Serbian Ministry of tourism recently said that there will be only 135 thousand euros spent for re-branding of Serbia this year. This is admittedly not a lot of money considering some countries spend that much for the same purpose in a day. But, on the other hand, it is way too much money if you consider the possibility that branding a country shouldn’t be that much difficult and expensive at all.
A good thing about the global financial crisis is that you now often have to improvise and work with what you got to reach the previous goals, which sometimes leads to creative solutions. Here’s my “creative solution” – to treat a country as you would treat a product.
If you plan to market the product for better sales, you usually tend to look at the products good sides and its competitive advantages and try to promote those in a striking, creative and honest way. However, this strategy works usually only if you have a good product to begin with.
But.
If you have a crap product or a product with a bad reputation, you also have to look at the product’s bad sides and denounce them first in order to get to the stage where you promote the good sides.
Let’s take McDonald’s as an example of a crap product that is at the same time successful. The main problem with McD is that it’s not very nutritious or healthy, plus it’s obviously too expensive for what you get. In order for us to forget these things, the advertisers always point out the opposites – healthy-looking people eating burgers, sponsoring the Olympics, nutrition details, always claiming that the products are made of organic food, etc. While this looks like a superficial way of masking the bad product, what they are really saying is “we are aware of the bad things concerning our product and look – we’re trying to fight them as much as we can.”
The people behind McDonald’s ads are the ad companies chosen by the McDonald’s share holders. If you want to advertise a country, it’s a bit more complicated than that – the citizens are obviously the share holders, and the people they choose to represent them – ie, the politicians and MPs – are supposed to create the advertising campaign.
Of course, McDonald’s would never have the mentioned approach if the public, the customers didn’t point out the bad stuff in the first place – by pressing charges, making anti-campaigns, pointing out the dangerous ingredients etc.
Acknowledging the possibility that there is something wrong with your product and trying to remove those things is something that the Ministry of tourism and those involved in ‘re-branding Serbia’ tend to forget. Good news is that this part actually doesn’t cost all that much.
What are the bad things associated with the product “Serbia”?
In short:
Wars, war criminals, nationalism, corruption, and similar things in that general direction.
To get rid of the bad associations, what one has to to is find the opposites to all of them and promote them and stick to them. In fact, it’s so obvious nobody ever thinks of that.
In short:
Put an accent on peaceful future with former “enemy nations”, arrest those charged with war crimes, stop using nationalistic rhetoric and denounce those using it, admit the mistakes from the past and mistakes in the present.
How much would all this cost? I’d say lot less than 135 thousand euros all together.
If you believe this can’t ever happen in Serbia than we might as well stop talking about re-branding the country in the first place.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
When I was commenting on the Future Brand report, this is what i wrote on blog: "Heritage of recent wars rests solely on the shoulders of Serbia. Just type in Serbia in any search engine or newspaper website – war criminals, Kosovo, nationalism are likely results. Until, we settle all these issues in the country itself, get positive response from the EU, start the accession process and basically lay low when all crises are concerned, nothing will change. We would like to think that someone else would do it for us, but people who have heard of the tennis players or follow Eurovision are not a majority in the world."
Always thought that people who quote themselves ("look I said it before everyone") are kind of a…holes. Live and learn, right?
Basically, this is slightly extended version of what you said there.
In theory, branding of a country should be treated as a branding of a product. However, in the production you control everything – making, packaging, distribution, you choose your marketing strategy. In case of branding of a country – that primarily means responsible Government, country in a state of continual development and positive image displayed both inside and outside of a country. Today, a bunch of nationalists marched through Novi Sad, alegedly to protest over Kosovo's independence anniversary, in reality to shout slogans of support to Ratko Mladic, threaten others with "wire and knife", if you know what I mean.
Look at the Parliament. Look at the organization of this celebration of … dan drzavnosti (kako se to kaze)… Prime Minister is barely audible, as groups of hooligans are screaming "Betrayal!!!". Imagine Obama's inauguration and someone screaming the N word. The police organized that to the very last detail. When the state is exhibiting its power, there shouldn't be such gross missteps. In that moment, I thought to myself "This country should abolish itself".
