Ramsay Najjar, CEO of Strategic Communication Consultancy (S2C), recently delivered a thought-provoking presentation in Bahrain on the subject: 'Branding a Country' in which some pertinent questions and observations were raised and discussed. The core issues of the presentation were based on the following questions and principles: Why is country branding a "must"?; How to achieve country branding; the current state of regional country brands: A gloomy outlook; challenges facing brand turnaround, and finally, international and regional case studies supporting the overall premise of the presentation.
"In the desert of life, the wise person travels by caravan, while the fool prefers to travel alone."
African proverb.
Overview of Country BrandingIn an increasingly competitive world, more nations are coming to the conclusion that it is wise to join the caravan if they are to develop, retain, and attract their share of the world's wealth, attention, respect, talent, investors, institutions, factories, companies, and tourists, and successfully export their products, services, values, and lifestyle.
Country branding is the surest way for nations to rise above the cluttered landscape and increasingly bland communication, and set themselves apart, while contributing to overall economic development, maintaining competitiveness, and unlocking, developing, and communicating the potential of their people and institutions.
A country's brand sums up all of the ways in which the country communicates internally and externally, through its people, tourism, enterprises, export brands, investment and immigration, culture and heritage, and its foreign and domestic policy. It is an expression of a country's desired future reality, expressed in a visionary but realistic strategy, the key development actions to achieve the vision, and effective and memorable communications that record progress on the strategy for target audiences.
Benefits of Country BrandingThe points are just a few examples of the benefits of country branding and they include, but are not limited to:
Trade: Globalisation, information overload, and almost similar products and services make country-of-origin an increasingly decisive factor for buyers. Similar to corporate brands, country brands evoke certain values, qualifications, and emotional triggers in people's minds about the likely values of any product that comes from a specific country.
Tourism: One of the biggest implications of successful country brands is the growth of the tourism sector. A prime example would be Egypt's successful tourism campaign, which was broadcast on CNN and other recognised channels. The campaign attracted a good number of tourists to Egypt.
Inward Investment: A consistent and professional country brand results in the ability to win more investment business, because it says the right things about taxation, labour skills, safety, the environment, political stability plus the chance to apply a "made in" label, because it will positively aid the sale of a product in an overseas market.
International Standing: Countries with an unknown or poor reputation are marginalised and languish at the bottom of the ladder of influence, with no voice of their own. With a proper brand strategy, even small and poor countries can find ways to punch above their weight in world affairs.
When the US determined it was time to change its "Great Satan" image in the region, Colin Powell appointed Charlotte Beers to fill the position of Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy. Beers had no diplomatic experience at the time; Powell explained his choice by saying, "She got me to buy Uncle Ben's rice"! In other examples of branding and politics, it has been proven that branding was at the base of historical movements such as communism, Nazi Germany, and revolutions in Lebanon and Ukraine.
Sense of Belonging: An inclusive country brand promotes citizens' sense of national pride and belonging, and activates the partnership between the Government and its citizens. It also helps retain and refresh the country's human capital.
Imposed Branding: A nation that does not engage in proactive branding runs the risk of being positioned anyway by its competitors to the competitors' advantage, thereby, making it even more difficult for that nation to control its economic, social, and political destiny.
Development of Culture, Heritage: A successful country brand attracts activities that define or re-define the brand such as cultural festivals, art galleries and museums, and sports events. This allows the country to develop and capitalise on cultural heritage and sports facilities and attributes.
Immunity Against Bad Publicity: In an age of uncertainty, effective country branding is like a preventive injection that immunises a nation against all forms of bad publicity. An example is the enormous power and effect of the 'I Love New York' branding strategy as tourists returned after 9/11. This branding strategy re-established New York as one of the safest cities in the world.
Brand Strategy Development ProcessBrand Core: The core of a country brand must capture the spirit of the people of that nation and their shared purpose. This spirit reflects the values, people, ambitions, products, landscapes, etc. Country branding entails knowing exactly what these attributes are, knowing how to use them, knowing how to show the world that you have them, and knowing how they add up to a whole that is unique, truthful, distinctive, sustainable, relevant, and attractive.
Truth: While branding may be able to help a country improve its communication with the world, it will not work if the country sends out lies or mere hype. Country branding should ensure that the true, full, and contemporary picture is communicated in a focused way, never compromising the truth or glamorising it irresponsibly. One of the reasons why the US' effort in trying to sell America to the Middle East was that the underlying product, i.e. US policy was not perceived as pro-Middle East, and they failed to understand the media, culture, even the language of the region.
