Focus

The Malta Tourism Authority has come out with the Brand Malta campaign in an attempt to boost tourism figures. Is it a waste of marketing money or have we become too cynical to acknowledge a good initiative? Herman Grech reports on the latest talk of the town.

Brand this

It should have been one of the few campaigns to receive the thumbs up from everyone. With tourism being the motor of the economy it should have been almost natural to applaud the MTA's attempt to drive the message home that each one of us has to promote the island's natural advantages of heritage, diversity and hospitality.

But the chorus of disapproval is loud enough to jolt the many promotional billboards being put up explaining the meaning behind "brand". Many are also asking how the MTA could appoint us all brand managers when we do not provide the brand in the first place. Several experts believe that without the product in place, branding anything, let alone a nation, is futile.

Hotelier Winston Zahra Jr believes that the message has been pitched at too high a level and is being missed by many people.

"Concurrently, people who do understand it have found it patronising and, quite frankly, I think this has resulted due to the fact that the MTA is trying to persuade people to take responsibility where the authority has failed miserably in what it promised to deliver itself."

Moreover, the timing of the campaign, being launched in the middle of a poor period for the tourism industry, has led some people to look at it as a simple PR exercise, Mr Zahra said.

"I would have personally rather seen an educational campaign akin to the Xummiemu type which tend to get the message through in a simple but very effective way.

"Perhaps we can create a mascot called 'Captain Tourism' with an effective educational campaign attached to it that can be used to show people the damage done when we treat visitors badly and then show them how we should be delivering the proper service to patrons using our services."

Ultimately, the marketing effort has to make certain promises to the potential visitor - locally, everyone needs to understand what message and promise are being made in the market and then deliver the goods when those people choose Malta as a destination.

"However when I say everyone this also includes the government which has to lead by example and show everyone what being a good brand manager is all about."

Debbie Borg, who studied nation branding in detail and worked with a destination consultancy company in the UK, raises a series of questions:

Do we have the right product and does it match our target customer? Is our product planning in line with the brand strategy being implemented? Was the research conducted thoroughly enough to boast eventual success?

Ms Borg said that if our final identity and proposition do not match the reality then success is unlikely, if not impossible.

The attacks on the campaign evidently boil down to lack of communication and coherent information to the man in the street, she added.

"The information is not clear on any of the media being used, explanations have been limited, resulting in a justified attack in the press against the Brand Malta efforts."

Quick fixes in marketing strategy simply do not work when the essential basics of the product are not there, Ms Borg insisted.

If conducted in the appropriate manner, branding could create a thriving tourism industry as proven by countries like New Zealand, Spain, Ireland and Malaysia. There were also many failures mainly due to limited budgets and conflicting interests and opinions within the nation.

"However, the full extent of its success will not be felt before a minimum of five years after implementation, and will only be successful if nothing is overlooked in its creation and the right message is communicated during implementation," she said.

Nowadays most destinations have five-star hotels, resorts and attractions, every country claims to have a unique culture and heritage, and supposedly the friendliest people - the outcome of this is that these destination services and facilities are no longer a unique selling point for a country.

The key is that some countries have created and communicated added benefits, which allow a visitor to have a preference. The right product is not enough; it is the creation of added value elements that will differentiate one nation from another - a brand.

Ms Borg explained that the product sits at the core of the brand but a brand is more than the core product - it is a unique combination of characteristics, possibly a name, symbol, benefit and more, which identifies the product of a particular nation as showing an advantage over another nation.

First of all, though, the basic product needs to be in place; the product refers to the country's basic infrastructure as well as the tourism infrastructure. This includes roads, environment, entertainment facilities, accommodation and transport services.

If the basic product is not up to scratch, then there is no point in moving to the next stages, let alone invest in more value-added facilities, Ms Borg argued.

The branding process needs very healthy budgets to be successful.

"First on the list of 'nation brand creation' is to conduct research within the country to understand what it is that makes us who we are - our essence. No authority can change our traditional mores, values and culture."

As part of the research exercise one would also need to look into competing destinations and understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Ms Borg underlined the need to match the right offer to the right customer group. If there is a gap between the product and customer needs then there are two options - change your customer or amend your product. Without this analysis a branding exercise is not possible.

