Even as the toxin melamine keeps finding its way into Chinese foodstuff (lately, it’s in eggs), it’s time for China to realize it needs a serious image makeover globally, and now.

Imagethief – China’s best blog on public relations, recently commented: “there is much positive happening in China and many good stories to tell, but that they often get lost among the time-warp rhetoric, self-destructive mistakes and ham-fisted attempts at total control.”

Yes, there is much positive happening in China. For starters, China Daily doesn’t look like The Wall Street Journal, and for once, that’s a good thing.

Headlines from today’s WSJ.com front page include:

• Job Losses Compound the Downturn
• Chrysler, GM Seek Federal Aid
• Refiners Look to Reduce Production
• More Storms to Hit Treasurys
• Tech Finance Defaults Rise
• GDP Estimate Could Add to Gloomy String of Data
• Health Insurers Long-Term Prognosis Remains in Question
• Mutual Fund Firms Absorb a Profit Hit

Compare those with China Daily’s business section headlines:

• Nation ‘can cope with downturn’
• Construction Bank Q3 profit up 12%
• Shenzhen bank Jan-Sept profit up 77%
• Nokia’s VC invests in first Chinese firm
• NASDAQ eyes up Shanghai

Despite the difference in editorial integrity among the publications, there’s no questioning China’s economic miracle. And there’s no doubt that today, China’s economic prospects are looking better than America’s, at least in the short term. As China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Sunday, “we should recognize that the overall economic condition is good, our financial institutions are generally strong, with increased profit-making and risk-fending abilities, market liquidity on the whole is ample and our financial system is sound and safe.”

If you don’t believe Mr. Zhou, you can believe Mr. GDP. It’s contracting in the U.S., at a rate of 0.6 percent. That negative rate should speed up for the fourth quarter to 2.2 percent, according to the Journal. Meanwhile, China’s GDP “slowed” to 9 percent in the third quarter. And despite Time magazine’s best effort to predictably throw doom and gloom the China way in an article asking, “How Will China Weather the Financial Storm,” the final analysis was:

Merrill Lynch estimates that China will account for 40% of world GDP growth in 2009. Continued strong Chinese demand for raw materials, machinery and consumer goods is expected to prop up other Asian economies — the region as a whole is projected to dodge a recession next year.

So how can China, as the world’s GDP – not melamine - growth mecca, begin to change its image?

Perhaps with a national slogan.

After years of guerilla-induced violence, kidnappings and assassinations have become relatively rare, and Colombia has a new slogan reflecting it’s desire and deservedness of a new global image: “Colombia es Pasion.”

The Journal reports:

Nearly 250 companies have licensed the logo, which also appears inside boxes of Colombia’s exported roses and on the tail of one of the planes flown by national carrier Avianca. There’s even a “Colombia is Passion” bicycling team, which boasts the world champion among cyclists younger than 23 years old…. Its logo won an American Graphic Design Award in 2006, and the “Colombia is Passion” Web page averages 77,000 monthly visits…. Kokoriko, a big Colombian chain of chicken restaurants has rolled out a “Colombia is Passion” meal, given away CDs tied to the campaign and adopted “Passion Made Into Flavor” as its own slogan. “Our customers love it,” says Guillermo Beltran, Kokoriko’s marketing director.

According to the man responsible for coining the phrase “nation brand,” “it’s the responsibility of good governments to be, in effect, brand managers,” the Journal noted.

China’s nation brand manager should have been fired in 1978. Maybe he was, but the position still needs to be filled.

It shouldn’t be filled by a government obsessed with covering up scandals, or even obsessing about their baselessness.

China’s next nation brand manager needs a clear vision of what makes this country great. It’s not the government. It’s not even the people. It’s the GDP, stupid.

“China is GDP.” That’s my vote for China’s slogan. Alternatives could be “China is GDP Growth” or “China is Money” or “China is Where You Get F-ing Rich.”

    Channel: What's Spicy     |