The remarkable and competent government authorities have reported that the new country brand, Esencial Costa Rica, was achieved with a process that began in 2008 and whose cost amounted to $650,000 dollars. Therefore, the first thing I must say is that by all accounts the process has been impressively slow and definitely expensive. Then I would say that the concept has disappointed me.
As a Costa Rican and dedicated to the world of branding for more than 30 years, I would have proposed a better concept in less than a week and for my country: at no cost. However, I had no option to propose because I was not consulted at any time. Then, when I contacted most of my advertising colleagues, neither the association Comunidad nor they in particular were consulted either.
Therefore, it strikes me that the most experienced, creative, knowledgeable and proactive national sector was ignored and did not have a candle in this funeral. This seems questionable to me if we consider the years lost and the millions invested.
Then, it seems to me that when a brand has to explain itself to be understood, it starts off on the wrong foot. And yet, after the explanation to the perfume in essence, pure and powerful, as the descriptive simile to help us understand “Essential Costa Rica”, I asked myself: and for this we need 5 years and more than 325 million colones?
In the responsible commission, under the direction of Jorge Sequeira, a brilliant businessman today in his years of service to the country from Procomer, I did not see representatives of advertising companies and particularly conspicuous by their absence were Costa Rican experts in branding and communication, to cite one of the ignored sectors. Procomer, iCT, Comex and Cinde were there, but neither Garnier, nor McCann, nor Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Tribu DDB or jotabeqú, just to mention some of the firms that would have been able to do the job in Costa Rica, for less than 10 times less than the cost paid and in less than a year.
Without much ado, and since I am a bad critic and usually propositive, I would like to add that for me Costa Rica is fantastic. For all the reasons exposed in the new video to launch Esencial, with the same rational and some more arguments. Fantastic Costa Rica would thrill us and immediately generate pride, a different sense of belonging, a vibration of feelings and the desire to share its wonderful conditions.
Costa Rica has no army, protects more than 25% of the national territory and has become a sophisticated service economy for the world. It is fantastic. Costa Rica will go for the fourth time to the World Cup, its legal framework is predictable and reliable, it has thousands of trained and bilingual Costa Ricans, and in its territory is developed the plasma engine that will take us to distant planets. Costa Rica is fantás tica!
By launching Costa Rica fantás tica I would have ignored Bolivia, which already uses the word, and gone straight to imposing it as my own. After all they have it in a sentence, they are far away and don’t usually compete with us. I would also have ignored the likes of Amazing Thailand and with elements full of mystery, sensuality and intimacy, I would have proposed fantastic. After all, Costa Rica is the country that had its first head of state as a school teacher and produces chips for the world from a gigantic Intel plant. It’s fantastic.
Best of all, Costa Rica has been fantastic all along, for our first Costa Rican Borucas inherited us great and wonderful stone spheres and not pyramids. They also sowed the seeds for a sensitive culture that has always been pacifist and connected to the nature in which it lives, for from its roots, Costa Rica is vibrant, full of enery and magical realism. It’s fantastic!
Costa Rica would be even more fantastic if the competent authorities, with the upper hand, would decide to change this little “essential” brand for this other word that better describes, ignites and provokes. In fact, I believe that it will always be more attractive to invest in a fantastic Costa Rica than essential, with the advantage that it does not need to be translated or explained, since it can be left in Spanish and thus it would add the exoticism that always adds a beautiful mother tongue like ours. It would be understood in English as well as in French, Italian or Portuguese.
So I criticize the new brand “essential”, and I also propose a new option: “fantastic”. I won’t say another word about the past years and the sunk cost. Let’s hope that in the next one they take into account us publicists, marketers and branding experts that the country has at such a high level. Or, how about taking the whole country into account? For this reason, here I take a step and ask you two questions that I invite you to answer: (The results here).
In this link you can find the answer to the critique.
