+ Experience of how politicians’ minds wore and how politieal journalists react Touriem - the acceptable public face of your national brand ‘We have already implied that you may well retain different campaigns for your country. These might include, for example, exports, inward investment, trade fairs, ete. All of these can produce variations on a single theme but they must all be contributing strategically to the establishment of a clear identity for your nation that advances the interests of your people in every dimension. This is a difficult task, But it has to be done. You cannot afford to attract, tourists to a country of quaint medieval charms if your prime economic goal is to attmact dynamic, high technology industries. It is your tourism promotion - in whatever form (advertising, PR, websites, etc) - that will have the biggest impact on attitudes to your nation. It is the easiest option open to you to counter prejudice and to build warm and positive feelings to your nation. We are talking politics - and public opinion Your diplomats are doubtlese highly oldlled. Your own relationshipe with Ministers of other countnes may be excellent. But their ability to treat with you as you would wish is affected by the attitudes of their own electorates. It is conditioned by the headlines in their domestic press. ‘You can only alter public opinion, in the countries whose goodwil you need, if you talk to them. And as we have said, your tourist promotion is the best and perhaps the only effective medium under your control We have said elsewhere that merely to create slick advertising campaigns with a punchy slogan is not enough. The best kind of Press Relations will be ‘Ate seved y © MalehasetgmscamWe will also advise you how to use tourist visits and appropriate pmducts for those tourists, to accelerate better appreciations of the real strengths of your country. Country rebranding: why choose Bangladesh Foundation for Touriem ‘Development? To re-brand, or to brand, or to intensify the branding of a country requires a particular mix of slille if it ie to be done effectively. Firstly, your agency has to understand that a purely cosmetic operation will not work. Bangladesh Foundation for Tourism Development knows how to work with you so that you can — objectively - find the clements in your counzy on which effective and relevant branding can be built. Real elements: real strengths, reel things, real people, real holiday products. ‘We can work on real policy initiatives that give concrete meaning to your ideals, How does all that feed back into branding? Well, we will have a dear idea of ‘how you want the public to react to your country. We focus on the actions that build tourism, of course, AND lead to increasing absorption into their attitudes of what you are trying to say to them. We can do this, because we understand Brands. All branding work today in this fidd requires: + Experience of how consumers react to communications + Experience of how brands are built and how brands are refreshed + An understanding of when market research is essential and what kind of market research gives useable information + Aknowledg: of how tourism can be used to accelerate the process of re- appreciating the country + Aknowledge of the new groups of tourists and their habits. + understanding of how oniine media, used to communicate tourism messages can be also used as the prime public vehicle for a re assessment of your country ‘Ate seved y © MalehasetgmscamPositioning can help avoid this, and help ensure that good decisions are made over time. ‘Travel Brand Positioning - Twelve Questions To Ask As you examine where your brand is now, and where you want to be in the future, consider the position you're in. Ask yourself these tvetve questions: 1. Do we follow what our competitors are doing and saying? 2. Do we talle with our customers to find out what they think? 3. Do we talk with non-customers to find out why they aren't customers? 4. Does the look, flavor or tone of our marketing campaigns change frequently? To we have a “mood hoard” and brand statement for our company? Has everyone that comes into contact with our customers seen it? 7. Do we havea litmus test to determine if each element of our ‘communications program ie “on position? 8. Do we havea brand standards or graphics standards manual? 9, Are they followed religiously? 10. Dowe have a designated brand steward to pay close attention to creative, and other applications of the brand? 11 Dowe track ROI for marketing initiatives? 12 How are our conversion rates? Its a crowded world welive in, and despite recessions, layoffs, and cumbling revenuie projections, people will still male time for getting away. A strong position will heip you create emotional, evocative connections with the ‘consumer. Those connections are built on insights grounded in the truth, and will help you find meaningful differentiation in your category. ‘The procese is simple, and makes everything else more effective down the road, ‘Ate seved y © Malehasetgmscam‘More and more countries have decided, rightly, to pay attention to their national Identity. You may call it your brand or the identity of your people or your national reputation. Each of these names denotes something a little different. But the issue is the same: the idea of your country evokes a reaction in the mind of every foreigner (citizen, corporation