The public’s perceptions of a brand can be independent of anyone’s marketing efforts. Myth, old wives’ tales, “bar room wisdom” and titillating sensationalism can defeat even the best laid plans of marketers. Moreover, once a brand’s public perceptions are skewed, repositioning or simply “fixing” the brand’s perceptions can often be an enormous effort.
The situation is further complicated and made even more difficult in the case of entities other than products and services. Consider the fact that whole countries have brands. After all, tourism relies on such national brands.
Back in 1980s when Yours Truly was on the production staff of the TV show Sesame Street, some design folk came to me with questions as to how to convert costume and set measurements to the metric system. I discovered that we were formulating the first Israeli co-production of Sesame Street, called Rechov Sumsum. Instead of Big Bird, this show had a character named Kippi Ben Kippod, which translates as “Kippi son of Hedgehog.” Kippi described himself, however, as a porcupine. I asked why we were using a porcupine/hedgehog character instead of a bird. “Because,” I was told, “Israelis like to think of themselves as thorny and tough on the outside, but soft inside.” It is also an image epitomized in the “sabra,” which literally means a cactus fruit that’s prickly and tough on the outside, but colloquially refers to a Jew born in Israel.
Those familiar with Jeff Pulver are aware that he often travels to Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, where he examines and works with start-ups and, as he says, “is greatly inspired by the innovation in the air and the ideas that just seem to permeate all over the place.”
As it happens, one of the speakers at Pulver’s second #BrandsConf, held November 9, 2011 at the 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington Avenue) in New York City, was none other than Ido Ahroni (@israelconsulate), who since August 2010 has served as Acting Consul General at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, serving the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
A member of Israel’s Foreign Service since the summer of 1991, between 2001 and 2005 Aharoni served as Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, assuming this position just a few weeks prior to the terror attacks of 9/11. As the head of the department, Aharoni oversaw the operation of Israel’s largest public affairs and media relations efforts worldwide. He handled media relations, community outreach, along with various informational services. While in New York, Aharoni became familiar with the methods one can use to brand entire nations, which he later introduced to his superiors in Jerusalem. This effort resulted in bringing about a paradigm shift in the perception of Israel’s public image by Israeli officials, in Israel and in the USA.
At #BrandsConf, Aharoni spoke about place branding, in particular his efforts to change the skewed public perceptions of Israel’s “brand.”
“When you think about how do we put a human face on a place,” began Aharoni, “the easiest way to do it is to simply do the little exercise I call ‘Personification of Places.’ Take the case of the city of Tel Aviv, which is really an emerging beacon/sub-brand of the state of Israel. If Tel Aviv was a human being, would it be a male or a female? Would it be an older person or a younger person? Would it be a heavier person or a slim person? On so on and so forth.”
“When we think about places as human beings, of course we can also imagine and envision their own personalities,” continued Aharoni. “For example, when we think of Brazil, the first thing that comes to mind is fun, Carnival and beaches. When we think of Paris, the first thing that comes to mind is Romance. When we think of New York, the Big Apple, we think of Big Temptation—we think of everything in New York as big. Big is the essence, size is the essence of New York. Las Vegas is of course associated universally with sin, and so on and so forth. I could go on and give you many other examples. The United States’ ‘DNA,” for example, is all about freedom. So, every place has a personality. Every place has a DNA.”
Eight years ago, Aharoni and his colleagues set out to explore the question of what the state of Israel’s ‘DNA’ (ingrained public perceptions) happened to be. To determine this, they ran a special qualitative study in North America and in Europe.
“In this study we tried to equate homes with nations,” said Aharoni. “We asked participants in study groups to imagine that they are somewhere in a small town in the heart of the United States, and in the small town there are houses scattered about. We asked them to imagine each home to represent a different nation. The group of course did not know that Israel was behind the study, and the participants were asked to imagine each home as if they were entering the home to participate in a party.”
The first house was the Italian house. People described the Italian party.
“The party in Italy’s house was very compelling,” said Aharoni. “It was all about [human] warmth. It was all about human feelings. People described human beings. They described people playing cards and eating pizza and pasta and good red wine. Children were playing, and so on.”
