Armenia’s pitch
At a presentation yesterday on the topic of “National Brand Strategy: Tasks and Perspectives” in Yerevan the Armenian society was informed of an initiative that would bring an American company to help Armenia to help the country develop a competitive brand strategy. The total cost of this project will be 450,000 USD, 150,000 out of which will be paid by the Armenian government.
The problem, however, is not the amount and neither the fact that a significant portion of the project is going to be paid by taxpayers. Let’s imagine that this project does not cost anything for Armenia, and these institutions organize the project for free, and they pay for the campaign and outreach on world famous TV companies. Will it help Armenia’s rating, and will it bring investment to Armenia? Certainly it will not. This brand “balloon” will be blown up faster than the Prime-Minister’s favorite construction and offshore business “balloons.” Even schools books on marketing and promotion write that exaggerated or fake advertisement of a product without a proper background will have the adverse effect and will force the specific producer concerned out of the market.
Success cannot be built on lie. There may be separate cases when companies may sell for higher products than the real value due to advertisement (if we have understood Serzh Sargsyan’s statement correctly, it means Armenia sold the 20% in the gas company to Russia at higher cost than the real value), however, companies that stick to such strategy cannot live long. Now the same is being done to Armenia’s branding strategy.
Due to the policy of the incumbent authorities Armenia has become a country, where foreign investment volumes skyfall every year and financial outflow skyrockets. The money that flows out of the country is owned by the political elite and their trustees (in Armenia big money cannot be owned by anyone else).
Among other reasons one of the main reasons is the government’s policy Armenia is being emptied by depriving businesses of its main value – consumers that can pay and create demand. By an interesting coincidence, at the time when this presentation on developing a national brand for Armenia was taking place, different state agencies were actively disseminating information about improvements in easy visa regime with Russia for Armenians that want to migrate for seasonal work. It is weird that in such condition the government praises the agreement with an American company to help with developing a national brand.
Apparently our government takes people from other countries for the audience of their national TV channel, who in fact survive from day to day in their country but when in the evening they watch the national TV channel, they see the virtual beautiful life and how everything is developing in the country. Most of that audience express their real attitude to all this by emigrating from the country. This is the only tangible result that Armenia’s branding may have, as long as due to Armenian government’s policy the country is becoming a product that can be “pitched” only but not offered at normal value.
