An outline of a new tourism brand for Finland

1
An outline of a new tourism brand for Finland

• Jaakko Lehtonen
• Director General
• Finnish Tourist Board FTB

2

• a country brand should have clear objectives
• - civic
• - economic
• - social

3

• December 2006 Government decision-in-principleo
  n raising the development of Finlands country
  image to top of agenda
• Finland Promotion Board given permanent status
  of official committee headed by the Ministry for
  Foreign
• Affairs
• Members include Finpro, FTB, TAT Group and other
  organisations
• Primary responsibility for development of the
  countrys tourism image vested with the FTB

4

• Finnish country branding efforts launched
• Scientific viewpoint provided by
  independentworking group comprising Teemu
  Moilanen and Seppo Rainisto
• representatives of major corporations and
  thecommunications sector act as sparring
  partners

5

• dimensions of the brand defined
• - political, social and cultural country image
• - a country image that supports
  corporate exports and internationalisation as
  well as the perception of Finland as a good
  investment environment
• - tourism-oriented country image

6

• Deliberations on the form of the
  tourism-oriented country image started in 2007
• preparatory work on the commercial
  perspectiveinvolved people from the FTB, foreign
  ministry and tourism directors from Helsinki,
  Tampere, Turku and Lapland as well as the Ruka
  ski resort
• Consultancy support provided by Trainers' House
  / Ignis

7

• four dimensions beginning with the letter C
  finally sieved from the broad stream of ideas
  and proposals

COOL
credible
contrasts
creative
8

• the intention is not necessarily to use the four
  Cs as such in communications
• however, communications and especially actions
  must support at least one of the Cs
• companies in tourism as well as other sectors
  are quite interested in this
• the Cs have not been shot down by any party

9

• however, they are still mere proposals andnot
  decisions

10

• FTB customer feedback www.mek.fi gt Feedback
• Many palavers with different groups scheduled

11

• in all, the development of a brand for Finland
  is a long road that will take decades to
  complete
• involved are countless elements which must be
  aligned
• money and personnel resources are, of course,
  also a part of the picture continuity a key
  issue
• in essence, this involves action
  communications
• alone do not a brand make, although
  communications are almost certainly also needed

12

• a successful branding effort will improve the
  perception of Finland and promote our countrys
  interests in many different spheres of life