Anholt-Nation Brand of 21st Century

7/23/2019 Anholt-Nation Brand of 21st Century

1/12

f

the

twenty-first entury

Anholt

WorldWriters, 62-170 ardourtreet,ondonWlV 3AT.

+44

171

287 4877; Fax: +44 171 287 6159; E-mail: [email protected]

in

revised orm):21st May, 1998

Anholt read Modern Languages

at Ox-

and worked as copywriter and international

at McCann-Erickson and various

agencies around the world before founding

Writers in 1989. World Writers is

the

global creative audit, brand naming,

brand thinktank, foreign copywriting

lts

many

include Microsoft, Nike,

Coca-Cola,

Express, Sony, lBM, Adidas, Visa,

Nestl6, Hdagen-

Hewlett-Packard, Xerox,

P&G,

Unilever,

cedes-

Benz and Benetton.

he twentieth

entuq ,

nrostof the re-

successJul

nternational brands

haue

come

countries

hat are successJulrands

n their

ght,

and substantial ransferof imageryand

equity

can often be

seen o oecur etween

two.

This

paper

proposes

hat a

number

of

'amerg-

markets,

nd especially razil,

haue

hepo-

o

produce

lobal

brands,

for

the

following

here

s alreadyhigh recognition f

the

brand-print

f the country

tselJ uhich will

eonsequently

llpport

the

'rightness'

and ac-

ceptability

J

elevant ommenialbrands

front

that

country;

because

he

economic

nuironment

s increas-

ingly

Jauouring

an export rnentality

because

ertain

rotrysoJ consumersn other

enrerging

markets

ntight

eventually

fauour

brands

frim

emerging

or

'recently-enrerged'

marketssuch as

Brazil, in

preferenceo

'frst-

world' nations

ike

USA.

The paper argues

hat

exporting brands,as dis-

tinctfrom commodities,

s

part of a

package

of de-

velopment

which, together,

ean signifcantly

acceleratehe process

J

emergence

from

the third

world. It alsoproposeshat countries ike Brazil

hauea real ehanceo

oin

the

frst

world 'club' of

global

brand

producersn the twenty-frst

century.

THE

MPORTANCE

F

PROVENANCE

AS A BRANDATTRIBUTE

Few things

in

marketing are

harder to define

than the personality of a brand, and seldom

is this task

more complex than when the

brand is sold

in many different countries. A

brand

is

always

a complex rnixture of attrib-

utes:

packaging

and

visual identity form its

face, and advertising creates ts voice:

but its

actual personality

really

only

exists in the

mind of the

consumer.

One attr ibute

which is often of funda-

mental importance

in the

complex

makeup

of international

brands is the inf luence

rvhich the brandt provenance or its per-

ceived provenance

-

has on the consumer's

perception of the brand.

A

quick poll

of

successful nternational

consunrer brands reveals

hat the

vast

major-

ity of them come

frorn countries

rvhich

have a strong

and consistent international

'brand

image'

of their orvn. In

lnany

cases,

the inragery used by

the cornmercial brands

is closely inked

rvith the attributes of

therr

provenance.

ThcJoumrl

ofBrand

IUanxgcmcnt

Vol

5 No

6

1998,

pp 395-406

O

Hrnn Stervan Publicarions,

1350-231X


2/12

At i ts s implest evel, this associat ion e-

tween commercial and

national

brand

is

rnerely a caseof posit iue

ssocialions

it] t

na-

t ionalproduce: country

is famous

for

pro-

ducing certain items, and brands n related

product categoriesprofit by association. taly

is famous for

producing pastaand pizza,

so

Italian pasta and

pizza

brands

enjoy more

irnnrediate and

posit ive associations han

non- ltal ian brands; the Fre nch are

renowned for their skill in

perfumery, so it is

natural

that

French perfume brands

play

on

their French

heritage; the best whisky tradi-

t ionally

conles

from Scotland, so stressing

the

Scott ishness

f whisky brands is almost

mandatory.

PLAYING

WITHPROVENANCE

At a more

sophisticated

evel, manufacturers

of

products

that are not tradit ional national

products

can

make highly positive

and valu-

able

associations ith

perceived qualit ies

n

their national brand, in a

precisely

analogous

way

to the

practice

of brand extensions,

where the owner of an establishedbrand can

use that equity to

leverage

acceptance of a

new product

or sub-brand.

For

example,

Japan

is associated n the minds of Euro-

peans

with high-stressurban existence,but

also

with ancient

wisdom

and

mystic healing

powers:

so marketing K3, a soft drink asso-

ciated with stress elief, to ABC1 urbanites

in Britain, is

a highly

intell igent

brand

ex-

tension ,

drawing

on and extending existing

perceptions

of brand

Japan.

