Billboard Branding

6^th August 2006
The Malta Independent on Sunday

Our tourism authorities seem to think that a strong brand for our tourism product can be built by declaring an intention to do so on billboards splashing the eight pointed cross as a cognitive campaign logo, reminiscent of the 1973 Air Malta launch.

They probably have no idea of what brand building is all about. Our tourism brand has to convince its consumers, the tourists, and not its providers, the resident population. Given that roadside billboards are for domestic consumption one can only presume that the aim of such a campaign is to engage the entire population to form part of the brand building effort.

This is not the way to do it. If the broad population has to be engaged one cannot do so by pushing cognitive logos but by explaining that our bread and butter depend on healthy growth in our tourist industry. That success depends on providing tourists perceived value for their money so that not only do they leave satisfied with their Malta experience, but they actually recommend it to others.

The product has to be created quietly and persistently before actual branding can begin. The creation is 90 per cent of the work while branding is the final 10 per cent. Trying to brand our product before it is brought up to the necessary quality levels will simply backfire.

If, as the billboard says, our brand is a promise then by promising a sub-standard product we will be pushing the wrong brand. It would be an illusion to think that branding can be a catalyst for upgrading of the product. It simply does not work that way.

Before we start spending money on the visual and cognitive end-part of the branding exercise, we must first dedicate all our resources and effort to building the product up to an acceptable quality. When this is done and tested, then branding leverages the value by creating an aura of perceived superiority to the sum of the underlying constituent inputs.

The larger the difference between the perceived value and the sum of the intrinsic value of the product, the greater the value added of brand.

If all T-shirts were unbranded and of the same quality, one would simply choose the cheapest one. However, branding distinguishes between a T-shirt of the same superior quality because one could perceive that buying a T-shirt with a polo logo could bestow upon its wearer a better status than a perfectly similar T-shirt with a crocodile logo. Once the underlying product meets one’s basic quality requirements i.e. it meets the basic need to wear a T-shirt, the brand than guides one’s decision for the purchase to meet also one’s emotions.

To satisfy emotions one might be willing to pay a premium price to declare one’s status by wearing a cognitive logo rather than another.

But no one would ever pay a premium price for the product with the logo satisfies emotions unless that it also meets basic needs. If by any chance it fails to meet such basic needs, then it would have failed to deliver on its promise and it will soon extinguish emotions, ensuring that no repeat purchase will ever follow. Poor quality would destroy the brand as good advertising kills a bad product faster than bad advertising.

It is inappropriate to start building our tourism brand before we first build our product. How can we waste money in brand building before we truly upgrade the entrance to our capital city? What impression do tourists get if they have to negotiate their way through on-coming buses to make it to the bridge outside City Gate? How can we think of removing all greenery from Castille Square before we create underground facilities for the bus terminus to incorporate, walk ways, escalators, underground taxi bays and retail shopping in order to clear the ugly bazaar from the main entrance to our capital city?

How can we create our brand before we build protective covers for our historical temples and deny easy access by admitting only a very small quota every day, creating an aura of scarcity and pricelessness around them and guiding the masses to replicas in purpose built auditoriums, with visual performances conjecturing how they were built and used?

Before building our brand we need to open up our majestic buildings in Valletta to public access against reasonable payment. Why do we insist on using such edifices like The Palace and the surviving Auberges in Valletta for administrative purposes rather than turn them into tourist attractions?

Can we build a good brand out of the Bugibba filth and the drainage that flows into the sea right where the new artificial sandy beach has been laid?

Brand building in the positive sense is an arduous task that takes time and needs extensive skills of persuasion. How do you persuade the taxi owner that it is not in his interest to overcharge? How do you persuade the horse cab driver (tal-karozzin) that there is more gusto if he wears a uniform in the style of a traditional Maltese peasant? How do you persuade all service providers that rather than the price per se, it is the perception of being ripped off that truly hurts our product?

We are putting the cart before the horse. And speaking of horses, the man who really loved them and who for good and for bad branded Malta of the seventies today turns ninety. Ad Multos Annos Dom.