Termpaper Proposal

1.0 TITLE “Identifying the Possibility and Prospect of Branding Bangladesh throughout the Developed World through the Image of its Liberation War.” 2.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Bangladesh is a small and developing country of South Asia. It has many unique features which can be used to differentiate it in the mind of ‘world’. Thousand of problem symptoms have engulfed Bangladesh and made the branding difficult. Again the liberation war is a so vast thing that properly coordinating the brand message would become difficult. However, before identifying the proper problem definition we would survey the literature on ‘branding’, ‘branding a country’ and ‘Bangladesh and its liberation war’. According to Philip Kotler, “Branding is all about creating differences. To brand a product, it is necessary to teach consumers “who” the product is – by giving it a name and using other brand elements to help identify it-as well as “what” the product does and “why” consumers should care. Branding involves creating mental structure and helping consumers organize their knowledge about products and services in a way that clarifies their decision making and, in the process, provides value to the firm.” Here it’s all about branding products and services. But what’s about branding a country. Again Kotler says “Branding can be applied virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand a physical good (Campbell's soup+6, Pantene shampoo, or Ford Mustang automobiles), …...a place (the city of Sydney, state of Texas, or country of Spain), an organization (UNICEF, American Automobile Association, or The Rolling Stones), or an idea (abortion rights, free trade, or freedom of speech).” So branding a country is not a new or unreal concept which requires extensive before launch research. Simon Anholt, a prominent marketing writer, describes the different features of branding a country or nation. He says, “The nation brand – how a country is seen by others – is an important concept in today’s world. Globalization means that countries compete with each other for the attention, respect and trust of potential consumers, investors, tourists, immigrants, the media and governments of other nations. A positive and strong nation brand provides a crucial competitive advantage. It is therefore very important for countries to understand how they are seen by publics around the world across key dimensions.” The Anholt Nation Brand Index measures the power and appeal of a nation’s brand image, and tells us how people around the world see the character of that brand. The nation brand is the sum of the perceptions of a country and its people across six dimensions of national assets, characteristics and competence: • Exports • People • Governance • Tourism • Culture and Heritage • Immigration and Investment Only 35 countries are ranked on that index and Bangladesh is not inside those 35. But here we find the important characteristics which can be used to assess our research topic. Two characteristics can relate the image of Bangladesh’s liberation war, people, and

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culture and heritage. Liberation war describes its people, and it is a part of its culture and heritage. There are many other concepts and constructs present in the ground of literature relating the topic. Randall Frost a freelance writer based in Pleasanton, CA, is the author of the forthcoming book The Globalization of Trade, has gathered most of the facts regarding branding a country. Some of the points are- Unlike product branding, place branding is seldom under the control of a central authority. Government or industry associations are rarely in a position to dictate policy to stakeholders. - Marketers have far less control over place brands than over product brands. Besides country marketing campaigns, people may learn about a country in school; from media sources (including newspapers, books, TV and movies); from purchases; and from trips abroad or from contact with citizens or former residents. - A typical business will have more experience with marketing issues than most countries. Many government officials who become involved in country branding are drawn to product marketing approaches because their countries are in desperate need of exports, tourism or foreign direct investment. But few in government have the skill sets required to design major marketing campaigns. According to Saffron’s Olins, some nations develop a national brand in a kind of controlled or formalized way, but with others it happens almost spontaneously. “If you look at what is happening in India today, and the perceptions around India, none of these are controlled. India has emerged in the last five years in terms of perceptions in a quite different way from the way it was perceived ten or fifteen years ago. It was spirituality and poverty, and now it’s software; it’s highly educated people. And in some countries, Indian clothing — textiles and fabrics, are fashionable.… None of this is managed. It’s all spontaneous.” One of the chief difficulties for many countries has been deciding who should run their national branding campaigns. Allan Steinmetz, CEO of Inward Strategic Consulting in Massachusetts, does not see classical top-down brand building strategies working for most governments, citing by way of example the failure of the Bush administration’s Brand America campaign. “That [type of brand building] typically has to be done in a corporate environment by the CEO or senior leadership,” he says. Steinmetz believes that relying on government leaders to devise a country’s branding campaign is particularly risky if politicians have image problems of their own. Adds Olins, “Inevitably [national branding campaigns] are inspired at least partially by governments. And governments like quick results. But governments [...] often don’t stay in power for very long.” Olins therefore thinks that governments should work closely with the private sector when developing branding strategies. So there could be a problem of properly maintaining the branding through short living governments with different views. Again all those problems, which have somehow become highlighted world wide about Bangladesh can spring up as major problems against a brand image. Here we may take some help from Anholt. Much of Simon Anholt's work is with the governments of poorer and developing countries, often in collaboration with the United Nations.

