Brand France: Where smart money will hopefully go.

                                   

When I think of France the following images come up first: Men and women dressed to the nines with berets, riding on bicycles and acting haughty all the while surrounded by beautiful medieval architecture. While some of the generalisations of the French might be exaggerated, it is easy for one to accept them as true since the country is the fashion capital of the world. It is also home to world renowned luxurious brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, L’OREAL, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Cartier, LACOSTE, Givenchy, Garnier and LANCOME.

One of the country’s most well known landmarks is the Eiffel Tower located on the Champ de Mars in the city of Paris erected in 1889. The iron lattice structure has proven to be a favourite among foreign visitors looking to propose marriage to their partners at the top of the tower. There is even a case of an American woman with a fetish for inanimate objects who so loved the structure that she decided to marry it in a commitment ceremony in 2007. Now if you couple the country’s world famous brands with the love inducing Eiffel Tower you get a country known for opulence and romance. This would be a good formula for branding a country and making a stereotype work in your favour right? Well the French government doesn't think so, or at least not anymore.

As of the 28^th  June 2013 the French government has been in talks to rebrand the country. They are apparently doing so because they believe that the brand is suffering from the aforementioned stereotypes. They are also hoping it will improve the country’s global competitiveness globally while promoting the “Made in France” label. To kickoff the rebranding effort they launched a nationwide competition where professionals could submit new logos for the future French brand. The unveiling of the new brand identity is expected to be done sometime during 2014.

In my opinion France did not need to go on an effort to rebrand itself. These stereotypes its trying to run away from actually made it unique from other countries. I hope that the rebranding works in their favour and actually brings in more business and investment into the country, since this is the primary reason for the rebranding. What do you think, is rebranding to seem more business minded a wise route for France?

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower
http://www.countryreports.org/country/France.htm
http://cruciblebookii.com/2013/09/france-the-brand/
http://www.france.fr/en/news/french-invited-promote-french-excellence-france-brand
http://www.rankingthebrands.com/The-Brand-Rankings.aspx?rankingID=172&year=340
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2074301/Woman-with-objects-fetish-marries-Eiffel-Tower.html