What’s wrong with Canada? It’s not the brand…it’s the bland.
“What people are saying is that it’s gorgeous, but there’s no compulsion to go there,” national branding expert Simon Anholt told Tourism Online. “Canada’s just too perfect.”
“Simon Anholt, a policy advisor for 15 governments, UN agencies and the man behind the widely cited Anholt Nation Brands Index, tries to soften the blow of his assessment of Canada by likening us to vanilla,” the site says.
The Anholt brand index polls about 25,000 people in 35 countries, asking questions relating to governance, culture, people, tourism, immigration and exports.
Because Canada and Australia fight it out for many of the top spots in the index, Mr Anholt often draws comparisons between the two countries.
“One of the reasons Australia outperforms Canada as a nation brand is that they have a very definite, strong personality. Canada doesn’t have personality. Ask anyone to describe an Australian and they’ll say Crocodile Dundee, whereas Canadians have blank faces.”
“But there’s no strong, urgent personality coming out … everyone wants to meet and know an Australian, but meeting a Canadian (evokes) a milder feeling.”
After learning how the Canadian Tourism Commission is attempting to redefine the country as “confident, youthful, informal, warm, witty, intriguing, open and authentic,” Anholt laughed during an interview.
“Those are all words you could use to describe anyone on the planet,” he said. “To me, a strategy would be something a little less politically correct than that, a bit more shocking. To me, a test of a brand strategy is one that will change the way people will behave. There’s a risk that with these careful adjectives it won’t.”
Report by David Wilkening
