A lot of
countries in the world practice targeted creation, development and promotion of
their positive image.
The United
Arab Emirates spent 5 % of the state’s
annual budget annually in order to create a positive and attractive image self
image. The USA allocates 1
billion US Dollars for those purposes. The Russian authorities higher Western
PR-Agencies in order to elaborate the image of the country. For instance, prior
to the G8 Summit (which was held in Petersburg) an
American company Ketchum rather successfully contributed for the benefit of the
Russian image.
Belarus as well
preoccupied itself thoroughly with the creation of the positive image of the
country.
A
sociologist Andrey Vardamatsky, the Head of the Novak Laboratory, said that “the
image of a country is a rather inert concept that changes very slowly. It is a
very heavy cargo-train. In order to move it from its place serious and
continuous efforts are a must. It is similar to concepts of values that are changing
slowly”.
A Belarusian neighbour, Lithuania is a ‘brave
country’
Last year, a
neighbour of Belarus, Lithuania, elaborated
a concept of creation of a new image of the country. “Lithuania is a brave
country” is how in the views of the authors of the concept Lithuania should be
presented in the course of the celebrations of Lithuania as a cultural capital
of Europe in 2009, while hosting the European Championship on Basketball in
2011 and during the Lithuanian Presidency of the European Union in 2013. The
Head of a Lithuanian PR-Agency “No Recpect/Y&R” Paulius Senuata explains,
that “before we chose the mentioned above motto, we held numerous researches in
order to find out what characteristic features were associated with Lithuanians
and came to a conclusion that it was bravery. Other options included
hardworking, however we decided that in that case Lithuanians would have to
compete with Chinese who are typically associated with hand labour. There is
lots of proof of the bravery of Lithuanians, for instance, Lithuania was the first
to start a campaign against the Tatar-Mongols, it was the first to get rid of
the pressure of the Soviet authorities”. A commission, which was then headed by
the ex-Prime Minister of Lithuania Gediminas
Kirkilas, unanimously approved the proposed concept. Further on a detailed
action plan was elaborated in order to ‘promote’ the country.
“Belarus has a
rather complex image”
Belarus is the only
country in Europe that is not a member of the Council
of Europe and which was even deprived of its status of a special invitee. The
Head of the state is called “the last dictator in Europe”. The
European Union and the USA introduced
special economic and political sanctions with regard to Belarus and set
twelve conditions. After all political prisoners were released, these sanctions
were partially suspended. At the same time, inhabitants of other bordering
countries, Russia and Ukraine in
particular, believe that in Belarus there is
order and high standard of living attributable to the strong President.
“Belarus has a
rather complex image. It has an image of a country that is inhabitant by
singing girls and boys that impress the Eurovision. It also has an image of a
country that imprisons opposition leaders and trials journalists for
caricatures publication”, expressed his opinion a political science expert and
an ex-Head of the Chief Directorate of the Social and Political Information of
the Presidential Administration, Aleksandr Feduta.
A Belarusian
political analyst Irina Bugrova believes that “the created image of Belarus is rather
negative, it is an image of a ‘closed space’. There are still a lot of
stereotypes in both, internal and external policy that have to be overcome. The
first thing that has to be outreached, is something I would call a “crisis of
self identification”. It is inconsistent to have such contradiction of self
identification inside and nice, pretty, white and fluffy image outside”.
The face of Belarus is a singer Irina
Dorofeyeva
Just before
the Presidential elections in 2006 Belarus has already
elaborated its own PR-campaign “For Strong Belarus!” Belarusian and Russian
pop-stars toured around the country with concerts “For Belarus”. Several
years ago the President of Belarus harshly criticized the Western images in the
street advertisements and ordered to replace the “spotted French ladies” with
faces of “our girls”. Thus now all the big boards in the streets have mostly
images of policemen, military servants and peasants. In 2007 a singer Irina
Dorofeyeva was awarded with a title “Face of Belarus” and she has pushed away
all the others in the advertisement big boards, on boxes of Belarusian cookies
and sweets…
A year ago
the President of Belarus started thinking seriously about the image of the
country as well.
Will Lord Bell help us?
In February 2008
the President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with a famous British PR-industry expert
Lord Bell. While meeting with Lord Bell, Lukashenko admitted that “the world is
developing in a way that without your skills it became impossible to represent
one or another country in the world”.
Timothy Bell
used to be an advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Boris Berezovsky, government of the
Saudi Arabia and the
ex-Prime Minister of Thailand. A Member
of the House of Lords, Timothy Bell visited Minsk on a
private business however he was also received by the President Aleksandr
Lukashenko. Lukashenko promised to Lord to provide him with any information, to
show him any place that would be in the interest of the latter, “before you
become a supporter of our country and our people we first of all have to
convince you that Belarus is a
European country”. In March 2008 Lord Bell said in an interview with a popular
Russian newspaper “The Moscow Times” that while working on the improvement of the
image of Lukashenko, his company “Bell Pottinger” will “make millions of US
Dollars in the course of the following several years”. The methodology of work
of Lord Bell, his political technologies and modus operandi is information
closed to the general public.
In November
2008 the Prime Minister Sergey Sidorsky visited annual London Investment Forum
in order to establish connections with the potential foreign investors. Also,
just before the new year, the Head of the Belarusian government Sergey Sidorsky
signed a regulation on “the creation of an inter-institutional working group
for elaboration of an action plan of the development of the Republic of Belarus marketing
strategy”. Country’s marketing is a complex of strategic and practical measures
for the promotion of various benefits country has to offer. It concerns
economic, investment, infrastructure, scientific and human resources benefits. It
also relates to the integration of the benefits of the country into the
international and regional markets, as well as integration of a country into
the international norms and standards.
The
inclusion of independent experts, such as Yaroslav Romanchuk, a sociologist
Andrey Vardamatsky, an expert on relations with the civil society Roman
Kistitsyn, an expert on advertising and positioning Petr Popelushko and a
marketing expert Anatoly Akentinov, in to the working group came as a surprise
for the society. The working group is headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs Andrey Evdochenko and it is comprised of high-level officials. However
after two working sessions Yaroslav Romanchuk made a decision to leave the
working group due to the fact that the state officials declined a concept of
action plan on development of the country’s marketing, which was elaborated by
Mr. Romanchuk and his another four colleagues…
