This morning my 13 year old son and I were on our usual journey to school (for him) and office (for me). As we were driving along I noticed a UPS van on the streets of Dhaka. This led to a brief discussion about UPS and FedEx.
Thirteen is an age when you think you know everything and, to give my son due credit, sometimes he is right. This morning, he voiced his opinion that FedEx was the first company to start express delivery of packages. Of course, I had to pause and probe further. I needed to know on what he had he had based his opinion in order to understand his opinion correctly. This morning it was branding, he thought that since FedEx is the most well known for this service they must have been first.
So, does being the most well known mean you must have been first. The short answer is, no, of course it doesn’t mean that. It just means you marketed your company or service the best.
Let’s look at country branding for a minute. Over a year ago, we heard that Bangladesh was to be branded as “Beautiful Bangladesh”. I discussed here that it was an ineffective brand and that there were other, better choices. I live in Bangladesh, though for the most part I tune into regional English television stations. On any given day, I will see advertisements inviting me to Incredible India, Thailand (Simply Thai), Visit Indonesia, Malaysia (Truly Asia) and Singapore (Your Singapore). Where is Beautiful Bangladesh or Bangladesh, Truly the Heart of Asia or Bangladesh as anything? Having a brand means selling it to your neighbors first. Anywhere you go, everyone knows “India, Incredible India”. Just how incredible is India? Is it much different than Bangladesh? No, not really. Like FedEx, it is just marketed better.
So, back to my discussion with my 13 year old, the fact is that UPS opened its doors in 1907 and FedEx in 1998 (through a merger with Caliber Systems) according to their respective websites. So, imagine that for more than 90 years UPS had been out there and today, more people know FedEx than UPS. The upside, is that leaves the door wide open for Bangladesh, some creative people just need to get out there and start advertising for Bangladesh (under whatever brand is chosen) internationally. Bangladesh could be like FedEx and become more renown than Incredible India. Come on, Bangladesh…..we are waiting.
