Media Corner

Re-branding Serbia

The Serbian Institute for public diplomacy in Brussels is a non-governmental organization founded in 2005 in order to promote Serbia and its interests and to represent the "Euro - Serbian" brand in making. Country image is rather important, both in foreign affairs and for its citizens. Regarding the image of Serbia today and the ways to improve it, "WAVE" magazine talked to Borka Tomić, the PR manager of the Institute.

One of the most frequent topics lately is branding Serbia. Why is it so important?

- In order to represent Serbia in the best possible way we have to determine its identity and for what it should be recognized by our public and abroad. Branding a state contains four parts - public affairs, foreign direct investments and export promotion, as well as tourism. A very important segment is culture, which is considered to be a part of export, although in our country it hasn’t not yet been perceived in that way. Creating the country image isn't important only on the state level but also for every citizen. It means a lot when you can get out of your country and be proud of where you come from. I'm sure older generations will remember how it was in the `70s and `80s. The Institute and myself are trying to present our country in that way, i.e. to re-brand Serbia. People abroad should know that Serbia is not only Mladić, The Hague and war, but something totally different.

Once you said that 8 news - out of 10 - published about Serbia in the foreign media are negative. Has something changed recently?

- No, it hasn't. It's a very similar situation. I've been monitoring the foreign news for about a year and once a month, or maximum two or three times, would I see good news from Serbia. But it's somewhere in the margins and passes unnoticed. Bad news is good news nowadays. Good news is not news. However, that isn't the case only with our country. Bad news from Iraq enter media easier than good news from Serbia. Speaking about the positive news, "New York Times" had their reporter Seth Sherwood write an article, "Belgrade rocks", and it caused great interest. As this article turned to be a big hit "International Herald Tribune" took it over. Seth himself told me that article has been published in a couple of others newspapers. This only proves that there are people interested in the positive image of Serbia.

Croatia, as you said, realized a lot sooner the importance of being represented in the international community. How much do we fall behind?

- It’s been seven, eight years since they started to work on their image. That doesn't mean that it'll take us that number of years to catch up with them, but that we'll have to put in a lot of work and will power to find out the necessary strategy, the tactics and to do what they did. They've found a central idea in the whole story and it wasn't hard considering the fantastic coast line they have. We should do something like that. One might think this is silly, but I don't - one bombed building somewhere in Belgrade or Serbia should be turned into an Embassy of youth. We should organize an international competition for young architects around the world and have them answer - what can we make out of that kind of building? And as we look how that building is rebuilt, we'll “rebuild ourselves” in our own eyes and in the eyes of the international community. That building shouldn't be turned to the bank or the hotel tomorrow; it should symbolize something that we learned from that tragic lesson.

What else could be the brand of Serbia?

- Regarding people - Emir Kusturica, especially in the francophone part of Europe - France, Belgium. Vlade Divac, for example, in the USA. Regarding products, raspberries have a potential, yet they leave Serbia, and no one knows where they came from. Then there is natural, organic food and juices. The question of the traditional Serbian products was brought up in Brussels and the people in the EU allowed a list of traditional products that could be exported without bacteriological certification. This was necessary since some products like "kajmak" would never get that certification.

Which actions of the Institute were the most effective in the field of re-branding Serbia?

- To get back to our identity, it was necessary to find out what foreigners think about our country, what's their first impression and does it change after some information they get. I held a couple of lectures in Paris - about re - branding Serbia. Thus I learned a lot from the students about what could Serbia present to the world. In addition, I held a lecture at the College of Europe in Bruges. I was also guest in Wiesbaden at the invitation of Fenix cultural club. Yet, such initiatives take time. Our current image in the world is not unchangeable. We could build international brands. We have local and national brands and through interactions with foreigners we can complete our presentation.

There are some opinions that brands shouldn't be made, but allowed to be formed spontaneously?

- I think that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Of course, the market is going to decide whether something will become a brand or not, but we could prepare the product so that the market accepts it.

Recently, a tender was announced for crafting the strategy of branding Serbia. Do you think that's a good move?

- Any initiative is a step forward. There are a lot of things that we have to work on when it comes to branding. And I am convinced that we should start RIGHT NOW. Mladić, The Hague, the elections or any other thing mustn't be an excuse for not working on branding. But that tender isn't finished. It stopped. For decision-makers, something else is more important.

Does it mean that there is still a lack of will in the government to cooperate with you?

- Well, simply other things seem more important to them. They still didn't realize that a group of people should be working on our image every day. For now, there are some offices that take care of the image on certain levels. In government there is a media relations office, but that is on the political level. There is SIEPA and there is Tourism Organization of Serbia. What lacks, is a private-public partnership that works on a global level, creating synergy between various such institutions...

Some experts claim that the change of image won't mean anything if we don't improve our political, economic situation, and that foreign investors won't invest?

- Take Croatia for example. They have problems, but they talk about everything that's positive before, during and after it. They have a very good PR strategy for everything. In our country it's a different story. The Croatian economy in this moment is in a far worse shape than Serbian, but I can't see that reflecting on global level. Foreign investors have first to hear about our country in order to invest in it. They need to know the economic indicators that are really positive. It's not our words, but the words of reputed institutions like IMF, WBO etc. who are satisfied with the achieved economic reforms. If we want to make investors interested we have to clearly separate political situation from economy, as, in the end, it does not affect the investors here.

What was the most unusual reaction you heard regarding Serbia?

- It was the comment of my professor of Communication Theory on my master studies in Paris. I asked how we could dissuade people from watching Spanish soap operas, productions like "Grand" etc. And he said: "Why would you want to change that? It's better for your people to look at that then to be at war." I was shocked. And I worked a lot to change that image.