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

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

Brand Sweden goes local

Szwecja rozpoczęła budowę swojej marki od działań na poziomie centralnym. W 2006 r. Rada Promocji Szwecji uruchomiła platformę brandingową dla swojego kraju. Platforma opisuje istotę komunikacji Szwecji na zewnątrz. Obecnie działania brandingowe schodzą o jeden poziom niżej - do miast i regionów. Więcej w artykule:


'Brand Sweden' goes local

Nation-branding, though controversial in some quarters, is becoming ever more important and can be of great value to towns and regions wishing to reach out to the wider world, writes Joakim Norén of the Swedish Institute.

Nowadays, a place is also a brand. But branding a place is fairly different from branding a product. For Swedish regions and municipalities, the “Brand Sweden” platform may make the job easier.

In 2006 The Council for the Promotion of Sweden (NSU*) launched a brand platform for Sweden. The NSU is a cooperation between the Swedish Institute, VisitSweden, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Invest in Sweden Agency and the Trade Council. The platform describes the essence that is the foundation or starting point for all official communication of Sweden abroad.



It is quite unique that organisations with such diverse missions from the government share a brand platform, and similar organisations from around the world have shown interest in the platform. The Swedish Institute has also noticed a growing interest from Swedish regions and municipalities, both to learn from the process of developing a brand platform with a broad group of interested parties and to relate to “Brand Sweden” when they develop their own brands.

Branding is becoming ever more important. For companies targeting the consumer market it’s a prerequisite, and for most business-to-business companies as well. But many still think that branding of places is a little bit strange, sometimes even controversial. However, places have as much to gain from a strong brand as products and services. And quite often product brands and place brands interact; you all know which country builds the best quality luxury cars or where the most cutting edge consumer electronics come from.

Branding of places has some additional challenges compared with branding of commercial products. Products can often be changed to fit a brand platform, something which is very difficult or impossible when it comes to a place. There is also a broader range of interested parties involved, who will have to contribute to realising the brand but also have something to benefit from a successful brand. A brand platform for a place needs to be accessible to the public and is therefore more likely to be questioned and criticised.

The Swedish regions and municipalities have far less resources to allocate for branding than the NSU, so sharing the experience from developing “Brand Sweden” is a good way for the Swedish Institute to help them move forward in this process. In the spring of 2009, the Swedish Institute arranged a seminar together with Geobrands, where we presented the brand platform for Sweden together with some insights into how the national brand can be interpreted and used on a local or regional level.

For the regions and municipalities it is essential to know how Sweden is perceived abroad for their own branding efforts, and they wouldn’t be able to afford to carry out all the research that the Swedish Institute does. Sharing this information broadly is also a way for the Swedish Institute to reach its target of a stronger, clearer and more up-to-date image for Sweden abroad.

Brand Sweden is the sum of all encounters between people around the world and anything Swedish – products, people, culture or actual visits to Sweden. The key to a clear and strong national brand is not only in what message the Swedish institute or the rest of the NSU send out, but what all Swedish regions, product brands, people, etc do and say.

For example, companies like Volvo and Ikea have done a great job of positioning Sweden as a country that makes products where design and innovation is really used for the benefit of ordinary people. If we can get more Swedish organisations to share and use the Brand Sweden platform and communicate the unique values and the position that sets Sweden apart in the world, it will surely benefit both the image of Sweden in general and any brand associated with Sweden.

Author: Joakim Norén, Brand Development Manager, Swedish Institute
Source: www.thelocal.se

To visit IKEA is to visit Sweden

Marki krajów i komercyjne często są ze sobą powiązane. Marki komercyjne zasilają markę kraju z którego pochodzą, i odwrotnie. Ma to tym większe znaczenie im wartości marek komercyjnych są bliższe marce kraju (Apple i USA - innowacje, technologia), Giorgio Armani i Włochy (moda i styl) oraz BMW i Niemcy (niezawodność, jakość).

Poniżej przykład symbiozy marki IKEI ze Szwecją (artykuł, niestety po angielski, zaciągnięty z Public Diplomacy Magazine, autor: Olle Wästberg).

The Symbiosis of Sweden & IKEA

Frankly, IKEA is doing more for the image of Sweden than all governmental efforts combined.

That might be a sad statement coming from a governmental official tasked with enforcing “the brand of Sweden.” But IKEA’s 285 stores in 37 countries feature the blue-and-yellow national colors, serve Swedish meatballs and sell blond-wood Swedish designs and books about Sweden. To visit IKEA is to visit Sweden.

Every “nation brand” is a simplification. But even though it may be paradoxical in a globalized world, most countries have found that they must stress their individuality to be able to compete. Reputation is the new currency now that countries are beginning to understand that soft power can be more forceful than the hard power that has so often failed.



Enhancing Sweden’s image involves creating a clear position for Sweden internationally – a unique place in people’s consciousness that distinguishes Sweden from other countries. Specifically, we, Sweden’s image makers, must define what unites all things Swedish, and also dare to identify the associations people around the world make with Sweden. The leading Swedish agencies dealing with “Sweden” – the Swedish Trade Council, Visit Sweden, Invest in Sweden Agency and the Swedish Institute – have together established a mutual brand platform, which places the word “progressive” in the center, with four core values around it:



To elaborate, four words represent these core values:

Innovative means new ways of thinking. Seeing things from a new perspective. Seeing opportunities and solutions and having faith in a better future. Not allowing oneself to be limited by ingrained opinions or traditions.

