A Corporate Nation

A Corporate Nation

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A Corporate Nation

HOW ICELAND HAS CHANGED ITS BRAND FROM WITHIN

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The brand connects

by Philip Linnemann

THE INNOVATION FUNCTION

n a world where climate change, economic disbecome the norm, companies and nations alike need to re-evaluate how to drive growth and stay relevant for its stakeholders. They must address and focus on what they are especially good at and maintain a proactive strategy for how that brings value to their individual markets.

In this essay I will investigate a recent brand-driven innovation initiative, which includes two aspects: the internal and external brand, in which I have been involved in the latter. This part of the brand is developed by the Icelandic nation and the London based advertising agency The Brooklyn Brothers. The campaign is called Inspired by Iceland and comprises a rebranding case for the entire Icelandic nation aimed to change and improve its culpaeruptions.1 Here, I want to examine what means are used to implement such a comprehensive task, what has led to its success and how many trends of this as well.

A visionary platform According to Erik Roscam Abbing (2010), branddriven innovation is the process that links the vision of a given organisation to its users and customers, at best, promoting sustainable and meaningful growth. A brand is not just a representation of the outside image of an organization, but is a platform that inspires and leads a process of change that creates sustainable value by connecting the internal organisation to the outside world and its marketing thus starts by being a process and ends by guiding the content.

Internal brand After being exposed to the mistake of relying national economy on precarious international invest1

I presuppose that the receiver is familiar with both events.

THE INTERNAL ORGANISATION

THE BRAND

THE OUTSIDE WORLD

THE MARKETING FUNCTION

ments, Iceland has in many ways gone back to basics to start afresh. Acknowledging wrong doings en to become more reliable, responsible and trustworthy. The effort needed to be collective, internal and democratic before it could become external and marketed. They have focused on what they are already good at (renewable and natural resources and specialized companies), and then pushed that in new directions (EconomyWatch Content Team, 2010).

In other words, Iceland has given itself a second Recently BP has tried, like Iceland, to reposition itself in the global marketplace. However, what they did wrong was to focus on the external facets before trying to change from within.

BP might try to tell the world that they are good-doers now, but if faster than they can prepare for. Iceland, on the contrary, has emphasized change from within, starting with letting its portfolio of banks default in 2008. The collapse in the Icelandic currency ‘krona’ inevitably led to soaring prices on imported goods and services and left the country in necessity They acknowledged early on that they were all in it together. In many ways, Iceland’s economic downturn can thus be compared to BP’s oil disaster in the Mexican Gulf. Internal processes allowed failure

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A Corporate Nation

HOW ICELAND HAS CHANGED ITS BRAND FROM WITHIN

time, the whole nation and beyond to show and tell the world how people can be ‘Inspired by Iceland’.

Rather than targeting the tourists directly, the people of Iceland were engaged to share their own inspiring stories. This not only disrupted the approach from being the voice of the government into being personal, intimate and intriguing, but also enhanced with a mutual goal of telling the world what they really are. Conceptually, the Inspired by Iceland campaign is thus built on much the same principles as the business model developed by the Icelandic and when competitors and former partners smelled the blood, both Iceland and BP weren’t prepared for the media and market genocide that waited them (The Economist, 2012).

External brand Despite a quick reaction, it was clear that an ingenenough to save Iceland’s reputation from being blamed responsible for world air travel turmoil after the eruption of the volcano in 2010. The government had to actively and rapidly do something to prevent another economic degradation and boost tourist numbers.

The initial idea that The Brooklyn Brothers came up with was simple. To motivate, at one

Achievements From the beginning, Iceland has worked their way from internal management to external marketing, rather than the other way around. As a result they have managed to maintain focus on their core values and the message they wish to communicate, and inspire people to co-create and collaborate. This change highlights the importance of nations as a dependable brand in a globalized world economy, as it underlines the interconnectedness and mutual reliance of modern nations. But it also underlines the importance of organisational change and not parison to BP earlier in this essay. Iceland’s unforto re-brand and re-design its political agenda and 3

A Corporate Nation

HOW ICELAND HAS CHANGED ITS BRAND FROM WITHIN

economic growth model by supporting a thorough global re-positioning, generating a more sustainable model of growth and value creation for the small nation in the North. Highlighting towards change, Iceland was acting very much like a company with an organisational culture in need of a transformation and acting accordingly. This newly shared responsibility has seen a great increase in engagement and as a result, Iceland’s economy stopped contracting by late 2010 and is now expecting a budget surplus by 2013 (OECD, 2011). There is one good reason for this. The brand “Iceland” has been developed as a visionary platform that motivates a continual dedication to the development of internal resource exploitation (cf. process2) while directing its external marketing model to being more reliable, inspiring and entrepreneurial (cf. content).

