Bhutan has partnered with MMBP & Associates to create a brand that reflects the Kingdom's deeply-rooted culture, aspirations and ambitions. Photo / MMBP & Associates
Bhutan has partnered with MMBP & Associates to create a brand that reflects the Kingdom's deeply-rooted culture, aspirations and ambitions. Photo / MMBP & Associates
From businesses to influencers, it seems everything has a brand, even countries.
Hot on the heels of Japan, Estonia, and Peru, the mountain kingdom of Bhutan has become the latest country to re-brand itself.
To mark the opening of borders to tourists for the first time since 2020, Bhutan revealed a newly designed national identity, created by London agency MMBP & Associates.
Centred around the word "believe", the new brand uses a colourful, kaleidoscopic style featuring traditional symbols in bold, bright tones.
A new website was also launched as part of the rebrand. This provides information for travellers about planning a trip.
The new identity leans on vibrant colours and traditional shapes and icons. Photo / MMBP & Associates
What is 'Nation branding'?
As a practice, branding isn't new but is typically used in corporate settings to promote businesses.
Nation branding (also called place branding), uses the same techniques to promote a country, not just to attract tourists but capital and talent or build its reputation. Countries have done this since the 1990s but the technique has become more popular in recent years.
Today, nation brands can even be judged by official intuitions like the Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index, which found Germany to have the strongest brand in 2021.
Some brands become exponentially famous, like Amsterdam's "I amsterdam", which was so popular the "I amsterdam" sign was removed from Museum Square after it caused constant crowds. Others, like the "Best Small Country in the World" campaign by Scotland, lasted just a few years.
Whether it's an extensive tourism strategy or a simple slogan, for a small suburb or an entire country, the goal is always the same; to shape people's perceptions of a place.
This isn't Bhutan's first brand. For years the nation promoted tourism under a campaign called "Happiness is a Place," playing off its reputation for having a Gross National Happiness index. In 2018, "Made in Bhutan" was launched as a way to advertise the country's export industry.
A whole new identity for the country was created to mark the post-covid reopening. Photo / MMBP & Associates
The challenge with nation brand is that, in order to be successful, it must streamline the complex, multi-faceted identity of a country into a single, clear idea. One you can easily communicate by a single icon, slogan or visual. As a result, nuance is removed and places are often portrayed according to their strongest attribute; tourism.
Over four months, MMBP & Associates attempted to create a brand identity that resisted this silo.
MMBP founder Julien Beaupré Ste-Marie told Fast Company the re-brand attempted to communicate two messages to two different audiences. First, that Bhutan was back open and ready for international tourists. And secondly, for young Bhutanese to resist the temptation to move overseas.
Sell sustainable tourism
Before the pandemic, tourism was Bhutan's second-highest source of revenue and one the nation is eager to revive. However, it will be more expensive for tourists to visit after the nation increased the Sustainable Development Fee.
Pre-pandemic, tourists had to pay $200-250 per day for an all-inclusive visitor package. Most of this covered accommodation, food and transport and $65 went towards funding sustainability programmes.
Today, tourists must still pay a $200 daily fee but this goes entirely towards the sustainability fund, meaning food, accommodation, transport and extras become an additional cost.
Alongside a new website that explains how the fee is spent, the rebrand seeks to communicate the importance of sustainability and the new fee.
Like many nations, Bhutan has also faced a major "brain drain" as young Bhutanese travel overseas for better opportunities. Numbers peaked in 2018 but remain above average (16,000 Bhutanese ).
Bhutan has launched several education programs to tempt young people into staying to study, and eventually work. Programmes included coding, blockchain engineering, silversmithing and storytelling.
The re-brand aimed to inspire young people to stay or move back.
"The brief for the brand was to be this self-fulfilling prophecy of engaging youth and renewed love and appreciation for the country," said Beaupré Ste-Marie.