These associationsof

qualiry

or appropri-

atenessare powerful enough attr ibutes to

make

it worthwhile

for

a

manufacturer to

claim a

fictitious provenance

if it appears o

lend more credibil ity than their real prove-

nance.

It is, in effect, a shortcut to

well-es-

tablished

brand

values for

emerging brands:

by attaching

the emerging brand to an area

of establishedcultural

reference within the

consumert

experience,

t can

quickly

obtain

a halo of recognition, maturity and respect.

These

cuckoo

brands , as he au thor

of

this

paper

calls them,

which

borrow

brand

equiry from more established ultural

icons,

are surprisingly common and

have been

around for many years, asWally Olins ob-

served n a recent seminar. l

The Italian confectioner, Perfett i, for ex-

ample, owns

a

successful chewing-gum

brand cal led

Brooklyn ,

a

product which

bears an image of the Brooklyn

Bridge on

its packaging, and is manufactured in Tirrin.

This bogus

provenance

no doubt made

per-

fect

sense

when

the

brand was aunched

-

chewing-gum was an US import, and

its

novelty and glamour derived principally

from its provenance.

Even today, many

Ital-

ians

stil l

refer to chewing-gurr

^s

gomma

americana r even in

sorne dialects as

gin-

gomma,

a corruption of the English word. In

such a cultural climate. a domestic brand

would

clearly

have

taken many more

years

to attain any kind

of

recognit ion

or brand

share.

Likewise,

Dixon s, the

UK

white

goods

retailer, launched

its own

consumer

elec-

tronics brand in 1982 under the mock-

Japanese

name

Saisho, because it

r ightly

believed that

a Brit ish electronics brand

would

carry

little

credibiliry. By a similar set

of associations,

t has been

suggested

hat the

US laser/fax supplies

and

photofinishing

company, Nashua,

has

prospered

abroad

partly

as a

result

of the mistaken belief that it

is a

Japanese

company

(Nashua

is, in fact,

the name of the New Hampshire town in

which

the company is located,

and the

word

is, I guess,Algonquin,

notJapanese).

The

provenance

ofcertain brands can

also

switch with a change

of

brand

owner:

char-

acters ike Winnie-the-Pooh, Mary Poppins

and

Alice in

Wonderland, once perceived as

being quintessentiallyBrit ish,

are

now per-

ceived by children

around the

world as

being

quintessentially

American; l ikewise,

through the power

of Walt Disney s brand-

ing,

Quasimodo,

Anastasia, Snow White

and Hercules are no longer French, Russian,


3/12

or Greek, but all

come

from

the

global-American

culture stable as

Mouse and Donald Duck.

This

is the

converseof the cuckoo

effect: here, the cuckoo steals eggs

other birds

nests

and hacches hem in

Own.

Indeed,

i f

a country begins to produce

market

enough

powerful

brands in a

category that was previously

associ-

with

another

nation,

the

perceived

of the enti re

category is liable to

for

example, outside Europe, pizza

is

generally

associated with

the USA,

because

so nlany of the global pizza

are known to

be American, even

pizza was

a national

product

of ltaly.

this

process

has not

occurred

pasta, perhaps

because dry packaged

have been in commerce,

and hence

longer.

Conse-

Italian brands

had time to become

ong

before

the product

became

as a

world

food . Branded pizzahas

only existed for as ong aspeople have

freezers, and most of the Iralian pizza

on the market are

cuckoo

brands.

phoney Italian provenance.

F PROVENANCE

are, in reality,

two kinds of brands at

here:

private domain

brands and

pub-

domain

brands.

Private

domain brands

owned

by conrpanies; public domain

are items

of popular or traditional

which, at least n the strict commer-

sense,

are nobody s prope rty.

They in-

countr ies,

cit ies and regions, races,

emographic

groups,

even individual peo-

It

is

a

measure

of

the

power

and value

f

these

public

brands hat iheir

owners

or

uardians

sometimes attempt

to

exert

the

kind

of restrictions

on their use as

he

wners

of

commercial

brands: the Italian

re-

ton

of

Tuscany,

or example, after decades

f

unwittingly

lending its visual identiry

(cy-

press

rees, vinding roads, red-ochre

villas)

to add glamour by association

o autolnobile

rnanuFacturers,

s now

attempting to pr otect

itself by copyright law

againstunauthorised

use.The trusteesof Pr incessDiana sestate

are attempting

a similar exercise,

n

order to

prevent

the unwanted associationof brand

Diana

with

a whole host of newspapers,gift

crockery and charities.

Since

association

with a powerful

brand eff ectively borrows

equiry from that

brand and thus enables he

marketer to increase

margin

on

the

sale,

t is

indeed a kind

of theft.

Certain

products

tend to use

provenance

within their brand character

rnore

overt lx

than others. Fashion

labels and

cars, for ex-

ample, are very often provenance-li nked;

perhaps

because the

concept of nat ional

dress

has

all but disappeared, he provenance

of

one s clothes

assurnes a significanc e

which,

at times, threatens to eclipse

th e

power

of

the label itself.

