SL, learn from brand Croatia

Whilst I am thousands of miles away from Sri Lanka, I logged on to Facebook to check on what people say about Sri Lanka’s day of independence. The one theme that comes across is the love for their country, be it those residing in Canada, US, Australia, or Dubai.

My mind went back to the time when I used to travel on military aircrafts to Jaffna in the height of the war in 2008-’09, where there were many who were prepared to risk their lives to bring peace to our mother land. But the question is, what went wrong after that?

What went wrong?

It’s difficult to pinpoint. In my belief that it’s a combination of internal and external pressures that forced the country to take decisions that happen to garner a string share of media that has not been positive to brand Sri Lanka.

I Googled some of them and the newsreels that emerged were the lawyers’ protest on the former CJ’s issue, the killings in Kelaniya, education sector uprising on the wage debate, oil hedging court judgment, and the agitation by journalists on missing or killed media personnel. None know the fact and reality, but a point to note from a global perspective is that perception is reality.

Perceptions of countries

To explain this point better, for instance, Delhi is fast but surely earning a reputation as the rape capital of the world due to the continuous media reports on the behaviour of its people of alleged rape attacks. Once again I like to repeat the point made. Perception is reality even though factually we do not know the validity of these reports that appear in the media.

Japan is associated with technology solutions stemming from the automobile industry, Kabul with suicide bombings, Cuba on the Fidel Castro dictatorship, Sudan for the African civil war, whilst the US is yet perceived for giving leadership to the world whilst the UK for Colonial tradition, to name a few. The scary question is, what is Sri Lanka getting labelled for?

Simon Anholt, the nation branding expert who has advised over 59 global leaders on building the image of nations, comments: “Your reputation as a country is what you earn over time. You cannot just fabricate it with sexy advertising and promises that the country does not live up to. This is the brutal reality I feel we must remember as we celebrated the fourth independence post the war with the LTTE.”

Why Croatia?

Croatia is a Central European and Mediterranean country with a population of 4.5 million people and a GDP per capita of $ 18,331. Croatia has an image as one of the most successful incoming destinations in the Mediterranean and is ranked ninth in terms of the rate of growth of its national brand as per Brand Finance.

Croatia’s nation brand was valued at $ 30 billion in 2011 and placed the ninth fastest growing value by 21.2% and was termed as being one of the only two European countries to make the ‘Most Improved’ list. This performance is commendable because most other European countries lost in value in the Nation Branding Index.

What is nation branding?

Very simply, the Nation Brand Index measures the power and the appeal that a country has globally. Conducted annually, it uses the works of top policy advisor and consultant to many governments, Simon Anholt. But a key principle in nation branding is that what is required is not sexy advertising on a window-dressed platform. Nation branding is emanating credible statements on a consistent basis so that a country earns a reputation that it deserves.

Croatia – unplugged

1) Exports

Croatia received very different ratings on the various scores that go into the Nation Brand ranking. While the country’s brand equity and infrastructure rankings remain low, strong economic growth and the prospect of EU membership raised the country’s economic rating. Hence the economic factor has played a major role in the uplift of the nation brand value.

In late 1997, the Croatian Chamber of Economy started the Project to Visually Mark Croatian Products with Croatian Quality and Croatian Creation labels. The Croatian Quality label is given to 110 Croatian products whose properties meet high world standards. With regard to multilateral cooperation, special attention is paid to the EU as the most important foreign trade partner, because full membership of this European integration is the main strategic goal of Croatia.

Therefore, branding is also seen as crucial to Croatia because it has realised that timelines for acceptance into the European Union and ability to compete against their neighbours for investment in part depends on how they are perceived by more developed European countries.

We can see a stable increase from 1993 to 2008 and during the period of 2008 to 2009 there is a decrease in the trend and this is mainly due to the economic crisis. But from 2010 onwards we can see a stable increasing trend which will have a positive impact on the country’s brand value.

2) Governance

Even though Croatia’s brand equity was hurt by the lasting associations of the country with the brutal Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, and the unwillingness of post-war governments to cooperate in the prosecution of war crimes suspects, the country has worked hard in building their brand image.

