First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

I will be the speaker at the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

The agenda looks interesting.

October 29, 2009

16:00 Pototsky Palace (Kopernika Str., 15)
Solemn opening of the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

Welcoming word:
• Lviv City Mayor – Andriy Sadovyy
• Head of Lviv Regional State Administration – Mykola Kmit
• Head of the State Tourism Service – Anatoliy Pakhlia
• Head of the Tourism and Resorts Council - Yevhen Samartsev


17.00

Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President of European Cities Marketing Association, Managing Director, Graz Tourism Office, Graz, Austria
• “How can you make use of an international network like European Cities Marketing”

Igor Goncharenko, Project Manager, “Effective Management” Foundation
• Lviv Tourism strategy and its role in the increasing of economic competitiveness
• Representative of Monitor Group consulting company
• “Role of Tourism in Lviv Economic Development”


October 30, 2009Parallel Sessions:
10.00 – 13.00 Hotel “Suputnyk”, Knyahynya Olha Str., 116
Participants' Registration
Round Table “Lviv Hotels as a component of the tourist infrastructure of the city”
9:00 — 18:00 Pototsky Palace (Kopernika Str., 15)

9:00
Registration of the participants of the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

9.30
Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President of European Cities Marketing Association, Managing Director, Graz Tourism Office, Graz, Austria:

• “How does it feel to be a second city (since Vienna is # 1 followed by Salzburg and Innsbruck as far as tourism is concerned); including a short case study what tourism in Graz is all about”
• “How can cities cooperate (for instance within a country; example: Creative Austria)”
Brigitte Weiss, Vienna Tourist Board and its tourist information center, Vienna, Austria
• “Vienna Tourist Board as a Tool for Tourism Development in Vienna”
• “Vienna Brand”
• “Activity of the Tourist Information Center in Vienna”


Ossian Stiernstrand, R&D Director, Göteborg & Co, Göteborg, Sweden
• “Competitors with similar challenges: Medium-sized cities in a world of superlatives”

Dr. John Heeley, Founder and Director of Best Destination Marketing, Great Britain
• “City Branding in Western Europe. Best Examples of Branding”


Wolfgang J. Kraus, Strategy director, Vienna Tourist Board, Austria (until 2008)
“Win with the lion. The destination marketing jobs”


13.00-14.15 – lunch break

14:30
John Heeley, professor at the University of Nottingham, founder of the Best Destination Marketing company, Great Britain
• “Measuring the Impact of City Tourism and City Marketing”


Adam Mikolajczyk, Executive Editor & CEO, Brief for Poland, Warsaw, Poland
• “Tourism positioning and innovations in promotion of regions and cities – Polish experience”

Ostap Protsyk, Head of the Information Policy and Foreign Relations Office at Lviv City Council
• “Lviv City Brand”


Andriy Sydor, Head of the Office for Culture and Tourism at Lviv City Council
• “Lviv as a City of Festivals”

Zenoviy Mazuryk, Head of the Association of Museums and Galleries, Vice-President of the National ICOM Committee, lecturer at the Arts Management Department of Lviv National Academy of Arts
• “Museums as a Component of the City Tourist Product”


Oleh Zasadnyy, Head of the Department "Euro-2012"at Lviv City Council
• “Euro-2012 in Lviv”

18:00

Official closing ceremony of the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

Piano stairs

Mówi się, że mieszkańców jest bardzo trudno namówić do czegokolwiek - a tutaj mamy genialny przykład, że można, trzeba jedynie podejść do tego w kreatywny sposób. Poza tym.... to wspaniała inspiracja dla Warszawy i innych miast Polski w kontekście zbliżającego się Roku Chopinowskiego.

Jamaica considers cashing in on its image

Boltmania has Jamaica trying to protect its brand through trademarking anything from the national colors to its celebrities.

Usain Bolt had just been crowned the undisputed sprint king when a businessman boldly walked into the government office here hoping to cash in on the Jamaican track star's record-setting dash. The visitor from the Cayman Islands sought to brand his creative ideas: U-Sane Energy Drink and Lightening Bolt Energy Drink.

``Our antennas went up immediately,'' said attorney Carol Simpson, who heads the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, which oversees trademarks, patents and copyrights. ``The truth is we are very, very careful in looking at instances like this.''

Before Bolt's world records in Beijing and Berlin, the gentleman might have gotten his way. Not any more. In an unusual move for one of the most marketed countries in the world, Jamaica has launched an aggressive campaign to protect its image -- and profit from its brand.

``That Jamaica Brand, that sort of thing that pops up in people's minds because of the Bolt-mania, that can lift you over the edge,'' Prime Minister Bruce Golding told The Miami Herald, referring to the renewed interest in all things Jamaican after Bolt set world records in the 100 and 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics last year then broke them at the recent World Championships in Berlin.

Brand Jamaica is everything distinctively and creatively Jamaican: from Blue Mountain coffee and Bob Marley, to reggae and Rastafarianism to herbs and seasonings.

But while Jamaica has one of the strongest images of any country in the region, thanks largely to its successful tourism marketing campaigns, the country's economy doesn't profit much beyond tourism from its powerful identity.

``Lots of firms around the world use Jamaican imagery to promote their products and services but Jamaica remains firmly stuck in a holiday destination stereotype,'' said Simon Anholt, who advises governments on how to improve their image.

``We don't have a problem creating stuff; the problem is monetizing it,'' said Dillon Powe, marketing executive with Passa Passa, a popular street party in one of Jamaica's roughest neighborhoods. ``Whether it's music or culture, there is something about Jamaica that draws people in. It's just a question of how to capitalize on it.''

GOING TOO FAR?

Still, Anholt said Jamaica may be going too far with its branding campaign.

Though Jamaica's campaign is centered around creating a ``Nation Brand'' -- a term Anholt coined in 1996, Anholt believes the term ``encourages politicians in the belief that they can simply spin their way into a better national image.''

``Countries have images, and those national images are as important to the prospects of those countries as brand images are to corporations,'' he said. ``Countries with a powerful and positive image find that everything they do ... is easier and cheaper.''

The Jamaica campaign is not unlike what South Africa did after apartheid, rebranding itself into the ``Rainbow Nation'' under Nelson Mandela.

No one can say with certainty how much Jamaica loses every time its name or black, gold and green colors appear on a pair of Puma tennis shoes, or when its familiar flag is hoisted.

Everybody seems to be benefiting from the Jamaica craze -- except Jamaica, said Finance Minister Audley Shaw.

``From Puma in terms of Bolt and his shoes to major entities that are using things that were created right here in Jamaica,'' he said. ``We are going to take a very aggressive and proactive approach to the branding in so many respects, in sports and in foods... to make sure we benefit.''

Added Lisa Bell, the deputy president of Jamaica Trade and Invest, a government agency working with companies to help them understand the benefits of brand marketing:

``[The Jamaica Intellectual Property Office] gets complaints on a daily basis of companies infringing on our intellectual property and our brand. We have to lock it up and make it authentic.''

NOT AN EASY SELL

But getting Jamaicans to buy into the idea of managing intellectual property is not an easy sell. Bell said she had a tough time before the Olympics convincing companies -- and even potential Olympians -- to trademark their brands. Few did.

``Can you imagine a consortium of Jamaican companies wrapping up their intellectual property related to the MVP runners club, tying that up, designing products using Jamaican expertise,'' said Bell, referring to the MVP Track and Field Club, whose members include former world record holder Asafa Powell and other top athletes.

Bruce James, president of the club, said he's spoken to the intellectual property office and isn't totally convinced of the benefit of trademarking his runners. ``We have 100 athletes in the MVP Track and Field Club. It's not practical,'' he said. ``What I do in Jamaica only covers Jamaica. I would have to do the same thing in all 200 countries of the world and major markets.''

One Jamaican athlete has been aggressively protecting his image: Bolt. He registered several trademarks, including his famous stance after winning gold in China. He has trademarks in Jamaica, the U.S. and several other countries.

But protecting an athlete's image globally can get expensive because Jamaica is not a signatory of the Madrid Protocol, which provides trademark protection in signator countries with just one registration. Lawyers, eager for business, have lobbied against joining the agreement but government officials say they're making an effort to get Jamaica to sign.