It is alrnost

as

m-

portant for a

suit or a pair of shoes o corne

from Italy as t is

for them to be made by

Arrnani or Ferragamo.

Style

is expected

from Italian clothes, chic frorn French

clothes, bold anti-fashion statements rom

British clothes, street credibiliry from

Amer-

ican

clothes, and the expectancy of weather-

proofness from

Gernran or Scandinavian

clothes

s so powerful

that the

Manchester-

basedBerghalrs colnpany saw fit to adopt an

ersatzGennan name for their brand.

Indeed, the

link between certain brands

and their country of

or igin

can become

so

powerful, through consistentand high-pro-

file marketing, that it is difficult to decide

rvhether the

perception

of a

part icular qual-

ity

derives rnore

from the brand or from

its

provenance: n

other

rvords, brands

can

cre-

ate or enhance the perception

of

a

country

as much as the reverse. Arguably, the effect

of technology-led international

advert ising

carnpaignson the part of Mercedes,

BM W

Audi

and Volkswagen

over

the decades s

now a significant part of the

reason

rvhy

people

associateGerrnany

with

technologi-


4/12

TneLe

1 Txe TNFLUENcE

F

rrALrAN NTHEcAR rNDUsrRy

Manufacturer

Datsun

Nissan

Nissan

Mazda

Mitsubishi

Daihatsu

Suzuki

Suzuki

Hyundai

Daewoo

Ford

Chrysler

Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Mercedes

Porsche

Porsche

Opel

Aston Martin

Renault

Country

of origin

Japan

Japan

Japan

Japan

Japan

Japan

Japan

Japan

Korea

Korea

USA

US A

Germany

German

Gerrnany

Germany

Germany

Gennany

Germany

Germany

Germany

UK

France

Name

Stanza

Serena

Figaro

Piazza

Carisma

Cuore

Alto

Baleno

Sonata

Leganza

Mondeo

Pronto

Palio

Vento

Lupo

Corrado

Scirocco

Vito

Targa

Carrera

Corsa

Volante

Laguna

Italian rneaning

Room (in a house)

Serene

Opera

title

Square

in

a torvn)

Charisma

Heart

High

Lightning

Ringing

(Eleganza)

legance

(Mondo) World

Ready (or Spanish: oon)

Contest, Siennese

estival

Wind

Wolf

Conrad

(man s

name)

Sirocco

(wind)

Man s

name

Plate

(name

of motor race)

Name

of

race-track

Race

Steering

wheel

Lagoon

cal excellence: the belief that

Italians are

stylish and romantic

is

perpetuated in

the

way that Italian

cars

and

other

products

are

marketed

around the

world

(and

not always

by Italian companies): in effect,

brand own-

ers are helping to

perpetuate

or create global

cultural myths in their own right.

Consequently,

consumers

around the

world continue

to

expect engineering

ex-

cellence from

German

cars, safety

and

ecology from

Swedish

cars,

chic design

from French

cars, wood and leather from

British cars, economy

and efficiency from

Japanese

cars: but the almost universal

habit

of coining I tal ian

and Ital ianatenames

or

cars,

irrespective

of their real provenance,

indicates

that a measure

of sporty style

or

panache

is considered an

indispensable

n-

gredient

in the

brand

mix

of any car ; the

habit

appeared o take root in this country

in

the 1960s and 19 70s

with the Austin

Maestro

(master),

Austin

Allegro

(merry),

the Ford

Capri

and Ford

Cortina,

but has

since become

a truly

global

trend

(see

Table

1).

It

was

recently reported that

as

many as

50

per

cent of all new brands in

Japan

are

now named

after Italian towns and rivers,

although

this has probably more

to

do with

the glamour of

European-sounding names,

the fact that Italian words are not

too

hard

for

Japanese

consumers

to

pronounce

(like

Japanese

words,

Italian words almost invari-

ably end with vowels)

and the musical

sound

ofthe language,

rather than any strict associ-

ation with

Italian brand values.


5/12

But,

despite the

evident attractiveness

f

attributes, and, indeed, the dispro-

large number of global brands

come from Italy, it cannot

begin

to

the dominance of brand America.

