orgtheory.net

Slovenia is one of the smallest countries in Europe, established in 1991 after the break-up of former Yugoslavia and the communist system.  Unlike most other East European states, the country has never had its own independent state but has always been subsumed under different kinds of territorial arrangements, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, or the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. Although it has been one of the most economically successful postsocialist countries, generally, one can say that Slovenia’s recognizability among the world’s countries is pretty low.  Its name makes it easily confused with Slovakia (the republic of former Czechoslovakia) and Slavonia (the region in former Yugoslavia).  Its national flag is almost identical to the Slovakian one, except of the details of the code of arms, and features stripes of red, blue and white, which are very common on many of the European flags.

In the strategy for national economic development written in 2001 as part of Slovenia’s accession efforts to the European Union, tourism development has been identified as a strategic development direction, although the country has been receiving only about 0.3% of European tourists.  Observers have long lamented that this is due to the low recognition of the country in the eyes of the world, but systematic efforts to increase the country’s visibility on a global map and to market it as a tourist destination, began only after the country acceded to the European Union (EU) and was preparing for the EU presidency, beginning January 2008.  As part of these efforts, in the spring of 2005, the government established the Sector for Promotion and International Cooperation, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and charged the Slovenian Tourist Office (STO) with a creation of a crucial marketing tool – a CNN spot.

The Gladiator – Thumbs Down

What is appropriate for a country presentation?  What best captures the “essence” of a country?  What would be attractive to a global citizen?  STO got $1 million dollars to create a CNN spot.  How to begin? Got to have a catchy slogan! At that time STO used “Slovenia: The Green Piece of Europe” in general promotion with four little flowers as a logo. The first decision was to keep the little flowers but change the slogan to “Slovenia: The Perfect Getaway.” Immediately upon the first official presentation of these choices in April 2006, the Minister of Foreign Affairs voiced his outrage, saying the little flowers were ridiculous and “getaway” was more like prison than a desirable tourist destination. So, STO rescheduled the first CNN airing, ditched the flowers for a sketch of a Slovenian flag and “A Perfect Getaway” with “A Diversity to Discover. The actual spot featured mostly the natural beauties of the country, including the sea, the vineyards, Lipizaner horses, fields, rivers, the Karst caves, mountains, interspersed with images of outdoor activities like sailing, horse-back riding, golfing, and skiing.  Only about a third of the spot featured images of the urban environment, in particular the coastal city of Piran, and the architecture and arts of the capital city of Ljubljana.  The spot ended with an image of a woman throwing two hands full of wheat grains up in the air, followed by a close-up of a hand caressing a wheat field and the slogan, “Slovenia: A Diversity to Discover.” The selection of this imagery was not straightforward, since Slovenia is a mostly urban country with only about 6 percent of employment in the agricultural sector.  Also, some of the countryside imagery portrayed the country as if it had vast open lands that people typically experience while horseback riding.  In contrast to such images, the country lacks such open lands, with only 20,000 square kilometers that is more hilly than flat, where horseback riding cannot be counted among the usual pastimes of Slovenians. And one cannot help but to think how strongly the image of a hand caressing the wheat field resembled the early scene from the Gladiator movie.

Donna Summer – Thumbs Up

Something else had to be done! In July 2006, the Government Communication Office issued a public call for proposals, in the form of an anonymous competition open to anyone.  In the message accompanying the call, the Government Communication Office wrote that Slovenia needs a new logo and slogan which will increase its recognizability.  They stated that Slovenia needs a clear and short message, which will evoke the right association with Slovenia.

In the fall of 2006, the jury met, consisting of the Ministers of Culture, Foreign Affairs and Economy, State Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister, State Secretary at the Government Office for European Affairs, the Director of the Government’s Communication Office, two designers, an ethnologist, and a famous Slovenian wine-producer.  The chosen slogan was I Feel Slovenia, with the segment “love” in S-LOVE-nia written in bold, as in I Feel Love. The creators of the slogan explained: “We borrowed the slogan I Feel Love from pop music, because it is widely recognizable and popularized across the globe. It is known all over the world… Thanks to Donna Summer, the slogan is so simple that it needs no explanation, and speaks for itself. That was the intention” (reported in Hočevar 2006).

Despite some further protests by the public and the professional design community, I Feel Slovenia was accepted as an official slogan by the National Assembly at a special session. In a statement issued to the public, the Representative of the Government’s Communications Office revealed as much about his perception of country’s character as he explained about the choice of the new promotional slogan:

“I feel Slovenia slogan… with emphasized word “love,” sends a double message: Slovenia is a country… which attracts amiably or with love. At the same time the words capture the positive, loving impression or relation, which the visitor retains after the visit of Slovenia. This means that [the visitor] does not forget the country and its people and holds a positive, personal relation to it. Among all the country names, Slovenia is the only one with the English word “love” in its name, which is definitely a particularity, which creates a unique word play… The word “love” is principally something positive, attractive, easy, possibly witty… It represents encouragement to the inhabitants of Slovenia…. It promotes a higher level of commitment, and, above all, confidence…” (Communication Office 2007).

Thanks, Disco Queen!