Open means having a positive attitude toward free thinking and differences among people, cultures and lifestyles. It involves being curious and sensitive to others as well as giving people space and creating exchanges; space for the ideas and views of individuals, as well as physical space to move freely without obstacles, fences, or crowding, in our readily accessible countryside, cities and places in between.

Caring means safeguarding every individual. Providing safety and security as well as respecting and including all people. It means feeling empathy and sharing with those who are most vulnerable; becoming involved with others and trying to see to the needs of every individual.

Authentic means being natural and unaffected. It means being reliable, honest and informal. It also involves being straightforward, unpretentious and clear, as well as standing up for one’s values even when it is not comfortable to do so. To be authentic means to be in touch with your past and your roots, while open to the future.

This might not be entirely unique, but the combination says a lot about Sweden and research shows that these are values that people from other countries associate with Sweden.

IKEA fits very well in that context. The company has been a forerunner in corporate social responsibility, putting emphasis on the working conditions of their contractors as well as on sustainability. The IKEA brand could very well be categorized by the same progressive descriptors as the public diplomacy platform of Sweden outlined above.

The brand of IKEA is not independent; it is closely interlinked with the image of Sweden, drawing from Swedish design innovation going back more than a hundred years. It is not by chance that The Museum of Modern Art in New York last year published the book Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts, which presented the first English translations of three seminal texts by pioneers of Swedish design. The three founding texts are “Beauty in the Home” (1899), by the philosopher and critic Ellen Key; “Better Things for Everyday Life” (1919), by Gregor Paulsson, art historian and director of the Swedish Arts and Crafts Society from 1920 to 1934; and “acceptera” (1931), co-authored by Paulsson and the architects Gunnar Asplund, Sven Markelius, Eskil Sundahl, Uno Åhrén and Wolter Gahn.

Those texts were written long before IKEA was established and were part of what founded the international view of Swedish design: spartan and blond, which may have communicated a national character, if such a thing exists.

The Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 established the term “functionalism” which has since been dominant in Swedish design and architecture, even though Sweden also has its neoclassical buildings. Function, not decoration, is the framework for what could be called the typical Swedish design creed.

On another level, the book Sweden: the Middle Way by the American journalist Marquis Childs had an enormous impact on the image of Sweden, especially in the U.S., and sold several editions in 1936. The book painted Sweden as the ultimate compromise between capitalism and socialism, a sort of paradise where basic class conflicts were gone. It offered a social design that interplayed very well with functionalism. This has been beneficial for Sweden. However, it is largely a stereotype, as today’s Sweden is one of the most market-oriented countries in the world.

Does Sweden use design as a tool for nation branding today? Yes, the Swedish Institute continuously has exhibitions of Swedish design that travel the globe. Sweden is a small country, about the size of California, with a population equivalent to New York City, and a GNP the size of New Jersey. To be successful from that small base, Swedish companies must add value and special knowledge to their products. Some companies have learned the hard way that neglecting design will hurt. Ericsson’s problems with cellular lines at the end of the 1990s were the result of the engineer-driven company’s late realization that people first looked at the surface, before inquiring about the content of the product. Consider products made of alcohol distilled from potatoes—often called “vodka.” Absolut, with its well designed bottle and brilliant ad campaign, has made that simple product an international status symbol, proving how well design can work.

It’s obvious that Sweden’s nation branding is linked to Swedish design. When the U.S. established its embassies and consulates in a devastated Europe after World War II, it built transparent modern buildings with many glass windows that were meant to send the message that the U.S. is an open, democratic society. Similarly, when Sweden built the new House of Sweden in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago, a driving focus was to showcase contemporary design. Designed by the architect Gert Wingårdh, the building is a combined embassy, exhibition hall and meeting place. It incarnates Sweden.

But Sweden can still do more to showcase its aesthetic innovations while its official representatives could be much more consistent in the details. Does everyone who represents Sweden drive a Volvo and carry an Ericsson cell? Is every embassy furnished with the latest in Swedish furniture design? Regrettably, no. You would have to search long and hard to find IKEA furniture at embassies or consulates.

For business, the image of a country can be decisive. Simply put: if you just have a couple of minutes to present your product, it helps if you don’t need to use that scarce time to explain the nature of its origin. In fact, the country of origin could actually add to the value of a product—a phenomenon sometimes called “the country of origin effect.”

I recently met with the CEO of Volvo Trucks. He told me that, clearly, Volvo is very affected by the image of Sweden. Both because Volvo as a brand is so interlinked with Sweden, but also because Volvo needs to entice some of the best car engineers to move to Gothenburg. Therefore Sweden has to spread the image of a country that is nice to live, study and work in (which actually, according to Simon Anholt’s Nation Brands Index studies, is one of the areas where Sweden excels).

The Swedish Institute is in the process of forming a network of companies wanting to use place branding as a marketing tool. It goes both ways: Sweden benefits from the way IKEA markets itself; and IKEA is one of the companies that benefits most from the image of Sweden. IKEA would not be IKEA without its Swedish background.

Autor:
Olle Wästberg is the Director-General of the Swedish Institute, a public agency entrusted with disseminating knowledge abroad about Sweden and organizing exchanges with other countries in the spheres of culture, education, research and public life in general. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of the daily newspaper Expressen, Member of Parliament, State Secretary of Finance, and Consul-General of Sweden in New York.