I feel Slovenia

1. Why the need of a brand?

To begin with, the concept of branding plays a huge role in any country’s touristic

activity and not only. Everybody understands this concept, even if at different levels. For

Slovenia, the need for a strong-built and impressive brand was of utmost importance. And there

are plenty of reasons to support this affirmation.

If we take a look at Slovenia’s history, we notice that only recently it has become an

independent country, more precisely since 1991. Until then, Slovenia was one of the Yugoslav

republics. Obviously, this big step triggered the need of standing out of the crowd, of making it

known as self-standing country. Slovenia is actually a small young country, with a population

encompassing less than 2 million persons and an area of about 20.000 km2. It was difficult at the

same time for its population to develop a personalized attitude and feeling towards this country.

On the other hand, there was the competition with other countries (for instance, Austria,

Hungary, Croatia etc, represented a bigger competition than other European countries). As being

a “brand new” country in Europe, Slovenia’s name did not have a big echo, as a consequence, all

the strategies for branding this country needed to start from zero.

I mentioned above that Slovenia had bigger competitors, in matters of what it could offer

to the tourists as a country. I refer here to touristic attractions, to natural resources, namely

landscapes and natural destinations, places special designed for tourists. If we consider Austria,

for instance, it is easy noticeable that Slovenia resembles to it in many concerns, such as natural

riches or landscapes. Since Austria and Slovenia are neighbors, it is obvious that they both have

alike geography.

Also, another reason that stands relevant when it comes to Slovenia’s need of a good

brand is the often confusion to Slovakia. As a matter of fact, these two countries’ names are very

alike, which explains the unintentional confusion. As a relevant example of this nature, George

W. Bush and Silvio Berlusconi have called Slovenian presidents and Prime ministers “Slovak”

by mistake in front of the journalists. It was revealed that every month members of the Slovenian

and Slovak embassies meet to exchange wrongly-addressed e-mails.

What is more, not only the names, but also the flags are highly alike, same colors, but in a slight

different distribution. The differences are pictured in the following images:

Slovenia’s flag Slovakia’s flag

In conclusion to all these, it is clear that Slovenia needs to develop a strong country

branding. Not only it is a young country with weak recent history, but the confusion with other

European countries and its misleading name and flag require serious changes, both in these

visual elements and in long-term strategy.

2. Previous attempts in building a country brand

The broad campaign in 2007, “I Feel Slovenia” is not the only one in the campaign

history of this country. As a matter of fact, there have been several attempts in building a

brand for Slovenia, but all failed, due to different reasons.

The first campaign, “Slovenia – my country” started in 1986, while Slovenia was

still part of the Yugoslav Republic. It had two slogans: “Tourism is people” and “On the

Sunny side of the Alps”, directed to inside market, respectively to the external one. The logo

was represented by a green linden leaf and even today is seen as the best campaign of all the

previous ones. Its purpose was to boast people’s confidence in Slovenia’s development and

indeed it managed that. The campaign lasted until 1996, when the linden leaf was replaced

with a bundle of flowers. This campaign had the strongest impact on the citizens, since it

managed to induce them the idea that each and every person has the power of influencing

tourism and making tourists feeling well in their country. Ever since, the linden leaf remains

important for the Slovenians.

Since 1996, Slovenia’s logo was followed by more slogans, but none was as deep as

the previous one. Nonetheless, the most frequent used slogan was “Slovenia – The green

piece of Europe”. The logo remained the bundle of flowers. This campaign was not more

successful than the previous one, since it was replaced, in 2004, by a new one.

“Slovenia invigorates” started in 2004, the same year with its accession to the

European Union and it was designed to serve not only in tourism, but in other areas too.

The biggest failure of the campaign was the difficulty that people showed in understanding

it. Not only the Slovenians, but also the tourists did not fully understand it. Indeed, what the

campaign meant had political aims at the same time, inducing the idea that Slovenia

invigorates the European Union. At the same time, this was Slovenia’s hope of positioning

itself abroad, of connecting with other countries politically, in short, to create a good

impression, good enough to raise interest among other countries.