Last month, the government introduced a National Branding Committee. Its task could include researching whether the word jerk, which refers to both the seasoning and a specific way of cooking chicken and pork, can be protected.

Even the name Jamaica is being considered for a trademark, officials say.

But Anholt, the international image expert, said trying to legally protect the nation's assets through branding is a ``dangerous'' idea that is ill-advised.

``It's surely more important for Jamaica to work on ways of leveraging and profiting from its wonderful image,'' he said, ``rather than dreaming up ways of preventing others from doing so.''

By Jacqueline Charles
www.miamiherald.com

Australia - Transcript - Joint Press Conference with Simon Anholt, Parliament House

SIMON CREAN: We've committed to developing a brand for Australia and we announced the tenders some time ago. Today what I'm announcing is the business advisory group that will help us develop the creative brief to go to the short-listed group of those that have tendered for the initiative.

We've had over 60 expressions of interest, some of them I'm told are really excellent. So we're hoping that what we've really got is a good opportunity to test and challenge the successful tenderer. But this is not just a government decision. This requires importantly some business savvy in it because it's got to be a brand that business is confident about, but also that the community accepts as a credible expression about what Australia is and what it's seeking to offer the rest of the world both in goods and services.

Today we also have the privilege to have with us Simon Anholt who is a world expert in national image. It's Simon's reports that were initially used by Austrade to take a step back and say how does the rest of the world view Australia? And Simon's expertise is in analysing and researching how others view other countries.

So we brought Simon out and we had a very good discussion today with the representatives of the companies that have been appointed to this advisory body. I'll invite him in a minute to talk about the concept of national image and where Australia is perceived in that regard.

We think it's important to try and get this dynamic right so that what we're coming out with is the proper outcome. And not only in terms of the best spend of the money, but the most effective way of promoting that which we take inherently as our breadth of strengths, that which the rest of the world has a strong view about certain aspects of, but not the rest of.

So that's the exercise for us. I should also say that I'm heading off - I'm very busy for the rest of this week. In fact we've got the Pacific Islands countries in Brisbane ....to advance PACER Plus, that was the important initiative that came out of the Cairns meeting in August.

This is the first meeting of trade ministers to advance PACER Plus.

I'm then going to Japan which is the first meeting by an Australian minister in Japan since the new government has come to office. I've already spoken with my counterpart Mr Naoshima by phone. We've had a very good dialogue to date and I'm looking forward to getting into that further, face-to-face.

I also hope to catch up with Deputy Prime Minister Kan, I met him when I went to Japan again as the first minister from Australia when we got elected. He was in the DPJ then, I established contact with him, so we'll try and build on that.

And then of course to Korea at the end of the week to advance the bilateral relationship there.

So if there are any questions about that, let's leave those until last. I'll ask Simon to speak to you about what he's telling us and you can question him as well and then we'll throw it open.

SIMON ANHOLT: Thanks very much Simon. Well, no great surprises really. Australia is a greatly admired country. In fact the phrases often used about Australia is that it punches above its weight and that's certainly true in image terms. It regularly comes within the top 10 of the most admired nations in my survey, the nations' brands index.

Considering that most of the other countries at that level in the index have got substantially larger economies, land areas, political power, economic power and so on and so forth, Australia does remarkably well. There's work to be done of course for a number of reasons.

First of all you never own a good national image, you only rent it. And you have to keep paying the rent and I think some of these initiatives are a very good way of starting that process. I think Australia's image doesn't quite do it justice - even though it's very, very positive – it's a tiny bit soft.

In other words the associations are all with tourism, and that's partly because the tourism industry has done such a good job of promoting Australia as a tourist destination. But it's all a little bit to do with tourism and lifestyle and food and culture and soft stuff.

I think Australia needs and deserves better, and I think the process that is starting with this initiative is starting to tell the world about some of the serious stuff that Australia does in terms of its economic impact, its political gravitas, its intellectual capability: that this is a major power.

And I think that's the message that needs to start to be driven across, that it's not simply decorative, it's also useful. Unlike a great many of the countries I advise Australia faces a rather interesting challenge. A vast majority of the countries that I talk to, their problem, their question is how they can improve their national image, how they can update it, how they can make it more positive, how they can make it better.

Australia's interesting challenge is what do they do with this fantastic image? How can you use it? What can you do with it? And I think you're only beginning to see the beginning of the potential that you can use by leveraging that image in the world. So these are exciting times.

QUESTION: What elements do you think Australia has that gives us this positive image?

SIMON ANHOLT: Well, I think the fact that people in so many of the countries where I run the survey seem to instinctively like and trust Australians. This may be because you don't come with any of the imperial baggage that so many of the great powers come with.

Australia has an enormous capacity, thanks to this image, to move around, to move flexibly, to engage with many other countries without a preset agenda, without mistrust, without fear. This gives you enormously good access and all kinds of opportunities to engage in the challenges of global governance that are proving so difficult for the conventional big powers to tackle.

QUESTION: Mr Crean, what are the practical benefits of not necessarily rebranding Australia but repolishing our image overseas? What do you hope to achieve from this process?

SIMON CREAN: What I hope to achieve is a far more effective mechanism by which we join the dots. Australia is well regarded for its commodity base, its agriculture base. What does the world need at the moment? It needs energy security, it needs food security and it needs to develop its skill base.

Australia can participate in all of those three spaces in spades. But it's not just supplying the raw material. It's marketing quality food. Australia can be the food basket to Asia. And as the Asian economies grow in wealth, their demand isn't just going to be for food for sustenance, it's going to be for nutrition and quality.

When it comes to energy what we also provide is not just the commodity but the cleaner fuel. Australia is effectively to gas what Saudi Arabia is to oil. And so cleaner fuels will have a premium but it's not just our ability to produce the fuels. What makes us good is the efficiency with which we extract it, by which we value add to it, by which we develop the technology around it, by which we market it. And it's all of those services that strengthen the comparative advantage of the nation.

And in the case of education, if nations are going to move forward they have to build the skills of their people. Australia is uniquely placed. It's a trusted provider, an image that's been tarnished somewhat with the Indian students issue. And that has been an attack on the brand if you like because what we offer is quality education, not just any education but quality education, and we have to reinforce that brand.

But the Expo next year and those who - if you were at the launch of the Expo yesterday I think I made this point. Shanghai is going to provide us with a huge opportunity next year to target the fastest growing market in the world and a market going through fundamental transition.

China knows that it's got to move away from simply a growth model based on exporting product to the rest of the world. They have to develop a consumption driven economy. For that they need to embrace safety nets and Australia is well placed to advise in the space of a whole range of things, whether it's medicine, health services, superannuation, those sorts of things.

But China also understands what many countries in Asia are understanding now, that if they want to make the leap from developing country to developed, they've got to be far more embracive of a services based economy.

All of the developed economies in the world have an important feature, that 60 to 70 - in our case 80 per cent of their GDP is contributed to by services.

And so therefore, the combination of the challenge is obviously to create a trade negotiating framework in which the market is opened up for services, but in which we connect the services factor as an enabler to economic development, and Australia's strength is so broadly spread in those areas, as I said at the beginning, we want to join the dots and we want to do it in a way that so whatever the component is, when people say it's Australian, they say quality – and therefore attractive.
They do it in a number of areas now. We've got to broaden the perception about where those areas are. And the Expo in Shanghai is going to provide a huge opportunity for us next year because it's got 80 million people coming to it. Most of them will be in China itself, but there will be a significant international population. We have the opportunity I think to present the breadth of what we've got to offer next year in a big way.

QUESTION: Are services therefore in that, in that sense the new frontier for trade, are they?

SIMON CREAN: I believe they are, and I said this when we came to office, that in the case of the Doha round we said we wanted to give greater emphasis to services. If you look at the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement that we've signed, it's the most comprehensive free trade agreement that ASEAN has entered into because it picks up services and investment. Why are Malaysia and Korea so aggressive now in pursuing their FTAs? Because they know if they want to be considered by the OECD as developed they have to build their services economy.

