NATIONAL BRANDING FOR INDONESIA
UK national branding logo
Image source: logolounge.com
By Beni Bevly
The government of Indonesia plans to create national branding that will be used nationally as one of the efforts to develop tourism, investment and trading sectors. The Minister of Trade, Mari Elka Pangestu said, “For Indonesia, the branding issue must start from changing the bad perceptions about the people of Indonesia, safety, and natural disasters” (Antara.co.id, June 4, 2007). The question is what is actually national branding? What are the obstacles to promote Indonesia’s new branding? How to change the bad perceptions that mentioned by Pangestu?
The terminology of branding originally was derived from business or management discipline. Management and business guru Philip Kotler in his B2B Brand Management mentioned branding is about promising that the company’s offering will create and deliver a certain level of performance. The promise behind the brand becomes the motivating force for all the activities of the company and its partners. Furthermore he said, thus branding is the road that a company must travel to define what it wants to be excellent at and how its offerings differ from competitors.
In other words, if we put it in a nation context, national branding is about promising that the nation’s offering will create and deliver a certain level of performance. It is the road that a nation must travel to define what it wants to be excellent at and how its offerings differ from others.
In the case of national branding for Indonesia, the government needs to define what they want Indonesia to be excellent at. Despite of what the government would say about it, it is easier for us to discover what we, as the people of Indonesia do not want Indonesia to be.
Do we want to be a barbaric and be one of the most unstable nation in the world? This question is asked because Indonesian government never solves the barbaric actions that conducted by New Order under Soeharto who killed more than one million people in his anti-communist political campaign in 1965-1966. The government also never punishes the actors behind May 1998 riot that caused at least 1,000 people died, 168 cases of rape, destroyed an estimated Rp. 3,200 billion in stock and property. There were civil wars between tribes and different religion practitioners that caused more than 1,000 people died in late 1999 and early 2000s. It was reported that one fourth of East Timor population (200,000 people) were eliminated by Indonesian army or died because of starvation, but there was no consequence for the commander in chief who involved (etan.org, February 18, 1999)
Do we want to be a nation that easily destroyed and has difficulty to recover from natural disasters? The Asian tsunami of December 26, 2004; a magnitude-8.7 earthquake on Nias Island in March 2005; the Yogyakarta earthquake; a mud volcano in East Java in May 2006; a magnitude-7.7 quake and tsunami along the southern coast of Java in 2006; flooding and mudslides in North Sumatra and Aceh provinces in December; flooding in Jakarta in February; and a magnitude-6.3 earthquake and magnitude-6.1 aftershock in West Sumatra in March stroke Indonesia. Indonesia was just like a tiny puppet that had lost its effort to survive and recover.
In the Asian tsunami itself, Indonesia suffered 4.45 billion dollar AS (ADPC, 2005). The main problem is about how Indonesian government responds to these disasters? Compared to Thai government, Indonesia was far left behind. Now there is almost no sign seen if there was a disaster in Thailand, while we still see a lot of people are suffering in Indonesia because of that disaster (beritaiptek.com, December 26, 2006).
Do we want to be portrayed as a nation that is ranked as the most corrupt country in Asia by foreign businessmen? (tvnz.co.nz , March 8, 2005). In my previous article, I identified that there was Rp. 2,100 trillion had been corrupted for the last 30 years.
Do we want to be perceived as one of the nests of terrorists just because the minority Muslim fundamentalists’ actions? Kim Barker from chicagotribune.com described, “Extremist groups have recruited new members, fought a jihad, or holy war, on one of the country’s islands, and staged three major terrorist attacks against Western targets, including one in October 2002 at two nightclubs on the island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.” (chicagotribune.com, December 15, 2004). This statement even scares more westerns by looking at the fact that Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, i.e. 90 percent of the 238 million people in Indonesia say they are Muslim.
The above questions become the bad perceptions and finally they also become Indonesia government’s obstacles and challenges to create a new national branding.
