Trnavská univerzita V Trnave Fakulta zdravotníctva a sociálnej práce Sprachkompetenz in der Wissenschaft Language Competence in the Science

KATARÍNA VIKTÓRIA BRATKOVÁ

Slovak republic, Department of the masmedia communication and Advertisement

Faculty of Arts Constantine the philosopher university, Nitra

E-mail: [e-mail]; [e-mail]

Abstract

The brand Czechoslovakia (Made in Czechoslovakia) had been respected around the world, especially in the field of engineering and footwear. The brand Czechoslovakia ended its success story by the division of the country in 1993 into two autonomous states – the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Since that time the both lands try to find the own place in the Europe and in the world. Although both countries have tried to find their own identity and their nation brand, the process of creation has not been successful until today. Neither the Czech Republic nor the Slovak Republic has its own nation branding.

Keywords:

Nation. Branding. Marketing. Communication. Slovakia, Identity, State.


Nation branding
Nation branding is about creating a nation’s values and benefits for its people, and sustaining its competitiveness (Lee, 2009, s. 1). A reason for the creation of a nation brand may differ according to a specific case. The large amount of countries in the world and the willingness to create their own identity may explain the differentiation of reasons for the creation of a nation brand. This tool remains important especially for small lands which do not have so many facilities as big countries, and they need to be attractive to foreigners. Some other states use this tool for the improvement of the opinion about them. The results of a created nation brand may differ. Some of the nation brands achieved good result from their effort in a short period of time, some of them have spent a lot of efforts and finances without any significant result, and some have tried to achieve some result continuously with the aim to create knowledge and competence. Recently, the regional groups, such as the European Union, the Visegrad Group, or the Euroasien Economy Union, tried to build up their own identity. The main denominator of all of them is the competitiveness in the era of globalization. A good nation brand improves the competitiveness and can attract more investments and more tourists, resulting in the support of an economy of a particular country. The same opinion has the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Miroslav Lajčák. The Ministry remains responsible for the project of the nation branding in the Slovak Republic and the official statement remains as follows: “only a well-known and positively perceived country can inspire the trust of foreign investors or attract a greater number of tourists (Lajčák, 2015).” Nation branding represents an important part of public diplomacy. Therefore, it should be accepted by the laic public too, not only by the experts. Important elements of nation branding remain the creation of a particular state’s identity (including a visual identity) as well as the creation of a particular image and reputation. Marketing communication and marketing strategy belong to the one of the most important tools of companies and should remain an important part of a state strategy. Not every company has its own brand which is special and unique. The nation branding is not only about the brand, it is the complex marketing and communication strategy with the main to spread various branding messages. In order to elaborate, we usually buy not only a label, but also a concrete brand with a developed marketing and communication strategy (computer – HP or Mac, atc., auto – Ferrari, BMW, etc.) In order to conclude, a label represents mainly marketing and a brand represents communication.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “the name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (AMA, 2015). Nation branding is not only about the brand itself and about the image, but it is also about the communication process of a concrete message towards the domestic and foreign public. The communication of a state is not the new phenomenon, it has been already used in the past by the kings for the improvement of the image of their kingdoms. However, the marketing tools have changed over the time. The main marketing and communication tool in the past was propaganda, recently diplomacy has been used (Bratková, 2014, s. 17). In fact, especially the European countries from the middle and the east part of Europe struggle with the redefinition of their identity.

