The honours students in the Department of Marketing Management at the University of Pretoria were tasked to work with South African National Parks in 2019 on a project about brand promises and slogans aligned with the South African National Parks’ brand values.

South African National Parks is an organisation that manages 19 conservation areas within Southern Africa, including the Kruger National Park, Addo Elephant National Park and Table Mountain National Park. The honours students were divided into 12 groups and then assigned to a predetermined national park.

This project was part of a process that South African National Parks is undergoing to increase the local market for travel and encourage all South Africans to become nature lovers. South African National Parks awarded prizes to the following three teams:

Winners: Radlyn Naidoo, Estelle Theron, Tuscany Kitch, Tristan Wiggil and Daniel Coetzee.

Runners up: Jonathan Bartlett, Arend Kahlau, Amber Tidbury and Mahlatse Laka.

Third place: Ashton Murray, Tshepang Molemone, Precious Malokane, Goitseone Chomane and Dibueng Bosman.

Even though only three teams were identified as the winning teams, it is safe to say that each of the students thoroughly enjoyed this project and there are at least 53 new nature lovers in South Africa.

Winning team from left: Tuscany Kitch, Estelle Theron, Tristan Wiggil and Radlyn Naidoo

Department of Marketing Management honours class together with (front row from left to right) Prof Melanie Wiese, lecturer at UP; Phenyo Marumo, Senior Manager: Marketing (SANParks); and Liandi Slabbert, Manager: Tourism research (SANParks)