On Friday 27 January, the British Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg (BCC) held a luncheon event at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Luxembourg-Dommeldange.
In the absence of the BCC Chairman, Arjan Kirthi Singha, BCC council member, introduced the guest speaker, Sasha Baillie, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, and chairs the Nation Branding committee, an inter-institutional initiative.
Sasha Baillie addressed Luxembourg's nation branding strategy and implementation, detailing the challenge faced, the approached taken and the phases action, together twith the next steps. She recognised the contribution of many to Luxembourg's perception and reputation abroad.
She acknowledged that FR would be addressing parliament on Monday morning with the 2017 Nation Branding Action Plan. She explained that a group of officials from different ministries and departments were concerned about Luxembourg's reputation abroad, about misconceptions, etc. The first phase was to get a mandate and the Nation Branding committee was created five years ago with a key collaborative approach. A first conference was held at the Chambre de Commerce in February 2012 at the Chambre de Commerce; the event attracted a huge response; the committee was then set up and two people have been working full-time on the initiative.
A bottom-up approach taken was agreed in order to involve society at large, Luxembourgers, expatriates and cross-border workers, to get a sense of the country and to identify what the common threads are. User surveys were undertaken and they applied Jung'y archetypes which identified twelve different types. An interesting outcome was that the expatriates and cross-border workers felt stronger about the Grand Duchy than Luxembourgers themselves.
Thee were three main common values identified: Luxembourg is an open county, Luxembourg is a reliable country, and Luxembourg is a dynamic country.
Phase 2 went from the abstract to concrete action. Does Luxembourg need a visual identity? And how can one turn the values into a symbol? A "Creathon" - a creative thinking marathon involving 50 people from all walks of life - was held over a week-end and addressed the issue of visual identity, resulting in six strong ideas from which a Call for Tender was launched. One specific issue identified was that Luxembourg is one of just a few country names containing an "X". This was used as the starting block of a new visual identity, with the arms of the "X" moving outwards, with the colours important.
Blue: reliabity
Red: capacity of moving forward, being pragmatic
A tagline was also identified "Let's make it happen", and the image is now being rolled out on airplanes, etc. A video was also made, with contributions not from the Grand Duchy but from people world-wide.
A toolbox was also created, allowing individuals and organisations to engage with society.
For 2017, the brand will be deployed internationally, including the storytelling and also involving the community. Various initiatives will also be deployed around Nation Branding, including around the national day on 23 June when residents will be encouraged to be a "guide for a day". A cartoon spot call for tender will also be launched.
The impact of all these will be measured, to quantify how the various components are working.
