Figuring Out Brand Israel
By Hinda Mandell
The Jewish Advocate
Israel is looking for some positive press.
Conflict and war lands Israel on the front page infinitely more times than its cutting-edge innovations in fields ranging from technology to medicine. Now the Jewish state is fighting the age-old adage "If it bleeds, it leads," by taking control of its image nearly 60 years after its founding.
"Israel is in a position where we have to think about things other countries think about-trade and investment," said Nadav Tamir, consul general of Israel to New England, speaking before a crowd of about 70 professional Israel advocates and lay leaders at Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
At the second ever Israel Branding Summit on Jan. 11, organized by the Israel Action Center and cosponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and CJP, the discussion focused on Israel in all of its sum parts: In other words, "Brand Israel."
In order to present a fuller picture of Israel beyond political upheaval, the nonprofit organization Israel21c spreads the word on less broadcast innovations to come out of the Jewish state.
Israel, like may other countries, is awakening to the notion of branding itself. By means of explanation, David Sable, vice chairman and chief operation officer of Wunderman Worldwide, explained that behind every brand is a set of expectations and promises. Consider Cornflakes, said Sable, who has worked with Coca-Cola and Microsoft: "When you open a box of Cornflakes, there's a set of expectations that it will be crunchy. If it's soggy, they did not fulfill their brand promise to you," he said.
Israel offers the promise of a country similar to the U.S. on the basis of shared values, lifestyle and, of course, democracy. Yet the brand also encompasses Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, refugee camps, Hezbollah and CNN. "You can't separate these things in people's minds," Sable said.
Around the same time of the Boston conference, Amy Friedkin, incoming president of Israel21c, met with Tzipi Livni, Israel's top diplomat. They were furthering the discussion of Israel's re-branding process that the Foreign Ministry, told the Advocate that the foreign minister is "the champion of the brand Israel process."
By the end of 2008, the Foreign Ministry will roll out a global advertising campaign.
Weinberg of Israel21c id the first to state that pushing positive press is not meant to replace traditional Israel advocacy. Yet at last week's Boston summit, Weinberg also emphasized that managing Israel's brand is not "dessert." In other words, he said, it should be on the plate along with every other dish.
Through focus groups of Americans that excluded Jews, Muslims and those who have visited the Jewish sate, Israel21c learned that the country has ways to go in combating its image problem. And the perceived notion of Israel is worrisome. In one group, people spoke of Israel's landscape in terms of "lots of concrete." A multitude of others commented on Israel's religiosity and lack of hospitality.
These perceptions translate to "I know a lot about you," said Sable, "and I don't like what I see." Most troubling for those in the pro-Israel communications camp is that people in the coveted demographic bracket under age 35 view Israel as irrelevant. Yet don't be quick to yell "anti-Semitism," cautioned Sable. "It doesn't mean we have hundreds of thousands of anti-Semites running around the U.S.-it means we have people who just don't get it."
Of course Israel wants people to get that if it weren't for its pioneering citizens, the world would be without algorithms that allow cell phones to function and MRIs to deliver results.
The ultimate aim of the branding process is to fight the PR war and win public opinion when Israel is under attack. "Then, when you read the newspaper you see it through a different lens," Tamir said.
The notion of branding is not without its critics. Some worry that Jews will come across as arrogant and that the efforts will backfire. These concerns popped up at the Boston summit, although they represented the minority opinion. It's view, though, that others argue reinforces notions of a "ghetto Jew."
The refusal to consider Israel as a brand "is the sheerest articulation of the shtetl mentality," said Sable. "We are so different, we have to put a wall around us-get me back in the ghetto."
The fact remains that people are frightened by an increasingly dire situation for world Jewry, with troubling events unfolding in Iran, Israel and Iraq that emphasizes conflict and war-not Israeli innovation-perhaps bringing the branding process back to square one.
Yet Gissin insists that diplomacy and branding techniques can work side by side. "It's a complementary effort to crystallize the concept that Israel is another country [like the U.S.] that opposes radical Islam."
