It is those brands and services that are
environmentally and socially conscious. As marketers we have a great responsibility to
ensure that the brand personalities we create have a positive impact and a deliberate
appeal to sustainability.
The future is encored on the roles that our products and services that are enjoyed today
create for a better tomorrow,” said Mr Rusike.
What is Superbrand?
Adopted in Zimbabwe in 2009, the concept seeks to recognized and reward the best brands
in the country, with the finest reputation within a specified period of time.
It aims to identify brands that are performing above and beyond others within the market.
As a result, corporates and the community at large realize real economic value from this
noble concept.
A Superbrand offers customers and other stakeholders’ significant emotional and tangible
benefits over its competitors, consciously and subconsciously.
For a brand to be deemed a Superbrand it requires the consistent management of the
company’s values, beliefs and product quality – not just at the head office or factory but
wherever a brand touches the consumer.
The reputation and credibility of the Superbrand awards lies in its process. The selection and
awarding of brands are consumer based. In line with the globally accepted norms, the
shortlisting and awarding of brands is based on a nationwide consumer research and then

an evaluation by the Adjudication team. Only those brands with the highest scores from the
consumer research are granted the Superbrand title.
The Research Process
There are two critical groups of stakeholders that ensure all phases of the Superbrand
Process are duly carried out. These are the Adjudication Committee and auditors.
I. Superbrand Process Audit
The Superbrand Process is audited right from the first phase up to the last. The current
auditors are Grant Thornton. Grant Thornton is one of the fastest growing professional
services firms in Zimbabwe. The firm provides a comprehensive range of services which
includes, among others, audit & assurance, tax and specialist business advisory services to
listed companies, large privately held businesses, private equity backed organisations, and
public interest entities. The auditors ensure that all the Superbrand processes are duly
carried out making the Superbrand Process one of the most credible processes.
II. Superbrand Adjudication Committee
The Adjudication committee is made up of leading experts who have a deep appreciation of
brands & branding landscape in Zimbabwe. It comprises of gurus from various industries
and academia within Zimbabwe. The Adjudication committee is involved in the process right
from the start. They verify and endorse the brands as selected by the consumers, right up to
the awards ceremony.

The detailed Superbrand research process is as follows;

1. The shortlisting of 200 brands
   The first phase is the selection of the brands that participate in the Superbrand research.
   The shortlisting of brands is based on a nationwide consumer research which is centred on
   top-of-mind brand awareness. It is from this process that the brands are ranked according
   to the number of spontaneous brand mentions. This thereby makes the consumers the
   critical stakeholders of the Superbrand process, who have the power to select and rate
   brands that participate in the process.
2. Unveiling of the brands.

After the brand selection phase, the top 200 selected brands are then unveiled at the
Superbrand Business Breakfast meeting. Before the unveiling of the brands, the
adjudication committee has the chance to verify the shortlisting process and endorses the
top 200 brands of the year.

3. Field Research
   After the unveiling ceremony, the 200 brands are taken back to the consumers for market
   research. A sample size of 3000 consumers which comprises of 1500 individual consumers
   (B2C survey) and 1500 businesses (B2B Survey) are interviewed.

A stratified random sampling procedure is employed on the B2C survey, involving
interviewing random consumers from stratified groups of households, in proportion to
population distribution. The survey is conducted amongst Zimbabwean adults aged
between 15 years and 65 years.

Under the business to business category, business representatives who normally deal with
other corporate brands on a regular basis are interviewed. These are individuals that hold
important positions in management, marketing, accounting and procurement to mention
a few. Also people who are involved in technical operations, for example builders,
engineers, data scientists, health and medical professional are also interviewed.

In data analysis, brands are ranked according to the following variables:
For Business to Business:
a. Number of spontaneous mentions
b. Number of prompted mentions
c. Perceived Market Dominance ratings
d. Brand Resilience ratings
e. Customer Goodwill ratings
f. Customer Loyalty ratings
g. Overall Market Acceptance ratings
And for Business to Consumer:
a. Number of spontaneous mentions
b. Number of prompted mentions
c. Product / Service Experience ratings

d. Product / Service Accessibility ratings
e. Product / Service Pricing ratings
f. Product / Service Loyalty ratings
g. Product / Service Innovation ratings

4. Adjudication of results
   After the consumer research the results are then presented to the adjudication committee for
   their final verification and endorsement. The adjudication panel will also make further
   analysis, taking into account brand achievements during the particular year. The Adjudication
   Panel make critical analysis beyond the market research results to ensure that brands are not
   just awarded because they are popular or well known, but are awarded due to their impact or
   achievements during each particular year.
5. The Superbrand Awards Ceremony
   The final results are then presented at the Annual Superbrand Awards ceremony, which is
   the most prestigious event of the year. Top 20 Business to Business (B2B), Business to
   Consumer (B2C) brands and Sectoral leading brands are given awards.
6. The Superbrand Report Publication
   After the Awards, a report is published profiling top brands. Participants can also take up the
   advertising space in the Superbrand Report. Individual brand reports giving market insights
   from the market research are also compiled and distributed to participating brands. The
   individual brand reports contains a wealth of market information that assists in the
   formulation of strategy.

The research Partner
To ensure quality in the research process, MAZ has a Superbrand research partner
committed to assist in the research work. For 2021, Expert Research Insights (XRI) (Private)
Limited was the Superbrand Research Partner. Expert Research Insights (XRI) (Private)
Limited is a market research agency with expertise in both Quantitative and Qualitative
research solutions. XRI assists in developing the instrumentation plan which serves as a road
map for the research. The research partner also assists in developing operational
procedures in Data collection, data analyses and making recommendations for the
Superbrand research process.

To be part of the 2023 Superbrand Business Breakfast Meeting contact Rudo on 0787 933
120 or events@mazim.co.zw or Wesley on 0772 999 158 or wesleyk@mazim.co.zw.