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COLUMN

The importance of defining Brand Bangladesh
In 2007 Vietnam attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDD flows of $ 20bn and if Bangladesh is to benefit from the surge in global investor interest in Asia, we need to address the key questions of "Why Bangladesh? Why Now?" A new and effective strategy for developing Brand Bangladesh will be a critical part in credibly answering these questions.
One report from leading brand consultants Interbrand, defined Nation Branding as "the ability to act and speak in a coordinated and repetitive way about the themes that are the most motivating and differentiating a country can make.” There is actually a ranking, the Anholt Nation Brand Index, which has the UK, Germany and France leading a list of 38 countries. The 2007 Report noted "Globalisation means that countries compete with each other for the attention, respect and trust of potential customers, investors, tourists...a strong and positive nation brand provides a crucial competitive image."
I recently had the pleasure of being Interviewed by a number of final year IBA stu-
dents who were completing a thesis on national branding. I suggested that we start by playing a word association game to decide what "Brand Bangladesh" is, which is clearly a necessary prerequisite to deciding what we want it to become.
We collectively tried to summarize what the rest of the world thinks when they hear the word "Bangladesh". The five leading candidates were 1) Natural Disasters; 2)Poverty ; 3)Political Instability; 4)Corruption; and 5) Grameen/Professor Yunus. Clearly 4 negative connotations offset by an example of Bangladesh's considerable contribution to the world.
The next question 1 had for the students was what words would we like the rest of the world to think when they heard "Brand Bangladesh". We concluded with five new themes: 1) Adjacency to India and China; 2) A young, dynamic and entrepreneurial population of 150mn people; 3) A land of innovation in micro finance with the Grameen revolution and Professor Yunus; 4) Untapped opportunities for global Investors looking for a new economic platform in the
heart of Asia; 5) Substantial and largely untapped intellec-tual/commercial capital from Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRB) platform. At least these offer some food for thought as to what Bangladesh should be
and I'm sure a number of you have more suggestions.
We can agree "Brand Bangladesh" is important and we have begun to think about what we do and don't want it to be. But how do we
IFTY ISLAM
go about marketing? There is a lot more resources available than is commonly assumed. Yes the Board of Investment and Parjatan and other Government agencies are stretched. But we have in reality hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of "Brand Ambassadors" at our disposal - the large NRB community. We just need to find an effective strategy to leverage it. This might involve creating an NRB database and greater support and encouragement for events like the Asia Society seminar held in New York last month that was, in fact, co-organized by NYBAP, an NRB professional's organisation. Government, possibly, with some support from multilateral agencies, should fund a professional marketing campaign. It will be money well spent.
So what should our slogan be in the light of "Malaysia, Truly Asia" and "Incredible India”? While I am as much a fan of alliteration as the next man, I came up with the following three possibilities:
1) "Bangladesh, the Next Asian Tiger"
2) "Bangladesh, the Emerging Asian Tiger"
3) "Bangladesh, nt the Heart
of Asia"
I have a slight preference for the first I must confess combining the themes of Bengal Tiger, Asia (very popular with investors) and a sense of forward thinking.
In the interests of democracy and for a little fun, might I suggest we vote on it. Please send your preferences among the three alternatives above, and indeed any other catchphrases you think are better, to i n f o @ a t -capital.com and I will reveal the results in my next column in two weeks time.
If Bangladesh is to emulate the fastest growing neighbours in the rest of Asia, we need to take the challenge of defining and marketing "Brand Bangladesh" seriously. There are likely to be differences between the brand strategy for attracting investment versus tourism but we need as a country to agree what the broad themes.
I look forward to hearing and sharing the responses from my fellow “Brand Ambassadors".
Ifty Islam Is the Managing partner of Asian tiger capital partners and formerly Managing Director and head of global macro strategy at Citigroup, London