Simon Anholt is considered to be the father of the concept of nation branding. However, he has reformulated the concept and replaced the term of “nation branding” by “competitive identity” with the explanation that it “has more to do with national identity and the politics and economics of competitiveness than with branding as it is usually understood” (Anholt, MacMillen, 2007, 474). There are some main factors that have to be taken in consideration by nation branding – national identity, national image, national brand, and national messages. Questions such as Where are we?, Where would we like to be?, and How will we get there?, have to be taken into consideration during the process of nation branding. These questions represent some of the main principles of a strategy for nation branding (Dinnie, 2008, 220). Moreover, the necessary analysis should take into consideration the internal factors (the sectors of the competitions) and the external factors (the field of the competitors). The strategic planning should contain the main goals which we want to achieve in the future, measurable goals and target and the steps for the strategic implementation of these goals.
“Made in Czechoslovakia”
When we are talking about the three pillars of nation branding – the past (where we were), the present (where we are) and the future (where we want to be), which represent the main points of marketing communication, we cannot forget the label (maybe also the brand) “Made in Czechoslovakia”. The products of the former state Czechoslovakia were very famous, especially in the field of engineering, armament industry, pottery, bohemian glass, footwear and it was recognized, e.g. also the brand Tesla. Although Czechoslovakia does not exist anymore because of the division of the state into two autonomous countries – the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, the export banks of both countries came in 2014 with the idea to use the label Made in Czechoslovakia again (Trend, 2014). The Czech and Slovak export banks signed the mutual agreement about the common using of the label Made in Czechoslovakia in the third countries in 2014. The main reason of this mutual agreement was the well-established name and tradition of the label, while having a good position in the markets in the past. Although, the label Made in Czechoslovakia cannot be used anymore due to the international regulation and the non-existence of the former state Czechoslovakia according to the Slovak Commerce Chamber (Žitňanský, 2014), there are still some people using this label. Browsing the internet we have found the Made in Czechoslovakia company which “engages in the prevention, psychological assessment and correction of social pathology in organizations, with the aim to accelerate business growth” (www.madeinczechoslovakia.cz). The other internet page Made in Czechoslovakia offers “a collection of applied art and design, industry, propaganda and miscellaneous ephemera” since 1918 till 1992 (www.madeinczechoslovakia.org). The content of these pages is intended for non-commercial use only. The “immortal brand” Made in Czechoslovakia was also used by a young Czech singer Ben Cristovao as a tittle for his third album. The former Czechoslovak brand had the resonant voice especially in Germany, Western Europe and the United States. And what about the national brand of the autonomous Czech and Slovak Republic? There were some intentions to create a nation brand for the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic since the division of the former Czechoslovak Federation but without any success until today.

The research about the nation branding in the countries of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Hungary) from 2009 confirms that every state has engaged in nation branding activities recently. The range of activities pursued by each country and the degree of the coordination of activities vary. Research by each country into its own country image appears to be conducted on an infrequent basis due to the budgetary constraints (Dinnie, Fujita, 2010). The results of the researcher based on respondents’ answers from all four countries confirmed the necessity of a strong nation branding with the aim to improve the competitiveness of the lands in question. Various ministries may be responsible for the development of a nation branding strategy. However, in most of the states studied the responsibility remains in the competence of Foreign Ministries, Economy and Trade Ministries, Culture and Education Ministries and Tourism Boards. The main problem by the state communication is usually the dissention and the non-unified nation branding strategy. A better synergy in the communication, especially between the governmental organizations, could lead to better use of the budget and better efficiency. One of the important questions can be whether states need their own nation branding when all states use public diplomacy. One of the numerous studies performed on the subject of public diplomacy concludes that public diplomacy remains limited to those who practise diplomacy, whereas branding represents the mobilization of the nation’s forces that can contribute to the promotion of its image abroad (Melissen, 2005, s. 22). Diplomacy, Public Diplomacy and Culture Diplomacy are the main parts of soft power which use as their main tool communication. The distinction between the classic diplomacy and the other types of diplomacy are the groups which are using these tools. The classic diplomacy is used by professional diplomats during communication among governments. The public and the cultural diplomacy are usually used by the public. According to the research of the company Anholt – GfK Roper, the United States, France and Germany had the best evaluation of the nation branding concept over the years 2009-2011 (Hradilová, 2011, s. 69). According to the same research the Czech Republic fit in the 30^th position in 2011, respectively 32th in 2009 and 2010 (Kopecký, Lešková, 2012, s. 28). The Slovak Republic fit in the 38^th position out of 50 evaluated countries in 2011 (Bratková, 2015, s. 23). The Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic have one common denominator: both countries do not have a nation branding and the communication abroad carried out via various channels.