and Government). And indeed, no less importantly, at home. National pride is as live an issue as ‘extemal reputation You recognise that if you do nothing, the image of your country will continue bbeing made, and changed, daily by many factors over which you have little or no contol. But you can coordinate a number of the messages being put out by your Government: your promotion of exports, inward investment and touriem, for example. Indeed, your advertising and promotion budget is the most obvious and direct tool under your control. We do not adwente an advertising messoge as the only route to a positive country image where previously a negative one existed. That would be propaganda and not advertising and would not work. On the contrary, we believe that effective campaigns are always rooted in reality. We believe that we can work with you to find which positive aspects of your country we can use to ‘build a credible international positioning. And image. Branding, in other words! ‘Ate seved y © MalehasetgmscamThat may sound lke an ethereal idea, but it’s very real, and it's measurable Brands that understand this consistently score better than the competitive set for customer satisfaction, advocacy (or willingness to recommend), and loyalty. Net promoter scores invariably rise. The correlation between these marketing metrics and good old dollars is strong, But, with no soul, it’s very hard to create a battle cry that the intemal team ean live by, and consumers will respond to. ‘There are other good examples of how a strong position can make other marketing initiatives easier, and return more value. Consider internet marketing This is a real-world, stone-cold example that EVERYONE has probably dealt with by now. If you haven't, we expect that you will very shortly. In a down market, with media budgets on the chopping block, this is the one sector in the advertising industry that will see 15% growth in 2009, Without a solid brand position, the absolute basic web marketing 101 tasks like SEO and SEM are painful, and likely, aimless. Sure, i's trackable, but without a position, ‘creating effective paid and orginic keyword campaigns that translate into conversions is difficult. With a unique position, creating long term strategies that improve organic rankings, deliver more relevant visitors, and convert at hhigher rates, is within reach, And remember the message Pethaps the most compelling example of how much simpler marketing can ‘become if a valid, meaningful position is established is in god old advertising and marketing communications. Consistently good creative is the leve child of jents have established ‘great positioning and creative talent. Agencies whose their competitive line in the sand, grounded in truthful insight, con deliver great work over and over. Italso makes it easy to stay on track over time. How ‘many times have we seen marketing campaigns lose the mojo after a few great executions, and then completely unravel after a few quarters? ‘Ate seved y © Malehasetgmscam‘Our experience shows us that there are four steps integral to uncovering truths and determining which contribute to a believable, differentiating, relevant, memorable and deliverable promise of value for any destination: + Peeling back the onion + Analyzing the competitive idea space + Identifying the true relationship drivers + Gettingintimate with the consumer Peeling back the enion ‘Take a good hard look at your place in the world, from an outsider’s, ‘perspective. Where did it originate? What does it offer of value? How has it been represented in the past? What is its current positioning in the mind of the consumer, and what is its current market position? How about the people behind it? What are they thinking and saying? How do they act? What do they really believe? What do they really think of the travelers that find their way ‘here? Toll the truth and nothing but the truth, Analyzing the competitive idea space ‘Take a look at all of your competitors. Reverse-engineer their advertising and ‘marketing communications to see where they are focusing, how they are positioning their destinations, What are they saying? How is it different, and how is it the same? Is it the truth? After you've completed this, you should ‘have a good idea where there is saturation and where there is opportunity in ‘the world of ideas. Identifying the true relationship drivers Identify all of the attributes in the category and do a gap analysis to determine which of these are the relationship drivers for the category, and for your destination. Are the drivers tangible or intangible? Which attributes do you ‘need to do well just to be considered? Which offer the highest return on. ‘Ate seved y © MalehasetgmscamI Ioons: each and every destination has leveraging and creating highly memorable, ownable and inspiring symbols uniquely associated with the destination. These may be, inter alia, © Natural environments 0 Structures 0 People Wildlife © Sport © Elements of Arts and culture Destinations icons reflect the energy, possibility and pride of the nation. Anchoring the destination BRAND in icons enables the destination to ‘own’ truly unique elements of interest and attraction, Focus, however, should be few ‘ntrghe rowed © MalehsaeSumsicamLet's use another example You fick up 4 travel magazine at your local newsstand, and page through it casually as you wait for