Politicians may disagree between themselves about whether there should be a single “Brand Malta” – but the chairmen of various entities affected also have different views.

The issue arose at the recent EY conference when Economy Minister Chris Cardona said that Malta should have a “master brand” while Malta Enterprise chairman Mario Vella felt that the messages should be tailored to the specific sectors that Malta wanted to target.

Later Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis called for more coordination between different government agencies, but said he preferred a multi-faceted approach to branding.

Sometimes hindsight can be a great thing so the Business Observer asked a few former chairmen for their opinions – and found that there were different viewpoints as well as other aspects to be considered.

Philip Micallef, a former Malta Enterprise chairman, was hesitant about putting too much emphasis on the brand.

“Having one master brand for Malta is definitely not the one and only solution that will bring investment into Malta and cannot be seen as the panacea to Malta’s challenges.

The promise is to deliver whatever the provider is stating they will deliver in its promotional material. A brand gathers credibility and weight if the provider meets those targets and expectations of the consumer

“My humble opinion on this is that some top level branding such as ‘Malta is a quality location for business, culture, sports, cuisine, holidaying etc.’ must be coupled with sector specific branding in areas such as ICT, high-value added manufacturing, tourism, i-gaming, financial services etc.

Each sector has its unique selling points,” he concluded.

‘If we don’t deliver what we promise our brand suffers’

Kenneth Farrugia, the chairman of Finance Malta, sees the optimal approach to be a hybrid of a ‘masterbrand’ approach that would be linked to sectoral ones.

“When you look at promotional bodies such as the Malta Tourism Authority, Malta Enterprise and Finance Malta, what they have done is bring stakeholders together, which has channelled their efforts and made them more organised.

“I understand that the intention is to have new promotional bodies for even more sectors. This is always a welcome development,” he said.

“However, there is no holistic approach across the sectors, which means that no one actually owns the brand. Shouldn’t we have a coordinated approach? There should be one centralised point of reference – which would then dovetail with the sectoral bodies.”

Mr Farrugia referred to the range of collateral available from the different bodies: “Do we need all these brochures? What if we had one which promotes where we excel – in my opinion having a stable and safe environment, and being effective, being able to react much faster than other places,” he said.

Louis Farrugia has seen the issue from the point of view of both the Malta Tourism Authority and Air Malta – as well as from his personal experience through Farsons.

“To my mind, having been involved and responsible for the promotion of two major Maltese brands over the last 30 years or so, I define a brand as a promise or a form of contract between a provider of a good or service and a consumer of that good or service. The promise is to deliver whatever the provider is stating they will deliver in its promotional material. A brand gathers credibility and weight if the provider meets those targets and expectations of the consumer.

“If one applies this reasoning to Brand Malta, we can build our brand by articulating what we believe we can promise in all spheres of promoting Malta, be it our tourist product, our jurisdiction to FDIs, our market to foreign suppliers etc., etc.

We need a clean and clear image of what this country can offer

“One thing is clear: if we don’t deliver what we promise our brand suffers. If we do, however, we add value to our country’s brand every time we deliver. Any logo illustrating Malta’s offering merely identifies our product but the strength of our brand is not determined by how attractive it is but what our record of delivery is.” The issue of the logo’s role was also brought up by Joseph Zammit Tabona, a former chairman of both Finance Malta and Malta Enterprise, who said he agreed that we should ‘brand’ Malta.

“The question of branding is what comes to your mind when you mention a country – for instance the first things that come to my mind with Switzerland are banks, chocolates and clean climate. In my opinion we already have a ‘brand’ which most Maltese simply take for granted and that is the eight-pointed Maltese cross and possibly the Knights of Malta.

“I would suggest that we focus more on the eight-pointed Malta cross and identify eight pointers that should describe the Maltese people and its economy. I am listing them in no order of preference – and I have no doubt that others can possibly add or amend some of my suggestions: great history and tracing our origins some 7,000 years; Maltese people’s friendliness and safety on the island; good manufacturing base some of which have been here since the 1960s; excellent tourist attractions which has been on the increase year on year; for financial services we have a stable, political, legal and regulatory climate; a very ICT literate young community – hence being No. 1 for e-government services and gaming industry; being in the middle of the Mediterranean Malta is a strategic trading post; having the largest shipping register within the EU and the 6th in the world,” he said.

Economist Gordon Cordina was more dismissive about the impact a logo could have.

“You would have to invest millions in a branding exercise for people to recognise that logo. What we need is something that tells them who you are. We do not need to be recognised by millions but by the select few. We need a clean and clear image of what this country can offer select clientele,” he said.