Since nothing will be done (and nothing can be done, if our country does not change its course – dramatically) and 135k is a waste of money.
I don’t know if this is comparable, but during the Bush administration I met a US diplomat who was tired of all the pressure to improve our image in the world through public diplomacy. The feeling was, their ability to “sell” US policies would be much stronger if the policies themselves weren’t shit to begin with.
The difference in the case of Serbia is that worldwide awareness of the positives of US culture is much higher. People knew about Frank Sinatra before they knew about Abu Ghraib. Serbia, on the other hand, is known by many non-Serbs exclusively for war crimes, etc. The benefit of marketing would be to show people a side of Serbia that they are totally unaware of.
Truly a smart thought!
And still I believe that I will see the day coming when the reasons for Serbia's bad reputation will perish!
When talking bout costs: it costs one getting over stupid pride. Including all. And for some people that's too much.
Man I really like your blog. It keeps my thoughts back "home" in Serbia and so often you catch the true and sometimes even obvious! Keep on brate!
"Let’s take McDonald’s as an example of a crap product that is at the same time successful. The main problem with McD is that it’s not very nutritious or healthy, plus it’s obviously too expensive for what you get."
McDonald's came about when people weren't so health conscious so it was long established and successful without talking about negative things.
Plus McDonald's was liked by people for its convenience, satisfying their appetite and many people did like the taste. Their fries are very good and children tend to like McDonald's food.
McDonald's catered to a market and had Happy Meals for kids and other promotions through the years.
McDonald's isn't unhealthy in moderation and some people. Most of the fat people are that way for other reasons than McDonald's, and if you eat too many calories than you expend per day, day after day you will get fat.
Serbia should focus on its uniqueness and/or what it does good. Serbia and Serbs should play to their strengths.
Here is an article about Serbia recently winning "World’s Best New Fruit Juice" at the "Biofach" fair in Germany:
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Serbia Presents World’s Best New Fruit Juice at Biofach
Visitors to Serbia’s National Pavilion at this year’s Biofach Fair will have the unique opportunity to try for the first time The Best New Fruit Juice in the World.
Made by Serbia’s Foodland, Terra Organica Wild Strawberry Nectar is the only fruit
juice on the market made from famously fragrant and notoriously hard to get wild
strawberries. Terra Organica Wild Strawberry Nectar won one of the most prestigious awards in the world of fruit juices and beverages – 2008 World Juice Innovation Award for the Best New Juice, given annually by Food News magazine.
This will be the sixth time that Serbian organic producers will present their products to international buyers at BIOFACH Fair in Nuremberg at Hall 4, Booth No. 520. Between the 19th and the 22nd of February and under the slogan Organic Serbia, seven companies will take part in Serbia’s National Pavilion exhibition: Lion Foods, Sirogojno, Zadrugar, Suncokret, Mondi Serbia, Foodland and BMD.
Serbia’s Biofach presentation will feature a range of outstanding organic products
including wild mushrooms, berries and fruit; organic juices and preserves;
pomegranate juice and vinegar; and sunflower and pumpkin butters and oils.
Already a major supplier of fruit products to European markets, Serbia is now gaining
recognition for certified organics with over one million hectares of organic production.
Organic growers and processors are expanding production, introducing new varieties, and implementing quality control procedures such as HACCP, GlobalGAP, and ISO…
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=3851...
Correction: The award was given by "Food News" magazine in 2008 and presented at the Biofach fair.
As long a comment is good like this one, I don't mind that you're quoting yourself. Plus that's always better than copy pasting someone else's text
Of course all this I wrote is easier said than done, but at least maybe it's a step in the right direction… Thanks for the nice words
That's also true, like many countries, Serbia did almost nothing to 'market' or 'brand' itself before the war, in comparison to some well known countries. Maybe a country shouldn't try to do that in the first place, maybe it should develop by itself, who knows?
But evidently, now that mission is even more difficult.