Balkanalysis.com

By Borka Tomic*

Living in Western Europe as a person of Serbian origin leaves a lot to be desired. The reactions one experiences on a daily basis, when the word “Serbia’ or “Serbian’ is uttered, vary from the “warmonger’ or “war criminal’ perceptions to, “I visited Kiev ten years ago – I quite liked it.’ The ones who understand the situation well have comforting words for the Serbs: “at least you are not bored.” And indeed they are right.Funnily enough, the best perception Serbia can hope for from outsiders is that they are unaware of what the country has to offer. Sometimes they are unaware of Belgrade, Serbia’s capital and nominated as “the city of the future’ for Southern Europe/South-East Central Europe, by the Financial Times. Or, more often, they are unaware of its Exit Festival, which nevertheless was recommended by the distinguished Sunday newspaper, The Observer as “the best festival in Europe.’ They also usually don’t know about that exhilarating and unique barrage of traditional Serbian brass orchestras, the Guca Festival.

Most outsiders remain unaware too of Emir Kusturica – arguably one of the greatest film directors of modern times, who also happens to be Serbian. Finally, they are unaware of the economic reforms that have taken place in Serbia over the past twelve months, which have earned the country the distinction of being “the top reformer in the world’ for the year 2005, according to the World Bank, and “top economic reformer in the SEE’ according to the EBRD.

Not that people are to be blamed for such a lack of awareness. Once upon a time there was Yugoslavia; then the war came and everything fell to pieces. From the global business point of view, however, even more primary than positive or negative opinions about Serbia itself was the general confusion over so many new and convoluted states. In a competitive international business climate, who could even bother to keep track of the new and constantly changing borders, country names, capitals, currencies and leaders? Tourists and investors have better things to do.

Yet take Croatia for an example. Although the war was fought partially on its territory, it is currently one of the world’s top tourist destinations, thanks (in no small part) to the excellent public relations and branding techniques it has employed. The EU Barometer 64, Chapter 5, rates Croatia as the fourth most desirable destinations in the EU, after only Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

On the other hand, Serbia’s case is much more complex. Serbia is lagging behind with a bunch of homework to do before a clear path to the EU can be set. According to the EU Barometer, it is perceived as one of the “least wanted’ countries among EU citizens, rating in the bottom third, alongside Turkey and Albania. The Hague drama lingers on even after the death of Milosevic, with the indicted former Serbian General Mladic still “at large.” Furthermore, the situation with Kosovo and Montenegro continues to get too complicated for the average tourist or investor to bother to grasp – assuming that it can be grasped at all.

Admittedly, working on improving the Serbian image is rather challenging. Probably much more so than is the case of the post-communist East Balkan countries, Romania and Bulgaria, or the new post-Soviet EU member states such as Lithuania or Latvia. The few associations that these countries experience are a far cry from the complexities of the Serbian war case. “The country of bombing and war criminals’ still remains as it’s major brand attributes. It clearly seems more than obvious, therefore, that the country is in need of a major re-branding.

Within only fifteen years, the image of the once beloved or at least grudgingly admired ex-Yugoslavia, of which Serbia formed an integral part, has simply been erased. Like a fragile mirror, Serbia’s centuries-old good reputation was smashed into pieces by the war and its resultant media coverage.

While scattered, these pieces still exist – and they are not about weapons and corruption. As a matter of fact, there are some fascinating fragments allowing for a more balanced view. Belgrade, for one, can be rightly called the sports capital of Europe. Only last year, the city hosted the European Basketball Championship, the European Volleyball Championship and the Waterpolo FINA World – where Serbia & Montenegro came away with the gold.

Further, as part of Serbia’s new pro-business economic reforms, the income tax has become almost the lowest in Europe, at 10 percent, which might just have been the decisive factor for Microsoft when it decided to open its third worldwide technological center here. Interestingly enough, Serbia is the largest raspberry and leading frozen fruit exporter – accounting for 30 percent of the raspberries in the world. A whopping 95 percent of the world’s top quality raspberries come from Serbia. Serbian products have been granted “the most favourable’ treatment by the US, and it is the only country outside of CIS to have a free-trade agreement with Russia.

Underpinning these economic and social developments is the fact that Serbia has entered into Stabilisation and Association Agreement negotiations, which will shortly make it an EU candidate country.

The question is, how many people outside of Serbia know all that? Which media or information agencies have taken the effort to inform them? And who bothered to draw the foreign media attention to these facts? Serbian politicians seem to be quite stuck dealing with the current political situation, and public relations and branding are simply not on the agenda. As the Serbian deputy Prime Minister Mr. Labus explained, “some people do things and some people talk about it.” As if doing both were impossible.

The Euro-enthusiastic and pro-Western Serbs, for their part, are tackling the branding issue more and more seriously. Only in March and April this year two branding conferences were scheduled to be held in Belgrade. The second, BrandFair took place from 2-4 March featuring leading branding experts such as Interbrand and Marc Gobe at its conference halls. The Fair was rather interactive and multifaceted and included a brand talk show, brand workshops, exhibition space, and an audience award for the most loved domestic and foreign brand.

Another branding conference of international importance is scheduled for 20 -21 April as a part of Belgrade Design Fashion Week. It was conceived as the professional gathering of branding experts world-wide having an emphasis on country branding. Place branding legends like Simon Anholt and Wally Olins have already participated as guest speakers in previous brand conferences and their books have been translated into Serbian, as has Marc Gobe’s Emotional Branding.

Now country opinion leaders’ interviews, expatriates’ surveys, magazine columns and TV shows on the matter are only some examples of how domestic public opinion is giving increasing attention to the need for country re-branding. Not only professionals, but even ordinary people, tend to participate in debates about what the brand called Serbia should include.

Regrettably, such encouraging efforts remain mostly within Serbian borders and lack sufficient cohesive power and synergy. Though financed by the Serbian Government’s Ministries of Tourism, Trade and Services, as well as Foreign Economic Relations and by the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, the second BrandFair did not target foreigners.

When asked why no foreign journalist had been invited, the BrandFair press officer sadly concluded that “the foreign media were not a priority, and anyway they would most likely only be writing about Mladic.” Such unhealthy prejudices towards foreigners can be found at various levels of Serbian society. Through the years of war, sanctions and isolation, the Serbian people seem to have lost track of pace of the modern world, communication technology and strategy.

However, there is still room for optimism. Namely, a globally-oriented re-branding campaign is to begin in spring 2006, as Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Milan Parivodic has announced. Given the rooted stereotypes of Serbia held abroad, only the greatest enthusiasts are likely to rise to the challenge.

Yet while it remains to be seen how successful the campaign will be, there is clearly only one direction the country can take, and that is, forward.

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*Borka Tomic, is a public relations officer at the Institute of Serbia and Montenegro in Brussels.

Ms. Tomic graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Belgrade in English language and literature, and holds a Master of Business Communications from ESLSCA, Paris, specializing in the area of Serbian nation branding. She has organized many fairs and cultural events within Serbia & Montenegro and Western Europe, and is particularly active in the field of cultural diplomacy and SCG diaspora networking.