ROMAMERICA

than

any other country, America ap-

to be

blessed

with a huge range

of

brand

attributes:

one only

has

to

ts more successfulexport

brands to

he expressivepower of these attributes.

is

associatedwith

the

definit ive

lifestyle

(Coca-Cola,

Pepsi, MTV

Wrangler); with sporting prowess

O'Neil l, Rockport, Reebok, NBA,

with technological

(lBM,

Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-

AT T Motorola, Intel,

Microsoft);

is well-travelled

(BoeinB,

Hertz,

Avis, NASA,

Holiday Inn, Shera-

(CNN,

Time,

National Geographic,

NBC,

and, naturally, wealthy and

power-

Express, Forbes,

Citibank,

Club, Western lJnion). Coming

America even lends authoriry in areas

were

once

considered quintessentially

such

as

fashion

(Calvin

Klein,

Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lau-

The

Gap), beauty

(Elizabeth

Arden,

Max

Factor) and

even food, albeit

f

the

convenience variety

(McDonalds,

Hut,

KFC, Thco Bell etc).

These

and many other attributes

make

without

doubt. the worldt most

public

domain brand.

This may be

one of the

privileges

of

being a

and productive nation, but it

is

also

the result of the fact that

has

branded

itself so conpetently

a

country.

Brand America

enjoys the ser-

of

the rvorldt

best advertising

agency

Hollywood

-

rvhich

for nearly a cen-

has

been

pumping

our

two-and-a-half-

cinema

commercials.

which

consurnersaround the world have enthusi-

astically paid to watch. Brand America also

employs such high-powered salespromo-

tion agenciesas NASA, which periodically

launches a rocket into space, n order to

communicate

the

superiority of

American

technology and

industry.

Consequently, American brands

can

sim-

ply

hitch

themselves onto this

powerful

na-

tional brand.

and

a cultural and commercial

trail

is instantly

blazed for

then

around the

world. Litt le wonder

that so

many

brands

from other

countries are

keen

to borrow

American attributes.

There are only a limited nurnber of

other

countries and regions in the world with

clear, consistent, and universally understood

brand

prints, of which

a

large proportion

are

European

(England,

Scotland, Ireland,

Spain,

France,

Italy,

Germany,

Switzerland).

Naturally, they are best understood by their

near

neighbours,

but

just

like

successful

ri -

vate-domain

brands,

the key attributes

of

these

brands are known

by

consumers more

or

less throughout

the world. Whether one

asks the question in Australia,

China

or

Chi le, the sa rne basic

associat ionsexist:

Switzerland

and wealth, Italy and style,

Scandinavia

and

cleanliness,

England and

tradition.

It

is equally clear that other countries are

not brands, and have decidedly few

interna-

tionally-understood attributes

beyond their

immediate

neighbourhood: ask a Mexican,

an

American or a Sri Lankan

what qualities

they associate

with

Belgium, or

Portugal, or

Liberia, or Greenland,

and their answer

will

be neither long nor fluent.

THE MPORTANCE F SWISSNESS

Switzerland

is in many respects he

classic

wel l-establ ished European brand,

and i t

seems that

no

matter

rvhom

one

asks

around the rvorld, the

same

set of

Swiss

at-

tributes always comes up. These attributes

can be

expressed n many different

ways,


6/12

(1)

()\

11\

Taele 2 Txe

Swrss: AccoRDrNG

o MYTH

(6)

(7)

(8)

Srvitzerland s boring.

The Srviss re never ively or

exuberant.

The Swissaremethodical.They are never n a hurry.

Switzerland

s rich.

There

is

no poverry n

Switzerland.

Switzerland

s efiicient.

Everything in

Srvitzerland uns ike clockwork.

The Swiss

are

diplomatic. They

play

a key role in international affairsbecause

they are alwaysneutral.

The Swissare secretive. wissbanks are

egendary or

their discretion.

Switzerland s conservative. he Swissare verv attached o traditional values.

The

Swissare

nternationalists. hey

all speakmany languages.

The Swissare dependable. hey are solid

and trustworthy.

The Swissare

arrogant.

They think

that all thesequalities

make them superior to

other

nations.

(4)

(s)

(e)

(10)

ranging from the insulting to

the adulatory,

but the

basic

ideas

are always

remarkably

similar. As might be expected, they are nei-

ther

part icularly profound

nor necessarily

accurate,

and

are commonplaces

or

clich6s

rather

than observations based on under-

standing

or

familiarity.

The principal

Swiss

myths,

as expressed

by small groups

of mixed

age

and

mixed in-

come

group

respondents n var ious coun-

tries, appear to be those listed in Thble 2.

As is

often the case n international rela-

t ions, familiarity breeds contempt: the

nearer people

are,

physically,

o Switzerland,

the more likely these myths are to

be ex-

pressed

n cynical or chauvinistic ways. Peo-

ple

often argue with their neighbours over

the garden

fence.

The French,

Germans, Austrians

and

ltal-

ians seem

most likely

to

turn these

brand

attr ibutes into

insults,

but

moving

further

and further

away,

it is found

that although

they change remarkably

litde in substance,

they are expressed n more

and

more re-

spectful ways. Once in North America

Switzerland

seems

o

embody a

very full sei

of virtues; in Asia, the

Swiss

brand

appears

to be fainter with distance.

but

the kev val-

ues are still

there.

