Middle Eastern family businesses are fascinating. The region is full of examples of first generation entrepreneurs that come from humble beginnings and have created mega business empires through inventiveness, speed and uncanny business acumen.  Knowing that many have achieved these feats in the absence of even the most basic financial, organizational and technological tools makes their meteoric rise even more astounding. Today, brands such as Al-Futtaim, Alshaya and Al Naboodah are beacons of progress, drivers of local and regional economies, and increasingly important players on the global stage.

In recent years, there has been a gradual transfer of power from the first generation founding entrepreneurs to their second generation, well-educated, cosmopolitan and market savvy sons and daughters. More often than not, they are are energetic, well-travelled, digitally-savvy, connected executives with ambitions to not only carry on the family business, but to see it reach even greater heights and profile.

This succession of leadership in the context of the transformative mobile, social and intimate market dynamics are setting the stage for a seismic shift in how businesses operate.  As the family/organization seek to strike a balance between preserving traditions with the real need to implement radical strategies attuned to the changes in consumer/brand/communication behavior,  both generations will be navigating through uncharted territories.

How these pioneering brands emerge from these debates can very well determine the future viability and success of the business. This will be an area we will be keeping a keen eye on in the coming months and years.

- William Shintani is a partner at MBLM and an innovation spotter at the intersection of brand, business & technology.

Part 2: Operationalizing a Destination Brand

flickr/niclas

Historically, focus was on creating a destination brand: determining its positioning or value proposition and then designing an identity reflecting its unique aspects. While this process remains extremely important and establishes the marketing blueprint for any destination brand, it is only a small part of what is required.

There appears to be much less concentration on how the brand is actually implemented; how its marketing materials further develop the brand, which materials to leverage and importantly, how to enhance the experience of the brand itself once the visitor arrives at the destination. In branding terms, attention has been placed on the brand promise, with much less effort centered on the brand performance.

Moving forward, what we call ‘operationalizing’ a destination brand will become essential. No matter how good a strategy or design is, if it is ineffectively depicted and deployed, it will fail. Most customers don’t know your strategy; they know what they see, which is usually an unfocused, unimpressive depiction of the destination. It is critical for destinations to look at ways they can optimize their brand and its experience. Some potential examples of this include:

Sense of place: Way finding, physical environments, airports and exhibits should be carefully considered, designed and delivered to reflect the destination brand.

People: All destination employees should clearly understand and be trained about the brand they represent and their role as brand ambassadors. If the destination is a region, city or country, then training should also encompass customs staff, taxi drivers and service employees.

Technology: The brand should be constantly seeking new and innovative ways to showcase itself: contests on Facebook, special discounts via Twitter, a blog on the official website.  Technology itself should also be considered at the destination itself: interactive kiosks, digital maps and directions, calendars of events.

Marketing Allocation: Take time to realign your marketing budget to determine your priority audiences, geographies and channels. Determine short-terms wins versus long-term investments. Consider digital a priority.

Visitor Journey: Look at your destination from your customer’s perspective. Map the journey they would likely experience from arriving to departing and identify areas of improvement. (rp)

Next:

Part 3: New Opportunities for Destination Brands

Part 1: The Landscape

Destination branding has been becoming more popular over the past several years, notably the last decade, with countries, regions, cities and major events trying to create a more powerful and compelling presence. Having work extensively with destinations around the world, it is interesting to address new opportunities and approaches for success.

In a nutshell, for today’s fast paced, complex and competitive global environment, a destination brand can help create differentiation, focus and meaning. It can attract investment, redress stereotypes and endorse change. The risk of destination branding is that it can be superficial and an overly branded approach can trivialize important issues and lead to negative perceptions, backlash and cynicism. The brand can also be politicized, poorly developed and inconsistently executed.

In recent years, most destinations have had a generic marketing approach: broad targeting (honeymooners, seniors, families, culture lovers, young people), generally superficial with vague messaging (“Truly Asia,” “Unlimited,” “Amazing”)  and advertising-centric.  Today (and tomorrow), the process needs to change to result in the creation, expansion and extension of strong brands. Destinations must focus on narrow targeting, prioritizing key channels, innovative marketing practices, making the brand essential and a more strategic approach implementing and bringing the brand to life. In the past, considerable effort was placed on creating the brand strategy and identity, which then tended to be poorly executed, limited in its development and inconsistently applied.

Destinations brands of tomorrow will make as much or more attention to how the implemented and operationalized, who they are addressing and how they are delivering. (rp)

Next:
Part 2: Operationalizing a Destination Brand