Brand Portugal
In mid-September, AICEP organized a conference about the Brand Portugal with the goal of understanding how the country can set itself apart and develop a long-term strategy for this area of management.
The challenge is to build on the reputation that sets the country apart, gathering as many ideas as possible to build the Brand: Portugal. One of them is to turn challenges into opportunities by strengthening the country’s appeal to tourists or fostering collaboration among innovative sectors, gaining a better understanding of different values, and nurturing a brand culture as a tool for promoting the country.
Don’t forget that brands are collective attitudes, manifestos. A feeling. A brand is the balance between intrinsic quality and perceived quality, in a way that assigns a fair value to a product or service—or, in this case, to a country.
Aicep has been developing a strategic plan for the Brand Portugal which is based on eight ideas. The first is that a country’s brand is built on its values. The second is the identity that sets it apart—its assets. Third, it requires a clear vision of Portugal as a laboratory for sustainability, as a hub in technology and digital innovation and as a concept of Small is smart – focused on added value rather than scale.
Fourth, we must believe in the Made and Created in Portugal Focus: Scattering efforts is a waste. The sixth idea is the ambition to promote Portuguese brands, with awareness of all the stakeholders. The seventh idea is a joint effort, involving coordination and collaboration between the country brand, sector brand, and corporate brand, culminating in the eighth point of the plan: clear communication, with consistency between message and image, based on the principle that less is more. More focused, well-coordinated, and digital communication.
Countries need a powerful positive image, and governments are the guardians of that image. An image that is built on nation branding, that is, Marketing e Communication to promote tourism, investment, and trade. What drives change in a country is its geography and culture; technological advancement, hard power (population, land, etc.) and its contribution to the international community.
This last aspect is one of the defining trends of the nation branding. What matters is not what a country says, but what it does. What is its contribution to the world, and how does it benefit people in other countries? And this must be achieved through a combination of action and occasional communication—with persistence and sustainability, without being tedious.
And let’s not forget that the challenges defining the era in which we live cannot be addressed by a single country. Portugal must ask itself what kind of country it wants to be and what it wants the international community to be.
There have never been so many challenges—and so many options. This requires harmonizing policies and projects, with both competition and collaboration among countries. And the gold standard for good global governance is good governance itself. Ensuring that projects are aligned with the strategy requires patience. Brand promotion must be encouraged and fostered. And as the old saying goes, there are two best times to plant a tree: 40 years ago and now. Let it be now.