Regardless what kind of national branding that government will promote, these obstacles and bad perceptions have to be changed or removed. Firstly and foremost, we need to change the character of our people and the government officials. The purpose of changing the character is to eliminate and prove that the above incidents, such as the barbaric and immoral actions will not be repeated again, the corruptions will be treated as infidel, and Indonesia will be more moderate and ready to cooperate with the international society.
Secondly, to meet our new national branding, the people need to be trained in line with the message in the new national branding. It would be impossible to promote the new national branding without supported by Indonesians’ new behaviors.
With the government’s plan to create the new national branding, will the new Indonesia emerge in international forum? Will it benefit its people? Let’s wait and see.
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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.
In my opinion, the national branding for Indonesia is that relates to regional political and military stability and power in Asia and in the world considering all possible human and natural resources. “Indonesia: Power, Heaps and Rich”
First is about safety-safety-safety. secure-secure-secure. needed effort from government to build the greatest system (the whole process: clear regulation, implementation, control and monitor also country management) that included by respecting the law. Imposible to change the character of people without building great system. No matter how bad guy are U, if we live in country that has great system U will be forced to follow the rule.
Law Supremacy. No matter what kind of job do U have, what kind of position do you take in, breaking the rule should be live in jail, therefore needed effort to make clear and good rule.
International community proud with Indonesia because Indonesia is very democration country. But in other hand because of democrazy a lot of people speak up, demonstration, critic. Every people can do anything to show the reaction of government’s performance. Even the barbar action is acceptable because they hiden in the “DEMOCRACY”.
Anymatters, it sounds like to be a superpower. I like it.
Adhi, good point. Instead of prioritizing reformation as a whole that is very wide and complicated, I think it is more effective to reinforce our law system first, just like what you said.
pak Beni, i take that you haven’t seen this: http://menteridesainindonesia.blogspot.com
this guy, the design minister, is so creative! if only our government bloghops. hahahahakhakhak!
Wow, now I have seen that, Miund. Do you think that we need to create such as image for Indonesia?
Thanks for your comment.
well as a design-conscious person, i do think we should create a totally NEW image for the country. the design ‘ministry’ is at least starting to do it. the problem is… will they be heard to the country’s higher-ups?
hmm ngomongin branding indonesia coba liat deh logo branding “Indonesia, The Ultimate in Diversity” yang dikeluarin ama dept. kebudayaan n pariwisata,,bisa diliat di situsnya,,gimana mau ngebangun citra indonesia yang baik sedangkan membuat logonya aja ga serius begitu,,entah masih dipake ato ga yang pasti logo yang diluncurin tengah taun 2006 ini ga menarik secara visual apalagi korelasi antara tagline dengan visualnya sama sekali ga ada!,,izinkan saya meluapkan sedikit emosi mengingat beberapa kali berurusan dengan instansi pemerintah dalam proyek2 komunikasi visual, mereka kaya’nya emang cuma mau mencairkan anggaran departemennya aja tanpa serius berkomitmen untuk menjalankan program2 yang mereka bwat sendiri,,diberi penjelasan ini itu ga mempan, mereka cuma bilang ‘udah ga usah bagus2 yang penting jadi’ ato ‘bikinin yang bagus dong tapi jangan mahal2 yah’,,hah bt
Ikiu, terima kasih untuk informasinya, sehingga yang lain bisa lebih jelas melihat pekerjaan mereka. Aku udah cek web site-nya. Lingk-nya klik di sini.
kebetulan lagi bikin tugas tentang nation branding di Indonesia. pas lagi research2 ketemu website ini.
sempet baca satu artikel, katanya visit indonesian 2008 campaign dengan tema utama The Ultimate in Diversity itu mo nyaingin campaignnya malaysia yg Truly Asia itu.
tapi pas liat logo Truly Asia, terus terang jauuuuuhhhhhh lebih mantap daripada yg Ultimate in Diversity.
duh, padahal setau saya, di indo itu banyak sekali orang-orang yg sangat hebat dalam hal design.
tapi yah, seperti kata Ikiu, penghargaan kepada mereka-mereka yg punya talenta dan niat baik untuk kemajuan Indonesia masih belon didukung sepenuhnya.
