"To maintain its status as one of the world's most valuable country brands, Japan needs to find a future-focused big brand idea within the cultural contradictions of its ancient, artisan traditions and its fascination with shiny, new traditions"
" It's time for the 'world's largest democracy' to join its Asian neighbours in the world's top 20 tourism league table, by finding its big brand idea within the cultural contradictions of its spiritual philosophies - from yoga to meditation to nirvana to re-incarnation"
A creative conversation between Des and Tina, Brandopia's mythical brand developers
DES:Last month, the county of Yorkshire's former Steel City destination brand, Sheffield, launched its latest branding: A stencilled S for Sheffield. TINA:And if that wasn't bad enough, the county in which Sheffield is positioned in, has also been struck down by an alpha-bout of Y for Yorkshire.
DES:There must be an epidemic of Initialitis flying around in this region these days, because in a land not so far away, a Big N for Nottinghamshire was launched, condemning that county - famed for the legend of Robin Hood - to an anonymous life in the Initialdom of England's destination brands. TINA: It seems that this alpha-contagion started way back, in middle England, when the 'b-in-Birmingham' went missing from everybody's alphabet soup and sent them scurrying off to the city's northern rival - Manchester.
DES:Sadly, smaller destinations try to establish themselves with initials because they think they can adopt the same brand naming strategy used by economically larger destinations such as America (USA and US) and Britain (GB and UK). TINA:However, these big names are under the constant attention of the world's media, who over the years have driven their names along with their initials into the minds of a global audience. No such luck for S for Sheffield and Y for Yorkshire.
'Brand' the Marketect says:
"Forget the 19th letter of the alphabet, Sheffield. Forge your future from within the cultural collisions and contradictions of your famous past."