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[Music]
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[Music]
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thank you so much for joining us today
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thank you for having me it's a pleasure
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countries like companies have brands
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that need to be
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managed uh how is Israel's brand
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perceived today and
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why well 10 years ago when we embarked
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on this uh new uh Endeavor new
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Enterprise New Direction Israel's brand
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was solely
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defined by Israel's problems with its
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neighbors so when people think of Israel
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Israel's DNA almost universally was
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about the conflict specifically about
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the conflict with the Palestinians but
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also about the conflict with the rest of
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the Neighbors in the region and largely
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Israel was perceived as a Relentless
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producer of bad news whether you agree
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with Israel or not becomes irrelevant
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when you uh are not attracted to the
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context and what we did um about six
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years ago after we completed the first
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uh phase of research uh we uh started to
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communicate Israel's attractive
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Dimensions attractive facets to the
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World by engaging in very effective
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Niche conversations with influential
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audiences
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worldwide uh emphasizing quality over
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quantity and the results were almost
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immediate so today when you look even at
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independent um indexes such as the
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country brand index Israel made
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tremendous progress from uh uh you know
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we started way down there the very
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bottom of the list and then two years
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ago number 45 last year number 30 and
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this year number 28 highlighting uh
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primarily Israel as a Bastion of
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creativity and Innovation Israel is a
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place of
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tremendous uh resolve and resilience and
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creative spirit so the
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combination of Israeli Innovation and
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Israeli creative spirit I think is the
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new uh added Dimension to the existing
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Dimension and by the way we are more
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interested um today in
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broadening the existing conversation
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than anything it's the most important
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thing that we can do for isra and
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Israel's economic interest and Israel's
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image we'll come back a little in in a
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little bit to what you're doing today
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but let's go back to the time when you
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became the sort of the the head of
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Israel's brand management team in
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Jerusalem I believe that was in
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September
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2007 uh how did you uh Define your
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challenge and what exactly was your
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mandate um The Challenge was defined
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earlier than that I started the program
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uh back in New York after 911 I see and
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in fact the process started with the
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creation of the brand Israel Group which
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is a a group of uh marketing Specialists
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based in New York that happened in 2002
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and the first thing that we did we
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actually did two things the first was we
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added Israel to the uh brand asset
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valuator which is the world's largest
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database on Brands maintained by Young
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and rubicam out of New York and the
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second thing that we do we conducted our
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own independent research
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and with the findings of those research
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with of those studies we uh came up with
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the with the strategy the number
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one um challenge that we had is to
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change the mindset among Israelis and
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Israel's will wishers Israel's friends
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mostly in the Jewish community that the
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task at hand is not necessarily to win a
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debate which is the conventional wisdom
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that our job is to win a debate some
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imaginary debate that is always out
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there around some
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crisis and we say that to win a debate
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is an important thing but it is no less
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important to build relationships so you
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Chang a whole different approach so
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instead of trying to win a debate using
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cold clinical historical arguments what
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we're trying to do today and that's the
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challenge is to build relationships that
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are meaningful to both sides and serve
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the interests of both sides the consumer
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and the country and I think it's a
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challenge that every city or country or
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County that is interested in improving
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its overall positioning is facing today
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so that to your question as to what was
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the main challenge the Mandate the
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Mandate was uh basically to broaden the
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conversation that was the Mandate and
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the Mandate was given to me by the
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foreign minister at the time uh and I
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have to say that all foreign ministers
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that I worked with five of them since
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2001 since 911 Shimon peris Silvan
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Shalom
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uh TP Livy uh Victor liberman all all of
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them were extremely supportive of the
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concept of broadening the conversation
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bearing in mind that a broader
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conversation will communicate the full