Slogan “Malaysia Truly Asia” bukanlah sehebat yang kita
sangka. Malah kebenaran slogan tersebut diragukan. Bayangkan, Malaysia mengklaim dirinya sebagai “Asia yang sebenarnya” yang terang-terangan menepikan bangsa, suku, dan ras dari bangsa Asia lain. Hal ini sempat mengundang protes dan kecaman untuk mencabut slogan tsb. Selain itu, isu rasisme dan politik kotor yg begitu kental dalam percaturan sosial di Malaysia sangat tidak melayakkan Malaysia untuk disebut sebagai simbol “Truly Asia”.
Pada dasarnya, slogan “ultimate in diversity” justru lebih mendalam makna yang tersirat, selain itu juga sebagai simbol kebanggaan bangsa Indonesia yg memiliki ragam budaya, ras, agama, dan suku yang bernaung dalam suatu sistem yang coherent dan ber-civilized. Inilah yg harus kita tunjukkan kepada bangsa lain di dunia. Bukannya kita ikut-ikutan negara tetangga kita: koar-koar kampanye besar-besaran tourism yang berujung pada kebohongan publik.
Gw akuin masih banyak yang perlu dipelajari oleh pemerintah kita dlm menggalakkan national branding. Tetapi tetaplah tidak adil untuk membandingkan Indonesia dengan negara lain. Indonesia masih tergolong newborn baby dalam national branding. Seharusnya didukung, eh kok malah dipijak-pijak martabatnya.
Branding mengandung kejujuran dimana batasan kita mampu menyampaikan pesan secara jelas dan transparan.
“Branding isn’t about the final result. It is the process that make it worth.”
Just my two cents….harap maklum bila ada yg tersinggung.
I am sure you make valid points about the ’state of the nation’. It’s not easy to change the system without uprooting and changing the entire infrastructure. So, we must find smarter and effective ways to tackle all the issues one by one, with an accountable ‘road map’ of programmes along the way to make it happen.
The government must lay the vision, educate and train civil servants and public sectors, collaborate with the private sectors; privide funding and infrastructure and framework.Seek public support and involvement to ensure the message and vision is being adopted at all levels.
The nation needs a professional and independent framework that is collaborative and institutional with well placed guidelines. The key lies in having a non-politically driven and sustainable agenda that can be fully implemented over the agreed period of time regardless of who is in power on the day.
It won’t be easy but it’s not impossible. It starts from the leadership! And it all goes back to your points about the ’state of the nation’and about people’s ‘private interests and agendas’. And we are back in full circle!
Uri, Eddie and Saleem, thank you for the comments.
In order successful in branding, it is very important to create positive image. This positive image will influence how people or other countries perceive Indonesia. Even though a perception does not automatically represent the fact, but at certain level it is known as a reality.
Therefor, Indonesia must represent itself as a mature and civilized nation regardless how young herself or how young her branding stategy is. It is true that Indonesia just declared its independence 63 years ago, however it does not mean Indonesia has alway to act like a new nation that still seeks for its identity. Will other countries say to Indonesia, “It’s OK for Indonesia to the things that like uncivilized people did in the medieval period since Indonesia is a new born baby.” No, they will not say that.
South Korea who had independence day just one day different compared to Indonesia has left Indonesia far behind. Japan that was destroyed by USA in world war II, now leads technology invention in Asia and even in the world. We do not want to use “new born baby” as an excuse for us to justify our poor judgments and actions.
Many Indonesian government officials and people do not have the sense or urgency. This happens because they do not see any treat on our nation. If they have clear visions, they will be able to tell how danger Indonesia position and situation these days. They have to realize, if they do not act now, these treats will diminish and finally eliminate the existence of Indonesia.