He possesses none of the traits needed to survive in NYC. He is bald, ugly, has bad teeth, and isn't rich.
What the focus group does is pull together 5 of Toby's top female friends and have them talk about him while he sits behind a double-sided mirror. In the end the only thing that is concluded is that Toby Young has unfortunate misadventure of being born, and he will have a lot of trouble getting a girl in this city.
I understand the concept of rebranding yourself in order to give yourself a more charming appearance to the media, but I have just come across the idea of countries rebranding themselves!
They do this in order to rid themselves of older cliches or stereotypes, and in effect are trying to re-sell themselves as a new and improved society.
Apparently Estonia tried to rename its country to e-stonia, as in e-business, to establish themselves as a country headed for the digital future... this didn't pass over well.
Again, I am trying to find out the truth, and again I am pointed in the direction of PR reshaping an idea, and in this case a country.
According to the article I read, Germany was trying to rebrand itself back in 2003. What I found particularly interesting was that their PR people were well aware of the stereotypes of Germany, and instead of trying to get the public to forget this, they just worked on placing new ideas about Germany. The unfortunate truth about stereotypes is that they stick, and with Germany, they will probably stick forever.
So the German PR people set about creating a campaign that would make Germany into a "sexy" country, full of Love Parades and all-night techno beach parties.
Perception is a huge issue and it is the center of a PR campaign. Although Germany thought their campaign would wash over well in most European countries, they felt the Brits were the most difficult to persuade that they were no longer the people associated with post-war Germany. According to this article, Britain aired too many documentaries about the destruction of the Nazis and the horrors of the Holocaust to do any good for their country.
Sex sells once again in my opinion. German PR agents faced with a country with a horrible history will have to use sex to sell their country. Now will we think the Germans to be a free-spirited flower-child society full of dance parties? Who knows, as with celebrity PR, the bigger the party animal, the more papers will sell.
References:
Murphy, Claire. "Making Germany Sexy". BBC News Online. 8 July 2003. 4 Jan 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe//3055254.stm
I do like the idea of countries trying to re-brand themselves by, amongst other things, changing their names! Has it ever really been done, did it ever work?
ReplyDeleteOf course companies and their products do it all the time, with varying degrees of success. The Royal Mail here became Consignia with such disastrous results it soon went back to calling itself Royal Mail. The whole business costing a small fortune.
But far more important is the decision to change the names of the nation’s sweets and chocolates! Why did Opal Fruits become Starbursts and why did Marathon bars become Snickers?
Is it just marketing, re-branding or clever PR? More to the point do they actual sell any more products?
Who knows – can PR make leopard change its spots?
Interesting thought….