Wherever you turn (in Denmark, anyway), someone is talking about branding Denmark. Recently, there was even a whole conference about it.

I was particularly interested to hear what the nation branding expert Simon Anholt had to say. We’re on a quest to find out how Danish companies can base their communications on being Danish. Simon Anholt seemed like the perfect person to provide answers to our questions. But instead of hearing great insights and wisdom into how countries can build and improve their brands, he said that nation branding was quite useless. And that you can’t really shift perception anyway - without some sort of revolutionary change.

A slap in the face to all marketers?

Then he asked the audience why Danes aren’t satisfied at their current ranking of no. 14 in his most recent nation brand index. Isn’t that good enough? He teased the Danes for wanting to move into the top 10, because Denmark is doing terribly well in the big scheme of things. I think it’s since slipped to no. 15 – but it’s still well ahead of a lot of other powerful countries.

Well, I think it’s great Denmark is so ambitious. What better way to break free from the grip that “Jantelov” has over the country? Anholt has a point, however, when he says it’s no use for countries to try to change perception simply by advertising or with a clever tagline (that no-one will really believe).

I wonder, too, if the efforts of nation branding are misguided. Surely, it’s mainly down to the actions of individuals and groups who happen to represent the country. Their achievements and results reflect on the country – and boost its brand.

For example, have you heard of the “All Blacks”? Probably. Know what sport they play? Maybe. Where they come from? Probably not (unless you’re from the UK, Australia or South Africa).

The All Blacks are a strong, memorable brand, which is built on consistently high performance and unrivalled success in the sport of rugby. Since they have a close association with the country of New Zealand, they boost the brand of New Zealand. But New Zealand does not boost the All Blacks’ brand. The brand is not any stronger simply because it comes from New Zealand.

I believe that a country’s brand is made by the individual performance of companies, teams, artists, musicians, writers, politicians, journalists, and the like. And of course people who just travel and interact with others around the world. So instead of Denmark putting so much effort into branding the nation, when even Simon Anholt says it’s not going to have much effect, isn’t it best to invest in the individual efforts of its champions?

Perhaps not.

At least not according to Apple. And now a study, run by the Future Laboratory and Nokia, is inclined to agree. As the devices in our hands become more powerful, it’s the impact they have on our life experience that sells them, not how many Giga hertz or Mega pixels they boast.

G is not for Geek

The new approach to marketing is called ‘G-tech’ - short for ‘girl tech’. Though not 100% politically correct at first glance, G-tech is really just about designing and writing about products in a way that appeals to the right side of the brain. That means moving away from literal and logical messages about the way gadgets work and emphasising their empathic and intuitive qualities - how you experience a product, and how it can enrich your life.

What boys and girls want

It’s worked wonders for Apple - the iPod is the archetypical G-tech product. And now other manufacturers are following suit. At Eye For Image we’re finding more and more of our clients are responding very positively to our ‘demystify the tech’ approach. At first they were worried about talking down to (geeky) customers. But now they realise that the boys like the right brain approach just as much.

After all, boys, as well as girls, just want to have fun.

Here’s a short video in which the boys talk about G-tech (in quite a geeky way!). Most of the meat is in the last minute and a half.

What’s a value proposition all about?

The value proposition is a powerful statement that (preferably) captures the mind and the heart, and reveals a unique, highly relevant advantage or appeal. It is usually expressed as a tagline and a clear set of statements that form a platform for communicating a company or product brand.

A value proposition can be thought of as a distinctive position in the “mind’s eye” of the customer, based on perceived emotional and functional benefits. It is often a promise of customer experience. It’s a single idea you own that makes someone more likely to choose you. It’s the essence of the brand’s benefits – functional and emotional – that current and potential customers should expect to receive when experiencing a brand’s products and services.

A value proposition is most akin to a positioning statement. Personally, I prefer to use the words “value proposition” instead of “positioning statement”, since it focuses attention on the number one need – establishing value. After all, what’s the point in blowing big media budgets on promoting something that, even if it manages to capture your target audience’s attention (the ad campaign won a prize regardless of whether the product sold), people don’t feel there’s enough value to bother trying the product or calling you for a meeting?

In search of meaning
There are plenty of ad agencies out there that create pretty meaningless statements about their companies and/or their products. Stuff like: “The preferred professional partner” or “We do it a little bit better”, or “the leading provider of xxxx”. Statements like these are, quite frankly, useless.

A true value proposition can take many forms. For example:
- We’re No.2 – we try harder (reason to prefer: “I appreciate the values of modesty and a will to make things better, and I expect that a company that makes such a honest statement really does go the extra mile”).
- Design for the people (reason to prefer: “I want designer furniture, but I can’t afford top-end brands – here’s a company that appreciates my position”).
- A thousand shades better (reason to prefer: “This hearing aid delivers the best possible sound quality, which I understand is the most important single factor when choosing a hearing aid”).

You can arrive at your value proposition by considering:
- What functional benefits might our customers want from a company like ours?
- What might grab their attention?
- What might appeal to their hearts? Capture their imaginations?

In a world where people are disinclined to give you even a split second of their attention, nailing the value proposition means identifying one key message you can say about your offering that will make people want to know more. Then you need to support it with no more than three sub-messages that make the main message even more compelling.

For example (for a new hearing aid):

Main message:
“The No.1 choice for an active lifestyle”

Three sub-messages:
ReSound Live™ is the No.1 choice when you want to be:
- Physically active – whenever you need to move your body
- Socially active – whenever you’re together with friends or family
- Mentally active – when you want to be at your focused best

From Drop Box

Translating can be a tricky business - but this is an error that you’d never think could happen. When officials sent a road sign to be translated into Welsh, they thought the reply they received was the translation. Unfortunately, it was the translator’s out of office reply. The result was a road sign with the Welsh text: I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.

(It should have read: No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only.)

According to the BBC story, much blame is being heaped on officials, but surely some fault has to lie with a translator who only includes one language version of their out of office reply.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Check out the other road sign cock-ups:

Bladder alert for cyclists

School entrance gibberish

Look right - no, I mean left