National branding can help Bangladesh

When looking at strategies to increase the national exports, decision-makers typically consider options such as promoting priority sectors, encouraging investment, the role of ICT (information and communication technology), market research and promotion campaigns. Developing a "National Brand" and managing it to increase export revenues is usually furthest from their thoughts. A positive national image is an essential ingredient for export promotion, and also for investment promotion. Should countries invest in national branding as part of the image-building strategy?

National branding consists of developing an image and communicating it, both internally and externally, based on a country's positive values and perceptions that are relevant to export development. The brand concept, once researched, tested and defined, is then used as the basis of targeted promotional campaign when encouraging trade, tourism and inward investment.

Very few countries have successfully launched a national brand. Even developed countries do not find brand management an easy task. Hardly any research is available on branding initiatives in developing countries. The Journal of Brand Management has documented the importance of national branding in the export strategy process.

The experience of countries with successful national brands suggests that there is a 'best practice' way to decide on the relevance of national branding (or re-branding). This involves the following steps:

The first step would be confirming the readiness of the country. We will have to understand that whether national branding is a strategy to adopt that will bring a competitive advantage that is, improve country's overall export base. We will have to find out answers to the questions like: Which national values are relevant for products or services being exported? Are there sufficient companies and production capacity to justify the effort? Are benefits likely to be higher than costs in the long run?

The second step should be creating a working group. We will have to consider including politicians, civil servants, industry representatives, media, educators and figures from sport and the arts. We will have to decide whom we are trying to influence and confirm how these target groups perceive our nation. The country will have start by identifying and defining their critical audiences, both internal and external.

The third step should be identifying the internal and external perceptions/images (positives, negative, neutral, none etc) of the country, and identifying the discrepancies between the external and internal perceptions/images. Then we will have to identify the positive values that could be associated with national branding of products and services. The working group should trace some existing best practices/models for national branding which could be useful to study further for inspiration and guidance.

A 'core idea' should emerge, from which a branding programme can be developed. "Find out what you've got that makes you different, then create something around this. Sun, sea and sand are not a core idea, they represent commodities and there is no margin in commodities trading. Differentiation is more effective when it comes to food, architecture and culture," according to branding guru Wally Olins.

The final step, where lies the major challenges, should be coordinating the presentation of the core idea. The team will have to ensure that key public and private sector entities dealing with tourism, investment and export development convey the core message in their marketing programmes.

Once the core idea has been developed, modulate it for each priority audience. We will have to take steps in differentiating the messages. Steps should be taken to create a visual idea, which we can also put into words. The words should encapsulate what the concept stands for in different circumstances.

The government will have to take the decision whether it wants to run the programme or not. A better long term solution would be to create a structure that is going to be there when the government changes. The challenging task would be ensuring that the brand is promoted among local audiences as an asset and protect its credibility through establishing and managing standard for usage.

'National branding' signifies a considerable investment. Most importantly we will have to understand that it is a long-term initiative. A 20 year time frame is realistic.

Asif U Ahmed is Deputy Project Director (Programmes) of JOBS a project funded by USAID/Bangladesh and implemented by IRIS Centre at the University of Maryland.