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