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May 19, 2006
Germany Redux
You may recall my post on Germany after my recent trip to the country. I just received a package from Invest in Germany, an investment arm of the Government. It so amazed me that I had to blog about it.
The cover is a drawing of flowers in the colors of the country (black, yellow, red. The headline is "Listen to Innovative Traditions," with a description on the bottom, "Invest in Germany, Land of Ideas." Inside is a terrific compact disc featuring young German performer Martin Stadtfeld playing Bach. The letter attached offers to open doors in the country, knowing that I should "bring my business to the land of ideas and innovations...Get to know the cosmopolitan Germany, the motherland of some of the most influential and creative minds of recent ages such as Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, Bach, Daimler and Diesel."
This from a country that is about to host the world's biggest sporting event after the Olympics, where some of the biggest companies are gathering to maximize their sports sponsorship investments.
Ok, sorry folks for the blunt response, but you don't get it. I love classical music but this is not how I make my investment decisions. Nor is it how Germany should be presenting itself to multinational executives.
Why not show me innovations from Siemens or a "mittelstandt" company, with interviews in English with the team leaders on the projects? What about a link to a really hot web site that gives me visualizations of the best of German engineering? How about a series of articles from global media describing the new optimism of companies in the wake of Chancellor Merkel's accession to power? Or a study from A.T. Kearney about Germany's strong competitive position in certain sectors?
If Germany wants to compete, it has to play offense, and not to fall back onto defensive tactics such as sending out magnificent but ineffective Bach CDs. Speaking of one other small point--in a world of technology, sending out cold letters to a guy who is in Germany four times a year and has been doing business there for 20 years is just not that impressive.
This is a reminder to those of us in communications--customize your approach based on knowledge of the recipient, whether reporter or customer or prospect. Second, take the creative risk, hoping for a breakthrough. Third, use communications techniques in keeping with the modern age, from credible studies to web links.
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PR, Public Relations, Gemany
Posted by Edelman at May 19, 2006 4:05 PM
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Comments
Or they could do the obvious and point out Germany is the world's most successful exporting nation, with a trade surplus six times that of China.
See today's FT: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/fcfb3aee-e6a2-11da-a36e-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=6e6e833c-cbff-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html
But I guess that's not as clever as a CD with Bach.
Posted by: Lance Knobel at May 19, 2006 6:32 PM
This is just what I meant when I commented a while back, that the joint PR-push you suggested is just not going to happen for several reasons. One of them is the inability of the government to assess the situation correctly AND implement the measures needed to rectify it. The country lacks a vision and somebody who will push and energise people to reach that vision. One of the reasons is of course that unpopular decisions have to be made: none of the politicians has the courage or the stamina and most of the big e.g. DAX30 companies only, and I mean only, think in terms of shareholder value, not in terms of citizen or customer value. At the moment the country is driven by popularity polls and economical reports, and of course, yesterdays decision to raise VAT by three points does not help.
Wow, I didn't mean to come off so pessimistic, but I think it's a fair assessment of the situation.
Posted by: Sebastian Keil at May 20, 2006 9:24 AM
I live in the Netherlands and, frankly, the way Amsterdam tries to promote itself abroad is not much better. They did try a bloggers initative - giving some US bloggers a free trip to Amsterdam in return for some (hopefully) better coverage of the city - but they failed to put US bloggers with Dutch bloggers. Not clever. Currently they have been reading too much Richard Florida. Innovation is a culture - not a product or a department.
Posted by: Jonathan Marks at May 23, 2006 4:09 AM
This blog has gained attention in Germany. Here is the link to view: http://www.werbeblogger.de/2006/05/21/deutschland-land-der-ideenlosen-kommunikation/#comments
Posted by: Richard Edelman at May 23, 2006 8:58 AM