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Although the words 'brand' and 'poverty' don't often sit happily in the same sentence, the reality is that many emerging countries are battling against a reputation - a brand image which prevents real economic development from getting started. After all, if a country is perceived as war-torn, famine-ridden, poverty-struck, corrupt and utterly dependent on foreign aid, nobody is very likely to think of investing there, buying its products, going on holiday or going to work there. Sooner or later, the country's economy needs to get started - and that's when its negative brand gets in the way. In these cases, brand strategy isn't about pretending everything's fine when it isn't, and it certainly isn't about switching off the supply of aid: but it is about helping tourists, investors and consumers learn about the good things that are going on there, to broaden and deepen their understanding of the country. It's about telling the story of the talent and the opportunity that the country has got, and giving it a chance to prosper in the global marketplace. Developing countries don't have time to wait until the world finally realises how much progress they're making. In these cases, nation branding is about ensuring that reputation keeps pace with progress, and that the massive investments of time, effort, skill and money made by so many people, companies, governments and NGO's achieve their aims right now, and not when it's too late. Finally we could look into the works on relating the liberation war of Bangladesh with its branding; but unfortunately this relational construct is not highlighted before. So we have to start judging all the attributes and features of the big and vast liberation war that Bangladesh fought. What aspects of the war can be highlighted and what should be kept silent is a matter of research. Problem statement: Through whom the liberation war can be used to brand Bangladesh for a better image and identification. Big Research Question: How a well built and consistent massage of liberation war can be transmitted to the world. 3.0 OBJECTIVES Broad objective: To search for the best sides of our liberation war for presenting to the world. Specific objective: 1. Finding a consistent and knowledgeable presenter of message. 2. Finding the ways for keeping the message consistent. 3. Finding the ways for making a harmony with other branding elements. 4. Searching out the most attractive aspects of the liberation war. 5. Knowing the present knowledge of the war in customers’ mind. 4.0 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study will include only the liberation war as the branding element, all other probable strengths of Bangladesh will be excluded. The final target customers are simply the foreigners though we will also take the perceptions of Bangladeshi citizens.

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5.0 METHODOLOGY 5.1 Secondary study For our study, we will go through a secondary research that will help us find some depth. We would search for previous works on ‘branding a country’. ‘Branding Bangladesh’ and ‘liberation war of Bangladesh’ which will help us to understand the direction and target of our study. We will fix our primary study based on the secondary research findings. 5.2 Qualitative Study Depth interview: Key people behind the organization that are directly involved with liberation war related affairs. Liberation War Museum Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust Ministry of Liberation War Affairs KII: People who have experience both in liberation war and branding Prof. Syed Ferhat Anwar FGD: Six business students who have family experience of liberation war. (Whose families have direct involvement in liberation war.) 5.3 Quantitative survey: 5.3.1 Sampling Sample consist of the following three parts Sample frame Sample type Sample size Sample frame: our sample frame consists of the following things. Freedom fighters. Bangladeshi resident in foreign countries. Foreigners. Sample type: Both institutional and household. Sample size: Sample size will be 130 persons including 50 freedom fighters, 50 non resident Bangladeshis and 30 foreigners. 6.0 CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY Contribution to literature Branding Bangladesh has not been related with its liberation war yet. This study could initiate the path for new knowledge era.

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Contribution to society People of the whole world will come to know about our liberation. Society will get the mark of respect from the whole world. People’s respect for the freedom fighters will be refreshed. Contribution to industry Here the organization is Bangladesh and its under country industry. Definitely it will help Bangladesh gain huge advantages toward prosperity. The experts will come to know the different corners of branding Bangladesh.

7.0 Organization of the research Three group members will complete all necessary field works by themselves; no outside workforce will be added with them. Three members Noman Ahmed Khan (NAK), Mohammad Shariful Islam (MSI) and Mohammad Raiyan Omar (MRO) will distribute the tasks among themselves. Secondary research: NAK Qualitative research Depth: Liberation War Museum- NAK and MRI. Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust- MRO and MSI Ministry of Liberation War Affairs- NAK and MSI KII: All FGD: NAK Quantitative Surveying freedom fighters- MSI Surveying non resident of Bangladesh- MRO Foreigners- NAK (through a NRB hotel manager in Switzerland) Data input- MRO Data compilation, analysis, and interpretation- NAK Report: Part 1- NAK Part 2- MSI Part3- MRO Presentation – all of the group members.

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8.0 Timeline of the Research 1

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Activity Secondary Research Depth KII FGD Conducting Survey Data input Data analysis Draft Report Final Report

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9.0 BUDGET

BUDGET FOR THE REASERCH WORK Expenditure category 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

COST

Preparing questionnaire Questionnaire survey Communication cost Transportation cost FGD/ KII refreshment Printing cost Others

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10.0CONCLUSION So branding Bangladesh through its liberation war seems challenging as no work has been done in this field. But the history of branding a war is very old and it is our turn to search out that can be repeated. Here we are going to investigate two things the branding element- liberation war and the foreign customers.

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ANNEX References Anholt, S. (2005). Anholt Nation Brands Index: How Does the World See America? Journal of Advertising Research, Volume 45, September, Cambridge University Press. Frost, R. (2004). Mapping a Country’s Future www.brandchannel.com by interbrand. Kotler, P. and Keller,K.L. (1994). Creating Brand Equity. Marketing Management. New Jersy: Pearson Education. Kotler, P. and Gertner, D. (2002). Country as Brand, Product, and Beyond: A Place Marketing and Brand Management Perspective, Journal of Brand Management, ingentaconnect.com, Volume 9, Numbers 4-5, pp. 249-261(13). Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L. (2002). Country Equity and Country Branding: Problems and Prospects, The Journal of Brand Management -Palgrave Macmillan, Volume 9, Numbers 4-5, pp. 294-314(21)

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