A branding strategy for Malta

Much effort has been and is being made to promote our country particularly for foreign investment and tourism to create more awareness about what we can offer as a nation for social, cultural and economic development. However, it seems that we are not being very successful in building and maintaining a brand identity for Malta.

How often have you been abroad and met someone who does not even know where Malta is? Let's be honest, it's hardly visible on the map. And if people have heard about Malta, what do they identify it with? Sun and sea, friendly people, laid-back way of life, indiscipline, hunters' paradise (overstatement?), one big building site, rubbish everywhere. But in reality, is it this what our country represents?

Perceptions may be built through any positive or negative situation, advertising or some public relations exercise that people may have experienced about Malta.

Another reason might be that we have never really had a branding strategy for our country, which resulted in different sectors sending out mixed or confused messages to their target audiences.

Consequently, our aim as a country should be to identify our strengths and build an integrated communications strategy underscoring these strengths through the brand in all sectors, thus providing a consistent and coherent message to our various target audiences. These strengths could be easily identified as our strategic geographic position, heritage, diversity, hospitality (rightly chosen by MTA) and the people.

Enhancing our national identity would be a key success factor and exploiting our rich history and culture would surely add value to the Malta brand throughout all sectors.

Likewise, each sector should be considered as a sub-brand, but Malta should be identified as the corporate brand, similar to that of a large multinational. Moreover, Gozo should be branded separately with its distinctive characteristics, uniqueness and beauty.

A strong and consistent brand can help us better face the challenges of globalisation and enhance the nation's competitiveness to compete with countries like China, India, Eastern Europe and our southern Mediterranean neighbours who exploit low labour and production costs.

We have to emulate countries like Sweden, Finland, Singapore and the UK who have exploited their countries' positive image to their benefit. Sweden and the UK are overall ranked the top two brands among 11 countries according to the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index.

Having been at the crossroads of many civilisations for centuries, we must exploit our strategic geographic position and the special relationships with our neighbours to our benefit. This should reinforce the concept to brand Malta as 'the heart of the Mediterranean' - a country as a centre for trade, finance, tourism, diplomacy, education and sports.

The challenge would be to get all the stakeholders together to build a coherent and consistent branding strategy. Don Schultz, Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, maintains that anecdotal evidence shows that integrated marketing communications are stuck in a paradigm of tactical implementation - that of getting all the communications looking alike. He further contends that the question today focuses much more on the client side integration and on how to integrate the various units inside the organisation to get them to work together.

With regard to this, the key issue in nation branding is how to maintain a brand identity and value, and how possible is it to manage a brand effectively and efficiently with all its complexity and all the stakeholders involved. An advantage that could be identified when branding Malta is in its size and closeness of society.

Communicating internally the brand strategy should be far easier and faster for us than other countries. However, this will require the involvement of all the population. And unfortunately there are always those few that are not willing to cooperate.

Moreover, another issue would be how customers perceive the brand and its impact upon perceptions of its products. Schultz contends that integration occurs in the eye of the beholder, that is, the customer or consumer. "It shouldn't be about marketing's capability to get all communications looking the same. It should be about the ability of the organisation to develop relevant value propositions to offer to customers."

Therefore, one may assume that the critical success factors in nation branding are the capability to integrate the various stakeholders and get them to work together, as well as the ability to deliver value-added propositions to offer to the customers or all those experiencing 'Malta'.

International branding expert Creenagh Lodge maintains that nation brand strategy management involves devising actions for each stakeholder groups that are in line with the brand strategy, creating the right internal communications to reach, inform and engage them.

She asserts that this entails devising the correct delivery mechanisms to ensure uptake and developing funding that will assure success and training staff on whose enthusiasm and dedication the final outcomes depend. The responsibility to lead this strategy falls on the government with the cooperation of private sector organisations, NGOs and the population in general.

Moreover, it is when the people actually experience the brand that they begin to form positive or negative attitudes and behaviours about a place. We must understand that it is the personal contact that each organisation and/or individual has with the tourist or foreign investor and the environment (natural and social) they experience which makes them form their opinion on Malta.

Thus it is imperative that all of us recall our hospitality, care more about the environment and instil a sense of courtesy when dealing with our visitors be they tourists or foreign investors.

The best asset a country can have is its people. We must believe in our capabilities but we must also make an effort to build a special relationship with our clients and customers.

Mario Bajada holds a Dip.M., MCIM and an M.Sc. (Marketing) Wales