Croatia today has a very high Human Development Index. The International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high income economy. Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, CEFTA, and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. Croatia is an acceding state of the European Union, with full membership expected in July 2013.

Croatia has established diplomatic relations with 174 countries. As of 2009, Croatia maintains a network of 51 embassies, 24 consulates and eight permanent diplomatic missions abroad. Furthermore, there are 52 foreign embassies and 69 consulates in the Republic of Croatia. The population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute and optional insurance. In 2009, annual healthcare related expenditures reached 20.6 billion kuna (Euro 2.75 billion). Healthcare expenditures comprise only 0.6% of private health insurance and public spending. In 2010, Croatia spent 6.9% of its GDP on healthcare.

3) Culture

Croatia represents a blend of four different cultural spheres. As of 2009, Croatia had 23 professional theatres, 14 professional children’s theatres, and 27 amateur theatres visited by more than two million viewers per year. The professional theatres employ 1,100 artistes.

There are 24 professional orchestras, ensembles and choirs in the country, attracting an annual attendance of 323,000. There are 117 cinemas with attendance exceeding 3.5 million. Croatia has 175 museums, visited by nearly 2.2 million people in 2009. Furthermore, there are 1,685 libraries in the country. It shows the people’s positive attitude towards aesthetics.

4) People

Croatia has established a high level of human development and gender equality in terms of the Human Development Index and it also promotes disability rights. Literacy in Croatia stands at 98.1 per cent. A worldwide study about the quality of living in different countries published by Newsweek in August 2010 ranked the Croatian education system at 22nd, to share the position with Austria. Primary education in Croatia starts at the age of six or seven and consists of eight grades.

In 2007 a law was passed to increase free, non-compulsory education until 18 years of age. Compulsory education consists of eight grades of elementary school. Secondary education is provided by gymnasiums and vocational schools. As of 2010, there were 2,131 elementary schools and 713 schools providing various forms of secondary education. Primary and secondary education is also available in languages of recognised minorities in Croatia.

There are 84 elementary level and 47 secondary level music and art schools, as well as 92 schools for disabled children and youth and 74 schools for adults. Croatia has also produced inventors and two Croatians received the Nobel Prize. Such factors will have a positive impact on the overall nation brand value.

5) Tourism

Since the conclusion of the Croatian War of Independence, the tourist industry has grown rapidly, recording a fourfold rise in tourist numbers, with more than 10 million tourists each year. Tourism dominates the Croatian service sector and accounts for up to 20% of Croatian GDP. Annual tourist industry income for 2011 was estimated at €6.61 billion.

After 2000, we can see a stable increase in the number of tourists visiting the country, which is a positive factor in building brand Croatia.

Way forward – Sri Lanka

A national marketing committee must be set up to understand how a strong nation brand comes into play, may be based on the works of Anholt-Roper.

Thereafter, one must bite the bullet and understand how the world perceives Sri Lanka on these six dimensions.

Sri Lanka must engage the expertise of a personality like Simon Anholt so that he can guide the policy makers that this is not a strategy but it has to be earned with conscious decision making based on the current perceptions the world has on Sri Lanka.

All key stakeholders must understand the importance and take ownership of the importance of Sri Lanka becoming a strong brand globally with a reputation ‘earned’ and not financially procured.

There must be a quarterly monitoring system so that corrective action can happen.

We must identify the risks associated that can harm the brand. For instance when Columbia wanted to change the perception people had as the ‘kidnapping capital of the world,’ then it had to ensure that such occurrences would not happen again.

At the end of the day, the brand custodians are the people and it is only the people of the country who can take it forward. If not our actions only keep hurting brand Sri Lanka, which is very sad when there is so much going good for Sri Lanka.

(The author is a multiple award winning marketer and business leader. The thoughts expressed are his personal observations and not the views of any organisation he serves in Sri Lanka or globally. He is a recipient of the Global Business Leadership Award 2013 in Singapore.)