Nation branding of the Czech Republic
There were some attempts which were supposed to lead to a change of communication of the Czech Republic abroad. The first idea about a common presentation of the Czech Republic was titled “the Czech Idea” and it emerged in 2003. The main two goals of this strategy were to promote the country as a progressive and creative land and to open the discussion on the demand of nation branding under the umbrella of the state. The project was performed in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. Following the opening of the discussion, the lack of a unified presentation was also realised by the Czech government which began to speak about common and coordinated steps in the country in the fields of economy, tourism, culture, etc. The main obstacle for the creation of a nation brand in the Czech Republic, which applies to the Slovak Republic too, was the fact, that all communication projects which took place were performed on an ad hoc basis only, following the sole aim of attracting tourists. No long-term projects took place and no long term communication strategies were adopted. The concept of a unified presentation of the Czech Republic was adopted in 2005 by the Government Resolution (COT, 2005). The concept should establish a unified visual identity of the state, a marketing brand of the state, and a coordinated communication among all the ministries and other state and public institutions at the same time. The logo proposal of the Czech Republic was introduced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic as a result of a public procurement process (Hradilová, 2008, s. 29). Multiple marketing experts consider the logo, which consisted of painted bubbles, as interesting. However, any identification signs of the state (such as the states colours) were missing. Various state representatives have not been content with the logo and the state agencies did not adopt the logo for their own presentation neither. The last project titled “Branding of the Czech Republic” was elaborated in 2012. A team of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences specifically from the Department of Marketing and Public Communication prepared a communication strategy of the Czech Republic under the supervision of Ms. Lešková and Mr. Kopecký. The team evaluated anterior projects, the current situation of the state’s strategic communication and the state institutions abroad. On this basis, they drafted the layout of the new strategic communication and a plan in coordination with various state and private subjects (Kopecký, Lešková, 2012, s. 19). The research of the students confirmed that there is no “umbrella” state communication strategy, the nation branding is focused on a visual communication and the logo – branding is not a logo (see p. 97). The group of the student suggested the new communication strategy of the Czech Republic which should be based on values (see p. 147). Three years after the presentation of the mentioned research results, a project was not adopted by any Czech politician and the Czech Republic remains to follow a communication concept of an ad hoc basis which relies on a particular organisation’s communication strategy.
Nation branding of the Slovak Republic
The Slovak Republic has presented multiple projects on unifying the presentation of the country abroad. Slovakia has been trying to create its own identity for more than twenty years of its existence. Various institutes responsible for external communication, tourism or export have drafted several conceptual projects in the effort to improve the country’s image abroad. In spite of these efforts, the Slovak Republic remains an unknown country abroad. According to the marketing experts, the previous branding projects have been identified by “short-termism”, with too many tenders for Slovakia’s international presentation focusing more on ad-hoc concepts instead of preparing and implementing a single coordinated long-term concept (Bratková, 2015, s. 20). The Slovak Foreign Ministry tries to change this status since 2009. At the beginning of this process, the Ministry and other institutions evaluated the state of the Slovak Republic’s branding and performed research on other states’ nation branding. Moreover, the identification of the main messages Slovakia wants to spread abroad took place under the supervision of marketing experts. The last project on nation branding came to its final stage. After a long-lasting discussion among the experts and the public, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic announced the public procurement process for the visual identity and the communication strategy of the Slovak Republic. The whole process of the nation branding should be finalised over the upcoming year. The Slovak Republic will take over the leadership in the Council of the European Union in 2016. The new communication strategy of the state could help the promotion of the country during this process and it could be a good start of the ”new“ presentation of Slovakia abroad. Although the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic undertook major steps towards the new nation branding (internal analysis of the ministry about the evaluation of the presentation of the Slovak Republic abroad, the international research - the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index in 2011, as well the analysis of the university and the non-governmental sector by foreign influential population, comparison of the nation branding in the Scandinavian states, presentation of the ideological project about Slovakia as a country with the potential – the success story, the public discussion on the internet www.brandingslovenska.com and the research of the public opinion about the project nation branding), the final project still needs the adoption of the visual identity (the new state logo) and the complex communication strategy for the future. The nation branding must be adopted by all the representatives of the state and the public sector.

After the success finalization of the project nation branding Slovakia can finally reach an unified communication strategy towards abroad in 2016 which may be adopted by all the relevant state institutions and the public, which may bring a new position for Slovakia abroad together with the first presidency of the EU.