PF REBRANDING WHAT MUST THE PARTY DO?
FOR a business to be successful in today's world market, the brand is everything. From Coca-Cola to the Premier League, an impactful logo and consistent brand image can make or break a company – and dictate the performance of its products.
In politics, this is no different, as the importance of party branding has grown. As voter reach increases on social media platforms like Facebook, the power of how parties are portrayed is only getting stronger.
Concerns over how the former ruling party will respond to their last election defeat will have an impact on their brand image. Almost every Zambian is anxiously waiting to see how the Patriotic Front will come out of this setback and the sooner they get up and dust themselves the better it is for them.
The Patriotic Front have been preaching rebranding but not much is seen to be done in that regard. They have been having press briefings at their Party Secretariat lamenting over the unfair treatment they are receiving from the ruling party and law enforcing agencies but not much is discussed concerning rebranding. If the former ruling party continues talking politics and less about rebranding it risks taking itself into political oblivion.
The determined and ambitious route of political rebranding the former ruling party has taken is the right one because political branding, once associated with reliability and trust can yield great results. By and large there is more to political party rebranding than just preaching it.
For starters, the Patriotic Front must change its entire party leadership from party President down to the section chairman. By doing so they will be sending a strong message that they are serious about rebranding. The party must also consider appointing youths in key positions because politics have evolved with the coming of social media. A combination of wisdom of the old and energy of the youths will help the former ruling party rebrand without much difficulties.
The former ruling party must consider redesigning their party logo by adding some rebranding symbols. They don’t necessarily need to introduce a new logo but they must add some artistic and poetic images to their logo to make people get the message quickly that the party has been rebranded.
Furthermore, when a new party leader is chosen, the former ruling party must quickly print T-shirts and chitenges with their leader on them and distribute them to their supporters and followers Countrywide.
Going forward, the Patriotic Front must also have a strong and coherent message that preaches rebranding. Their Manifesto and policies they will be selling out should be built on a rebranded foundation. Their way of giving checks and balances must be different to how they did it in the past and their reaction to criticism must show that they are the same but different party.
Figuratively, the Patriotic Front should learn from household brands and massfan following sports like the Premier League if they are to successfully rebrand because that is where a sense of belonging comes to real life. This is the field with a strong sense of identity. Even small teams have solid design systems where they can communicate clearly with their fan base. The point I'm trying to drive home is that the people that support the Patriotic Front must be turned into die hard supporters owing to an effective two way communication where their views and ideas are not only respected but also adopted.
The harsh truth is that the Patriotic Front was poor at communicating. The party did not communicate effectively with its followers, supporters and Zambians at large. Simply put, the former ruling party was poor when it comes to communication and this is why they terribly failed to explain to the nation how Covid-19 had affected the economy and what their plans were to revamp it.
The Patriotic Front must learn from how the United Party for National Development, when in opposition, was sending a coordinated message to its supporters and followers using both social and traditional media.
To communicate effectively the former ruling party needs to invest more in youths with brains and not youths with muscles as was the case when the party was in Government.
All things considered, to successfully rebrand as a party, the Patriotic Front must be united and disciplined because without unity and discipline their goal won't be achieved. Abraham Lincoln once said ‘’a house divided can not stand’’ and this statement by the former American President is backed by word of scripture found in the book of Matthew chapter 12 verse 25. The in house fighting over who should take over the leadership of the former ruling party after President Edgar Lungu if tolerated will be the death of the party. The party is currently standing on a thin line between life and death and how its members handle their leadership ambitions is key to its survival.
Word on the ground is that people still love the Patriotic Front and they voted against it because it had stopped listening to their cries. Arrogance and what made the party lose and as earlier stated the party communicated poorly to its supporters and followers. For instance when people complained that bread was expensive they were arrogantly told to eat kandolo.
In drawing to a close, rebranding won't be as easy as it sounds. There will be casualties but that's the price the former ruling party must be willing to pay. The party is embarking on an uncomfortable journey but one that is worth taking. Generally, I can only wish the Patriotic Front the best of luck as they rebrand.