There is a huge opportunity for Australia to get into this space. One of the reasons we've got a bit of an unlocking in the Doha log-jam is because we've elevated services into that equation.

So, I think that there is a huge opportunity on the trade front for us on services, not just services as a sector in its own right - financial services, education, etcetera – but services as the enabler, the enhancer of one's comparative advantage: smart manufacturing, quality food product, value-added resource materials. It's the enabler, but it's also got an aspirational dimension to it. If countries want to move to the developed phase they've got to embrace services.

So, there's a number of dynamics working in our favour. We have got to pursue the policy framework for that, but we've also got to create the environment in which people understand that we have a lot to offer on that front.

QUESTION: Minister, the rising Australian dollar has hurt a lot of exporters. What message do you have for them?

SIMON CREAN: Well, obviously when the dollar rises it's harder to export. I think that's a given. But the fact is that this fluctuation in the Australian dollar has been a fact of life for our exporters over the past 25 years now since we floated the dollar.

I've got no doubt that the decision to float the dollar was one of the most fundamental policy decisions that this country made that ensured its competitiveness and its ability to actually punch above its weight on so many fronts with the rest of the world.

Now it's true that when you've got the volatility it makes it hard, especially when it's going up. But I think that quite frankly most of the exporters I've spoken to, whilst they don't like it, they've understood over the 25 years how to adjust to it - they either hedge differently or they build factors in that take account of the fact that the dollar might rise.

I might say, Australia is not just an exporter, it's also a value-adder, and for that it needs imports.

And so whatever the exchange rate is doing against exports, it's cheapening, it's lowering the cost of the import that is an input. And so that needs to be taken into account too in terms of cost competitiveness and to a large extent the strength of the dollar is commodity price driven, and that of course is adding significantly to the national income of the nation.

QUESTION: [Inaudible question]

SIMON CREAN: The Japan visit is to talk about the Free Trade Agreement, the bilateral economic relationship. We are about to enter the tenth round of negotiations. What will be interesting to see is how the new government approaches this challenge.

Again, whilst there are difficulties still remaining in agriculture I think there are huge opportunities in the services sector, and with investment flows between the two countries.

There will also be a revitalised business delegation going up there. Rod Eddington has chaired the Australia Japan Business Council. Peter Drysdale has just put out an interesting new study that really demonstrates that there is great opportunity for Australia, Japan, and the strength of its relationship to actually jointly target markets within the region.

One interesting spin-off of is the Lion Nathan takeover by Kirin, and whilst Kirin has bought out Lion Nathan it's retained the marketing arm in Lion Nathan's name, because they understand the strength of that as a marketing mechanism within the region.

Now to me, this opens up huge opportunity for us to get into the food and beverage space much more effectively.

So there are those dimensions to it, and so the business dialogue, the partnership, the opening up of the relationship, but importantly establishing very early in the piece with a new government still our strongest trading partner, the seriousness with which we place the relationship.

QUESTION: Simon, just back to nation branding, you say that Australia has long enjoyed a good reputation overseas. There is a renewed debate in this country about asylum seekers. Do you believe that that could tarnish our reputation overseas, if it hasn't already?

SIMON ANHOLT: In my experience these kinds of happenings don't do very much to the image of the country. One of the things that I have found studying national image over many years is that they are remarkable stable phenomena. It's much more like a capital asset than a liquid currency. It takes many years to build, and most of the time it's pretty hard to damage as well.

Because, the simple reason is that people don't think very much about other countries, and consequently they don't - their perceptions of other countries don't move around very quickly.

So generally speaking, there is a period of grace. If things go wrong, you may suffer some temporary unpopularity, but it doesn't affect the overall image of the country unless the behaviour is repeated over many, many years and then it becomes part of your image and it's very, very hard to undo. But there is this period of grace.

If things go wrong for a little while, it's not going to impact the image dramatically. So there's time to fix it. There's time to change the policies. There's time to make things better. There's time to make amends. There's time to do some high profile gestures to show that you're not the country people think you are, and the image is generally safe.

One of the advantages of having a powerful and positive national image is that it is an insurance policy against things going wrong. People will continue to trust you for a little while, not forever, but for a little while.

QUESTION: Some commentators have said Australia has an image that is racist overseas, particularly with countries in Europe. Is that something you have found at all?

SIMON ANHOLT: No, not at all.

QUESTION: Never?

SIMON ANHOLT: I have never seen any evidence of that whatsoever. In fact, quite the contrary. All the evidence is that people associate Australia with a wonderful, laid back, easy going kind of personality, which I know irks some Australians. I mean, it's a thing I've often said that in a sense the defining image of the Australian is the movie Crocodile Dundee, and the Australians are infuriated by this because it seems like a reduction, a cliché, and so on and so forth. But actually it's not half bad.

Just as an introduction to the kind of people, it bares perhaps a distant relationship to what Australians are really like, and it's very positive indeed.

QUESTION: Minister, can I just ask you - sorry - do you endorse Kevin Rudd's comments that people arriving on boats are illegal immigrants?

SIMON CREAN: Well, some of them may be but in the main they're refugees.

I mean, I think the importance about what we're trying to do and the fundamental difference between our approach to this and the previous government, we always said we were going to secure our borders. We said that. But we also recognised that the refugee issue is of a global dimension and requires a global response.

Our criticism…

QUESTION: Is it premature to call them illegal, though?

SIMON CREAN: …of the previous government was that they never did anything to work with other nations to deal with the flow and then the accommodation. And that's what we said going into the election we would develop, and that's what we'll continue to develop.

And I think you can see the relationships that we've had with Indonesia in the last week or so, an important part of that country to country, but we need to take it further and develop the international response as well.

QUESTION: It's not premature, though, to call them illegal?

SIMON CREAN: No.

ENDS

Seoul to Use Expats for Promotion

Seoul sees expatriates living in Korea as its key promoters to the world.

"The best way to promote the city is foreign residents telling their friends that Seoul is worth visiting," said Kang Cheol-won, director-general of Seoul's Public Relations Planning Bureau.

Kang is reaching out to expats because Seoul is not as well-known globally as Koreans believe. Any help in increasing global awareness of the city is welcomed, as far as he is concerned. Kang is leading overseas marketing for Seoul.

According to a survey by the Korea Tourism Organization, 42 percent of foreigners said they don't know about Seoul and therefore don't make plans to visit the city.

"We think Seoul is widely known, but that is the first myth we have to dismantle to let the world know our city and Korea better," Kang said.

Seoul ranked 33rd out of 40 in the Anholt Nation Brands Index in 2007, lower than other Asian cities like Tokyo at 20th, Singapore at 23rd and Hong Kong at 26th. "Those cities put millions of dollars into promote themselves," Kang said.

As Seoul's chief of overseas marketing, Kang considers the city a product and seeks ways to "sell" it.

"First, we have to raise the name recognition of Seoul and then promote the charm of the city, where tradition and modernity coexist. We want to solicit foreign investment through Seoul's strong points of safety and convenience," he said. "Ultimately, we want to create Seoul's brand image as a city where people want to come, live and invest."

Seoul spent 21 billion won ($17.5 million) on overseas marketing last year, up 10-fold from the previous year.

For effective marketing, the city has identified Japan, China, Southeast Asia, the Americas and several countries in Europe as benchmarks and concentrated its efforts to boost tourism.

The city has made several commercials featuring local people and celebrities last and this year, with "hallyu" ― or Korean wave ― stars such as TVXQ making appearances in this year's segments.

"We have also attracted Chinese television producers to shoot variety shows in Seoul," he said. For example, actress Lin Chi-Ling visited the city for a photo shoot and television show with Korean actress Yoon Eun-hye, Sunday.

Seoul also signed sponsorship contracts with Manchester United, the English Premier League football team where Korean player Park Ji-sung plys his trade. "Manchester United games are aired worldwide and with audiences averaging 300 million."

Rain, a top Korean singer and actor, became Seoul's global goodwill ambassador in June and actively participates in promoting the city. "The singer suggests ideas for city promotion by himself. He might have a concert on the Han River this winter against the backdrop of the beautiful fountains of Banpo Bridge," Kang said.