Unfortunately all these campaigns failed in offering Slovenia the chance of

becoming an important touristic destination. Among the most common reasons, the

campaigns focused more on visual elements than creating a successful strategy. The slogan

change was so often, that no campaign proved strong enough to last more than the previous

one. Not to mention the lack of a story behind each campaign, something supported by good

arguments and facts.

Fortunately, Slovenia still has a chance: the last campaign, started in 2007

and it is still in use: “I feel sLOVEnia” demonstrated that long term work and research can

conclude in success, since it has shown that lately Slovenia counts itself among the countries

with the best branding campaign. After all, it is all about the “green”representing the

country, representing anything Slovenian!

3. I feel sLOVEnia - How it all started

First of all the Government Communication Office (UKOM) announced in 2006 an

anonymous competition for the design of a new logo and slogan of Slovenia. The winning idea

was the slogan “I feel Slovenia”. The jury was composed of members of the Council for the

Promotion of the Republic of Slovenia and four external experts. After this, UKOM also

designed a graphic image for the slogan. The idea wasn’t created with the purpose to become a

brand. But because it was a nice idea they started puting this slogan on t-shirts, basseball caps,

etc. One important man of the country, the prime minister started to wear a basseball cap with

the slogan in his public appearances. National media started to talk about it a lot, in a pozitive

way and that’s how from a simple slogan it become a country brand. The Slovenia brand was

developed and designed in 2007.

The ministry of economy was encharged with the creation of the brand that will represent

Slovenia abroad. For the entire process he received 200 000 euros. In october 2007 the Slovenia

Brand Manual and the Business Document was created by a company named Pristop. The

identity couldn’t be created from the bottom up because the slogan was already created. So they

used a free style process for creating the brand.

The process of developing the brand was complex and contained four phases:

1. Proposed country brand identity model. In this phase they realised that the brand

should contain the folowing elements: vision, mission, values, personality, benefits and

distinguishing preferences.

2. Review of relevant secondary data contained the review of previous efforts to build

Slovenia as a brand, a review of Slovenia’s brand equity in the eyes of foreigners,

strategic documents about the country. They also examinated the brands of other selected

foreign countries wich revealed good and bad case practices of a brand process.

3. Collection of primary data – methodology of a three-step approach. In this phase

the primary data was collected whith a complex methodology:

Delphi method - 30 opinion leaders from key areas (economy, tourism, culture,

science, sports, state and the civic sphere

a questionnaire - 707 representatives from the key area

questions on the web site - the view of the general public (about 700 000 )

4. Development of brand identity

The elements of the brand identity are common to all areas mentioned above and

represents the foundation of the Slovenian experience. (what Slovenia and Slovenians mean).

Distinguishing preferences that dfferentiate Slovenia from the other countries are:

preserved nature(unspoiled nature), a cross roads of natural variety(Alps, Mediterranean Sea,

Panonia Land), safety and the importance of Slovenian language and it’s dialects.

Regarding Personality slovenian people have a big desire for recognition and aproval

for their work and consider themselves as tenacious, active and hardworking individuals.

The Slovenian Values are: family, health, attachment to their local environment and

responsability towards the environment and the human beings that surround them.

The Benefits that Slovenia has to offer for it’s people are wonderful. First of all the

accesibility, the small area whith a pristine nture, the rich history and diverse culture provides a

very good quality of life. Secondly, the slovenian lifestyle promotes activity , stimulates giving

the wish to do something remarcable, to be involved in everything that makes a difference( the

wish to contribute). And of course an important benefit of Slovenia is the fact that people are in

touch with nature and have a great awareness of responsability towards environment.

The Mission is “going forward with nature”, that means focusing on organic

development, promoting a niche economy, welcoming diversity , and attracting the best

technological and human potential.(vision)

The Core of Slovenia’s Brand is the emotional promise of pleasant excitement, the

functional promise for the elemental and of course the Slovenian green. This green is more than

just a color, is the expression for the balance between the calm of the nature and the tenacity of

Slovenians; the expression for all the elements mentioned above and for the balance between all

senses in which people had experienced the country.

