Destination Branding for Southern Africa Region

Background

The Commonwealth Secretariat (COMSEC) is providing technical assistance to the Regional Tourism Organization of Southern Africa (Retosa). Retosa is an agency of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and is responsible for coordination of tourism promotion and development for the SADC region. Retosa is also mandated to market the region as a single destination. The fifteen members of SADC are all members of Retosa and eleven of these are Commonwealth members. In 2010, Retosa embarked on a brand development process. What has been achieved so far has been a new brand identity and slogan for the Southern Africa destination. The new brand identity incorporates the four core positive attributes of the region which are diversity, wilderness, humanity and climate. These were agreed on through a consultative process undertaken in the member countries. The new brand identity and slogan was approved by the Board of Retosa in September 2010. However, it has not yet been officially launched. Retosa still needs to develop brand management and communications strategies. Assistance which COMSEC is providing to Retosa is directed at designing brand management and communications strategies.

Scope of Work

Stage 1:

• Hold an inception meeting with COMSEC and Retosa at the Retosa offices in South Africa.
• Prepare and submit an inception report including a work plan for completion of required tasks.

Stage 2:

• Review the regional brand strategy and identity developed in November 2010 and advise how these can be improved.
• Building on work which Retosa has already undertaken, design brand management and communications strategies.
• Identify challenges that may affect delivery of the regional brand at national and regional levels and recommend remedial measures.
• Prepare implementation guidelines and propose allocation of responsibilities among identified organizations at national and regional level which Retosa could work with in realizing the regional brand management and communication strategies implementation.
• Submit draft brand management and communication strategies and implementation guidelines.
• Conduct a regional workshop for senior marketing and policy officials at which the proposed brand management and communications strategies will be presented and discussed. At this stage it is planned that the regional workshop will be held in South Africa.
• Review good practices in regional branding from elsewhere and share with Retosa members during the regional workshop.

Stage 3:

• Based on feedback from the regional workshop, revise the draft brand management and communication strategies and implementation guidelines. These will be circulated as draft final documents to Retosa members for final comments and feedback.
• On receipt of final comments and feedback, complete and submit the final brand management and communications strategies and implementation guidelines.

The successful consultant will not be required to travel to the various Retosa member countries. Information that will be utilized during the assignment will be provided by Retosa from what was collected during the branding exercise conducted in 2010 and through its other work. The regional workshop will also provide an opportunity to gather more information from national representatives. For purposes of building the capacity of Retosa marketing staff, consultants are required to clearly show in their proposals, the number of days they will spend working from Retosa offices and specific activities they will undertake with Retosa staff as part of capacity building.

Key Deliverables

The successful consultants will be required to deliver the following:

• Inception Report
• Brand Management Strategy
• Brand Communication Strategy
• Implementation Guidelines
• Workshop report

Level of Effort and Duration

Twenty person weeks over a period of five months.

Budget

The Secretariat has allocated an all inclusive budget of £35,000 for hiring consultancy services. This will cover maximum professional fees of £1,500 per week, two economy class air tickets to South Africa at the maximum cost of £1,000 per ticket (this should be lower for consultants based in the region), daily subsistence allowance for days spent in South Africa and local travel within South Africa.

Required Experience and Qualifications

Interested consultants must possess the following:

• Experience in destination branding and tourism marketing in leading destinations.
• Experience in advising a regional grouping of countries on regional tourism branding and marketing.
• Experience in providing advisory/consultancy services on destination branding and marketing to national tourism boards in one or more countries of SADC.
• Minimum of a University Masters degree.

Preparation of Proposals

Proposals should clearly indicate the following:

• Methodology proposed to undertake activities outlined in the scope of work.
• Proposed work plan and milestones, including days to be spent working from Retosa offices.
• Proposed budget with all costs components clearly broken down. This should not include the cost of the regional as this will be funded separately by COMSEC.
• Detailed CVs of the proposed consultant clearly indicating the experience and qualifications required for this assignment.

Reporting Arrangements

The successful consultant will sign a contract with COMSEC which will be responsible for making contractual payments to the successful consultant.