a phone call, or sip coffee. It's an issue about beach getaways. How many different ads will feature a photo of a woman, on a lounge chair, with a palm tee? It might surprise a lot of destination marketers to learn, that a common response to ads like these is “Great. A Beach. So what?” To male matters worse, online travel agencies, aggregators, and directory ‘websites seem to have trained the consuming public to look for low price as the only driver of choice. The websites that people lie to go to see how much it ‘would cost to fly to Denver, or Miami aren't in the business of helpingcreate differentiation, or build a strong brand, or introduce a destination to a new audience. For them, it's all about transaction volume. ‘The result? Lots of great deals for the consumer, but travel brands become uninteresting in a hurry if they're not the cheapest deal. Features and attributes are not meaningful points of differentiation For those on the inside of the business, i's especially important to sce things from the consumers perspective. Many marketers talee stock of the features or attributes they have to sell or promote, and attempt to create a brand position around them. The problem is that many of those attributes (a ski lif, a beach, restaurant, activities for lide) aren't all that unique. Lots of places have ‘beaches, don't they? ‘This is why creating differentiation within a particular sub-category is $9 vital toa strong competitive position, and can really drive preference, market share, and bottomline growth, Key Steps To Defining A Unique Fosition For Your Destination ‘Ate seved y © Malehasetgmscaminspirational promise that holds true to the experience (and value) it can reliably deliver. Creating this higher level of differentiation means taking the time to leam the truth behind what makes it unique, and what it has to offer that is relevant and compelling to the travelers wanted as repeat, high value customers. All great positions are rooted in a nugget of truth, or a kemel of insight that helps you stake out an ownable space in the mind of the consumer that is unique, ‘and that no other brand can co-opt, or invade. Once that truth has been uncovered and dearly articulated, every decision that hhas to he made gets a lot easier moving forward. ‘Tourism Without Branding Im a competitive landscape, lack of differentiation equals commodity. ‘There isn't a commodity out there that gets to charge a premium-not one red cent more—unless there are no competitors. Commodities are complete substitutes. No one cares if you swap out one for another, because they're all the same. There is lite differentiation. A beach here is basically the same as a ‘beach there. A lift and lodging deal here is the same as a deal over there Let’s say you're in the lobby of a hotel, or ata rest stop, or even surfing the web, ‘You happen upon a brochure (or website) for a ski resort. You flip through it How much of it was truly unique? How much differentiation was created in your mind as you viewed it? Aside from a few facts about physical attributes, what popped off the page as truly unique? Td bet you saw one or two money shots showing off the snow, a few more generic skiing and riding action shots, some lifestyle photographs and maybe a cute kid with a helmet and goggles, right? ‘Ate seved y © Malehasetgmscam‘There are too many places to go out there Jnere are tens of thousands of destinations (from cities to museums to ‘attractions to resorts), all fighting to get the consumer's attention. What separates the wheat from the chaff in this crowded category is a strong and clearly articulated brand position. Now, we all know that the words *brand” and “branding” have been completely ‘overused in these times of measurement and metrics. So before your eyes glaze over during yet another mindless effusion, let us cut straight to why those two words are still important to travel marketers: "Without a position, it is almost impossible to achieve a meaningful and sustainable point of differentiation.” It’s cesy to overlook the power of positioning when there are competitive pressures, market forces or deadlines to deal with: + brochures must be distributed on time, or else + direct mail campaigns must drop when scheduled + bannerads, web content, and deal driven links need t get out there [Any diversion from the plan could impact revenue. Unfortunately, when these tactical efforts don't follow 2 carefully crafted position, the destination can end up either looking schizophrenic to the customer, or worse: indistinguishable from competitors. Cover up the logos and it could be merketing from any place. ‘A.unique, ownable position gives a destination gravitas It has pull. It makes people want to get up off the couch, pack their bags, and go. With their friends, family, even solo. Whether it's across town, the country, or the ocean, a destination has to make peopk lustafter it. This requires an ‘Ate seved y © MalehasetgmscamBRANDING BANGLADESHI ay TravelDestinations Bangladesh Brand Positioning For Tourism Marketing tT sof 5 op E battle $5,855 g2 =2 pare 5g Emeatoen”, $8280) amer 3 eo Therefore S$ 2 =o fois? op T (Sten SECEE ior & 2 branding=sés sti see beiBiny Customers 23 ad 2 intensifies Confirms researching i cs ran r — eal Li :u) oi Facnnng 92 motieg ome Marketing ~ § Fgeeds $5 makesclientsmarket & = se = name § g§ ‘ntrghe rowed © MalehsaeSumsicam