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hm, let me see, my Singapore is…
Tapping on the country-of-origin effects is a tricky affair especially if you don’t have a strong “provenance” to boot for. Look at how many well-known Singaporean brands we have?
Provenance, from the French provenir, “to come from”, means the origin, or the source of something, or the history of the ownership or location of an object.
It is not the name of the place or the hardware visible to the naked eye. Capturing the spirit and the values of the place are pertinent… and the number 1. rule, the values must be famous.
And where do you see provenance marketing most?
National brand identities! (duh)
Once upon a time, I envisioned to be in the branding team of Singapore Tourism Board. (Hear, hear, I am not even Singaporean!) Knowing me, I’d probably “leverage” on the ugly assumptions that people have of Singapore. (; We’ll make a comparison later.
Here is Peru’s:
The typography used in the new brand identity of Peru is making me feel so bright and zippy! Check these out. I love the vitality depicted by the colours and the curves and non-conventional choice of sans serif typeface.
and then here is Singapore’s:
To give this more credibility, here is the “living logo” :
They call this, “It is an experience to call your own.”
Yeah, it seems like we are exasperated. We cannot decide anymore what we are now; or what kind of destination we are. You know what, why don’t you decide? (insert encouraging smile) Don’t consumers want to have the power of choice? (insert winsome smile)
“We are not just a business hub, we are/want to be a hub of everything!” I remember saying that in my “Business Study Mission to Scandinavia” class, coming across a little too strongly, and to my slight chagrin, my course instructor responded that we have to do that to survive as a small nation.
True, true. Does that mean though we have to transfer the imprints of our policy-making into our destination branding?
So in that Business Study Mission, we had a glimpse into how Sweden, Denmark, etc. brand themselves. Swedish brands do a great job of squeezing every bit of its provenance and then drenching themselves in it, unapologetically.
Since we’re on that, here is what I’ve found via Facebook (Thanks momo!) on a Swedish cider:
In short, Rekorderlig is Swedish Cider.
What a proud and straightforward claim. It is like by just being Swedish, people will naturally flock to you…
Well, I think it does. I’m sold. I’m a fan of cider and furthermore, they get fashion blogger, Caroline to endorse the cider. Caroline is Swedish and we all know Swedish fashion, don’t we? Chic, Contemporary and Creative.
So, bundling both brands together gives you one powerful and easily recognisable Swedish brand. They even started a Beautifully Swedish blog – it tries to capture everything inspired by Sweden.
(Could we have one for Singapore as well? I hope it won’t be flooded with angry, angsty posts. Sometimes I think we may have this really, really… dry sense of humour and … a lot of dissatisfaction. eh, we’re a hub of everything ok, can we be content?! haha.)
Now, I just need a drink.
pause. & serendipity. 