Consistency: The brand strategy should be supported, reinforced, and enriched by every act of communication between the country and the rest of the world. Every government agency, local people and companies all must consistently communicate and demonstrate the same carefully developed brand, people will quickly become confused about what the brand represents.
Inclusion: The country brand should be created in partnership with all stakeholders in order to arrive at a clear-shared vision that everyone believes in and supports. Over time, this shared vision becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as citizens, employers, governments, and visitors virally market it.
Continuity: A successful country branding strategy has the potential of transforming fortune and creating lasting value for the country. A country's brand's lifespan is a longer-term proposition than the careers of most politicians. As a consequence, it cannot be the property of one administration and it must have the ability to outstrip political issues and be consistent and continuous.
Creativity, Innovation: Creativity can translate the complexity of a country and communicate it to the world in ways, which are simple, truthful, motivating, appealing and memorable. Country branding should find, release, and help direct the talents and skills of the population and promote the creative use of these in order to achieve innovation in education, business, government, environment and the arts.
Some of the most important issues that must be addressed to develop the above-mentioned are:
Engage all Stakeholders: The process must be led at the highest level with the personal endorsement of the highest authority figure, however, it also needs to be inclusive and actively involve the key stakeholders of the country, including citizens, businesses, media, key institutions, etc. The right channels of internal communication should be used to reach, inform, and engage all the stakeholder groups.
Conduct thorough research: Research should be conducted to find out how the country is perceived both internally and externally. Consult with opinion leaders to look at national strengths and weaknesses and compare with the results of the research.
Develop Brand Strategy: Create the strategy including the way that the brand will be communicated and taking into account the different target audiences. The strategy should comply with the six basic principles of country branding.
Implement Strategy: Work out an action plan that "operationalises" the strategy through different campaigns, activities, media vehicles, tools, etc. Bear in mind that people want to have the best physical impression at ports of entry (airports), city centres, etc.
Many of the main problems of regional country brands lie in the following:
Lack of Soul: The brands and identities of regional countries lack to a large extent substance material, essence and soul. Despite in some cases rich and fascinating historical backgrounds, regional countries seem to lack country brand equity. What comes to the mind of the foreigner when he hears Riyadh, Amman, Manama, Muscat, Doha, Damascus, or Beirut?
Lack of Conformity: Consistency and conformity across the region's government agencies and enterprises is not respected and in most cases inexistent in the first place. Ministries do not share a common identity; taxis in particular and public transportation in general do not abide by a set of consistent rules, etc. In some cases specifications of a national flag are not respected, i.e. colours, dimensions, proportions, (a blatant example is Lebanon), etc.
Lack of Respect: The lack of conformity and consistency ultimately implies an overall disrespect of national symbols. An identity should be enacted by means of a legal and technical "Bible" that would ensure the respect and integrity of the national identity and the country brand.
Lack of Differentiation: Identity differentiation and brand demarcation are scarce from a Middle Eastern country to another. What differentiates the UAE airport from that of Qatar? What differentiates the sidewalks of Egypt from those of Jordan? What differentiates Middle Eastern flags? And the list goes on.
Lack of Drive: Regional countries lack a positive drive and faith in branding and identity building. This is mostly due to a lack in understanding and realising the importance of country brands.
Failing the "7Cs" Test: An absolute majority of Middle Eastern country brands would dramatically fail a simulated 7C test, which stands for creativity, consistency, coherence, continuity, "campaignability", crescendo, and credibility.
Lack of Inward Focus: Branding is thought of as a means to embellish outward perception while neglecting inward or inbound makeovers. Branding is not about covering up "defects" and "seducing" the outer eyeballs with a deceiving image. Internal or inbound branding is as important as external image campaigns. These ensure the longevity of a country brand, a delivery that is up to and reflects the "external" expectation, and a positive contagion effect on citizens.
Lack of National Brands: All in all, one cannot identify a strong national brand amongst the regional contenders. A strong country identity is to say the least rare in across Middle Eastern countries.
Challenges of Country BrandingCreativity: Applying creativity to a comprehensive range of brand applications. This ranges from the postal stamp, to the telephone booth, to the airport, to the sidewalks, the skyline, the flag, the seals, the passport, and so forth and so on. Regional country brand creativity has been suffering extensively. To illustrate this point, we should look at Egypt and realise that its latest creative brand contribution was the famous thousand-year-old pyramids located within its borders. On the other hand, we look at young countries such as the USA and realise the accumulation of achievement in country branding and identity building.
Creativity is also in using unconventional means. In fact, branding is not only visual; it is mental and moral symbols and values. For example, France is the republic, USA is the land of opportunities, and Japan is the land of innovation.