Moreover, for Slovenians the green color is like the smell of a forest, a babbling brook, a

surprising taste of water or like the softness of wood. This is the visual image of I feel Slovenia.

The story of the brand is visualized by the slogan I feel Slovenia (Slovenijo čutim)

which was chosen in advance and a logo designed for it after the brand identity characteristics.

The logo’s green color speaks about the typical experience of Slovenia’s brand and the inclined

sides speak about the pleasant excitement among the nature.

The slogan wants to transmit for the Slovenians patriotism and the feeling that they are

connected with their country and for the others/foreign public the pleasant excitement of

Slovenian people when they are involved in what they enjoy, in what they consider a part of

themselves.

When was the right timing to launch the brand? After the brand was totally created in

2007 the following step was that the Government Communication Office (UKOM) was named

as the guardian of the brand. Because the creation of the brand was finished just before the

Slovenia’s Presidency for EU they choose not to promote the brand internationally only

nationally. They started spreading flyers about I feel Slovenia to every single house in the

country to inform and motivate the public about the brand and the people were also asked to say

their opinion about the brand. All of them had positive thoughts about it and the purpose was

achieved: people started to identify themselves with the brand.

Communicating the brand. They choose to promote themselves in English all around

the world because they think the world “love” that is unique in their country name is understood

by everyone, even if they don’t speak English. The promotion was continued with brochures and

promotion on tourism websites at fist.

Passing the years, the brand was mostly used in tourism area. They started to participate

at trade fairs, at events that took place in Slovenia and abroad, to have more publications, more

advertising on the subject, more souvenirs and promotional gifts with the brand’s identity and

logo that contributed to a greater recognition of the brand and the country itself.

Starting with 2010, the brand (the visual part) was also used in other areas. The brand's

visual elements were included in major sports events, such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA

World Cup, and the World Basketball Championship.

Even today increasing efficiency and awareness of the brand “I feel Slovenia” represents

one of the Country’s priority by providing Slovenia a clear position and an effective

management and implementation of the brand. In 2011 they celebrated 20 years of independency

and they updated the market field and the communication field (especially advertising tools) in

order to increase the communication efficiency of the brand.

4. Brand analysis

The ever-evolving media landscape of today’s consumer society is changing the way

companies position their brands on the market and differentiate themselves from competition.

On one side, consumers are exposed to a sheer amount of information, on the other side, through

the internet, this information can be filtered and compared, creating major challenges for brand

custodians to develop strategies that sustain competitiveness and resonate with their customers

values. The more information is available, the more knowledge consumers obtain about a brand,

the more difficult it gets for a brand to differentiate itself from competition.

Successful Brands are conceived as entities who impersonate major lifestyles, cultural

trends and the zeitgeist of specific times. They do so, by carefully listening to their consumers

and by crafting a product, quality, or an experience that proposes emotional satisfaction.

Developing coherent and comprehensive country brands is of vital importance for transitional

countries as branding can contribute to the success of transition. Central and Eastern Europe is a

typical transitional region where the evolution of country branding provides valuable insights

and experiences for other transitional regions as well.

Every single expression of a brand’s message comes to symbolize the host of values that

build its multifaceted identity, though constantly classified and reflected by it’s customers over

experiences with the brand. Thus in order to build preference and affinity that goes beyond the

features, benefits and even the performances of products, strategic branding establishes

experiences across all touch points and constantly engages in dialogue with a brand’s consumer.

The 21st century is an unprecedented time of marketplace innovation where technology directly

mediates consumer behavior and participation, habits and interactions, web-based advertising, e-

tailing and virtual branding. Successful brands will continue to come and go. But the great ones

will develop methods to leverage on the new marketplace. However, the internet changed the

fortunes of print publishers in most countries, generally for the worse, as print no longer

uniquely satisfied many of the objectives which advertisers relied upon. Brands seeking

engagement are presented with measurable engagement online and the desire to associate with

trust-worthy content can also be fulfilled there.

