Searching For....The Essence of Jamaica

NEWS FEATURE

Photographer: Mark Thompson

Searching For………The Essence of Jamaica

What is the single essential feature that makes Jamaica unique?

So far it has yet to be named, but JTI/Jampro is committed to identifying it and allowing it to support a new era of investment, production and development.

Public relations practitioners got a first hand update on this recently when country branding expert, David Lightle, shared case studies of countries that successfully rebranded using a unique nation identifier that the whole country supported. Mr Lightle, a consultant to JTI/Jampro, was addressing the annual general meeting of the Public Relations Society of Jamaica (PRSJ) in Kingston on March 30.

Mr Lightle noted that, in his experience, successful branding came after government made infrastructure and policy commitments that supported industry. He also stressed that the rebranding efforts must always be towards reducing poverty by growing economically.

“We know from the East Asian model that you cannot overcome poverty unless you have the minimum 10% growth rate every year for ten years…if you are wobbling at 1-2% GNP (Gross National Product) growth rate, you need to do something different.”

Giving his case study examples from country rebranding in Taiwan, New Zealand and Colombia, he noted that finding a unique common essence of a country was essential. He outlined his methodology called the Drop Formula System, which he said was a process of interviews and focus groups that revealed useful insights about the people of a nation, no matter how diverse they are.

Acknowledging the importance of public relations, Mr Lightle said that the branding will not be successful if the people of a country do not stand behind it. “It is better to have a unified image competing out there…domestic communications is essential in any country branding effort. You have to have domestic buy-in before you present your brand to the world,” he said.

Using the example of Colombia, Mr Lightle said that being inclusive was integral to the success of their brand identification process noting that the Opposition was at the table from the beginning. After six months of investigation, passion was identified as Colombia’s unique brand identifier. The Colombian government communicated the brand message to its people for 18 months before it was launched globally. The logo has been accepted by the productive sector and it is currently used on many product packages and has been adapted in slogans such as “growing with passion” for coffee growers and horticulturists, “serviced with passion” for Avianca, the flagship airline and “made with passion” for the fashion industry. Now in its fifth year, passion has helped the country to eliminate its narco state and banana republic image and successfully position it as business friendly and attractive to international investment.

In 2010, during a global recession, Colombia is experiencing more than 5% annual growth and, according to a March 25, 2010 article on Blomberg.com, has “Pulled out if its first recession in a decade in the 4th quarter.” The infrastructural support provided, according to Tradingeconomics.com is “attributed to an increase in domestic security resulting in greater foreign investment; prudent monetary policy; and export growth.”

2010 Executive

Public Relations practitioners from the public sector, private consultants, educators and PR students attended the meeting where Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Director for Information and Training, Delmares White, was elected President of a seven-member Executive. The other members are: First Vice President, communications consultant, Christopher Benjamin; Vice President Finance, director of communications and customer service, National Works Agency, Stephen Shaw; Vice President Recruitment and Membership, PR Manager, Students’ Loan Bureau, Analisa Downes; Vice President, Special Events, MIND Marketing Manager, Shawnette Henry; General Secretary, PR Manager, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Cheryl Smith and Assistant General Secretary, communications consultant and radio and TV producer, Deborah Hickling.