Country of origin or Country of birth is often a very emotional
and personal affair. We believe our dedication to our country of
birth or origin is beyond reason and to be absolute. Patriotism has always been
a matter of passion and emotion and treated ahead of logic and reasoning. What
if we were to change this status quo and just as a hypothesis look at this
equation of Nation/State – Citizen, relationship from the view point of a Product and Consumer viewpoint? A sudden chain of thought that got triggered while attending a short course
on marketing and branding.
What struck me was, what if we start treating a country and it's policies as a product and the
citizen as the consumer of this Product? What if, like in the case of any other Product, brand loyalty is driven not by compulsion but by choice ! A
brand is supposed to have an USP and should build its brand equity on the basis of the
value proposition it offers to the consumer. The experience that a consumer
gets by choosing a product drives his loyalty towards a particular brand. Now let
us replace brand with country/state and it's policy, also we will replace consumer with citizen. A country needs to
drive patriotism
by voluntary choice of the citizen or
atleast, it should appear so. A country should make it clear as to what it ‘stands
for’ and what its values are, and what it has to offer with respect to quality
of life and opportunities of growth. These, form the core of its USP. A country
has the responsibility of making it clear to its citizens what benefits it has
to offer if they were to choose to be it
s citizen and how it would be a value
addition to their respective lives. The quality of life one
gets in a country
and experiences one has
should drive a person's
loyalty towards a country.
What I would not explore here is the concept of competing brands
and a consumer (citizen) having the choice to switch brands depending upon desired quality of life and
the value-proposition.
(does happen now).
This could appear to be a blasphemous thought to many
and ofcourse what I present is only a hypothesis. Though selling country as a
brand is not a new idea. Countries have been doing this for ages to
attract tourists or top brains and talent from across the world, however
selling it as a brand to its own citizen might be a proposition that hasn’t
been explored much. On a serious note, by building brand equity for itself, a
country could help improve unity among people, boost morale, boost self-image and
this could have positive effect on the economy. I thought this was a radical idea,
however a quick search on the internet proved me wrong. The concept of
Nation-Branding for domestic consumption has been doing the rounds for the past
decade or so and the Government in conjunction with the elite have been entrusted with the
onus of building the brand equity to drive loyalty of its citizen.
Labels: Economics, Miscellaneous, Politics
2 Comments:
It's a very effective concept put across in the most simplest fashion of its understanding. Will there be such an effective or radical change in the society where we live, we need to see, although I know that every individual is equally responsible for the same. Branding the Country and having its citizens as a consumer is a thought well framed. Liked reading the blog mate.! Good one :)
Thanks for reading it patiently and for your response Unni. Infact looks like I am late in getting this thought: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/MScDissertationSeries/2010/2nd/Murai.pdf
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