It is most

striking

how

central the image

of the impenetrable

Swiss bank

is

to most

peoplet view of Swissness:t appears o be

as durable

and widespread an icon as

cuckoo clocks,

yodelling

and fondue, and is

perceived as

being

the principal

national

produce of

Switzerland. Switzerland,

of all

the

European

countries, certainly enjoys

one of the clearest mages n other

parts

of

the world, and in the context of sell ing f i-

nancial services,

certainly the

most appro-

priate,

as the following informal survey

suggestS.


7/12

3 AH rnronMAL

suRvEy oF

pERcErvED

NATToNAL

HARAcrERrslcs

ABC1 respondents, ged25-39,10

each ror.nHong Kong,

Colombo,

London,

Copenhagen,

Paulo andBoston rvereeach

e-mailed a

list

of 14 possiblenational characteristics* nd

asked

match two of them to each of a list of 12 countnes.

mixed results r a preponderance

f

'Don't

Knows' are marked as

I.Jnclear'

n

the table;

he

isted

are hosewhich

were selected y at least30% of

the

total group, and are n

ofpreference:

France

Germany

Sweden

Britain

BraztI

Italy

Spain

Switzeiland

Belgium

Netherlands**

Portugal

Denmark

(Unclear)

Arrogance,order

Efficiency,moderniry

Arrogance, radition

Sryle,

squalor

Style,

aziness

Inefficiency, laziness

Wealth, orilet

(Unclear)

Moderniry arrogance

Poverry

backwardness

Cleanliness,moderniry

humiliry, eff iciency, inefiiciency, er.rergy, aziness,wealth,

povercy,

cleanliness,squalor, order,

tradition, sryle.

Perhapspredictably, clear resultswere only obtainable for the Netherlands rvhen it was (incorrectly) referred

as

Holland'.

It

sbould

be srressed hat

Table

3

is a

unscientific

and

informal survey, and

is

debatable

vherher rhere

s any point in

it

more

thoroughly, bur

it does

tend

confirm

the

feeling

that if

any one

coun-

has

a

clear

head start

rvhen it comes to

credentials or banking

services, hat country

is Switzerland.

Clearly,

horvever, there is no great

chal-

Ienge in developing

'national

produce'

brands

-

such as

Swiss financial

services

companies

-

into international brands


8/12

since the correct brand associati ons re al-

ready in place. Predictably,most of the

in-

ternational

brands from Srvitzerland come

under the

category of

national produce

(chocolate,banking and rvatches), ut there

are indicat ions that extensions o the na-

t ional

brand are beginning

to develop

through

the activities

of

S uvatch.

Swatch, as a basic

watch brand, is not re-

ally a country-brand exercise

at all,

ust

an

update

of

the

national-produce

paradigm

lvatches

come frorn Switzerland : but the

company does appear o be starting o bla ze

a trail for a

genuine

development of Swiss-

ness,

through brand extensions such as

pagers or the Swatch/Mercedes-Benz

Smart

Car concept, as well as the

global

acceptance of

Swatch

as

a credible

youth

brand con:ring rom

Switzerland.

A vista

of

possible

Swiss brand extensions

opens up,

ranging from

Swatch-branded snowboarding

equipment to

Swiss

Army-branded

world-

wide adventure

holidays.

The

branding equation runs something

like this:

Switzerland

:

watches

-Swatch

:

Swiss watch

-Swatch

:

youth

brand

->Switzerland

=

youth

brand.

BRANDS ROMBRAZIL

By contrast

to Switzerland and its various

successful nternational brands,

Brazil, one

of

the most

strongly

branded countries in

the world, produces no international com-

mercial

brands whatsoever. This is surpri s-

ing, not least because the brand print

of

Brazil is unusually compact: it is associated

with a fairly

homogeneous and coherent set

of values. Brand Brazil is strongly

biased to-

wards youth markets:

samba,

carnival,

music,

dancing, gaie\, ecology,

sex,

beaches,

sport

and adventure

could

be the brand print

of

almost

any

successful outh product on the

market

todav.

Certainly, these clich6s may be d epress-

ing,

even insulting, to the averageBrazilian,

but they

are

undeniably

a

fine platform on

which

to build a believable

global

brand.

It

is one of the tasksof advertising and market-

ing to manipulate these

clich6s

nto some-

thing

more creative, more substantial,

more

fair,

nore true.

The fact

that there are

negat iveassocia

tions

-

pollution,

overpopulation,

poverfy,

drugs, lawlessness

rvithin the brand

print

of Brazil is not necessarily

a cause

or

great

concern, at least from the branding

point of

view. After all,

a strong brand

is

a rich brand

,as

he

writer of this

paper

has observed in

a

previous ssueof this ournal.2, and richness

implies

a complex and satisfying rnix of

many

different elements. The brand equiry

of the

USA would appear to contain a sig-

nificant proportion

of negative elements. but

this does little to

diminish

its

attraction: es-

pecially

when one is dealing

with

younger

consumers, the

suggestion of risk i s highly

attractive. These

are consumers, after all,

who

wish to

challenge

and be challenged.