The city will hold Big Air, an urban snowboard jump challenge, in December to showcase its downtown area including the new Gwanghwamun Plaza. "Seoul's scenery will be aired through sports channels around the world," he said.

"City marketing is not something we can see the results of right away," Kang said. "However, we are seeing an increase in tourists and a boost in city recognition, and expect to see good results in three to four years."

AC Nielson analyzed the effect of Seoul's overseas marketing through surveys on 2,000 potential visitors. After the promotional efforts, Seoul topped as the city most people want to visit among people in China, Japan and Thailand.

The number of visitors to Korea increased from 6.5 million in 2007 to 6.9 million last year. By April, 2.7 million visited and almost all passed through Seoul. This is a 24-percent increase from the same period last year, proving the marketing abroad has been fruitful so far.

Kang also recognized that Seoul still has a way to go to attract more tourists. "Accommodation in hotels and traditional food is expensive and the language barrier for tourists still exists," he added.
By: Kwon Mee-yoo
Source: www.koreatimes.co.kr

Łódz in NY Times: Despite Global Recession, A Polish City Is Thriving

NY Times za pomocą W.Reymonta i miasta Łodzi opisuje dobrą kondycję polskiej gospodarki.. ciekawe!

In the 19th century, the Polish novelist Wladyslaw Reymont titled his masterpiece about Lodz "The Promised Land" because the city attracted people from throughout Central Europe to work in its booming textile mills.

These days, the industries have changed, but something similar is happening again, helping Poland to escape the searing global recession. With multinationals like Procter & Gamble, Dell and ABB leading a wave of foreign investment, cities like Lodz, in central Poland, are experiencing relative booms.

Poles who left the country in search of work years ago are trickling back. As its peers in Central and Eastern Europe face a very rough year, Poland is emerging as the one economy in the region that has the heft to withstand a vicious downturn. And it just may end up being the one economy in Europe that avoids an outright contraction in 2009. One of the most flourishing corners of Lodz is a vast former textile factory that is now a complex of stores, restaurants and even a beach volleyball court. The brisk business at the site, known as Manufaktura, illustrates how far Poland is removed from the searing experiences of Latvia or Hungary, not to mention London or New York. "Maybe without the crisis, business would be better," said Slawomir Murawski, the director of Manufaktura.

"But who knows?" Poland has the advantage of being preoccupied with itself these days. Because it sells far less to the rest of the world than its neighbors, Poland is shielded from the vicissitudes of the global economy, while reaping its benefits, reflecting a wave of foreign investment. That, in turn, has helped keep its labor market strong at a time when many Europeans fear for their jobs.

The government reported Friday that Poland's economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.1 percent in the second quarter, bolstered by exports, construction and services. Growth in gross domestic product was well above the 0.5 percent expected by analysts, as well as the first quarter's 0.8 percent annual rate of growth. "We're the only country in the whole European Union that has such good growth, and we've come here to brag," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a news conference in Warsaw, Bloomberg News reported. "Poland is the E.U.'s undisputed growth leader." At the beginning of the year, Poland suffered along with other emerging markets as investors pulled their money out en masse. To the immense frustration of Polish business, however, the picture of the region for outsiders has been dominated by countries like Hungary, Latvia, Serbia and Ukraine, whose crushing debt loads drove them into the arms of the International Monetary Fund.

For Poland, a relatively light borrower, the crisis created a riptide in the form of a fast-depreciating currency, the zloty. That hurt some companies, namely those that had carefully hedged themselves against a rising currency, which was the previous year's problem. But Polish banks, keen to avoid driving their clients into bankruptcy, refinanced the hedges to reflect the new reality. "In retrospect, the crisis proved manageable in Poland," said Ryszard Petru, chief economist at BRE Bank in Warsaw. "But it was hard to know at the time." The zloty plunged 27 percent against the euro in the six months ended in March. It has since risen more than 13 percent.

Poland has landed more softly than its neighbors because its economy is far less dependent on exports than other Central European countries, where exports can approach 90 percent of the gross domestic product. Poland, a nation of 38 million people, lives far more from domestic demand, and that depends on a stable labor market. Mr. Petru predicts that unemployment will rise to 9.9 percent by the end of 2009, from 7.1 percent, but that is about even with the European Union average. And it masks some pockets of strong growth; the jobless rate is 2 percent in Warsaw, and about 8 percent in Lodz, or less than half what it was five years ago.

One reason for the surprise in Lodz is clearly the influx of foreign investment. Procter & Gamble has one factory in Lodz and is opening another this fall. Fujitsu, the Japanese computer company, opened a service center in the city this year. Others include Infosys Technologies, the Indian information technology firm; ABB, the Swiss manufacturer of infrastructure equipment; and TNT, a Dutch logistics firm. Even after the shock of last September, when the bankruptcy of the investment house Lehman Brothers sent global business into free fall, "companies in Lodz kept searching for labor," said Piotr Broncher, the Lodz regional director for Manpower, a provider of temporary employees. "I was surprised. Everybody was surprised."

Manpower will probably find jobs for 1,200 people in the Lodz area this year, down slightly from 1,500 in 2008. Dell, the computer maker, made the investment that truly electrified Lodz. In January, Michael S. Dell, the company's founder and chief executive, officially opened a 400,000-square-foot plant that will handle logistics and assemble computers, particularly for customers from Central and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Over the next three years, it will employ up to 3,000 people. In a symbolic shift, Dell moved operations to Lodz from Limerick, Ireland. Ireland has protested the 52.7 million euros in subsidies that Dell got from the Polish government, but Dell cited the skilled work force in Lodz and proximity to growing markets as the reasons for its move.

The Irish boom, now possibly the worst bust in Europe, attracted many Poles, who worked with Dell there and are now finding their way home. "We even have some workers in Lodz who have come from our Limerick, Ireland, factory and who are very happy to have come back to help set up this one," Mr. Dell said at the opening in January. Tomasz Rybinski, 30, was among those Poles who left the country after it joined the European Union in 2004. He found work in Britain, which was booming and where he spent three years mixing salads, moving boxes in a warehouse and then, finally, working in a factory that made industrial refrigerators.

Rumors this year that layoffs were in the works were enough to convince Mr. Rybinski that the possibilities in his native Lodz trumped what had by then become a shattered British economy. After taking some time off, he found a job quickly. He recently started work in a factory that produces monitor and computer parts as an operator of a machine that molds plastic into specific shapes. Financially, Mr. Rybinski said he would earn about the same monthly pay, the equivalent of about $500, that he earned in Britain.

The turnaround in Lodz has been startling for a municipality whose population was still declining as recently as three years ago. Mr. Murawski, the director of Manufaktura, said his business benefited from that growth. But one multinational on the horizon might be less welcome for his operation, which combines shopping, eating and entertainment for children. This autumn, the Swedish retailer Ikea will open its own complex in Lodz, employing much the same strategy: bring them in to shop, but amuse them as well.
"That is likely to affect us much more than the crisis," Mr. Murawski said. "It is something concrete." By: Carter Dougherty Source: The new York Times

The World's Happiest Cities

Ever since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio, the world has been fascinated with Rio de Janeiro. Popular perception of the city is infused with images of starry-eyed youngsters dancing into the dusk, backed by imposing mountains and dark sea. That view has propelled Rio to the top of our list of the world's happiest cities. Famous for its annual Carnaval festival (starting Feb. 13 next year), the second-largest metropolis in South America finished first among 50 cities in a recent survey conducted by policy advisor Simon Anholt and market researcher GfK Custom Research North America. "Brazil is associated with all these qualities of good humor and good living and Carnaval," says Anholt. "Carnaval is very important-it's the classic image that people have of Rio, and it's an image of happiness."

