Marketing Committee
Branding Egypt: Lessons from South Africa
The Marketing Committee held a breakfast meeting at the Four Seasons at Nile Plaza Hotel on May 8 with special guest Yvonne Johnston, CEO of the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC).
The IMC is an organization that aims to create a positive, united image for South Africa and give the country a strategic advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace. In her five years leading the organization, Johnston is credited with raising the profile of South Africa’s brand, “Alive with Possibility,” to the point where it was voted among the “top five hot brands for 2004” by Intelligence Total Business.
Johnston’s presentation provided an overview of nation branding, and the challenges and lessons learned over the past five years of implementation of Brand South Africa. She explained that the IMC’s “textbook” approach to country branding held true to many of the basic principles that would be applied to marketing any product – focusing on the feelings that a brand invokes. Her suggested starting point for branding Egypt is to learn what the country’s citizens, as well as the people of its major tourism and trading nations, feel about Egypt. She asked attendees to consider: “What image does [the thought of] Egypt conjure up in minds around the world? And is Egypt happy to have [its] single thought be about the pyramids?”
Johnston said these questions are important given that the most important aspect of branding a country concerns intangibles, such as internal and external perceptions. In order to shape these perceptions, the country must identify what truly makes it different, then ensure that every stakeholder is conveying the same brand message.
This includes the country’s leadership. Johnston stressed that the branding message must come from the top in order to highlight the nation’s common themes and engage every citizen. Given the very divided past of South Africa, finding such uniting themes proved difficult, but was obviously achievable. It was simply a matter of identifying the source of the brand’s promise and delivering on that promise, she explained.
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