Brand destruction economic suicide

The name of a city is a product brand. It has taken years and millions of rand developing and marketing that brand to investors and tourists.

The name Coca-Cola comes from cocaine as the drink originally had some cocaine extract in it. Now, even though it has no cocaine, it is still Coca-Cola.

Why? Because to change the name because of its negative association with a drug would cause economic chaos to the company.

Buyers would not associate the new name with the soft drink they know and love.

Would anybody consider changing, say, Cape Town, and rename it “Ndlangisa”?

Even though Ndlangisa may be a nice, politically correct isiXhosa name, Cape Town is an international brand that draws millions of rand from tourists who link the name to beauty and class.

First we called the metro “Nelson Mandela Bay” and then we had to spend money creating that brand and getting people to connect it to Port Elizabeth.

A few years later, we now have to start all over again, selling a new name and identity. Economic suicide!

If a new name was absolutely necessary, why not the same one we have been marketing all along? The city could have been renamed Mandela Bay (PE), somewhat like Washington DC.

The PE part retains a link with the city many love and are proud of. We still want to say, “I am from PE”.

The airport would simply be Mandela Bay International

Airport, and the metro Mandela Bay Metro.

Why, you ask? For simplicity and continuity. We are confusing investors, visitors and ourselves with this nonsense!

How do you explain this — Algoa Bay, Nelson Mandela Bay, Chief Dawid Stuurman, Gqeberha — all referring to the same place commonly known as Port Elizabeth?

Idiocy at its worst. It’s not about politics but economics.

People do not eat politics. They need decisions that make economic sense and contribute to progress, not just political point scoring.