Media coverage pays a crucial role in shaping investors' or tourists' attitudes and

perceptions. International media are systematically monitored by the Ministries of Foreign

Affairs usually through the embassies on the daily basis. National tourism organisations through

their network also carry out media monitoring and reporting. Systematic media content analyses

are carried out less frequently although they can reveal much more about the tone and nature of

coverage than a pile of press clippings. Negative coverage about a country, its government,

politicians are not rare phenomena although countries react differently depending on the nature

and extent of the negatives issues covered. Negative coverage can influence investors as well and

even jeopardise any branding initiatives. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International published an

open letter as a whole page advertisement in the Financial Times on 21st May, 2005 in which

they warned the companies that were considering investments in Serbia. The open letter was

addressed to the Serbian deputy Prime Minister and warned potential investors about the risk of

investing in Serbia, by sharing their negative experiences as investors.

Mass media has an important point of view in our lives. From simple things to major

events, media by its presence, exhibit an enormous influence. Concerning Slovenia’s country

brand, media opinions are really spread. Significantly strong brands need to be initially well

accepted among their internal stakeholders. According to the present theoretical background in

the field of country brands, awareness and acceptance of the brand is first detected among those

stakeholders who are also professionally involved in its development and marketing. Later, it

usually also accepted by the inhabitants of the country. Moreover, a prerequisite of awareness

and acceptance of the brand by internal stake holders requires an appropriate strategy, which is

carried and operated by the administrators of the brand. The results of a preliminary studie indicate that

the brand “I feel Slovenia” is well known to the Slovenian public. The familiarity and affection to the

brand are mainly due to its visual elements (logo and slogan). In the article, was examined the

extent to which identity features are known to the professional public and the people of Slovenia.

Slovenia” brand manual.

The group of representatives and so-called opinion leaders in key areas of the country

knew the slogan and the logo very well, while some participants of the focus group knew the

slogan and the logo only roughly. Interestingly, most participants from both focus groups can

identify themselves with the majority of identity elements of the brand “I feel Slovenia”; however, it is

necessary to point out that those elements had been introduced to them previously in more detail.

Likewise, the results suggest that Slovenes could identify themselves with the contents of the

brand, if they would have been introduced with the appropriate content. The results we obtained

suggest that the brand has great potential, since most of the Slovenes could identify the contents

of the mark, if they were presented the appropriate content. Transmission of the brand content

and identity characteristics can be made by different opinion leaders and operators of the mark in

its key areas; however, mainly the administrator of the brand should provide brand’s systematic and long-term

development. Most important way to promote a country abroad and improve its visibility or

image is by using the so called “nation-branding” technique. This is the case also for Slovenia.

That this half-Alpine, half-Adriatic country decided to use more and more of “soft power” in

managing its reputation becomes obvious with the clear strong messages and slogans delivered

in recent years, such as “I Feel Slovenia”.

A fundamental change in attitude arises during the 18 th Century with the spreading of the

enlightenment ideas in Europe.  Three central emerging ideas of this period is first a new vision

of the world away from the old division into classes (Nobility, clergy and the third estate)

towards a system of equality where each member of a society exists as an individual. The second

innovative idea is the concept of self-determination in opposition with the deterministic world

determined by God only. Those change in the way of thinking changes not only the face of

Europe in a tremendous way but also the use and how nation Branding has been applied. The

apparition of the individual their right of self-determination jeopardized the legitimacy of

different monarch who derived their power from God only and forced the elite of the time to

adapt their position by other mean.

The recent concept and idea behind ‘nation branding’ has been invented by Edward Louis

Bernays during the 1920s in the USA. It first consisted to uses the ideas of his Uncle Sigmund

Freud’s to subconsciously push people to consume certain products, what we nowadays

understand as marketing. One famous example was his cigarette campaign in the 1920s on behalf

of a tobacco company. The aim of this campaign was to make it socially acceptable for woman

to smoke. A campaign as we can testify was more than successful. But soon he realized that

those techniques could be applied to politics by controlling the masses from their own

irrationally. The horrors occurred during the Second World War was taken as a proof that people

cannot be trusted and that they are irrational. Where Bernays once used his uncle idea to increase

corporate sales by bypassing the mind of their consumers he then used his skills to sell political

ideas and push people to think was is believed to be “right”. The term ‘public relation’ has been

coined by Bernays in consequence which he defined as ‘propaganda in peace time’. So is Nation

branding only about controlling people inside the country? Is it justified to show only the

brightest so give a huge gap between the suggested image and reality? Is it not also dangerous?

