Donovan Neale-May |
By Kwaak Jeyup
Korea Times Intern
Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the Chief Marketing Officer Council (CMO Council) visited Korea to speak at Seoul National University (SNU) on nation branding, an event jointly hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and SNU last week.
In an interview with The Korea Times on Friday, Neale-May began by summarizing the event, which was attended mostly by technologists. He addressed how national reputation or brand image were affected by impressions gained from export products, business dealings and relationships. He gave a notable example of a study that listed ``function fatigue'' as the number-one complaint of customers.
The solution to this problem was hinted out by the results of a survey that indicated the experiences of 750 IT-buying enterprises that benefited from cooperation with developers and customization. With each product and each individual reflecting a consistent image from a business standpoint, he said, customers could develop an affinity with the brand Korea. He went on to discuss the fundamental role and value of intellectual property, the well-planned management of which enhances the national brand and prevents its ``contamination'' by counterfeit goods.
Regarding to the resources which brand Korea could exploit, he said he saw ``a singular identity'' for the country that no one had yet come to use. What impressed him most about Korea in his first-ever visit, was the magnitude of its industrial infrastructure. Korean companies have been constructing buildings and roads and pipelines around the world yet have failed to build a consistent image as a place that is building a country of the future.
Its singular identity in his mind was a ``can-do'' country able to demonstrate miraculous progress in the last five decades. The dynamism that the tourist bureau had last associated with the country would only become tangible if Korea could successfully brand itself as ``the go-to place'' to witness its industrial strengths, he said. Neale-May called the country a center of excellence that already attracted requests to help build power plants, airports, and transportation around the world ― ``but you just haven't talked about it'' in an intelligent framework.
He saw the current myriad of campaigns by local, regional and national governments counteractive and only adding to confusion. He cited an example of a wasted opportunity, an advertisement in Newsweek that showed images of adolescent Koreans smiling; it entirely missed the magazine's core audience. Calling these disorganized attempts ``a little bit of lipstick'' with no impact, he warned against ``trying to be everything'' but asked instead to decide on a core target and build a corresponding singular message.
During his 30 years as an international marketing and brand strategist, Neale-May has consulted with over 300 leading multinationals, venture start-ups and high-growth companies. The Chief Marketing Officer Council (CMO Council), of which he is executive director, is a network of more than 3,500 senior marketing decision makers in 52 countries and recently launched its Asia-Pacific Chapter.
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한국과 일본 국가부도위험 비슷해졌다