Next on the list is the top city from Down Under: Sydney, Australia. Known for balmy weather, friendly locals and an iconic opera house, Sydney fared well in Anholt's survey because of its association with a popular brand--Australia. "It's where everybody would like to go," he says. "Everybody thinks they know Australia because they've seen Crocodile Dundee. There's this image of this nation of people who basically sit around having barbecues." Rounding out the top five are third-ranked Barcelona, Spain, which Anholt calls "the classic Mediterranean city"; fourth-ranked Amsterdam, Netherlands, because Anholt's young respondents "know you can smoke dope in the bars"; and Melbourne, Australia, which makes the list simply because it's in Australia. "People know it's in Australia, and that it's full of Australians," says Anholt. "Therefore, it must be fun." Behind the Numbers The data Anholt provided for our list is part of the 2009 Anholt-GfK Roper City Brands Index, released in June. The research was compiled through online interviews with 10,000 respondents in 20 countries. Happiness is difficult to quantify, and Anholt acknowledges that his data is less an indicator of where local populations are happiest than a reflection of respondents' thinking about where they could imagine themselves happy. "This is a survey of perception, not a survey of reality," he says. "People write me all the time and say 'that's not true.' It probably isn't true, but it's what people think. The gap between perception and reality is what interests city governments." The French historian Fernand Braudel wrote that " Happiness, whether in business or private life, leaves very little trace in history." (More quotes on happiness.) But a perception of happiness leaves a strong trace on the balance sheets of cities that depend on conventions, tourism and an influx of talent. The Pursuit of Happiness Anholt notes that the results of his survey reflect the longstanding reputation of Mediterranean and Latin American cities as non-stop party locales. "It's pretty much the expected bunch," says Anholt. "Though I'm a little surprised about Spain outdoing Italy. It's interesting that the Spanish are perceived as being happier than the Italians--I find the Spanish rather gloomy." Still, Barcelona--Spain's highest-ranked city--has plenty of supporters. "The beauty of the city and its environs, along with affordable housing and business opportunities, is the fantastic lifestyle," says Michelle Finkelstein, a vice president at travel agency Our Personal Guest. "There's not the stress of getting a child into the best preschool--the public ones are good and close by. And they have the top soccer team and some of the best weather in Europe." Other places in the world that lack the metropolitan flair of the cities on this list are often identified with the notion of happiness. "Anyone lucky enough to visit the magical Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan would know that there is no competition: There can be no happier place," says Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. "This small Buddhist nation of incredibly stunning beauty follows a unique guiding philosophy of GNH--Gross National Happiness. You can see it in their open faces--they smile from the heart. Barcelona has nothing on them." Global rivalries notwithstanding, Anholt notes that his findings more or less support historical trends, with one notable exception. "The cities on this list would probably be the same if I'd been running this survey in 1890, aside from Sydney and Melbourne," he says. "Australia is kind of a branding miracle." Not bad for a former penal colony.
BY Zack O'Malley Greenburg
Source: www.forbes.com

Is Bruno - the most famous Austrian since Adolf Hitler - ruin the image of Austria?

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie about a fictional gay Austrian fashion fanatic who wants to be "the most famous Austrian since Adolf Hitler" has some Austrians up in arms even before its release next month.

The lead character, Bruno, sometimes spelled Brüno, is also a TV presenter reporting for the "Voice of Austrian Youth TV."

People Today columnist Lisa Trompisch said she, for one, finds some lines of the film irritating and upsetting.

"How could a line that obviously points to the most horrifying crime that Austrian has seen in decades, namely a father [Josef Fritzl] keeping his own daughter in a dungeon for 26 years and fathering her seven children during that time, be considered humorous or funny?" she asked, citing one of Bruno's controversial lines, "I want to live the Austrian dream of finding a partner, buying a dungeon and starting a family."



Trompisch said, "I would rather call that irreverent and cynical." She also pointed out that in her heute.at (today.at) column she highlights another quote, "K is for Kampf, as in 'Mein Kampf,' ze fashion bible written by Austria's black sheep Adolf Hitler" as politically incorrect and unacceptable.

"I can't decide which is worse, the insult to Austria, or to present Hitler merely as a black sheep," she writes.

Austrian writers are reminding their readers of Cohen's last movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2005), a satire in which the small town of Glod was portrayed in a backward land (Kazakhstan) of poverty and bigotry.

The film hurt a lot of feelings in Kazakhstan at the time and upset many local officials with "the derogatory way" in which their country was presented.

Suggesting that Kazakhstan has been suffering an enormous loss of identity because of Cohen's movie, ORF, the Austrian Broadcasting Corp., published an article on its Web site headlined, "Could that happen to Austria, too? Will Nazis replace our Dirndl image?"

"Could tourists be thinking of Nazis and hatred towards foreigners instead of mountains, lakes and friendly hosts wearing Dirndl dresses?" the article said, referring to the kind of traditional dress worn in southern Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria. "Should we laugh about this movie, or should we simply ignore it? Is this going to threaten our country's image?"

Will the Sacha Baron Cohen Curse Strike Austria?

Austrians needn't worry, said author Simon Anholt, a British nation-branding expert who has just published his latest book "Competitive Identity."

"Absolutely not, they should not worry, this is not how it works," he said.

Anholt, who works with international countries as a policy advisor on national identity issues, said, "This is a lot of wild talk. I know the Austrians are very sensitive about their image, but if a country's image is pretty well established, almost nothing can change it. If at all, this movie will have a short-term superficial impact which will be forgotten as soon as the reporting about it dies down.

"In the case of Kazakhstan, the situation was completely different. Nobody knew the country to begin with. It had no image to lose. In fact, Baron Cohen's film 'Borat' put the country on the map. It made people curious and tourism saw a ten-fold increase after the film. The Austrians would be best advice to ignore it, or better even, to respond with humor."

That's what Alfons Haider, Austria's most famous TV presenter, is suggesting, too.

"It's difficult to judge a film that you haven't seen but I expect it to be very funny, he said. "Sacha Baron Cohen is a wonderful actor; I'm definitely going to see the movie and I'll invite him to show him what the country is really like.

"The only thing that makes me feel strange is the idea to see Austrians marching again in Nazi uniforms and to see Hitler portrayed as entertainment. Hitler simply cannot be a comedy star. I think Cohen is walking on the edge there."

Haider, who is preparing to host a TV show on national Austrian TV ORF the same day the film is released, is thinking out loud. "I have three things in common with the lead character Bruno; I'm male, I'm gay and I'm Austrian. Maybe I'll present the show that night as Bruno."

Author: CHRISTEL KUCHARZ
Source: ABC NEws

Finland beyond Nokia - public diplomacy case study

Finland was one of many European countries that, in the early 1920s, received loans from the U.S. Government. In 1929, a sudden collapse in the stock market triggered the Great Depression, leading to a worldwide economic downturn. All but one country ceased making repayments to the United States. That country was Finland.

This period also marked the start of Finnish public diplomacy.

Approximately three thousand articles were written in the U.S. about a Scandinavian country in the north of Europe that had repaid its debt to America. Even today, older generations of Americans who lived through the Great Depression remember the story of the trustworthy and honest Finns.

Public diplomacy, as a phrase and paradigm, found its way to the Finnish Foreign Service less than a decade ago. Media relations, cultural diplomacy and exchange programs had all been part of the communications portfolio of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since the early years of independence; but with the introduction of public diplomacy, the “attempts to manage the international environment through engagement with a foreign public”1 have become more strategic and focused.

“Half of the work of an embassy consists of traditional diplomacy, while the other half consists today of public diplomacy” stated Alexander Stubb, Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs last August, at the annual gathering in Helsinki of Finland’s ambassadors.

Soon after, the Foreign Minister appointed a high-level delegation to lead efforts to develop a country brand for Finland. Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Nokia Corporation and Royal Dutch Shell, was invited to chair the delegation.



The delegation is charged with the creation of a country brand for Finland; a strong national image that will enhance Finland’s international competitiveness. The appointment is based on the present Government Programme, an action plan wherein the strengthening of Finland’s image is one of the government’s objectives.

The purpose of the country brand is fourfold: strengthen the operating potential of Finnish businesses; increase foreign political influence; promote interest in Finland as an investment target; and increase tourist flows to Finland. The country brand is regarded as a cornerstone for success and prosperity.

As with any national endeavor, the branding project has become a target for skeptics. Some claim nation branding is just another marketing and communications project. Others claim that as a top performer in international comparisons, Finland need not worry about its brand and, therefore, does not require a high-level delegation. Responding to such criticism at a business seminar last January, Jorma Ollila declared that countries which fail to foster their brand could find themselves in the company of North Korea, Myanmar or Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the Finnish national brand project will rely on hard facts rather than simply a shiny veneer.

