March 12, 2018 – As we prepare to launch our new series depicting the realities of life in the modern Croatia, Voices from the Asylum, a look at one small snippet of the modern Croatia which has become its metaphor, at least to this correspondent.
One of my favourite metaphors for the modern Croatia relates to the current Croatian National Tourist Board slogan, Croatia, Full of Life. It replaced the hugely successful ‘The Mediterranean as It Once Was’ (which, by the way, was the advert I saw in northern Somalia which persuaded me to buy a house in Croatia back in 2002). After more than 10 years of this successful slogan, an overhaul was required, and Croatia, Full of Life was unveiled with much fanfare at a cost of about US$400,000
The Croatian public was more than a little underwhelmed, all the more so when it became apparent that there was very little original about the slogan, a topic we explored a few years ago in an article, Full of Bollocks: How to Steal 2 Slogans, Put Them Together and Make US$400,000. The phrase, Full of Life, was even trademarked already. The Croatian National Tourist Board have always been responsive to press requests, and I was grateful to them for agreeing to answers my questions on the subject at the time. You can read that interview here.
(Sound familiar?)
One of the justifications for the hefty price tag of the slogan was its implementation and its flexibility. The concept was much more than Croatia, Full of Life. All would become clear when the full project was rolled out. And while the media had a field day with their alternative interpretations – Croatia, Full of Shit, Croatia, Full of Uhljebs etc., I could see that the slogan’s strategy had some merit – Croatia, Full of Wine, Croatia, Full of Love – a flexible slogan, which could build a brand and adapt it to various situations to show the diversity of the destination.
And that is when I met Croatia, Full of Energy.
What a totally cool and useful gift to reinforce the brand! A mobile phone battery power bank with the slogan, Croatia, Full of Energy. Really innovative!
There was just one problem, which I will come back to shortly, for I want to explain how things work in Croatia.
In Croatia, when you do public procurement, you have to go through a tender process (natecaj). A minimum of three bids for the service or product, and then those bids are evaluated and the best one chosen (often in terms of price). As with many, many countries in the world, this system (allegedly) is sometimes rigged, and some cousin or friend will have a company which applies for the tender. Sometimes, allegedly, there is insider information, and the cousin knows exactly how much to put in the tender to win the bid. And having won the bid, he has to pay his commission. The result? There is often much less money to deliver the actual product or service. The result? A lack of quality. Imagine that the competitor had won the tender fairly in an open and transparent society – he would have had 20% more to dedicate to the product of service, a 20% increase in quality. Some tenders are even written specifically for a cousin, including requirements which that particular cousin can fulfil and others not. A very simple example of this is a job for a school secretary needing to have a law degree, which the preferred candidate did, the assumption being not many people with law degrees would be looking for a job as a school secretary, and those who were superbly qualified and wanted the job would fail due to the law degree requirement. Croatia, is of course not the only country in the world where this happens.
The practice of writing tenders for cousins and friends is widespread, and I have consultant friends now who can read a new tender and advise whether or not it is even worth applying, for the decisions have already been made before the application has begun.
Back to our sexy and innovative Croatia, Full of Energy power bank, and that tiny problem I mentioned. I am not saying that the tiny problem was due to the tender problems I mentioned above, as I don’t know, but there was one similarity with the tender process – a lack of quality.
For a number of the Croatia, Full of Energy power banks simply did not work.
Quite brilliant!
No power.
No Croatia, Full of Energy.
In fact, no sign of life at all.
How do I know it is true? I have one, given to me by the Croatian National Tourist Board director of the time, who personally put it in my hand.
And what would have been a marketing coup in any normal country turned into a rather embarrassing (and hushed up) mess, and a metaphor for the two Croatias – the sexy tourist one seen by tourists and visiting diaspora, and Croatia, Full of Reality.
To be continued.
(Please note – the power bank also did not work AFTER charging, in case you might think that was the reason).