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reality that exists in Israel and by
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definition will help Israel with its
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tourism industry will help Israel to
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attract more foreign investment will
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help Israel to expose its culture all
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over the world and obviously to improve
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its image and Garner more and more
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political
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support it's a very interesting strategy
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you know focusing on relationship
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building could you tell us a little bit
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about how you came up with the strategy
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and and how do you measure uh your
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progress along this strategy well we
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measure our progress using several
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research instruments as I mentioned
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before uh we're using a database very
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well-known database maintained by Yang
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and rubicam we're using our own
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independent research uh that is being
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conducted with funds raised by uh local
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Jewish organizations as well as the
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Israeli government most recently we
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conducted a global study by TNS which is
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a global company part of the wpp family
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uh in 14 different nations from China
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all the way to
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Mexico uh and we're looking at other
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independent resources uh that were not
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commissioned by us I mentioned the
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country brand index but there are other
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uh resources that we look at for the
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most part indexes that heavily rely on
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media
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coverage uh are very difficult for us to
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uh to use and because media coverage is
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not necessarily the criteria that we're
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looking for we're looking for something
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that will tell us more about what is it
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that people feel toward Israel it's
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about the emot tie the quality of the
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emotional tie I can tell you that at
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least uh as far as Israel is concerned
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the city of New York did a great job
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with when Israelis say I love New York
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they actually mean it Israelis have real
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relationship with the city of New York
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so we believe that every place has a DNA
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and a personality just like like just
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like a human being and Israel has won as
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well Philadelphia has won as well
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Wharton School of Business has won as
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well and it's all about about the
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quality of that
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interaction right now uh in addition to
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the strategy what do you think was some
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of the uh tactical steps that that you
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took to implement the strategy and and
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and uh what lessons have you learned
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about what works and what doesn't work
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well the one thing that we know for sure
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that doesn't work is a self-
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congratulatory
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message when you uh as an institution
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and I think that the internet and the
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rise of Facebook teach us a very
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important lesson that the media consumer
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nowadays is very suspicious of
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institutions in general and I think
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governments and and you know uh
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specifically governments and the reason
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is because the consumer is well well
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aware of the fact that we're trying to
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sell him something that's why we don't
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think the the the term Nation branding
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is a is an accurate uh depiction of what
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we're doing and we'd rather use the term
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uh Place positioning or country
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positioning uh which which is really
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what we're trying to do maximize our
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Competitive Edge communicate our
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relative advantage to relevant audiences
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and when you do that you realize that
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people that passionately care about
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something let's say wine architecture
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medicine um they set aside political
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differences and they're willing to
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listen to what you have to say there was
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a book that was published about two
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years ago called startup Nation startup
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Nation started a whole new conversation
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about Israel why because it was relevant
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to many Americans struggling with the
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economic crisis startup Nation talked
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about how for example Israel
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successfully incorporates military
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veterans into the hech sector so one of
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the ideas the Practical ideas that came
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out of that book is let's train Human
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Resources directors in America how to
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read a CV of a military veteran when in
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Israel Human Resources directors they
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see a CV of a military veteran they know
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exactly what it means they know the unit
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numbers they know the skills they know
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what to expect and there for the
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transition from military to high-tech is
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far
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smoother you know which countries do you
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think are doing a good job with country
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positioning as you called it and are
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there any lessons that Israel can learn
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from them I can tell you that in our own
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process which I started 10 years ago we
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studied no less than 80 case studies of
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cities and cities of cities and
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countries I would say that by far the
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most
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successful and I think the most well