I feel sLOVEnia-is it only a game of words?

“I Feel SLOVEnia summarizes the key elements of the country’s identity, expresses a

vision of the country, and conveys a symbolic promise. However, merely knowing al these things

does not suffice, one has to live it, feel it-through words, sounds, colors, touch, actions and

experience. The mission is clear: going forward with nature, which means focusing on organic

development, promoting a niche economy, welcoming diversity, and attracting the best

technological and human potential. Slovenia is a diverse country occupying a small area with

pristine nature, diverse culture, rich history and enviable quality of life”. This is a small piece

of an article.

Regarding the question mentioned below, yes, “I Feel SLOVEnia” may be a game of

words if we refer to subliminal perception. (Subliminal perception occurs whenever stimuli

presented below the threshold or limit for awareness is found to influence thoughts, feelings, or

actions. The term subliminal perception was originally used to describe situations in which weak

stimuli were perceived without awareness. In recent years, the term has been applied more

generally to describe any situation in which unnoticed stimuli are perceive).

In international press it is mentioned that “Slovenia tries to magnetize tourists applying to

feelings”.

Another important fact mentioned in the media is Slovenia is presenting itself with a new

game on Facebook called Slo(www)Bus. The game is for all, who want to get to know Slovenia

and its sights of interest, regions, people, and customs in a playful way. The main aim of the

game is to make sure a bus full of passengers safely and merrily reaches the finish line, and to

gain the highest number of points possible in intermediate stations and win a super prize for the

full bus of friends (prize for 30 people).

With the new game, which is available on the new FaceBook site “SLO(www)BUS”, the

Slovenian Tourist Board is implementing its strategy of active and dynamic appearance on social

networks. Its purpose is to establish an active “SLO(www)BUS” community, supported by

attractive, current, and content rich information.

The Heart of Slovenia brand has good potential of development. The starting point of a

marketing strategy for the region is to identify the product families which could be developed

with reference to available resources and desired targets. Such strategy will have to be

implemented in strict synergy with the National tourism organization, to valorize the Heart of

Slovenia as part of I feel Slovenia brand.

STRENGHTS

• presence of small active

• entrepreneurs interested in

• developing tourism business

• unexploited authentic rural

• environment

• artistic and cultural medieval

• features in Kamnik

• authentic shepherd shelters on

• Velika Planina plateau

• local quality wine and food products

WEAKNESSES

• lack of accommodation facilities

• weak product consistency

• shortage of Unique Destination

• Proposition (UDP)

• shortage of tourism services in the

• rural areas

• low accessibility to tourism

• attractions

OPPORTUNITIES

• possible cooperation with an active

• and efficient national tourism

• organization

• proximity to Ljubljana

• potential attraction to domestic

• targets, as schools, groups and

• families

• growing interest in rural tourism on

• the international market

• growth of average income in

• Slovenia and therefore of potential

• tourists

• competitive price policy

THREATS

• competitive scenario

• well known neighbouring Slovenian

• destinations

• unknown brand

Making the most of “love” from sLOVEnia is the best thing they could ever do.

Bibliography:

http://letsfeelslovenia.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/nation-branding-by-michael-schweda/

http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/promotion_of_slovenia/country_brand_i_feel_slovenia/

www.slovenia.info

http://nation-branding.info/2009/11/04/branding-slovenia/

http://miha2.ef.uni-lj.si/posiljanjenovic/Dokumenti/file/konecnikruzzier_dbb_ifs2011.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/NationBranding/the-brand-of-slovenia

http://www.futurebrand.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/11/

CBI_BBC_2010_execsummary.pdf