The next house to be imagined by the study group was India. Each group had a different list order of nation-houses, but the fifth or the six house on the list was always Israel’s house.
“We were stunned to find out what people had in mind when they described the Israeli house,” said Aharoni. “Let me remind you that they were invited to participate in a party. Well, the first thing that we noticed was that in all thirty focus groups conducted in North America that year, the description of Israel’s house was identical. Indeed, there was very little variation. Israel’s house stood out, was different, than all other countries. You can imagine that we were able to collect information about some 50 countries using this exercise. But in any case, Israel’s house stood out.”
“First of all, Israel’s house was the only one made out of concrete—no wood, no shingles,” mused Aharoni. “Secondly, Israel’s house was the only house where participants were unable to describe the house using colors. There were no colors in Israel’s house! No red, no yellow, no green. People used words such as ‘dust’ and ‘gray’ and so forth. Furthermore, Israel’s house was the only house were the study participants were unable to provide us with descriptions of the interior. In the case of every other country’s house, people were able to describe the interior of the house: The art on the walls, even the curtains, the human inhabitants, and so forth.”
“A disturbing aspect of the group’s imagining of Israel’s house,” said Aharoni, “is that the people described it as unwelcoming. People were unable even to imagine themselves entering the house. They had no concept of what it might look like on the inside. “
Ah, but there was more…
“And the worst thing in all thirty focus groups,” said Aharoni, “was that there was not one description of a woman or a child. There are no women and no children in the imagined Israeli house, only men who are strict, stern, rigid, armed. They’re sitting outside of the house and they’re not interested in letting you in. These people were in fact describing not a family’s home, but a military bunker.”
Aharoni and his group realized that they had a major problem with the perception of the state of Israel.
“When you go to visit places around the world and you experience them, there’s always going to be a gap between your actual experience and the image you had in mind before you went there,” said Aharoni. “But only in the case of Israel is the gap so dramatic. People were not describing normal life in Israel. People were describing only harsh, military reality.”
Aharoni and his colleagues knew the origin of the perception problem.
“I want you to imagine that you are all now participating in a study group, and I’m doing something very unusual,” said Aharoni. “I’m bringing a person into the room. Let’s give him the generic name of Jim Smith. You know nothing about Jim Smith, but I’m asking you to rate him on scale of 1 to 10. I can tell you that, statistically, since most people don’t have a reason to give him a 10 or a 1, they’ll give him a 5. It makes sense, right? Then I would ask Jim Smith’s next door neighbor, Bob Jones, to come into the room. Bob Jones has something to tell you about Jim Smith. Jones will tell you that Jim Smith stole a piece of property from him, invaded his land, constructed a fence and won’t give the property back. Then I will turn to you and say, ‘Well how would you rate Jim Smith now? You heard what his neighbor said about him.’ And I can tell you that, statistically, in the eyes of most people, Jim Smith’s rating goes down in terms of his image and likeability, from 5 to 4 or possibly 3.”
“Then I will bring Jim Smith into the room to defend himself and make a case for himself,” said Aharoni. “Smith says that Bob Jones is lying and the land is his, and so forth. I turn to you again and ask to once again rate Jim Smith. Surprise, surprise, Jim Smith reinstates his position at 5. Now imagine that this is the way it’s going to be for the next 45 years. Every time you see these two people, the only they will talk to you about is the dispute between them. They will brand themselves in your eyes only in terms of the dispute between them. As a result, you, the consumer, will lose the ability to know who they really are. They will always doom themselves to get 4, 5 or a maximum of 6 on your scale, even if they deserve a 9 or a 10. You’ll never give them a rating that high, simply because you have no idea who they really are. That’s exactly the problem that we in Israel face now. It’s the problem New York City faced in the 1970s when it was branded as the world’s capital of crime and corruption. In fact, New York serves as our inspiration in our journey to improve our country’s image and its overall positioning.”
Sometimes governments and other organizations are preoccupied in simply conveying a message in a unilateral, one-sided manner. “We learned, like many other governments, that it’s really not about what you say, it’s about what they hear,” remarked Aharoni. “People have tendency to process information through their own emotional, subjective filters. The first thing you need to do is to study your audience before you develop a strategy. And of course when you study the audience you realize it’s really not about winning a debate—instead, it’s about building relationships. We learned that several years ago and entered the realm of social media and cyberspace very vigorously.”
