It is generally believed by many yet-to-be-initiated that advertising and image-building are all there is to marketing. Or, still worse, the naive belief is that image-building can be done solely by advertising.
While advertising has its place in this respect, no image can be built sustainably which is not a true depiction of the reality.
If a certain image is built by the sheer force of advertising that is not backed by substance, it is a bubble image that can burst any time. Pioneering organizations too lose lustre or have their image tarnished if their performance declines.
So, image is a function of organizational performance as a whole and not mere advertising or even marketing effort. For, there is nothing that 'marketing' can market unless design and production provide 'marketing' with the features sought in the market place.
And, design and production, in turn, cannot do much if all other support functional activities are not well in place. Marketing, therefore, is an organization-wide effort without which needs identified by 'marketing' cannot be satisfied and its forecasts cannot be realized. And, unless that happens through synchronized organizational action, there will not be much for 'marketing' to market.
If the organization tries to get by through advertised claims that the consumers and other stakeholders fail to see or realize through the use of company's products and services, there is more to lose than to gain.
False claims can not only invite regulatory or legal action, they would also lead to a loss of goodwill. The customers would then not be beating the path to the door of the company and competitors would stand to gain from the above loss.
The job of marketing is facilitated if the quality of operations at all levels speaks for itself thereby promoting a company image that the consumers would choose to identify with by using that company's products whose quality should, in turn, reinforce the image of both the company and its products.
Advertising would, of course, inform, spread awareness, arouse interest in the company's products, and impel the consumers to cast their dollar votes in favour of products that the advertiser is sure would satisfy the needs and wants of consumers.
Credible advertising agencies need to be first sold on to the product attributes they are expected to communicate to the general public. The image of the advertising company too points towards the quality of the product it takes on and quality of the advertised product, in turn, feeds into the image of the advertising company. Substance, therefore, remains at the core of all image-building exercises.
Same would be the case for countries. For Pakistan to be projected as a progressive, modern, moderate, and tolerant state, it is essential that it heads in that direction and becomes one before it can be effectively sold as such to the outside world.
For, country's image building is not a mere exercise in public relations or media campaigns or the utterances of people in their interactions with the rest of the world.
No amount of campaign can now help the US government regain its image it lost after the Abu Gharaib prison scandal in Iraq. Image is built with what you do and not what you only say.
For us to claim that the economy has turned the corner merely on the basis of a higher GDP growth rate and high forex reserves that are actually driven by many external factors too is to claim that a student has started sprinting if out of five courses he/she scored one A and one B.
For as long as the remaining three scores comprise one C, one D, and one F, the student's overall performance is well below average and such a student may go on probation with survival depending upon good performance in other courses as well.
Above average performance on forex reserves and GDP growth rate does not necessarily mean that the performance is above average on other indicators too. For as long as the economic performance is lack lustre on income and assets distribution, poverty levels, employment, health, education, and general living conditions; the economy is far from having turned the corner.
How then can an independent realistic mind project the economic situation as one headed towards progress and modernization? The measurement criteria may change but so long as there is misery writ large, even changing the methodology will not change the results on the ground as long as the situation does not change on the ground.
A yard is a yard no matter what one may do to the yardstick. The BJP government failed miserably as it played with the slogan of "India shining." For, an India that shines for the IT sector does not shine half as well for the multitude in the country, many of whom cannot even afford kerosene lamps to light up their shanties in the dark. The Indian electorate responded with vengeance to bring down a slogan that could not pass the reality test.
How do we claim to be modernizing with high poverty; low levels of health, literacy, and education; and high levels of socio-economic inequities? One may take liberties with the definition of literacy to overstate the literacy rate but that does not really jack up the number of literates who should be able to write letters and read newspapers. The World Bank's website says it all very aptly.
It points to the fact that in South Asia, there are women heads of the government, federal and state ministers, parliamentarians, politicians, doctors, journalists, academics, engineers, pilots, activists, business and public administrators, accountants, and other professionals but it is this region where female illiteracy is amongst the highest.
Can we then use the facade of the above highly-qualified women to claim that our women are all educated, progressive, modern, enlightened, and upwardly mobile? The answer is absolutely not as the above handful, compared to the bulk of the female population, is not a representative sample of the majority that remains oppressed, suppressed, and tyrannized.
The claim of our being a progressive, modern society rings absolutely hollow if almost half the population comprising women remains subjugated. And, how do we claim that we are a tolerant society when this half remains subject to the whims of arbitrary decision-making either by the family elders or the parallel judicial system in vogue at the tribal level? So, they not only get killed for some "honour" but are sold and exchanged as per tribal customs.
It is impossible to build an image of a tolerant society when a lot of male members of the parliament try to shoot down the bill against "honour" killings and if even the educated amongst us do not want to do away with discriminatory laws against women.
With half the population fighting discrimination at various levels, can we claim to be headed towards socio-economic distributive justice as a nation that alone will enable us to turn the corner on the economic front? Further, in the absence of distributive justice at the fundamental level, claims of empowerment of women remain a far cry, however much we may want to promote the same as yet another favourite on our image-building agenda.
To domestic and community intolerance of women's basic rights can be added religious and sectarian intolerance. With terror attacks not an uncommon feature and with most wanted terrorists found in our homeland, can we project an image of a tolerant society? It might be argued that these are but a handful of people as compared to the population size and, therefore, do not represent the society.
In order to determine their representativeness, however, it is the general mood and opinion in the country that needs to be polled. If the sentiment is found unrepresentative, it will be safely concluded that we are tolerant.
The survey results can then be put up for mass publicity as this could be an image-building exercise worth the effort. If not, then a definite strategy is required to become as tolerant as some would like us to be as mere oral pronouncements cannot make us any more tolerant or intolerant than we already are.
While the above would be a good image-building exercise, it is worthwhile also for creating a climate conducive for growth and development. For, a good amount of work time is lost due to terror activity in a country that could be more productive and not less!
