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Development of an image

Images are extremely important in the field of commerce, particularly in the first world among very discriminating consumers. So much so that the Archbishop of Canterbury lamented, “I do not read advertisements — I would spend all my time wanting things” Dreams are woven in the media around consumer products aimed at product recognition, brand -acceptance, origin, confidence and quality-satisfaction. The advent of high technology has made sales promotion into state-of-the-art expertise, the media enhancing image-making into the sales of everything from mattresses to missiles. In the words of Stephen Leacock, “Advertising can be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” Product promotion has developed to the extent that the candidates for the coming US Presidential elections are being exposed to the mass public like soap, a can of beans, jeans or whatever. The cost of all this hoopla has escalated simultaneously with the biggest “war chests” purchasing maximum media time thereby having an unfair advantage over the cash-strapped hopefuls. The media exposure has tilted the balance so decisively in some cases that the US Congress has recently been filibustering over the urgent need to put a “cap” on campaign spending to achieve some parity in the election process. The exploitation of the media for promotions has in itself turned into a fine art for acquiring the maximum ratings (percentage of visual audience). Hard sell and soft sell are now compounded by negative publicity, which in fact takes the kid gloves off and reduces the issues to war by some other name. To quote John W Hill, “ the purpose of public relation in its best sense is to inform and to keep minds open, the purpose of propaganda in the bad sense is to misinform and to keep minds closed.”

In the realm of origin — confidence, a peculiar blend of sales promotion eulogising quality maintenance and credibility is required, prudently exploited to good advantage. Many light years ago, the nascent Japanese industry, engaged in copy-catting mainly electronic goods, could not shrug off the derogatory “Made in Japan” epithet. By sheer dint of exceptional quality, Japan has turned this epithet on its head, making its detractors, mainly derisive US consumers, pay for its present produce through their noses and at the cost of US industry. This has been an amazing turnaround, being emulated at the present time by the four TIGERS of Asian economy, mainly S. Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. In each case, in varying degrees, quality has taken gradual precedence over quantity and origin association is no longer a bad word. In the words of Lawrence J. Peter, “ an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.”

Pakistan has a severe, mainly underserved image problem. This affects us considerably in international affairs, resulting in totally ridiculous aspersions coupled with the playing down of our various merits. Our demerits on the other hand are compounded by negative propaganda by our detractors, mainly India, Israel, Soviet Union and its allies. The control of the media in the US by Israel supporters gives the unholy cabal a decisive edge in political mayhem with our international image. This extends to diluting the sympathetic western support given to us because of Russian adventurism in Afghanistan. Strange as it may seem, at the highest level our image has survived various trepidations. Except for the hapless General Yahya, the three other rulers in the last three decades, Field Marshall Ayub Khan, Mr. Z A Bhutto and General Ziaul Haq have had excellent vibes with colleagues at the Head of State level. Needless to say this has undercut negative propaganda against us to an amazing extent in the actual handling of foreign relations but we have never succeeded in shrugging off our negative image among the mass public of the western world. This has an adverse effect on the international political arena but on the economic scene this is disastrous as the undesirable image has a serious retarding effect on product promotion and we end up trying to sustain our credibility for existing sales instead of getting on with increasing the quantum.

To get what they require from the US Congress, nations have to create a favourable atmosphere in Washington circles specifically and in the US generally. Even countries as close to the US spiritually as Canada have to hire lobbyists to project their own viewpoint successfully. South Korea, Japan, Nigeria, the Sheikhdoms, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, etc have all acquired paid lobbyists/public relations firms to project a favourable image. A preponderance of this effort is made on the economic scene, particularly to ease the image problem, relying on the Thomas Jefferson adage, “Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”

Despite the fact that we possess an excellent advertising industry, full of innovative and effective professionals, we have totally failed in exploiting that potential to good international use. Whereas the political side of image building is not our forte, in the economic side it amounts to crucial neglect. What is the percentage of people in the US and Europe among the mass public who know that our raw cotton is among the finest in the world, that our Basmati rice is the best in the world or that our fruits, particularly mangoes, are second to none? What they have heard is that our criminals get their hands cut, that our goods are shoddy, that we are the greatest producers of heroin, that we are fanatics secretly building the Islamic Bomb contributing to nuclear apocalypse, etc etc. The negative propaganda is not even countered in a sophisticated manner because of the lack of professional expertise.

It is time we took some decisive steps in the commercial field to improve the country image of our products. We cannot give advice to the dream-makers as to the actual modalities they will adopt in their field of expertise but one can have enough confidence in their professionalism to expect that a task once given to them, clearly annunciated, will be accomplished with enthusiasm, flair and dedication. The economic benefits of positive media exposure can also justify its costs many times over. We must use the private world of our advertising industry to good advantage for the sake of the universal good of the general public, the only way to ease our commercial problems is to rectify our image in the minds of the masses of first world consumers on a high priority basis.

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