Hired by The Brooklyn Brothers, my role in this project began back in April, when I joined them on a 5-day trip to Iceland to investigate and document the creative mentality shared among Icelandic designers, artists and architects. What I met, and not only in the creative community, was an outmost entrepreneurial population eager to do what it takes to lift their economy and reputation. As product designer Hafsteinn Juliusson tells me in an interview: “After the crisis we believe. We say: “Ok, these are the values that we should invest in”” (Juliusson to Linnemann, 2012).

At this point I realized that I’ve been a witness to innovation in its most valuable form – transformational innovation.

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As explained in section 2, A visionary platform.

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LIST OF IMAGES Figure 1

Roscam Abbing, E. (2010) The brand connects.

Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA.

Figure 2

OECD (2011), OECD Economic Surveys. OECD Economic Outlook. [online data]. Available at: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932445467> [Accessed 27 April 2012]

Figure 3

Linnemann, P. Rolling Studio (2012), Photograph, Langitangi: Inspired By Iceland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BBC News (2011) [Internet].

Available from: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/ The Economist (2012) What’s in a name? [Internet].

Available from: <http://www.economist.com/node/21553033> [Accessed 26 April 2012].

EconomyWatch Content Team (2010) Iceland Trade, Exports & Imports [Internet]. Available from: <http://www. economywatch.com/world_economy/iceland/export-import. html> [Accessed 27 April 2012].

Juliusson, H. (2012) Iceland after the crisis Q&A. Reykjavik, 10th April 2012. [Hafsteinn Juliusson is the Founder and Design Director of HAF by Hafsteinn Juliusson Ltd].

Hancock, K. (2012) Inspired By Iceland Q&A. London, 24th April 2012. [Katie Hancock is the Account Manager on the Inspired By Iceland campaign from The Brooklyn Brothers London].

OECD (2011), OECD Economic Surveys. Iceland 2011, OECD Publishing. [Internet]. Available at: < http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/ eco_surveys-isl-2011-en> [Accessed 27 April 2012] Roscam Abbing, E. (2010) Brand-driven Innovation: strategies for development and design. Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA.

Apendix 1

A CORPORATE NATION

Iceland after the crises Q&A INTERVIEW INFORMATION

ucts rather than the products themselves. Is that a common ideology for Iceland?

Interviewee

Hafsteinn Juliusson (HAF)

Hafsteinn: Yes, but that as well I think are feelings

Interviewer

Philip Linnemann

Conducted

Tuesday the 10th of April 2012 at 2.00pm (duration: 9 minutes).

Location

Café Haiti, Geirsgata 7b / Fisherman’s Wharf No. 2, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.

Contact

Hafsteinn Juliusson / h@hafsteinnjuliusson.com / http://www. hafsteinnjuliusson.com

Philip: How do you think the design scene in IceHafsteinn: First of all, it has been growing, so you have got a lot of new designers. It has become bigger and people are more open to get their stuff out on the market and people are more eager to produce stuff as well.

Philip: So has it been affecting the way that you as designers collaborate?

Hafsteinn: Yes, but mainly I think it’s not only from the designers within, but also from society.

Society accepts more things produced in Iceland or things produced with this kind of design mentality, and I think that is the main thing. People are willing to spend let’s say 10 dollars more on this plate, because it’s designed with some kind of message or meaning, so they choose that instead of the cheaper plate that they can get in IKEA. There is more demand from society on this new approach on products. I think that has been the main change, and of course that leads to more designers willing to work and develop their own stuff, because they are speaking to the market somehow.

Philip: Previously [prior to the interview] you talked about your project “Superfarm” that focused more on the materials and the origins of the prod-

ing about how we can, how do you say, motivate ourselves as a society. And work more with what we have instead of importing everything. So I think, yeah, it has been changing a lot and the design of ways for our resources, energy and materials to be used.

Philip: Do you feel more united as a nation now after the crisis?

Hafsteinn: Yeah, what I think has been good about the crisis is that people are actually thinking about what is real and what is our identity.

Philip: So what would you say that is? What are your core values?

Hafsteinn: Well I would say the energy and the creativity of the people. Then you have of course the nature and the ingredients and this kind of openness to everything. People are really willing and open to do new stuff and that’s one of the reasons why I love to be a designer here. If you go to any kind of workshop people are always willing to help you and do everything for you. After the crisis we believe. We say: “Ok, these are the values that we should invest in.” As I was describing earlier [prior to the interview], the most promising Icelandic companies are working with creatives. You have the CCP online game, and then you have another company, which is called Ossur that is working with prosthetics and

going on. The Icelandic innovation and know-how is here and that’s what people wanna work in and people know that this is what we should invest in.

This is the core or the treasure of Iceland.