VIEW: Pakistan, naturally beautiful —Andleeb Abbas

While the Indians have perfected the art of marketing and exaggerating their strengths, Pakistan has excelled in its pursuit of highlighting and splashing its weaknesses. A reverse strategy can not only do damage control to the battered international perception of the country but also help lift the bruised spirits of the people of this nation

Imagine a scene like this one: massive street riots leading to 21 deaths at the centre of the capital city, opposition bashing the assembly and physically abusing and manhandling ministers, government changes through military coups as a recurring option, attacks on army security areas, deaths, and destruction. By this description, which country fits the bill? Ten out of ten times the answer will be Pakistan. However, the country in question is not Pakistan but, believe it or not, Thailand. Bangkok, the tourist hub, the global logistics centre-point, the fun and frolic capital has become a stronghold of political unrest, military divisiveness and bloodshed unlimited, as the Red Shirt opposition of the ex-prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has made life almost impossible for the incumbent Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Such incidents are, of course, damaging for any country’s economy, especially an economy like Thailand where six percent of the GDP is dependent on tourism. The government, realising the potential enormity of the damage, is taking serious steps not only to control this rioting but, regardless of the situation, has also instructed its relevant ministries to speed up a marketing campaign to neutralise the damage done to the Thai image and ensure that the great Thai attractions are publicised and advertised enough to neutralise the negativity with positivity.

The lesson to learn is that Pakistan is not unique in facing social unrest, bombings and terrorism but it is unique in its complete unresponsiveness in having a counter strategy to minimise the damage to its image and economy. What is the government’s strategy to deal with the brand erosion of Pakistan in the last few years? The answer is a resounding “none”. Countries are brands that have to be planned, developed, nurtured and protected. As with any brand in the world, there are always going to be attacks on its reputation and image and, at such times, the ability of the brand managers to constantly portray its positive features to change the perception of the people is crucial and critical. Many such examples exist where terrorism has been overshadowed by the constant display of the benefits the country offers in terms of its tourist and economic attractions. Sri Lanka is a classic example where years of civil war and terrorism have been washed away from the memories of people by the soothing sound of the romantic waves of the Sri Lankan beaches, which are constantly advertised in the global media.

India is perhaps the biggest example of planned image building, greatly contributing to brand India becoming one of the biggest attractions in the world. Those of us who have gone to India know exactly how over-hyped it is, nonetheless perception is reality. The Indian government, every year in its budget allocates an Indian Brand Equity Fund, which is now totally dedicated to promote the ‘Incredible India’ campaign. The campaign is cleverly designed to promote the diverse attractions of India and also the Indian ‘goodness’ where themes showing how honest the shopkeepers are to foreigners are also part of the image building strategy. Under the mother umbrella of the country brand, India has also started promoting individual city brands. Each city is being positioned as a separate offering; Goa is displaying its beaches under the ‘Go Goa’ slogan, Karnataka is being splashed all over top international magazines, promoting the Karnataka mystique, and, lo and behold, Gujarat is being marketed as ‘Vibrant Gujarat.’ With the shadow of the massacre of 2,000 Muslims still hovering over Gujarat, the city is fiercely campaigning for its basant festival to reposition the city from a human slaughterhouse to a symbol of festivity and fun. The festival of basant has, of course, been usurped from Lahore where it has become a victim of the petty politics of our leaders. The moral of the story is: if you do not preserve your brand identity, it becomes easy pickings for competitors.

With no deliberate strategy to counter the negative perception of the country, it is but natural that the field has been left open for any hostile media to label Pakistan as a country to be feared, shunned and disparagingly dismissed by even our neighbouring countrymen. By pure facts alone, Pakistan has the most fascinating sights and sounds to be seen and experienced. The mountain ranges in the northern areas are mesmerising in their stature and grandeur, much more than the Swiss Alps but, unfortunately, they have never been advertised to their full potential. With the scenery changing from the north to south, a cleverly designed campaign highlighting these unique Pakistani attractions could go some way in showing the other side of the picture. A country like Singapore, which is totally cosmetic with man-made beaches and sights, has managed to present an exotic image with its ‘Uniquely Singapore’ campaign. The most glaring example of the success of a country’s brand building is the ‘Malaysia, truly Asia’ campaign, which has become as famous as any Coke or Pepsi jingle. Aside from these more established country competitors, many lesser countries have followed suit in pursuit of attracting attention to their positive side. From Macedonia to Croatia, from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan, even the smallest and the most insignificant of countries have started campaigning for people’s mind share.

It is imperative that the government hire country-branding experts to develop a campaign designed to market the many unique selling points of the country to counter the negativity in perception about Pakistan. The campaign theme can be built around the slogan ‘Pakistan, naturally beautiful’, showing the breathtaking mountain peaks, green valleys and lakes abounding in the country along with the diverse culture of the four provinces. The advertising campaign has to be coupled with some very clever lobbying so that powerful media groups like the CNN and BBC, as well as top international magazines, not only show documentaries on the fantastic customs practised in the remoter areas of Pakistan but also air documentaries which show the moderate side of Pakistan where women and less privileged communities of society have performed wonders in many professional, social and athletic fields.

In a global world where the media has eliminated distances, where telecom advances have made news reports a mere thumb-press away, where social networking has created relationships by just a status update, it is imperative that a repositioning exercise of Pakistan be undertaken with zeal and purpose. The advantage of this seamless virtual connectivity in the world is that the good news travels just as fast as the bad news. What gets seen, talked and debated gets entrenched in the psyche of the audience. Unfortunately, our local media has been a party to feeding the international media on the negative news about the country without playing a positive role in presenting the brighter side of the picture. While the Indians have perfected the art of marketing and exaggerating their strengths, Pakistan has excelled in its pursuit of highlighting and splashing its weaknesses. A reverse strategy can not only do damage control to the battered international perception of the country but also help lift the bruised spirits of the people of this nation.

The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com