People buy brands, not products. That is the age-old, established fact supported by extensive research that every marketer worth his or her salt would always stand by. Interestingly, over the years, pursuance of a successful brand strategy has seen a crossover from corporate sector to politics and governments.

We are all privy to the power that image-makers and spin masters wield in American politics and have all heard stories of how Charles Saatchi’s brilliant advertising copy helped Margaret Thatcher assume power in the UK (Saatchi may not be particularly eager though, to claim any credit on how she went on to use that power).

Indeed, many a government now endeavour to transform themselves and operate as corporate entities. Malaysia Inc. is one example. Likewise, the $42 million India Development Initiative announced with the Union Budget of India on 28 February 2003 aims to market India and the economic opportunities it offers to the world through aggressive use of their missions abroad.

Similarly, the World Bank has recently been promoting a kinder, gentler image through TV spots revolving around their anti-poverty corporate theme. But while we recognize that branding is key, it is an extremely difficult, specialized job that often entails juggling with science and art and grappling with nebulous ideas for concrete objectives.

In the cola wars for example, some people prefer Coke to Pepsi not simply because of the difference in how they taste, but because of certain mental associations and perceptions of that taste. The principal challenge that we thus face as a nation is to develop these mental associations that would ultimately lead towards the development of a brand called ‘Pakistan’.

At the moment, there is no brand called ‘Pakistan’. What we do have are disjointed, largely negative, fragments of our country’s attributes, which form the basis for the world’s judgment. One must hasten to add that these negative images are, unfortunately, ingrained in our own minds as well, hence making our task of convincing others all that much more difficult.

Recent geo-political and terrorist events have rendered this image all the more vulnerable. But in conducting a SWOT analysis, we should take this geo-political baggage as a given and work around it, rather than continue to wade in areas of controversy and subscribe to a lackadaisical, fatalistic approach. Successful marketing is a function as much of being aware of one’s weaknesses and threats, as it is of how the strengths are used and built on.

So what are our strengths? Contrary to public perception, our population of over 140 million people can be converted into a source of strength. Far be it from me to suggest that we should not contain the growth rate of population, but that the stock of human resources can, with aggressive and targeted marketing, be transformed into a strength for it represents a large market size that can help manufacturers achieve economies of scale and the demographic composition, with majority of the population under 30 years of age and a growing middle class, is every marketer’s dream.

With a per capita income in terms of ‘purchasing power parity’ of $2000 and growing demand for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables such as electronic appliances and autos, the internal urban market alone provides economic opportunities for investment from both within and without the country. This large pool of human resources, with training and skills upgradation, can also serve as the basis for enhanced export of services; after all, even now our greatest export earnings come from remittances of expatriate workers.

In the shape of the non-resident Pakistanis in the US and Europe, we have a body of people who have the knowledge, the experience and the desire to payback their motherland, and initiatives such as the ‘human development fund’ have tapped into this resource, but more can and should be done.

We also know that there is an abundance of natural resources like natural gas, minerals and coal that need to be properly explored. In terms of enabling policy environments, although many a problem persist in various areas, we have an increasingly liberal trade and foreign exchange regime and a competitive and open financial sector that is far ahead on a number of scores vis-a-vis other developing countries, including India.

Our quality and competitiveness are good enough to enable us to produce goods for Adidas, Nike, Levis, Gap and Iked and other such top-notch brands and some of our textile products like bed linen are recognized as being top drawer. There has also been a visible improvement in governance, particularly at the top level, in the recent past and the fundamentals of the economy are beginning to stabilize. The progressive and incrementally pro-business attitude and the positive outcomes of economic reforms has been acknowledged by rating agencies such as Standard & Poors, who have upgraded our sovereign rating.

But these strengths are meaningless unless they are translated and projected as success stories and that is where the challenge lies. Modesty about one’s own worth is admirable, but as a nation, our collective introspection must not be allowed to inevitably end up in bouts of cynicism and defeatism. Societies that do not believe in themselves wither away. We must therefore curb our tendency to heavily discount all that we have achieved.

The success stories may be far and few in between and need to be augmented, but they do exist in some branded forms: Sindhri, Basmati, Ajrak, scientists like Dr Abdul Salaam and even our sports heroes like Jehangir Khan and Imran Khan, to name just a few of our demi-brands. Perhaps I should add ‘reverse swing’ to that list. Some may snigger at this association between products and services and the development of a nation’s brand, but one need only look at how quality, efficiency and durability of goods are linked with national characteristics.

Thus Italy is associated with style, Switzerland with mechanical efficiency, Japan with technological development. There is a clear linkage between some of the greatest brands of the world, like McDonald, Coke, Microsoft and the concept of the American Dream, the little guy (meaning the entrepreneur) taking on the odds and winning. Closer to home, India has very ably merged its history and its culture with its national image.

So if all these countries have done it, why can’t we? Almost all battles are now economic battles and the new battleground is the media—electronic in particular — and we have poor standing on that front. Whatever exposure we do have is negative and that’s where the problem lies and that is where we need to focus. With the advent of the new local TV channels and the freedom provided to the media, one hopes that while maintaining the need for objective and factual presentation of information to their clientele, the media industry would be equally willing to project a positive image of the country.

Every message has a credibility factor. So far, the government has driven efforts at improving our national image. Given that historically, the government itself has been a part of the problem, this raises obvious credibility issues. Our attention must thus shift towards the successful businessmen and women, thought leaders, entrepreneurs and the distinguished elite of our society for acting as our marketing agents.

As ambassadors of goodwill, businessmen need to forge closer links with trade bodies and associations world wide, our thought leaders must become more active in international think tanks and academic circles and our media must adopt a more positive approach towards our own people. The government meanwhile, must assume new roles of facilitation and gear up for economic diplomacy rather than the outmoded traditional diplomacy.

In particular, the missions abroad must be used as economic intelligence units much more intensively and actively, aggressively identify investment and trade opportunities. This has already begun to happen, but the enthusiasm amongst our commercial counsellors for doing good is not always matched by the possession of requisite skills and experience in marketing and image make-overs. We therefore need to strengthen our capacity to perform these new roles more effectively and to find innovative ways for achieving objectives. It is time to not only work hard, but also think smart.

Furthermore, positioning is important, for the days of captive markets are long gone. One cannot succeed with generic strategies along the lines of ‘Be Pakistani, Buy Pakistani’ or ‘East or West, Pakistan is best’. Sustainable image building is not about jingoistic slogan-mongering but about portraying real strengths and reducing weaknesses, in an honest, aggressive, thoughtful manner.

More targeted, focused and refined strategies are required that aim for particular niches in the economic and political markets. The clarity of our positioning statement would thus determine to a great extent, our success in developing a brand for the country. A good example would be the current positioning of Malaysia as “Truly Asia’, hence portraying Malaysia and its airline, its hospitality industry and its government as symbolizing the values of Asian societies.

Exactly how we want to position ourselves is a moot point that would require a consultative process amongst the government, politicians, the private sector and the civil society, perhaps through some national forum and with substantial input from professional forums such as the Marketing Association of Pakistan. After all, it has the excellent marketing brains of our country and can help turn around dead-bed brands, why wouldn’t they be able to help reinvent Pakistan? Here’s looking forward to the successful launch of the image of a New Pakistan.

(The writer is working at the SBP. The views expressed here are of the authr’s and do not represent the views of the SBP or of the government.)