The delegation’s tasks include defining key strategic selections, networking, raising critical questions regarding content and devising services that will enhance Finland’s prestige, in addition to monitoring and steering the project. The country brand project can thus be described as the first layer of the Finnish public diplomacy concept and a broad framework for public diplomacy operations.

The second layer of Finnish public diplomacy consists of large-scale public-private cooperation among Finland’s main actors on the international scene. Those actors include the Finnish Tourist Board (MEK), Invest in Finland Agency, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology (Tekes), the national airline Finnair and the Finnish Forest Foundation, among others. This public-private partnership is chaired by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Joint public diplomacy efforts include Finnish participation at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 and “This is Finland” (http://finland.fi). Such cooperation makes it possible for other stakeholders to be informed about and partake in public diplomacy operations if they believe it will benefit them.

The third layer of the public diplomacy concept consists of specific country programs. Public diplomacy efforts are currently focused on eleven countries Finland considers most important and where a relatively small investment can yield strong returns. These countries are Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

For each of these countries the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and its embassies have developed a public diplomacy program. Each program includes an analysis of the operational environment, the status of the nation brand, definitions of objectives, key messages, target groups, tools and, ultimately, an action plan. The Finnish Embassies and Consulates in the above-mentioned countries will receive additional funding from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to execute the programs.

The action plans of the public diplomacy programs include a variety of activities. For example, in China, an important market place for Finnish products, Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Finland will, this year and next, develop a comprehensive website for the Moomin characters in Chinese; present Finnish food safety guidelines for Chinese journalists and food authorities; promote Finnish environmental know-how by planting trees in Beijing; distribute Chinese-language books about Finland to Chinese universities; and administer an exchange program for Chinese civil servants to come to Finland for a month-long training period.

And what of Finland’s debt to the United States? Firstly, Finland received goodwill for decades for repaying its debt to the U.S. Secondly, part of the paid debt was converted into a fund to finance Finnish-American scientific and educational exchanges—the ASLA-Fulbright program. The fund, managed jointly by the U.S. and Finland, is certainly one of the most important and long-lasting investments in public diplomacy. It has opened invaluable contacts and international avenues for many Finnish scholars and scientists in the United States, and many Americans in Finland. It may sound cliché, but nothing beats the joint will of two countries to understand each other.

Finland beyond Nokia

Finnish public diplomacy makes use of its economy’s shining star, Nokia, whenever possible. For Nokia, a global business, Finnishness in and of itself does not seem to represent any special advantage, although it is not a detriment, either. After all, in theory, Nokia could have been born elsewhere. But the high level of education, especially amongst Finland’s pool of talented engineers, is one reason for the company’s success. The Finns’ positive mindset toward technology has also contributed to Nokia’s success, as have Finnish management culture and values.

Finland, like many countries, has embarked on a nation branding initiative to determine how its brand should be developed, and in which direction. Leading the way in this endeavor is the chairman of Nokia’s Board of Directors, Jorma Ollila. However, one shouldn’t infer that Nokia is seeking a role in Finnish public diplomacy. To be precise, Nokia is always associated with Finland anyway. Rather, it is in the company’s best interest to influence the way the country brand is developed. In this matter, Nokia and Finland have a common interest.

Authors:

Petri Tuomi-Nikula is the Director General for the Department of Communications and Culture at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

René Söderman is the First Secretary at the Public Diplomacy Unit, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Source: publicdiplomacymagazine.com

Place Branding: New Tools for Economic Development ?

The principle that cities and regions can be branded is a natural extension of corporate brand theory. George Allen, using several examples, explains how this reality offers new opportunities for attracting economic development and tourism. He also reviews the unique dimensions of place branding that make it an especially challenging task.

The idea that physical places can be branded is a natural extension of corporate brand theory. Indeed, it is generally accepted that places, as defined by culture, politics, and geography, are increasingly seen to be products, as subject to brand management practices as a cup of coffee or a car. For brand and design managers, this opens up new opportunities within the world's number-one industry-tourism-and within larger economic development initiatives. However, the branding of places is not without its unique challenges, which go far beyond a compelling marketing campaign or a new logo.

While the place-as-product analogy provides a useful filter through which to understand a place-brand approach, there remain fundamental differences in the implementation of brand theory in the place environment. These include, among others, the role of government organizations, the difficulty in defining the entity to be branded (city, region, or country), the challenges of aligning internal stakeholders (residents, business owners, frontline workers), and the difficulty of sustaining brand consistency and resources over time in the face of competing societal, as opposed to corporate, interests.

Beyond marketing and identity

While it is true that destinations have been "marketed" or otherwise promoted to travelers for decades, if not centuries, the explicit and competitive nature of tourism destination marketing has become more pronounced since the mid twentieth century. Tourism is now seen as a quintessentially consumerist activity, and it has burgeoned since the 1960s, paralleling the main expansion of consumerism during the second half of the last century.1 Indications now suggest that travel has become a "significant lifestyle indicator for today's aspirational consumers" and, indeed, may even be regarded as a fashion accessory.2

What has recently come to distinguish the concept of place branding is the need to provide clear product differentiation in an increasingly competitive, globalizing marketplace that rests on memorability and emotional connection with consumers, delivered through all points of contact in the product/service value chain. Destination marketers are "confronted by increasing product parity, substitutability, and competition," write Nigel Morgan and his colleagues in their book Destination Branding. "Today most destinations have superb five-star resorts, hotels and attractions, every country claims a unique culture and heritage, each place describes itself as having the friendliest people and the most customer-focused tourism industry and service, and facilities are no longer differentiators."' Branding, therefore, now has a role as a strategic lens, a decision-making tool, and as shorthand for the personality of place in the place environment that broadens the traditional role of marketing beyond communicating features and benefits to one of deepening relationships with customers.

The experience of place: Physical and virtual

Places are fundamentally experiential in nature in the way they provide combinations of indoor and outdoor environments, service encounters, products, psychological experiences, experiences over time, and all manner of sensory encounters. But the experience of a place also extends ahead of the actual travel there or the physical experience of being there. That experience includes the period during which an intent to visit/purchase is formed, and to the post-place experience of memory formation, loyalty reinforcement, and word-of-mouth dissemination and communication of the brand. "The traveler's choice of a given vacation destination depends largely on the favorableness of his or her image of that destination. ... The image connotes the traveler's expectation of the destination and a positive image promises the traveler a rewarding life experience. Consequently, the images held by individuals in the marketplace are crucial to a destination's marketing success."4 This applies to images held by customers after visiting a place, as well as before visiting a place. Therefore, it is increasingly important to create a compelling virtual brand experience outside the physical place. Among other things, as communication technologies, most notably the Internet, become more sophisticated, the ability to enrich the preand post-physical experience of a place increases significantly.

The perception of a place formed by potential customers prior to actually visiting is of critical importance within the branding process. As with consumer products and services, formulating predisposition and intent to buy is one of the central drivers of brand investment and decision-making.

Images of a place may be formed internally, by residents or those close to a place, or externally, by potential customers. Such image perceptions may overlap or have little in common and may change over time. The importance of understanding image formation from a brand perspective is that this has a potential impact on several key brand building blocks, including brand identity, service and stakeholder alignment, and marketing strategy.

A place brand is, by its very nature, a complex amalgam of strategic and tactical initiatives involving the management of multiple layers of stakeholder groups and multiple channels of communication, often across diverse geographies, histories, and cultures. In recent qualitative research conducted by the author on the Super, Natural British Columbia brand, two key issues stood out in consideration of the application of brand theory within the place brand environment: the management of stakeholder groups and the role of government as dominant stakeholder.

Stakeholders: Delivering on the front lines of the brand experience

Stakeholder groups, among whom are those delivering the brand experience, can be difficult to manage and align behind brand objectives. These groups may include hotel owners, attraction owners, transportation authorities and, not least, government agencies. It should also be noted that anyone with whom visitors may interact, such as residents, the media, or nontourism-specific service workers, whether or not they are part of the tourism industry, will affect the brand experience.