National Alignment: Brand and identity building require the initiation of a national alignment across all institutions and levels of administration.
Total Buy in: Brand and identity building require the participation and the buy in of all stakeholders. A wide consensus should be achieved across the various channels of the public and private sectors in order to ensure successful country branding ventures.
Legal Frame: The lack of a legal frame renders the consistency and the spread of country branding ineffective and weak. Regional rule of law is generally perceived by all major rating agencies as weak. This fact adversely affects the successful implementation of branding strategy that requires strict and thorough enforcement of rules and regulations that preserve the national identity.
Awareness: There is a widespread lack of public and government awareness and understanding of branding. The general public and even key Government officials have misconceptions about branding and the importance as well as the likely impact of a national identity.
Lack of Diversity: There is a lack of intrinsic diversity on various levels amongst the Middle Eastern countries. Middle Eastern countries share to a large extent a wide range of factors, ethnicity, language, climate, values, food, traditions, etc. This renders successful country branding a dire challenge.
Defeat Prejudice: Defeating the accumulated prejudices about the various cultures and country is a sizeable challenge. In other words, how can one get a second chance at making a first impression?
Holistic Reform: Brand turnaround would most probably fail in the long run if not linked to a holistic and all-encompassing reform. In other words, country branding on its own can only get us halfway. A brand promises what a holistic reform delivers.
International Case StudiesThe starting point of the most recent attempt to re-imagine Britain is 'Cool Britannia'. The phrase originated with an ice-cream flavour (vanilla with strawberry and chocolate covered shortbread) promoted by 'Ben and Jerry' in April 1996. The catchphrase was taken up by sections of the British media in late 1996 after the November issue of Newsweek declared London to be the coolest capital city in the world.
After its 1997 electoral victory, Labour indicated its desire to modernise all things British, the dawning of a new millennium, the working through of 'multi-ethnicisation', a programme of radical constitutional reform and on-going European integration required dynamic living colour images of national identity.
Outcome: It was not so easy to airbrush the residual myths, memories and rituals that were constitutive and evocative of the 'imagined community' of Britain. In a speech given in November 2001, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport dispatched 'Cool Britannia' to the dustbin of history. She declared that although well-meaning in intent, the 'Cool Britannia' project had failed because it did not realise that "our national culture is something amorphous, something changing, and something complex", defined by and open to external influences.
Most Recent: The latest brand makeover of Britain was unveiled in early 2002. The British Tourism Authority used 'UK OK' to distance itself from 'Cool Britannia'. 'UK OK' decided that the future of Britain's tourism industry lay in keeping open a range of meanings and representations. The new 'back to basics' campaign seeks to re-traditionalize the country's image- impossible to imagine a Britain without the eternal representations of cultural heritage.
From 1991 to 2000, GDP grew by 23.30 percent exceeding that of France (17.80 percent) and Eurozone (19.10 percent). How did this happen? Spain is a success story of active orchestrated repositioning by a country involving national promotional programmes using Joan Miro's sun to symbolise the step change in the modernisation of Spain.
The modernisation programme was accompanied by advertising on a national and regional level, strengthened by privatisation and rapid global expansion of Spanish multi-nationals, hosting the Barcelona Olympics, rebuilding great cities such as Bilbao with Guggeinheim Museum, the films of Almodovar, and even actresses such as Penelope Cruz.
Clothes designer Adolfo Dominguez, film maker Pedro Almodovar and architect Calatrava pooled their artistic talents and assisted the government in expressing Spain as fresh, free, and more competitive.
Its branding efforts incorporate, absorb, and embrace a wide variety of activities under one identity to form and project a multi-faceted yet coherent interlocking and mutually supportive whole. However, it should continue to do so and act on all fronts to protect its brand (not to backslide or tarnish its image after the recent terror attacks).
Regional Case StudyA powerful and recent case study to support the concept of 'Branding a Country' and better inform the world of what it has to offer was the campaign initiated by Jordan's government.
The national icon was created in the shape of a stone to reflect the country's rich history, which is well depicted in Petra's stone walls.
- Objective: Promoting master brand image and change prejudice.
- Target Audience: International opinion leaders and global citizens.
- Media: International.
- Objective: Generate ambition and motivation.
- Target Audience: Progressive Jordanian.
- Media: Local Networks items.
- Theme: Introduction of the campaign symbol and slogan.
- Objective: Create the debate and explain the many facets of the Jordan First concept.
- Media: Outdoor, newspapers, TV breaks, promotional items.
*This presentation is based on S2C research, knowledge, and analysis. Detailed references can be provided upon request.
© ArabAd 2005