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documented uh process is actually what
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the city of New York did from uh the
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early ' 70s more specifically
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1972 1973 under mayor Lindsay they
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continued under mayor cootch and of
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course under Giuliani with the
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association for better New York Abney
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which is active until this very day with
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the involvement of the private sector uh
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most notably the real estate sector in
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in Manhattan but what the city of New
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York did is the most most remarkable
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thing they changed the overall position
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of a city that was synonymous with crime
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and police corruption only 25 years ago
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they completely overall the image of New
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York and they did it I think um very
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effectively with great deal of of of of
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uh pressure and and economic uh uh
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difficulties another great example of an
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extremely
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successful uh Place positioning effort
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is of course what happened in Spain post
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Franco I think that uh the Franco era
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ended in 1975 their country positioning
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process started somewhere in the early
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80s with the Everything Under the Sun
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and by the
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mid90s Spain went from being the you
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know the most unattractive country in
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southern Europe to the most attractive
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country in Europe and a a a a a tourism
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magnet with 50 million tourists a year
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if not more so Spain is a great example
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another great example in Europe is
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Croatia uh and of course when you're
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talking about cities today in Asia you
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can look with admiration at what is
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being done in
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Shanghai and of course Hong Kong uh
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despite all the efforts that uh you know
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countries make to to improve their own
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Brands as it were some obstacles
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obviously uh continue in Israel's case
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what would you say are the principal
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obstacles that exist in helping the
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country burnish its brand and what can
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be done about them well obviously the
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geopolitical situation is the number one
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obstacle the good news is that um we can
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never assume that the entire world is
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interested in geopolitics you know we
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went to France and we conducted a study
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among the French Elite and we wanted to
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know where do they stand on the Israeli
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Palestinian conflict and what we
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discovered was something very
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interesting 16% of the fr Elite
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supported the Palestinians only 9%
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supported
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Israelis now traditionally what we tried
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to do was to convert people from the
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group of 16 and move them over to the
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group of nine change the inner balance
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between the two groups but branding
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people will look at it and say wait you
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have to do something else 9 and 16 put
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together give you 25 25% of the French
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Elite bother to take a stand on this
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issue now you have 75% of the people in
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the study that were given a chance to
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make to to take a position on this issue
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yet they chose not to they're not
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interested in the geopolitics of the
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Middle East what is it that you bring to
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them 75% is Israel's room to grow in
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France I would say it to my competition
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too it's probably the same number 75 80%
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is the Palestinians room to grow in
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France now what is it that you bring to
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them those 75% there's a lot that we can
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share with with them can talk to them
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about business there's a lot of money to
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be made in Israel we can talk to them
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about Innovation Israel is the number
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one producer of conceptual products in
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the world we produce more scientific P
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papers per capita than any other Nation
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we lead the world in the amount of money
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invested reinvested in research and
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development so there's a lot of stuff
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that we can talk to them about but we
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didn't do it and once you engage in such
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a conversation with those Elites you
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discover that they're very responsive
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why because it's relevant to them
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interesting that that's really
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interesting you know Dave rebstein is a
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marketing Professor here at Wharton and
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he's done a lot of work on uh Nation
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branding and also has thought deeply
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about Israel uh and and we interviewed
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him in knowledge at Wharton uh sometime
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ago on this issue and he said something
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very interesting to us he said that in
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his view Israel is a very self-confident
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nation and it has had to be for its own
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Survival uh but at the same time the
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self-confidence can sometimes get in the
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way of
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learning do you agree with that
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view well I wish we were as
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self-confident as Mr ribston uh
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describes us uh it is uh for sure um you
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know Israel has to do a better job
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communicating its assets to the world
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because to me country positioning is all
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about two things it's about the ability
