Going Global – Cities on Top

Nations today are aggressively competing for a share of the same pie for investment, tourism and exports. Well-orchestrated public relations strategies amplifying nation brands are making their presence strongly felt in the global context. A plethora of so-called ‘nation brand campaigns’ have burst on the scene promising ideal markets for investment – anchored in intelligent policies and driven by smart talent promising a market that would deliver for all. The multiplicity of, and similarity in, campaigns is striking – particularly visible at fora like the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos where Malaysia’s Endless Possibilities competes with Azerbaijan’s Land of the Future or South Africa’s Inspiring New Ways prominently visible on buses gliding on the Promenade. You can enjoy a delightful cup of Indian masala chai or monsoon malabar coffee at the India Lounge wearing Make in India colours. The competition is out there for all to see – a veritable call out to global investors to engage with markets for seamless profitability. Aware of the stakes involved, nations are increasingly realising the need to stay ahead of the competition. The trick lies in balancing the promise of tomorrow with the merits of today to attract the best and biggest brands in the global marketplace. Branding represents a highly critical proposition then, especially for the developing world, to market economies in transition. They have to meticulously build a menu that points to the sustained attractiveness of indices such as talent, growth, markets and opportunity to create a successful investor matrix. Like nations, the business world wants to know more about the golden trail they are being led to. Opportuni­ties being projected by nations are required to be con­crete, quantifiable, underpinned by dynamic policies and a clear roadmap, along with visible milestones. Most importantly, achievable within fixed timelines. With a landscape dotted by more than 150 investment promotion agencies (IPAs), it is unlikely that markets that do not deliver on the promise will succeed in hold­ing investor interest. In this context, it is interesting to note how the nation brand concept is slowly but steadily giving way to place branding. In my view though the two hold relevance and can be put to practice simultaneously, it is but a nation’s calling to dexterously combine the two. To do this is it important to keep interest in the country’s brand alive at all levels, while sharply pointing to specific opportunities within the ever-changing developmental landscape. Speaking from my own experience at the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) of the Govern­ment of India, I would say we have had to keep the nation brand cam­paign going whilst dovetailing it into sec­toral campaigns, which helped to create an ever-increasing inter­est in the nation brand value proposition via focused attention on opportunities in high-performance sectors. In the context of specific market opportunities, and especially with states and cities developing investment promotion campaigns, place branding could probably work more effectively than nation branding to market. A case in point could be the ambitious programme of the Modi government to create 100 smart cities by 2022. Place branding is most suited to respond to the needs of the government, investor community, developmental stakeholders and the true custodians of the initiative — the public at large. After all, they constitute the city and cherish a sense of belonging to a place. Place branding helps harness the affinities, ambitions and dreams, which – over time – people begin to develop for the place they live in and which constantly act as pull factors drawing them back to their roots. Place branding can help identify the uniqueness of a place or city, its character and the differentiators that give it a personality of its own. At the other end of the spectrum, it fundamentally helps highlight the chal­lenges, impediments, systemic weaknesses and much-discussed obstacles and disruptions, which city dwellers may have debated, discussed and left for the fates to de­cide. It may be well worth the effort to build a smart city taking this into cognizance and blending it with public aspirations and citizen’s visions for their cities. Place branding can also contribute to the success of a planned ur­ban transition by high­lighting both enablers and impediments to smart city development and emphasise positive brand differentiators, which a city may wish to preserve and nurture. Urban planning could do with this very effec­tive tool to identify and delineate clear opportunities and areas for investors to build a smart city. Let it be an initiative where technology can assist in mapping the circuit around the personality and character of a city built over centuries to make it a smart Indian city. With just 26 smart cities globally, this could well be the brand differentiator!