Beyond front-line service workers, a place brand is often a composite of secondary attractions and destinations. In some cases, individual attractions have their own strong reputations that extend well beyond the region and may or may not constitute important elements of the umbrella place brand. The question arises as to how the relationships among these various elements of the brand are negotiated and aligned. Stakeholder dynamics (for example, sub-brand relationships, brand buy-in by front-line service providers) emerge as a theme in both the corporate and place-brand literature with the conclusion that a common and resonant understanding by stakeholders of a brand's core attributes provides the foundation on which brand strength ultimately sits.

The Starbucks coffee experience, for example, depends in large part on the quality of its frontline employees; but to carry a brand throughout a country involves thousands, if not tens of thousands, of brand stewards, none of whom consider their citizenship necessarily makes them stakeholders in a brand.

Government organizations = challenging partnerships

Government or quasi-governmental tourism agencies, as important players within the stakeholder mix, typically occupy a leadership role in constructing the marketing/brand framework. These agencies often lack the political power within government that tourism income would warrant; funding formulas and, therefore, marketing budgets play an important role in determining promotional tactics.

Government or its related agencies have often played a central organizing role in the management of tourism/destination activities. It is clear that governments can have a significant impact, positive or negative, on brand development and implementation through key roles in the areas of funding, brand leadership, coordination of subbrands, and provision of essential travel and tourism infrastructure, such as roads, airports, electrical power, and land management, for example. While government agencies often lead brand initiatives, the stakeholder domains within which they operate are arguably more difficult to manage than those faced by corporate brand managers. However, despite the lack of role clarity and the vagaries of political processes, government or government-affiliated organizations will continue to play a leading and unique role within the place brand stakeholder spectrum for the foreseeable future.

Managing uncertainty and evolving the brand model

The fragmentation of stakeholder groups and the instability of top-level governmental brand leadership suggest that the coherence deemed critical for brand success may not even be possible in the place brand environment. However, it does suggest potential opportunities for more tactical application of brand tenets that may yield substantial economic benefits. Key brand assets may be identified that have the potential to resonate across other points of brand contact, as identified through the place brand model (on previous page). For example, transportation infrastructure (airports, marine terminals), often seen as strictly utilitarian, can make for compelling first impressions of a place that can resonate throughout a visitor's experience. This model also suggests that the organizations responsible for managing brand need to be executing more than ad campaigns; they need to be liaising with a broader spectrum of organizations responsible for physical infrastructure, visitor support services, urban planning, and even clean public toilets!

Conclusion

In summary, successful place branding requires that attention be focused on the following:

* Understanding the role and dynamics of government

* Isolating key points of brand contact

* Focusing marketing campaigns internally, as well as externally

* Understanding the physical and virtual requirements of the brand experience

* Developing new research frameworks that drive meaningful customer experience

There continues to be confusion in the marketplace, both among brand practitioners and clients, that a logo or an identity is all that constitutes a brand. As a result, brand strategy tends to be driven by short-term, narrow-scope thinking through which the primary tool of brand expression becomes the marketing campaign executed through traditional media channels. Brand strategy should, however, more effectively be used as a tool of a broader economic development strategy that includes public and private infrastructure development, the quality of the built environment, service design, and planning and public policy, among others. Notwithstanding the challenges of an expanded perspective of place brand, this view opens up many new opportunities for design practitioners.

Case Study; Super, Natural British Columbia

The Super, Natural British Columbia brand has maintained a strong market presence for more than 25 years, as measured by brand awareness and recall surveys, and has successfully evolved by building on its core attributes. The author's research reveals that the brand benefited from a solid foundation built with a combination of resonant brand attributes and key early management decisions. There was a large measure of positive intuitive response to the core brand attributes. This appears to have been particularly important, because it allowed brand focus and buy-in to develop more easily despite the recognized complexity of managing stakeholder interests. Although the core attributes of the SNBC brand may have been more obvious than is the case in other jurisdictions, this does point to the critical importance of the formative stages of the branding process and the need to attain clarity of brand essence at the outset of any branding initiative.

The following themes emerged as critical success factors:

* Brand definition: Early establishment (1978) of a brand identity with deeply resonant key brand attributes (mountains, ocean, forests). This brand essence was successfully captured by clearly differentiated visuals and supported by media campaigns that were sufficiently funded to establish early market leadership. While largely driven by powerful landscape imagery, the brand has successfully evolved through the development of complementary regional subbrands and sights and activities, such as agricultural tourism, wildlife viewing, and ecotourism.

* Stakeholder dynamics. The brand has benefited from the early establishment of internal branding practices exemplified by a tourism Superhost program that educates, trains, and rates front-line service providers and services. Stakeholder management practices have also evolved through Tourism British Columbia's public/private partnerships, which incorporate regional subbrands and representation from different industry sectors.

* The role of government: Involvement of key government personnel, up to and including the Minister of Tourism, in providing early focus and leadership, ultimately led to the creation of a culture in which a de-politicized brand was supported. While underfunding is a chronic problem in the tourism sector and, indeed, within many government-dependent programs, strong brand roots make such programs less vulnerable to short-term political tampering.

* Managing the brand environment. Challenges have included ensuring that funding levels are sufficient for long-term brand support and establishing appropriate brand measures that not only track brand awareness, but also track customer response to the brand experience and anticipate future trends important to the evolution of the brand.

Case Study: Seattle Metronatural

With the objective of increasing tourism to the city, the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau faced the typical challenge of encapsulatirrg a vast array of attributes into a-cemprehensible and compelling brand position. The keyword metronatural emerged from a year-long consultative process that settled on a combination of urban and outdoor experiences as key brand attributes.

While the new tagline has apparently been well received, the predictable detractors have weighed in with references to urban nudist camps and similarities to words such as tnetrosexual. Stakeholders often acknowledge the need for change but rarely embrace it. As a result, new brand positions need time to take hold.

More worrisome, from a place-brandingstrategy perspective, is that Seattle has adopted a whole string of identities over the past 20 years, including Emerald City, Jet City, and see-@-L: Soak it Up, not to mention the Say WA? campaign (which refers, of course, more to the state than to the city). Adding to the confusion is the fact that the metronatural press release explicitly encourages people to continue using the Emerald City and Jet City monikers, all of which calls into question the city's ability to sustain a focused branding initiative over the 5-, 10-, and 20-year time frames required. The mixed messaging of these past efforts and the narrow focus of the research and vision underpinning the current iteration of the brand also suggests that Seattle still hasn't quite come to terms with its core personality.



Case Study: Brand Manitoba-Spirited Energy

The Canadian province of Manitoba launched its new Spirited Energy brand in 2006, after a two-year development process under the auspices of the Premier's Economic Advisory Council and the branding consultancy Interbrand. The Manitoba process was inclusive of the highest levels of government; it directly addressed the resident population of the province through the research and launch phases; and its vision for a new brand was to draw immigrants and investors to the province and drive resident pride, as well as draw tourists.

Even a comprehensive program, such as that developed for Manitoba, represents only the starting point of what needs to be a sustained effort involving all stakeholders (government, economic development and tourism agencies, frontline businesses, residents) over time.



Case Study: 100% Pure New Zealand

The isolated nation of New Zealand counts tourism as its number-one export earner. Since the launch of its 100% Pure New Zealand campaign in 1999, it has continued to build on its brand foundation of spectacular scenery and ecotourism/outdoor activities. 100% Pure clearly meets many of the criteria for brand success: an image built on obvious attributes that resonate both internally and externally, a strong Internet presence, a global marketing strategy supported by compelling visuals, training of front-line service providers, and a comprehensive and long-term research commitment.

Author: George Allen, Principal, Design|Strategy|Reseorch|lnc
Source: Design Management Institute

Australia chce jednej, spójnej marki

W Australii, pomimo przeprowadzenia w ostatnich latach kilku bardzo udanych projektów promocyjnych w obszarze turystyki (m.in. kampanii "So where the bloody hell are you?" oraz z tego roku opartej na filmie Baza Luhrmanna "Australia" - opisywanej w marcowym numerze Brief for Poland), cały czas dyskutuje się o budowaniu marki kraju. Tym razem mówi się o unifikacji wizerunku, wykorzystaniu sukcesu działań promocyjnych w obszarze turystycznym na gruncie promocji gospodarczej. Proponuje się także powołania "Brand Australia Council". Więcej w artykule poniżej:





One nation, one brand, one shrimp

Tourism chiefs across Australia are calling for one unified Australian brand to use when selling the country's products and services and encouraging tourists from the rest of the world - so are we gearing up to expect another ‘Throw a shrimp on the barbie' ad or what? TheMoveChannel finds out...

