Showing posts with label cheap food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheap food. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2013

Why new logo of Bulgaria as a tourist destination is just another propaganda flop?


This is a not from the kitchen, but just from its doorsteps. The Topic - yesterday the new logo for Bulgaria as a tourist destination was officially presented and it should represent the country in the next 10-15 years in its official tourism strategy.
When MEET (Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism) announced the public bid for "Development of a Brand Bulgaria strategy, development of product and regional brands and the introduction of integrated brand management" I was working at Publicis and dealing with public tenders. The company decided to participate in this contract and I personally prepared the proposal for the public bid. When we won the project Publicis and I parted and I did not work on this project, for which yesterday I thanked a lot to my former employer.

Here are the activities included in MEET’s  requirements for the project:
Phase 1 - Develop a brand strategy for the destination Bulgaria, consulting, analyzes and further studies
- Analysis of the results of market research conducted under Project 1 "Marketing research and evaluation of  the effectiveness of national marketing"Contract № BG161PO001/3.3-01/2008/001-1 OP "Regional Development" and further studies
- Legal analysis and creation of the concept of ownership of the products of the project as part of a more general system for integrated management of national, regional and product brands
- Developing a strategy for brand destination Bulgaria
- Consulting and promoting brand strategy "Bulgaria" in the tourism business, its associations and other interested
Phase 2: Develop creative proposals for a national brand and sub-brands, as well as a regional brand
- Presentation of the logo, slogan and character set of the destination brand of Bulgaria
- Development of product brands as sub-brands brand destination Bulgaria
- Developing a branding strategy of tourism development and production of at least one pilot regional tourism brand
Phase 3: Testing the proposed brand to internal and external markets
- Testing the national, regional product and brands at international and domestic markets

This is public information as well as the fact that the execution time of all this is 7 months. Given that the activities require the completion of part of the job before starting another (writing a strategy after analyzing the results of the survey, also while running a public consultations almost nothing can be done), the time was very "scarce". The price offered by us, was 1.4 million BGN, modest budget accounting the ones offered by other participants - over 2.5 million BGN (this information is also public).

An excerpt of the Consortium for Brand Bulgaria's proposal might explain the silence on the part of the Contractor on these details, instead of left to speculating in the press about finance, timing and resources:

"For the successful implementation of the project activities we plan to keep the following principles in their work:

· ... The Contractor will refrain from any public statements concerning the project or services without the advance written consent of the Contracting Authority, and ill refrain from engaging in any activity that runs counter to its obligations to the Employer under the contract. "

So, why do I think the logo is just another bullshit?
 - Because Ivo Marinov is an incompetent Minister and he presented the whole project as a book in pictures. His presentation yesterday claimed that the new logo would increase the flow of tourists ... Total nonsense, logos do not increase tourist flows, Mr. Marinov! Does not anyone read your official statements?

- Also according to Minister Ivo Marinov, the new logo would lead to twice as many tourists, but only 25% above revenues in the tourism industry. I.e. this logo will attract more poor tourists for an even cheaper tourism product? Pity then, for the efforts and money. Bulgaria is already known mainly as a cheap tourist destination and the idea of ​​the whole project was to demonstrate sustainable content of the destination on which to build its image for the next 10-15 years, not to score cheap points!

- The logo has it ALL, everyone can see this, it is like a bad fast food product - poached eggs, but with a plastic slice of Turkish tomatoes and blanched Romanian potatoes:
* The SAME rose is used by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (already discussed many times as plagiarism) and has some
*? mountains (Maybe this dark blue stain at the top) and
*? Sea (light blue stain below), for example, and it is marked with a parasol from the cheapish ones, not  a shell or a dolphin, but then you promote concrete jungles by the sea, right? What a change!

In this logo - Is there something authentic? Nope. Something specific? Neither. And something that challenges you to find it in Bulgaria? (The slogan is "Discover and share"). Well, it showed nothing particularly intriguing.
This usage of “all that comes around” in advertising circles is called "creative impotence" and lack of strategic thinking. It is further complemented by the font used, which is one of the most impersonal among the impersonal fonts. And Bulgaria is at least rich of specific fonts!

- Explanation of the choice of the logo was based on testing different creative proposals to potential audiences, based on likes. This is incredible! Testing such a logo should not be based on likes but on whether it best represents certain characteristics that we want to communicate. In this case we can only guess what was supposed to present the logo, but it is rather unlikely that it represented a wealth of content beyond the obvious. As I read the comments yesterday: "For me, this cartoon stirs strong associations of stylized eroticism Bulgarian beach style - boobs, female bottoms, peaches and roses under an umbrella ..." Just a cheap bottle of alcohol is missing from the picture. Is that what we like to say and it will be left with no comments?

"The definition of a country brand is as follows:
Brand of a country is the unique discernable sense based on overall emotional and irrational perception of the main assets of the destination: location, attractions, infrastructure, landscape, products, people, culture, history and politics.
Branding countries is a complex activity that aims to create that feeling, to strengthen or modify it if it is negative. "

Admiration for the fellow (former) colleagues who worked on the project. It was clear that whatever is done will be spitted on. I think they’ve worked hard but did not fulfill the task (perhaps a mountain of objective reasons for this, as always). Anyway, this project will stand great in your portfolio! Relax, at some point people will get used to it, and when it comes the time for a new logo, everyone will say, just as now: "The old one was better".

Let us celebrate the new tourism brand Bulgaria! 
In the meanwhile I will continue to discover and share what it actually stands for – the authentic side and not your side! This logo is a total nonsense – Bulgaria tourism could very well do without it. Its value is 0, not 1.4 million BGN. Millions remain only as money spent for an empty and cheap shell. Hopefully the strategy (that will clearly remain a big mystery), is worth at least more than 0. For example, the value of 1 BGN, just as Chinese merchandise.