Certainly, there are good reasonswhy so

few

Brazilian

brands

have

u entured

onto the

world marketplace. Jntil

recently, economic

problems

have meant that merely surviving

in the domestic

market has been the main

concern.

Now, the environment is chang-

ing,

and the Brazilian government is actively

encouraging

an export mentality in its in-

dustries.

The

global

surge in interest in ecology

also presents a major

opportunity

for Brazil

at this moment. Brazil, becauseof its nat-

ural image, and w-orldwide

awareness

of

the

importance of the Amazon

rainforest

to

global

ecology, combined

with the

rvorld

ecology summit being

held in

Rio

de

Janeiro,

has begun

to

push

Brazil into

th e

ecological

limelight. Brazil

is u idely

per-

ceived as

being a

natural ecological

centre

for plane t earth:

expressions ike

the

lungs

of the

planet are

commonly

used

around

the world

when speaking of the

Amazon.


9/12

this

r'vith

the fact that young

con-

everywhere ar e ever more

attracted

products

with

a

'green'

story, and a pic-

begins to emerge

of a

growing

oppor-

for a wide range of Brazrlian brands

especially

n the food,

cosmetics, ashion,

and even automotive and industrial

The

growing

acceptance of

'Brazilian-

attr ibutes within

established nterna-

brands appears o confirm the point:

has all but replacedjojoba

and gin-

as a

'must-have'

ingredient in ecology-

food and

cosmet ics, and other

themes

and ingredients feature in

Body Shop's current range,

in Ben

ce

creams,even in video games.

It

appears,

however, that many younger

around the world are still unclear

the exact role

of the

Brazilian

govern-

and population

when it

comes

to ap-

blame

for

the deforestation and

which goes

on

in their

country:

they

the perpetrators,

or are they are

the

exploited vict ims of f irst-world

This

uncertainry

spellsout an addit ional

for Brazil's international public

- perhaps

the most urgent one

of

The

global

brand-owners

club i s an ex-

one,

and membership is neither free

automatic

for any

country.

Quite

aside

the

major

investment which individual

need

to make in creating, distrib-

and

marketing

international brands,

country

itself

needs o make an

invest-

in

its

image

asan acceptableproducer

ecologically-themed

brands.

There

can

be little doubt that Brazil

norv

a

hne

opportuniry

to

buy

iself a place in

hearts

and

minds

of the

rvor ld's

con-

-

and

mosr especially he all-pow-

younger

consumers

-

simply by

a

visible

and effective srance on

these

ecological

issues. fsuch a

gesture

major,

real,

and lasting

(young con-

cannot easilybe fooled by dogma or

rhetoric), and properly

managed in

PR

terms, it could pave the

way for a real re-

naissance

f

Brazil

itself and Brazilian

brands

around the

world.

Currently, almost all of Brazilt export in-

come derives frorn

the sale of

raw

com-

modit ies

(such

as soya beans, obacco, iron

ore and coffee), semi-processed oods

(such

as

cellulose,

steel, soya oil and sugar) and

largely unbranded

manufactured goods

(such

as shoes,orange

uice,

sheet steel and

automobile tyres); and many of these

ex-

ports contribute directly

or indirectly to the

depletion

of the country's natural resources.

There is no question

that if these bulk

exports were to

be enhanced

or,

indeed,

re-

placed

by the sale

ofbranded

goods

directly

to overseasconsumers, profits

would r ise

dramatically,

and the level

of

profit gener-

ated by the success

of these brands might

soon overtake the income

created by

the

ex-

port of commodit ies.

After all, much o f the

real wealth of

'f irst-world'

nations comes

not from the

sale of their natural resources

(many

first-world countries have

precious

few to export), but from the export of man-

ufactured items

developed into brands by

the added value of intelligent marketing.

An

economy which depends

on income

gener-

ated by bulk export is

caught

in the

classic

third-world poverty

trap, and learning to

develop successful domestic brands into

global brands s

certainly one

way

out of

it .

BRANDEXPORT S A

STRATEGY

FOREMERGING CONOMIES

One

of the

great

advantages f brands over

commodit ies

is that they are an inf initely

sustainable esource

(as

ong as heir equity

is

maintained

through careful

marketing),

because hey are made of air, and are thus, at

Ieast n theory, the ult imate ecological

ex-

port.