For many years, the national character of Israel was represented by a symbolic cartoon mascot named Srulik, created by Karl Gardosh (1921-2000) one of Israel’s best caricaturists, illustrators and comic artists, better known by his penname, Dosh.
“Srulik was Israel for many, many years,” said Aharoni. “Srulik was a national icon, and still is. Srulik is young, very humble, appears fragile but is determined and he has a permanent smile as he looks to the future with a very optimistic outlook. This was the way the Israelis saw themselves for decades. But we defined ourselves to world only in terms of the Jim Smith-Bob Jones argument.”
Aharoni elaborates: “What happened to Srulik? He took on the persona of a soldier. No longer the average farmer or kibbutz member or second generation to Holocaust survivors. In the eyes of the world, the same lovable Srulik became a soldier. And you know what happens to people like football players and others when you place a helmet on their heads—you lose the ability to see their face.”
“I think we in Israel are in a unique position today,” says Aharoni, “precisely because of the unhappy geopolitical circumstances of our region. Our goal today is to take the helmet off of Srulik’s head. The way to do it is to celebrate the values that our research discovered that are of interest to the world. When you look at Israel’s personality—and I go back to the element of national personification—what is it in us, the Israelis that may be perceived by the world as attractive? First of all, there is a tremendous degree of innovation and creativity that exists in Israel. The informality, the spontaneity, the energy, the outgoing nature of the Israelis and their straightforward attitude that may sometimes be unpleasant to some people, but very characteristically Israeli. And of course the warmth, the fun, the good-natured argumentative nature, the analytical nature of our society, all of these things can be and should be highlighted through a massive campaign of niched conversations.”
“This is the real conversation in which we are engaged today,” says Aharoni. “We have identified six areas that are relevant to people all over the world. We have tried to put the human face on the brand of Israel by broadening the conversation so that it will not be mired in the Jim Smith-Bob Jones territorial argument. It will be about things in which people are interested: Take Lifestyle and leisure, for example. That’s a big issue for us. Israel has a lot to offer, whether its architecture, product design, the emerging Israel fashion industry, the emerging Israeli cuisine, or what have you. Also, Israel has three clear relative advantages in terms of its environment. One is desert agriculture, another is renewable energy, and the third is water management and water desalinization. Or take our heritage. There’s a tremendous store of Israeli diversity and history that was never really effectively told, but now we can tell these stories to a world audience using the Internet. There are over 120 ethnic groups represented in Israel, a country of 7.8 million people. There are over 80 languages regularly spoken there. Many outsiders have no idea that we have in Israel people from Ethiopia and people from Russian and the Ukraine and other countries. “
“In terms of culture and the arts, we have an emerging film and entertainment industry that is becoming a major provider of content, even to American television outlets such as HBO, Fox and others,” said Aharoni. “Israel has literature and modern dance and so many other things to celebrate. Israel’s best kept secret that can foster another very effective conversation to every person who is interested in human rights and humanitarian aid. I’m referring here to Israel’s vast international aid program which is our best-kept secret—nobody knows about it. Our job is to expose Israel’s international aid program. “
“And of course, the conversation that is already out there, a very powerful conversation, is the one about Israeli innovation in the field of medicine, high tech and science,” beams Aharoni. “If you know the book entitled Start-up Nation, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, it’s one big celebration of that new conversation.”
Aharoni believes that the future for shaping public perceptions of Israel is in micromarketing.
“We know that many governments are shifting their marketing efforts in this area,” said Aharoni. “The advantage of using micromarketing techniques is that you’re able not only to celebrate your own advantages but also to give real meaning to it. To find the one segment of people out there interested in that specific issue and engage in a direct conversation with them. That’s what we’re doing and we believe that’s the best way for other countries to do it as well. “
“I can think of a couple of things that are very powerful conversation-changers that are active out there,” said Aharoni. “The first is Birthright Israel [also known as Taglit-Birthright Israel or simply Birthright] a Jewish Israeli registered charity that brings young people, ages 18 to 26 to Israel on heritage trips. They experience a 10-day visit, nothing political. It’s all about educating them about Israel, their ancient homeland. I can tell you that 360,000 young people have participated in Birthright and it has provide itself to be probably the Number One conversation-changer that Israel has today. Why? Because these kids get an opportunity to see the real Israel, the Israel that exists beyond the headlines, the Israel that we Israelis know, the Israel of pluralism, diversity and democracy. Not the Israel of the headlines that always tout bad news and negative issues.”
