In attention and appreciation to the courtesy of the response published in the Costa Rica Esencial website, I allow myself to copy/paste it and leave it here for the consideration of the readers of“A fuego lento“. I have allowed myself to add a comment at the bottom.
____________________
ANSWER TO DON JORGE OLLER
Jorge Sequeira Picado, President of the Interinstitutional Committee of Country Brand and General Manager of PROCOMER
On behalf of the Interinstitutional Country Brand Committee, we thank Mr. Jorge Oller for his interest in the new country brand, as well as his contributions and recognition of the serious process that led to the development of the essentialCOSTARICA country brand.
Although there are many avenues that could have been explored in the process of building the new country brand and there may be different tastes for it, after exploring and validating six different positioning paths, essentialCOSTARICA was chosen under a rigorous process and with solid and technical foundations.
Conceptual path: On essence – In the international and national studies conducted during the brand building process, it was determined that both the national and international population had only a partial image of the country’s virtues. This brand development process focused on establishing a positioning platform for the country, centered on its people, talent and the human values of Costa Ricans. This platform will be used to project Costa Rica in a comprehensive manner, allowing us to attract more tourism, more investment, and promote exports. Our objective behind the essential country brand COSTA RICA is to show the essence of the Costa Rican, hardworking and talented, with great innovative capacity, of those Ticos with drive and desire to excel, that make us all proud as a country. The essence is the Ticos, it is us, it is our human quality that is there latent.
Chronologically, the process began five years ago because it was then that the first international study was made, however the process was paralyzed by the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and it was really until two and a half years ago that it was resumed and took flight – with the formation of a new commission – which included: the development and publication of an international poster, which sought a company that had experience in building country brands, and had a proven methodology in that regard. The development of a country brand is not like any other brand – it requires specialized expertise and that was what we were looking for. Likewise, the process also included national and international studies, the exploration of conceptual routes, the design and exploration of logos and visual systems, the validation of the brand with all national and international audiences, and the brand usage manuals that include: tone and manner manual, brand book, QA manual, and strategy manual, among other consultancies – all these elements were part of the broad process that involved many, many processes – besides the creation of a logo – that were enriched by a specialized methodology.
Cost – Related to the previous point, it is evident that the $650,000 was not only destined to design a logo, but also included four studies in more than 80 countries, both before and after the development of the brand, consulting specialists, brand development, video production, among others already mentioned. It was a very professional, technically sound process, making sure to validate each stage correctly with the necessary audiences. The cost, rather, is less than the investments made by other countries. Our investment is much lower and we were able to use the resources very efficiently.
National participation – At the national level, there was a highly inclusive consultation process, involving the participation of various sectors such as business, exports, tourism, environment, science, culture, youth, academia, sports, among others. Advertising professionals from agencies such as House Rapp, jotabequ, Tribu DDB, as well as other creative and design agencies were invited to the consultative process of choosing the logo and the positioning process. The process was also accompanied by the entire technical support team made up of marketing, advertising and communication specialists from the ICT, CINDE, Ministry of Culture and Youth and PROCOMER, all of whom are Costa Ricans. The video was entirely recorded and edited in Costa Rica, as well as the voice-over, music and animations. The licensing protocol is also being designed in Costa Rica by PROCOMER and INTECO based on consultations with national and resident experts. So this was, is and will continue to be a process in which it was the Costa Ricans themselves – through a broad multisectoral consultation in different forums such as focus groups, presentations, interviews, visits – who finally decided the route to follow.
It is with great pride that we can emphasize that our new country brand was indeed a brand developed by Costa Ricans and for Costa Ricans, with the support of multinational companies very experienced in the development methodology and international testing.
We are confident that with the support of all Costa Ricans, our essential country brand COSTA RICA, well positioned and managed, will contribute to greater welfare for Costa Ricans by promoting sectors that have been the engine of economic development of our country.
____________________
First of all, I would like to thank you for the kindness of such a serious, ample and detailed response, which is nothing more than a faithful reflection of the personal and professional quality of Jorge Sequeira, whom I greatly esteem, but also of the entire committee and the organizations that comprise it. The same day of my publication I received a call from Procomer with clarifications, and yesterday the included answer was published, in my opinion with enough material for a wide debate.
Secondly, perhaps it is appropriate to remind the committee that Esencial has not been well received, neither the concept nor the logo. Without the formality of a professional research, although also at no cost to the country and carried out in minutes, only 7% of the responses have favored Esencial as the preferred country brand, in the survey I posted in my blog. The Fantastic proposal, at zero dollars for the country and in one day, seems to be better received with 51% of the responses.
Whoever points out a problem and does not propose a solution is part of the problem.
It is worth mentioning that Costa Rica Pura Vida was proposed by the majority of Costa Ricans, while the question is still being asked: Why didn’t they use pura vida? Also, in the same survey, good options such as Incomparable, Epic, Pure, Authentic, Ideal, Real and others were generously contributed.
Then, and as a footnote, Tribu DDB was indeed invited to a meeting in mid-2012 which we did not attend because we were out of the country. That was all we had to see and therefore, we were not part of the process.
Again, thank you very much for your attention and response. As I commented on Thursday, here I have exercised my constitutional right to protest and I have also fulfilled my civic obligation to make a proposal.