Clearly,

the notion

of export ing brands

rather

than produce

is a compelling one for

manv countries other than Brazil. Almost


10/12

any

energing

nation could

benefit from a

movement torvards global

brand

export, and

ultimately escape from the third-world

poverry cycle in

this

rvay. Not

all emerging

countries have Brazil s natural advantages:

strong nation-brand, cornbined with an in-

creasingly healthy economy, a gove rnment

which

actively encourages he export

rnen-

taliry not to mention considerable domestic

experience in

brand-building.

After all, even

though it only emerged from

military rule

and hyperinflation a

few short years ago,

Brazil has a democratic traditio n, and this

has enabled the

creation

of many highly suc-

cessfulentrepreneurs, domestic conrpanies

and domestic brands (not to mention one of

the best advertising industries in the world).

Even

so, without stretching the imagina-

tion too

far,

one can see how the

principle

could apply in the caseof other countries:

Russia, China, India, and many African

countries have the potential to build

srrong

brand associations,

s hey are richly embed-

ded in global

culture and history.

David Tang, owner

of the Hong Kong

department store Shanghai Tang, has re-

cently opened

a branch

in

New York, and is

quoted as saying,

I ve

alwayswanted

to cre-

ate a Chinese brand. In Hong Kong

our

shopping malls are overrun with rnore

and

more

Western

brands, yet no-one

else

has

applied

their

minds to evolve the

Chinese

style .

Perhaps

some smaller countries could,

with care. be built into

valuable

niche

brands Sr i Lanka, Peru, V ietnam,

Poland, Tibet - the l ist is a long one, and

matching potential private-domain

brands

to these

public-domain

brands s a fascinat-

ing and thought-provoking exercise.

The

key is simply to

be relevant

yet imaginatiue,

becausea too litera l-minded approach to the

problem

will merely result

in

endlessvaria-

tions

on

the theme

of national

produce.

In today s global

village, where geography

colrnts for

so l itt le,

countries beco me like

factories,

competing

for the same

broad

groups

of consumers. Naturally,

each

factory

becomes associatedwith certain

strengths

and attributes: in the same way that con-

sumers would probably not buy To shiba

shampoo or Mercedes soup, they are un-

Iikely to rush

out

and

buy

Dutch

perfunre

or a Brazil ian CD

player. But Brazil might

be the perfect provenance for surf

gear or

football boots or cocktails,

and a stylish

Russian

raincoat, upmarket Chinese sta-

tionery

or

Indian

accountancy

software

might one day seem as natural and appropri-

ate as a Korean television or a Malaysian

car

do today

-

and both of

these seemed

strange

enough

twenry years

ago.

GLOBALBRANDS NDTHE

CHANGING

ONSUMEF

During

the long years

of the

American and

European domination

of

global brands, con-

sumers around

the world

have become

rapidly

more discerning, more sophisticated

in their

tastes, wealthier, better informed

and generally

exercise more

power

than ever

before over manufactLrrers.

By and

large,

these

brands have not been marketed with

any

great

degree

of sensitivity to

local cul-

tural conditions

-

in the recent past, their

superior qualiry

and

glarnorousprovenance

have

been sufficient

to ensure their

instant

acceptance over poor-quality domestic

equivalents.

But

those domestic

brands

which have

survived have

done so by

quickly

learning to

cornpete on price, qualiry

and sophistication

of marketing, packaging and presentation.

Consequently, the

playing-field

is becoming

gradually

more and more level.

It seems ikely

then that consumers,

espe-

cially in poorer

countries, will begin

to look

for

a more sophisticated

combination

of im-

port-style

quality

and domestic-style

rele-

vance in their

imported brands. In some

of

the emerging markets

of Europe,

for exam-

ple,

there is alreadyevidence

of a consumer

backlash against

he insufficiently sensitive


11/12

techniques practised by some for-

brand-owners:

the sight of the Latvian

for

Culture symbolically

tearing up

package

offoreign coffee on

the national

news (because of the cultural

performed

on

the Latvian lan-

by the unhappy company s advertising

s

one

of many

such

indicators.

It may

well turn out that

Brazilian and

third

world

brands

have a distinct ad-

over American and

European

when

it

comes to

making friends

consumers n some of the worldt

growth markets

-

Asia, Eastern

Eu-

Latin America, and one day Central

Asia - because of their

provenance and because of their

non-imperialist, non-colonial

These are

colleague

countries ,

may well

find

that their

provenance is

merely an important characteristic of

brand personali ty, but a

fundamental

to

consumer

acceptance.

RAND

BRITAIN:NO EXCEPTION

O

RULE

is

no question that the

longer-estab-

nation brands will need to

modernise

themselves

o match the new order,

and it is

o

accident

that

the

UK s

new government

often

speaks

of the need to

rebrand

ritain .