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been approached by Australia's major exporters calling for a ‘Brand Australia Council.'

Selling Australia with one unified brand will strengthen people's awareness of the country both as a tourist destination and business hub.

Whilst tourism has done most of the legwork in selling Australia to the world thus far, there now needs to be a coordinated approach which will see the will see the marketing efforts of all Australian businesses, artists, musicians, actors, sportspeople, designers and more, leverage off each other, under a unified Australian brand.

Managing Director of the Tourism and Transport Forum, Christopher Brown, said that it was an easily affordable project.

"Australia is one of the most recognisable country brands on Earth, and the brand has been valued at around £391 billion.

"In context, the most valuable corporate brand in 2008 was Coca-Cola, valued at £24 billion. Coca-Cola has tens of thousands of people worldwide looking after its brand, but at the moment we are going into the market without a marketing department," he added.

Mr Brown said the forum had been working on the proposal for an Australian brand for a couple of years.

Amongst the suggestions for the brand is playing on Australia's relaxed, laid back, outdoorsy nature coupled with a sense of space.

Unlike other cities such as London and New York, Australia offers an uncrowded way of life with a reliable climate and fantastic beaches.

Other suggestions included playing on the physical beauty of the country.

Chief Executive of advertising agency Leo Burnett, Todd Sampson, said, "The challenge facing Australia now is to find its own space in people's heads.

"Just like Las Vegas instantly means adult playground, so Australia needs to find its own brand," he added.

Author: Catherine Deshayes
Source: www.themovechannel.com

Consensus key to vibrant national brand

W rankingu marek krajów z 2008 r. (Anholt-Gfk, 2008) Korea uplasowała się na 33 miejscu. To rozczarowujący dla nich wynik, biorąc pod uwagę potencjał gospodarczy (15 gospodarka na świecie, 4 w Azji) oraz atrakcyjny świat kultury i sztuki. I to właśnie koreańska kultura ma dodać energii marce kraju. Więcej w wywiadzie z Kim He-beom-em, dyrektorem organizacji odpowiedzialnej za promocję kultury, afiliowanej przy Ministerstwie Kultury.


Consensus key to vibrant national brand

‘It is our responsibility to draw the whole picture of Korea for [the world],and offer facts on the rest of the spectrum.’



A decade or two ago, few thought that a country or a culture could be called a brand in its own right, a marketable, profitable name capable of generating business and trade deals all on its own.

Yet Koreans these days are constantly reminded of the importance of the country’s image as a brand and marketing tool, since the Lee Myung-bak administration is particularly keen on promoting Korea and commercializing its culture.

According to Anholt-GfK, a New York-based market research company that ranks the world’s national brands, Korea was 33rd of 50 countries in 2008 in terms of the power and quality of its image. For number-conscious Koreans, the ranking is both disappointing and alarming, especially considering that the country is the world’s 15th-largest economy, and No. 4 in Asia.

There are several government organizations in Korea responsible for promoting it and its culture to the international community. Perhaps one of the oldest is the Korean Culture and Information Service. Kim He-beom, a veteran government publicist, took the helm at the Culture Ministry-affiliated organization about three months ago. The JoongAng Daily sat down with him for his take on Korea the brand.

Q. How have efforts to promote Korea abroad changed over the years?

A. Next year marks the 40th anniversary of the Korean Culture and Information Service. [The agency has existed under different names depending on the leadership at the time.]

In the early years [of the 1970s and ’80s], the work was largely about the justification of the government. Amid rising calls for democracy, the military regimes that came to power in coups d’etat lacked legitimacy. Thus, our main function was to provide justification of the government.

Then in the early 1990s, North Korea began to provoke the international community with nuclear threats. Our prior task then was explaining to the world the situation with the North Korean nuclear program - to tell them precisely what’s going on on the Korean Peninsula and defuse unnecessary concerns or crises.

In the late 1990s, the Asian financial crisis erupted. Thus, our work was mostly about reporting to the world how Korea was handling the situation, and how it was recovering in order to win back credibility and investment from foreign partners.

Today, Korea no longer has to prove the legitimacy of its government, but the North Korea issue lingers, and like many other countries in the world, Korea has been hit with another economic crisis.

So we are working to let the world know how Korea’s quickly recovering from the crisis using its previous experience from the late 1990s. We are also working to promote Korea’s cultural aspects, since as a member of the OECD and the G-20, the country has a lot to offer culturally, too.

What Korean cultural content do you think is particularly viable in the global arena?

Korean food is one. There is a diversity in Korean food that is rarely seen in food in other countries. And that variety, along with richness in taste and quantity, has so much potential. We just have agree on how best to promote it overseas.

The Hallyu [Korean Wave] phenomenon is another. When I ask foreigners about the appeal of Korean films and dramas, they pick their lack of sexual and violent content and abundance of emotional and moral elements, which certainly set them apart from say, Hollywood films.

The Korean government’s green initiatives can also be utilized. Korea is a small country with high population density and few natural resources. Thus the government is extremely interested in eco-friendly, sustainable development. Green is the buzzword in the international community today. If we succeed in these initiatives, we could become an exemplary model for others.

Finding a linkage among these elements can also yield synergistic effects. One example would be a bicycle tour to take participants on Korean food tasting experiences in different regions. The green element would be the bicycles, and the cultural element, the food, and they would work synergistically to promote Korea and enhance its image.

How do foreigners perceive Korea? And how is the Korean Culture and Information Service working with these perceptions?

It seems that there are two very contrasting views on Korea.

At the one end of the spectrum is the negative perception that Korea is politically unstable because of the North Korean nuclear threat and that the economy is also weak and unpredictable due to factors like management-labor conflicts and protests.

At the other end of the spectrum is a sense of respect, even awe, for successful Korean-made goods and content like Samsung products or [the drama] “Jewel in the Palace.” This is often seen in regions in Southeast Asia, Central Asia or the Middle East.

I don’t want to call these perceptions stereotypes because they are, after all, what make up Korea. Instead I would call them partial, unbalanced views on Korea. In that sense, it is our responsibility to draw the whole picture of Korea for them, and offer facts on the rest of the spectrum.


There has been criticism of the official slogan “Dynamic Korea,” adopted by the government in 2001. Do you think it does a good job of representing Korea?

I am aware that there are both supporters and opponents of that slogan. One thing that cannot be ignored is the amount of research, work and money that went into creating that slogan. Another equally important thing is the brand recognition it has accumulated abroad over the years. In fact, “Dynamic Korea” is more famous abroad than here in Korea.

The key to a good slogan is coming to a consensus among ourselves about what facet of us we want to present to the world. Is it our 5,000-year history? Historic sites like Gyeongbok Palace? IT? A slogan is important, but no slogan can satisfy everyone. Some will like it and others are bound to hate it. All we can do is find consensus as best we can beforehand.

There are many government groups working to promote Korea and its culture: the Council on Nation Branding under the presidential office, the Korea Foundation under the Foreign Ministry, the Korea Tourism Organization, and others. Is this ever challenging for you?

The launch of those organizations was inevitable given circumstances in the past. But the situation has changed now. It seems that Korea has grown in body size, yet is still wearing old clothes. It’s crucial that we differentiate these group’s missions while centralizing efforts and strengthening networking.

As part of these efforts, we envision something like the British Council or the Japan Foundation. Its tentative name is the “Korea Center.” The center will centralize the nation’s PR efforts, which are now scattered, and enhance communication among organizations like the Culture Ministry, the Korea Tourism Organization and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

By Kim Hyung-eun, The JoongAng Daily

(Kim He-beom, Director of the Korean Culture and Information Service)

Source: joongangdaily.joins.com