War crimes and nation branding: Lessons for Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Last week I was invited to talk on the recent Annual Report that was launched by the Central Bank. The fact of the matter was that from 1950 to around 2006 Sri Lanka experienced only an average 4% GDP growth, however in the last four years Sri Lanka’s GDP growth increased to an average of 7.5% which was a strong performance. The private sector performance on revenue and profit during this time is testimony that there was some sync between the macro and micro data. The best case is the advertising spend of the private sector has increased from Rs. 38 billion registered in 2005 to almost 70 billion in 2013, indications of the robustness of the private sector on the macro data published. I guess the World Bank and ADB stating that the economy will grow between 7.3% and 7.5% demonstrates the future growth of the country. I guess the 8% target set by the Central Bank is a good number for us to chase after as a country. How nation branding works If we analyse the best practices used by countries that have got out of a brutal war, the first thing to remember is that there is nothing called “nation branding”. The logic being that it infers that a promise can be built using marketing messages. There is absolutely no evidence that this is possible; no country has ever succeeded in doing it and the experts in this area like Simon Anholt have never advocated it. A better word to use in practice is “nation brand,” which is simply an observation about the importance of national image in the modern world.

Literature says that if a country doesn’t like its image – and most countries don’t – then the only way to change, update, enhance or otherwise influence that image is through the things the country does, not by the things it says. Influencing a country’s reputation is primarily a matter of policy, strategy, innovation and investment over a very long period – it has nothing to do with logos, slogans, advertising or PR campaigns. So, one can always argue that getting strong PR companies to talk on behalf of Sri Lanka will have very little impact on the end results. What is more important is building a reputation with actions. Reputation helps exports and investment It is been proven that countries with a powerful reputations and positive image can export more products, more culture, more people, more services and attract more tourists, more investors, more immigrants and the attention and respect of other governments. Countries with weak or damaged images find it much harder and more expensive to achieve all of these goals has been the past experience.

In other words the need of the hour is driving substance on brand Sri Lanka rather than promises. Share real life stories rather than marketing magic. As Simon Anholt the expert says: A reputation cannot be constructed; it can only be earned. The question should never be “what can we say to make Sri Lanka famous?” but “what can we do to make Sri Lanka relevant?” Relevance is the only issue that matters. A structure developed to systematically develop reputations on this ethos can be the nation brand hexagon. This consists of tourism, people, exports, culture, governance and investment. Croatia war crimes issue In almost 20 years of amassing evidence on the rights and wrongs of the Balkan Wars, the UN tribunal in The Hague delivered several verdicts shaping modern international law and informing the identities of the countries that emerged from Yugoslavia. Operation Storm – the military offensive in August 1995 that ended four years of war with the Serbs and gave Croatia victory and independence – had been termed a war crime. The foundation myth of Croatian statehood was sullied by this decision. At stake in his trial was much more than the fate of one man. The guilty verdict incriminated the entire 1990s regime of President Franjo Tudjman and destroyed Croatia’s founding myth: the liberation war. The key players – Tudjman, his Defence Minister, Gojko Susak, and the Army Chief, Janko Bobetko – had died in the meantime and could not face justice. The Gotovina case became a proxy trial of the Tudjman regime. The guilty verdict found the same regime deliberately plotted a systematic campaign of terror and violence aimed at ridding Croatia of its large Serbian minority, triggering the flight from Croatia of around 150,000 Serbs. Croatia brand hurt Croatia’s brand was hurt by the above issues and the unwillingness of post-war governments to cooperate in the prosecution of war crimes suspects further dented the brand image of the country. However, with some focused work, today the brand has an imagery as one of the most successful incoming destinations in the Mediterranean, ranked ninth in terms of the rate of growth of its national brand as per Brand Finance and was termed among the only two European countries to make the “Most Improved” list. Maybe it’s a lesson for Sri Lanka. Let me take the key initiatives and some pick-ups for Sri Lanka. 1) Exports: 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 full membership of this European integration, there is a strong marketing push on this front that has increased exports to almost 25 billion dollars. Research reveals that nation branding has played a crucial role in the ability of the country to compete against their neighbours for investment and drive business partnerships.

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 its brand image. Croatia is an active member of the UN, EU, NATO and WTO and has set 52 foreign embassies and 69 consulates across the world with all having career diplomats manning the stations. 3) Culture Croatia represents a blend of four different cultural spheres. As of 2009, Croatia has 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 artists. 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 literacy in Croatia stands at 98.1%. A worldwide study about the quality of living in different countries ranked the Croatian education system at 22nd best globally. In fact Croatia has also produced two Nobel Prize winners. 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. It dominates the Croatian service sector and accounts for up to 20% of Croatian GDP. Annual tourist industry income is estimated at €6.61 billion.

Implications to Sri Lanka The key issue as per Nation Brand Finance report states that Sri Lanka’s political and social reputation poses a drag on the brand. If one digs deeper on to this area we see that even though India had many domestic issues the brand equity has increased due to the ethos the country communicates the world being the largest democracy with free media and freedom to its people and they demonstrate to the world with action by way of independence to the judiciary. The best case in point is the sweeping powers given to the Election Commissioner in the current election where no politician is above the law. Key steps – Sri Lanka 1. We must put a stop to all hatred and attacks on ethnic communities and religious communities. The last two weeks was a classic example of Sri Lanka violating all principles of nation branding on this front. 2. We must make it known that no one is above the law. Sri Lanka is yet to see who was responsible for the 260kg of heroine that was imported into Sri Lanka. The people responsible for attacks in Hambantota must be apprehended and the law enforced. 3. It’s time Sri Lanka 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 a conscious decision making based on the current perceptions the world has on Sri Lanka. 4. All key stakeholders must understand the importance and take ownership to the importance of Sri Lanka becoming a strong brand globally with a reputation ‘earned’. 5. There must be a quarterly monitoring system so that corrective action can happen and must be driven ideally from the Ministry of Economic Development. [The author is a multiple award winning marketer and business leader and respected thought leader in Sri Lanka. The ideas expressed in the above are strictly his views and not the views of any organisation he serves in Sri Lanka or internationally. He has a double degree in marketing, MBA and reading for a doctorate whilst being an Alumni of Harvard University (Boston).]