The

associations f

Brand

Britain

are

by

no

means entirely negative, but

since

they

appear

to

be intimately

and ahnost ex-

clusively

associated vith

the country s

past,

they are decidedly limiting for British

brands

which

wish

to

be

perceived

as

nrould-breaking,

forward-looking,

techno-

logically

comperenr. This is at least

part of

the

reason

why both Brirish Ainvays

and the

British

Tourist

Authority

(BTA) have re-

cently

replaced

he national

f lag

with logos

of

their

to the disgust of

many.

However,

the good intention

must

be

married

to

actual knowledge and

under-

standing

of

the

cultures

to which

the

nerv

face

is to

be

presented: n branding terms,

the consurner mllst be unde rstood before

considering how

to rebrand. There is noth-

ing

wrong with

the

new logo chosen for the

BTA - except, of course, that it is based on

the word

Britain, spelt out in Roman let-

ters, which, of course,

is a meaningless

squiggle

to the vast majoriry of

visitors

from

countries who do not use the same writing

system

as ns.

It

would

be

precisely the

same

thing if the

Japanese

Tourist Authority de-

cided to rebrand tselfas

-

hardly

the

action of

a deterrnined multi-

nationalist.

The need

to present Br i tain as being

more

European, more

global, is certainly a

primary need. There

is undoubtedly a lin-

gering

acceptanceof the British as

nterna-

tionalists, but

it can only d erive

from our

long history

of determined,

i f not bruta-

colonisation of

large portions of

the globe.

What is now necessary

s for that

interna-

tionalness to be underpinned by a more

modern

value-set: wisdom, open-minded-

ness,cultural sensitivity,

and

will ingness to

listen and

to learn from other

coutrtries.

Indeed, what appears

to many to be

a

mere

production deta il - speaking other

languages

may

well

prove to be a

funda-

mental first stage in the

rebranding of

Britain. One

of the aspectswhich best char-

acterised

our aggressiventernationalism

in

past centuries was our refusalor

inabiliry

to

E


12/12

speak other people's languages, which

is

why

Tony Blair 's recent address to the

French

Chamber of Deputies in French was

received with far more delight

and surprise

than his

moderate A-level French

would

lead

one to expect: he

sau'the

need to make

the effort.

The writer has commented elsewhereon

the

remarkable fact that

'ethnic'

marketing

has

never been seriously

practised

in the

uK, despite the evidence of decadesof ex-

perience

in

the

USA and Australia to

prove

that it

contributes significantly

to

brand

loy-

alry

and despite the

fact

that a

good

ten

per

cent of the UK population

does

not

speak

English as ts f irst language: this is further

evidence of the lack

of

importance

which

the British, as a nation,

have tended to place

on language

as a

culturally

signif icant tool

and

behavioural motivator.

The

immense

good

fortune

of having a

global

lingua franca

as our native language

can make the Brit ish dangerously

ndolent.

Of course, many people

around the world

speak English,

but when

trying to interest

them in products,

the key issue is hardly

whether

they can understand what

th e

British are

saying or not. The more impor-

tant

question is: should

they be making

the

effort

to understand

the Brit ish, or should

the British making

the effort to make

them-

selvesunderstood by

other nationalities?

As

with any brand

print,

the

solution will

never

be simple or

pure.

Successful rands,

especiallysuccessfulnternational

brands,

are

often

characterised

by their r ichness and

complexiry and provenance, just like any

other

brand characterist ic,can exist

in de-

grees,

and can appear

o be multiple. British

Airways

noted that Britishness is a valuable

attribute for certainaspects

f an airline brand

-

those parts connected with

seryice and

re-

liabil ity

-

but

an

air line needs many

more

attributes

for

which

Britishness can never be

adequate

shorthand. Retaining the

rvord

British

in the brand

name

is enough; for the

rest,

airlines need to be global travel brands

rather than national carriers,

so the

graphic

elements celebrate he company's mult icul-

tural rather than monocultural

aspects.

n

other

words,

the brand becomes the best

kind

ofBritish: a Briton who has ravelled.

It

is becoming increasingly

apparent

ha t

the global

brands of the twenry-first century

need to acquire a new talent: sensit ivity to

culture. For

decades,high product quality,

competit ive pricing,

a glamorous prove-

nance

and effective distr ibution

have been

sufficient

to ensure

international

marketing

success

but this is export marketing, not

global

brand-building.

More than ever be-

fore,

brand management

must be informed

by

deep understanding

of the culture of the

marketplace

as

much

as by

understanding of

the

culture of the

brand itsele

and success

will

be determined by the

abiliry to exploit,

skilfuIly

and intelligently,

such complex cul-

tural

mysteries as provenance

in the

service

of

brand imase.

RereneHces

(1)

(1997)

D AD CourseTutors'

Seminar, ondon,

September.

(2)

Anholt,

Simon

(1996)'Making

a

Travel', TheJournal JBrand

Management,

olume 3, Number

6,

pp.

357-364.

Documents

Anholt-Nation Brand of 21st Century