Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
As Sri Lanka is moving out of the CHOGM fever, the question asked by many is, what was the ROI that Sri Lanka made from the event?
The Commonwealth Business Forum Secretariat is very clear that it only works as a platform for businessmen in the world to meet and will not be monitoring the deals made and impact to a country. The information released on occupancy was not that encouraging which states that pre-CHOGM occupancy was at 40% and during CHOGM was at a highpoint of 55% - nowhere close to the expectations that was at some 80%.
Adding to brand value
In this backdrop, it is important to understand that events such as CHOGM are not about just the business made but how it helped a country in its journey of making a statement to the world and this in turn helps a country add to the brand value.
In this perspective, it will be interesting to understand how the brand value of Sri Lanka which is around the mid-30s pan out in 2014.
A strong country brand?
It is said that a strong country has become a defining feature of success in today’s economic climate. Worldwide hyper competition for business, combined with an increasingly cluttered media environment, means that a clear country brand tends to have a competitive advantage to attract business, tourism and drive exports into global markets.
In today’s intensely competitive world, where access to capital, talent, ideas and consumers gets ever easier, countries’ ability to compete against each other for share of mind, share of income, share of talent and share of voice is significantly determined by the power of their brand image. This is the reality that Sri Lanka needs to keep in mind when staging global events such as CHOGM.
Let’s accept it, unless a country “stands for” something special and different, there is little chance that this country will be able to compete successfully for any of the precious attention.
A specialist who advises governments on building strong country brands states that like any brand, nations have individual identities which are unique to them and no two nations are alike, which is why Sri Lanka needs to agree on clear positioning and then drive a global campaign like what Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia do, so that we communicate a unique identity and then very importantly live it when people touch and feel the brand when they come to our beautiful Island.
Brand Japan $ 2,619 b
With the economic marvel that unfolded just after World War II, Japan capture the world’s imagination with cutting-edge innovation amidst its challenging economic conditions and developed brands that dominated the whole world from the Sony Walkman to power automotive brands like Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Nintendo, Canon and Nissan to just name a few, not forgetting the b2b brand like NTT that cuts across the world of telecommunication.
In fact at one time the number three economy in the world had 10 brands in the top 15 most powerful brands in the world. In 2011 Brand Japan was estimated to be worth a staggering 2,619 billion dollars.
Disaster strikes
However, Japan’s reputation as a safe and efficiently-governed country that powers innovative consumer durables stuck disaster with multiple natural disasters hitting the country with the 11 March 2011 earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that killed 15,000 people, exposing the country’s weak leadership and inability to respond to growing challenges.
The tsunami and accompanying nuclear disaster caused all ports in the country to be closed, immensely disrupting economic supply chains. Natural disasters were a massive hit on the country’s infrastructure.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster caused them to reconsider their dependence on nuclear power. All of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors were shut down for tests, causing a massive power shortage across the country. The brand lost $ 679 billion in value as a national brand and ended with a low 1,940 billion dollar value, which demonstrates the fragility of this indicator but can have severe ramifications when it comes to losing the confidence of the world.
However, post the loss in brand value of almost 3,000 billion dollars, industry experts revealed that the brand value of Japan was getting hit way before the natural calamity. It further revealed that many of Japan’s image problems have been the result of conscious actions within the country.
Even though Japan had built a reputation of being a country where law and order was high and its efficiency was strong with zero defects, its high quality standards were taking a hit with the much-publicised Toyota auto recall and the public consciousness over Japan’s whale hunts.
For instance, environmentally concerned citizens around the world saw YouTube images of the supposedly polite, efficient Japanese piloting a whaling vessel that cut a whale protecting speedboat into pieces. Much to the dismay of foreign tourists, Japanese restaurants display whale meat for sale – in complete contradiction of their “research” claim on whale hunts.
With the release of the movie ‘The Cove,’ rather than showcasing automotive or high-speed train technology, they featured the slaughtering of dolphins until the waters turned red. These developments going unnoticed over time by the policymaking officials was catapulted with the twin natural disasters that resulted in Brand Japan losing a staggering 679 billion dollars off its value.
Rebuilding the Image
Given the directional change that was required, Brand Japan then developed a strong campaign with very clear policy decisions that the country can deliver on the ground and live up to the expectations of the people with a campaign called ‘Cool-Japan’.
Given that brand Japan was associated with innovation, zero defects and high productivity, the weakness of Brand Japan was that the emotional side of brand building was not manoeuvred. This was addressed with the ‘Cool Japan’ nation-branding campaign. The logo used is the ‘Japan Next’ tagline.
The overall campaign featured Japanese art, literature, food, drink and history that underlined the ‘Cool Japan’ concept on the human dimension with unique Japanese lifestyle, culture, music and arts that differentiated the brand from the Korean and Taiwan competitors that were fighting with power brands like Samsung and Kia.
Strategy unfolding
Given the new push to leverage the soft power potential of food and drink and culture to rebuild the brand globally, some suggestions recommended by experts were to move away from Japanese restaurants globally serving raw fish at excessively high prices and drive a strategy of izakaya diplomacy, which encourages Japanese restaurant entrepreneurs to set up izakayas in the key global markets, of a simpler and more energetic dining experience touching the unique culture of the Japanese people.
The overall thinking was to create awareness of the ‘authentic’ side of Brand Japan which was “pure” and ‘Cool-Japan’ strategy umbrella. To my mind it was a very sharp strategy given that roughly 9,000 restaurants are available only in the US and with this touch changing the imagery towards Japan will be more impactful.
Pick-up for Sri Lanka
Given the experience of Brand Japan, I guess the cue to Sri Lanka is that if we want to change direction, Sri Lanka needs to be positioned in the world especially the unfolding of events with the British Prime Minister’s statement at CHOGM. This was drummed up with the absence of the Indian Premier and the walkout of the Mauritius Head of State from hosting the next Commonwealth Conference.
Some might recommend time but given the power of the diaspora which is revving up the agenda for the March conference in 2014, I guess Sri Lanka will have to change the overall strategy and develop a new imagery for brand Sri Lanka.
(The author acknowledges the research done by the MBA graduates of the University of Colombo. The thoughts shared have no links to the organisations the author serves in Sri Lanka
or globally. Writing is only a hobby he pursues.)
