In July 2009 we summarized the main points of the strategy conceived by Saffron Brand Consultants for branding Lithuania. Now I recently encountered this video on the Lithuanian Development Agency and I could not help but notice that many of the aspects shown in the video had appeared earlier on Saffron’s brand strategy document.
The video mentions Lithuania’s long 1,000 history, its past as a commercial empire connecting the Baltic and the Black seas, that it was at the center of the crossroad between North and Centre, East and West, basketball and jazz. It ends branding Lithuania as a ‘Northern European country’ (and not a ‘Nordic’ one): “Basically Lithuania is exactly what you expect a Northern European nation to be: small but sound”.
The video can be viewed here:
I was Saffron’s head of place branding, and led this job together with Wally. The Lithuanian Development Agency (now inexplicably cleft in two, one part to deal with exports and one to handle inward investment) definitely did have our work in mind when they produced this. NB: Lithuania is not a Nordic country by any stretch of the imagination; this is undisputed. Our recommendation, which has been considerably taken up, was for Lithuania to stop referring to itself as “Baltic” and use the more helpful “Northeastern European” instead (full rationale given in the document, available on my site and the LDA’s). This is consistent with my philosophy that nation branding practice, for the most part, should attend to basics in a thoughtful, creative way. One reason I left Saffron was because they see considerable scope for “corporate identity” (i.e., graphic design) in nation branding and I came to regard it as entirely the wrong tool for the job. Nowadays, in fact, I recommend my clients take certain *actions* immediately, as a first step, and only then consider writing lengthy strategy papers let alone redeveloping a visual identity. Amusingly, when I had lunch last month with the LDA’s marketing director (I spend a lot of time in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital), I explained this and she said “Oh, we would have liked this approach!” Alas, the brief would have to have been altered (and her hands were tied). Stand by for more from Lithuania, though; branding wise, they’re muddling through haphazardly, but it’s a fine Northeastern European country that would today be Scandinavia-level prosperous and famous had it not been forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union. I’ve spent both summers since the project finished living in old town Vilnius, whose charms continue to deepen….
Great comment Jeremy, thanks for your insight! Really interesting to know!