Aharoni goes on: “You can think of the impact of Birthright just by calculating the number of images that those kids post on their Facebook pages and elsewhere in cyberspace. Those 360,000 people have an average of probably 200 or 300 member friends. Each of those kids posted probably 500 or 600 pictures on their social media pages from those 10 days. It’s unbelievable. My daughter was on a Birthright trip several years ago with a group from Stanford. She’s still in touch with some of them online. There’s an ongoing interaction among Birthright participants, and it’s highly effective.”
“Another very effective we use in order to broaden the conversation and to improve our positioning is by holding a series of what we call ‘targeted exposure events,’” says Aharoni. “What we do is to bring together opinion leaders and we simply share with them not only our research but also the strategy and the ideas, the practical solutions and what can be done in order to improve a place’s positioning. This was done in the New York City in the 1970s by the Association for a Better New York, which held power breakfasts at the Regency Hotel. That gave us the inspiration for our targeted exposure events.”
The final story that Aharoni shared with the #BrandsConf audience shed additional light on what really is the bottom line of place branding, be it Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Barcelona.
“They tell a story about Golda Meir,” said Aharoni. “She was our Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974. In 1972 she was asked to host in Israel the German Chancellor of the time, Willy Brandt. Someone wisely advised Golda that if she wanted to impress Brandt, she should take him on a tour of German architecture in Tel Aviv. I don’t know if you realize this, but there are about 4,000 Bauhaus style buildings in Tel Aviv alone. In any case, she showed Brandt some of the buildings—he was very impressed—and they concluded their tour in a place in Tel Aviv called the HaBima Square [also known as The Orchestra Plaza] named after Israel’s National Theatre. Golda Meir said to Willy Brandt, ‘This is our National Theatre building, and right next to it is the Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv’s performing arts center.”
“Willy Brandt was shocked,” said Aharoni. “He said, ‘Oh my, I can’t believe that you Israelis made the decision to name your own performing arts center after the famous German author Thomas Mann’ But Meir then replied, ‘No, actually we named it after Freddy Mann from Philadelphia.’ Brandt said he didn’t know of Fred Mann as asked what he wrote, to which Meir responded, ‘A check!’ That was the extent of Freddy Mann’s contribution to world literature, but the real point of this story is very simple. Place branding is about advancing your place in a very competitive arena. There is a vicious competition out there. The competition is between cities, counties and countries. It’s important to be right. It’s important to win debates. But it is no less important to be attractive. And if you want to be attractive, you have to maintain your competitive edge. Our competitive edge is the unbelievable degree of creativity and energy that exists in Israel, the spirit of the Israeli people, as was articulated in the book Start-up Nation. But we have to remember that the most effective way for us to celebrate that unique Israel spirit is to use social media, and that is exactly what we do. We have tens of thousands of followers—hopefully some of them are following this presentation right now—and I’ll be talking to you later at the reception. Thank you so much.”
And with that Ido Aharoni left the stage.
Whether it’s Kippi the porcupine or prickly sabra fruit, the pervasive image of the tough Israeli soldier, ill-mannered, and exuding chutzpah, armed and guarding his bunker home, has its cultural, psychological and mythological roots in everything from the diaspora and the Holocaust to Israel’s current popular perception as an isolated nation confronting a hostile world, not to mention the strained relations with the many Palestinians ensconced in its territories. For those of us who hold the Brotherhood of Man as something other than a poetic dream or an abstract idea, we can only hope that the bright sunshine of reason and goodwill shall one day fully illuminate the playground of the world. In the meantime, Ido Aharoni and his friends have much work ahead of them.
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Richard Grigonis (@EditStateofNow) is Editor-in-Chief of Jeff Pulver’s The State of Now project.
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