Communicating, educating and involving all stakeholders, including the public, must be the way forward, otherwise the "brand" will not be embraced and lived.

Going down the Xummiemu way?

MTA's international brand consultant Christian Sinding is taking the harsh criticism in his stride and admits that the local campaign can be fine-tuned.

"We might have used language which wasn't accessible to everybody. In hindsight, it might have been a better idea to talk about the core values," Mr Sinding, who steered several successful branding initiatives overseas, said.

The branding team, he said, has no qualms in readjusting the tone to make it more accessible and steer away from technicalities and concepts people might not understand.

In fact, a think-tank started intensive work yesterday to look at the public's general laments and reactions to the internal branding campaign and to try and tweak the promotion.

Mr Sinding seems to have taken Mr Zahra's suggestion on board and is toying with the idea of creating a tourism mascot, in line with the successful environmental Xummiemu campaign in the 1990s.

"But, ultimately, let's remember that this is the beginning of the campaign. There are five interlinking communication platforms. You have to sell the branding internally before you go abroad (in January 2007). Branding processes take three to four years."

He believes the branding campaign should have started at least five years ago to compete with new players like Montenegro, Ireland and Croatia, which have managed successful campaigns.

The branding campaign comes at a substantial cost, Mr Sinding said. But, ultimately, successful branding has yielded massive revenue in return.

He also speaks of the huge value associated with the Maltese Cross, the logo associated with Brand Malta. One of the main branding companies in the world recently estimated that the monetary value of creating a logo as recognisable as the Maltese Cross is worth between $500 million and $1 billion.

"It's such a valuable commodity and people don't realise that," he said.

Regarding the three core values making up Brand Malta, which were objectively and professionally tested among hundreds of Maltese, visitors in Malta and potential visitors, Mr Sinding advises that Malta will have to revise the traditional sun and sea tourist promotion and go upmarket to flourish in the sector.

"You need to take a cold, hard look at what segments you want to cater for in the future. You need to determine which areas have the best promise and which areas need to be let go of over time."

Mr Sinding spoke enthusiastically about the tourism potential of Malta - even though the island is becoming increasingly synonymous with tower cranes, a disdain for the law, and where people are not as friendly as they once were. In a frustrated tone, Mr Sinding said: "Of course, there are areas where product Malta needs to be polished, with glaring faults rectified. But I see more tower cranes in Spain than from my hotel room in St Julians. I think the hospitality of people here is wonderful. You have nothing to be ashamed of. This is no World War II bombed site. Are the Maltese too cynical? Yes, I think so. You are so critical of your country and I can't understand it when you're sitting on a goldmine".

Some comments about the campaign

Kenneth Zammit Tabona (columnist): All that has been done is waste more of our taxes over an ill-timed PR exercise that has fooled no one.

Jasmine Grech from Mosta: It is obvious that the authorities are doing their best by knocking on each door.

Joe Vella Bonnici (columnist): A branding exercise which stipulates as its objective the creation for Malta, over a three- to four-year period, of a distinct image in people's minds the world over is megalomaniac.

James Rizzo from Qawra: The Malta Tourism Authority has started the ball rolling, but theirs should not be the lone cri de coeur.

Philip Pace from Sliema: The think-tank at the MTA thought of shedding its responsibility on Maltese people from all walks of life by promoting us as brand managers. Quite arrogant, quite crass and, frankly, quite preposterous!

Evarist Bartolo (Labour spokesman for tourism): Branding will help, but it has to go hand in hand with improving the urban and rural environment in our country.

I.M. Beck (columnist): The people who need to take the Brand Malta idea on board are precisely the ones who won't even glance at the billboards or even understand them if they do.

What's Brand Malta?

The local message, running up to the beginning of next year, will highlight the essential messages that the authority feels will give Brand Malta an edge over other destinations:

- A distinct heritage based on a long historical tradition.

- Impressive diversity, with hundreds of leisure options, a maximum of only 30 minutes away from any one point.

- Warm hospitality straight from the heart.

The campaign will include images, a new brand logo, print advertising, short films and a host of other applications.