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to identify your own compe comptitive
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Edge and then it's about the ability to
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communicate that Competitive Edge to
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relevant audiences and once you do that
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and we haven't done that for many many
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years we thought that our job was to
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convince the world that we are right and
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our adversaries are wrong now that's an
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important thing to do but there is new
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thing today especially in the age of
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Internet it's called The Power of
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Attraction if you're not attractive it
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is it it becomes very difficult for you
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to be competitive out there and the
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competition out there is tough It's
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vicious the competition is between
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cities now traditionally we thought of
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Jerusalem as a city in competition with
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Cairo now with all the respect
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Jerusalem's competition should not be
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Cairo and I have a lot of respect for
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Cairo Jerusalem's competition should be
00:15:44
Paris and Tel aviv's competition is not
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ramala and I have a great deal of
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respect for ramala Tel aviv's
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competition should be Barcelona and
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Israel's competition should not be Syria
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or Lebanon or Jordan Israel's
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competition should be Spain
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or
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Korea and that's that's the new mindset
00:16:04
that we need to introduce to the
00:16:06
conversation you
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know we talked often about conversation
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and conversation implies both speaking
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and listening do you think Israel needs
00:16:17
to become better at listening to World
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opinion I think we are getting better
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and most of those conversations are
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taking place today online although I can
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tell you that the foreign Ministry
00:16:28
itself self is one of many agencies in
00:16:30
the Israeli government that is hosting
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groups from all over the world on a
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regular basis not only Jewish groups we
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just had in Israel a group of very
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influential Latino leaders we had a
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group of very influential unor Union uh
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leaders a group of very influential
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Evangelical leaders and uh we're willing
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to listen to what they have to say we we
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we're engaged in a in a productive
00:16:50
conversation with them and I can tell
00:16:52
you that one of our strengths is the
00:16:54
fact that the Israeli system is so
00:16:57
open um it's so pluralistic and it's so
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eclectic um I think we're second only uh
00:17:04
to the United States in terms of our uh
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immigration policy and our willingness
00:17:08
to embrace various different uh ethnic
00:17:10
groups and engage in conversation with
00:17:12
them so when your DNA when a big part of
00:17:15
your DNA is diversity and the Embrace
00:17:18
Embrace of variety I think it's very
00:17:21
easy for you to contain uh uh criticism
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and to effectively cope with it and I
00:17:26
think that we're doing gradually better
00:17:28
uh in this Department no I think you're
00:17:30
you're absolutely right especially about
00:17:33
Israel's immigration policy I I know
00:17:35
that uh we spoke recently to Z exin the
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former uh Deputy Governor of the Bank of
00:17:41
Israel and he has done amazing research
00:17:44
on how uh Israel has done such a
00:17:47
fabulous job of integrating the Russian
00:17:49
immigrants uh who who came uh to the
00:17:52
country in fact the US I think could
00:17:54
learn from from from Israel's experience
00:17:57
in this regard uh
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uh you referred to the fact of that that
00:18:02
you did some work
00:18:04
with reaching out to different groups of
00:18:06
people specifically what has been your
00:18:09
strategy in terms of reaching out to
00:18:11
non-jewish populations in countries like
00:18:14
the US and to other non-jewish uh uh
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populations elsewhere well our research
00:18:20
showed that in the United States um
00:18:23
Israel was all about conflict mostly
00:18:26
conflict and a little bit of uh
00:18:28
Orthodoxy religious Orthodoxy and um and
00:18:32
we say you know Israel is is way more
00:18:34
than that what what can we do in order
00:18:36
to change that so the first thing that
00:18:38
we did we identified the areas and again
00:18:41
this was done through research what is
00:18:43
it that Americans are interested what
00:18:45
what is it that interest the American
00:18:47
people and it was a big surprise to us
00:18:50
that the American people contrary to the
00:18:52
common belief in Israel until that time
00:18:55
until that point the American people was
00:18:57
not so interested in what we have to say
00:19:00
about the geopolitical situation not
00:19:02
because they're against us on the
00:19:03
contrary they they support us
00:19:05
overwhelmingly so the level of political
00:19:07
support for Israel was very high but we
00:19:10
discovered much to our surprise that at
00:19:12
the same time that Americans are very
00:19:14
supportive of Israeli policies they're
00:19:15
not very attracted to Israel's
00:19:19
personality so we said Okay the reason
00:19:22
is because they don't know who we are
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all they know about us is that we're
00:19:25
engaged in this bloody dispute with our
00:19:27
neighbors they have no idea what else we
00:19:29
can bring to the table so let's expose
00:19:32
that to them while managing the crisis
00:19:34
by the way we never suggested to ignore
00:19:36
the need to manage The Crisis crisis
00:19:38
management is a big part of what we do
00:19:40
the only thing we said is it can never
00:19:42
be the only thing we do and for 60 years
00:19:45
it was the only thing we did so we
00:19:48
started to identify the areas in which
00:19:51
we possess a clear relative advantage
00:19:53
that is relevant to the American people
00:19:55
so for example the environment a huge
00:19:58
ation is taking place online about the
00:20:00
environment Israel has three areas under
00:20:03
the environment that are clear relative
00:20:05
advantages one is Desert agriculture
00:20:07
Israel is a world leader in that field
00:20:09
the other is water desalination which I
00:20:11
know you deal with here and the third is
00:20:13
of course renewable energy emphasizing
00:20:15
solar energy then on after the
00:20:18
environment we identified lifestyle and
00:20:20
Leisure is a Israel is a Powerhouse when
00:20:22
it comes to architecture product design
00:20:25
fashion design the emerging Israeli
00:20:27
Cuisine even here in Philadelphia you
00:20:29
have one of the greatest Israeli
00:20:30
restaurants in North America uh emerging
00:20:33
Israeli uh wine industry and so on and
00:20:35
so forth the third area that we
00:20:38
identified you mentioned ethnicity
00:20:40
before is the people and the Heritage uh
00:20:43
Israel is a place that brings together
00:20:45
many ethnic groups many languages many
00:20:47
religions many beliefs and so on the
00:20:48
fourth area was of course culture and
00:20:50
the Arts Israel is a Powerhouse when it
00:20:53
comes to uh literature and modern dance
00:20:56
and there's a new emerging film industry
00:20:58
we're having for a fourth year in a row
00:21:00
an Israeli film uh a finalist for the
00:21:03
Academy Award for the best uh foreign
00:21:06
picture um and we have uh great music
00:21:09
and we have uh uh great Visual Arts and
00:21:11
so on and so forth we have uh of course
00:21:15
uh uh the area that we call uh
00:21:18
International aid program in Hebrew tun
00:21:21
the efforts that Israel is making to fix
00:21:25
problems all over the world to heal
00:21:27
disease we have hundreds of Israeli
00:21:30
experts traveling all over the world
00:21:32
trying to help we heal disease yesterday
00:21:35
I spoke at this event for an
00:21:36
organization called save a child's heart
00:21:38
it's an Israeli organization that saved
00:21:40
over 2500 children most of them are not
00:21:43
Jewish from all over the world that
00:21:45
suffer from chronic heart disease you
00:21:47
bring them to Israel for medical
00:21:48
treatment and you send them back home
00:21:50
after they recover and we have so many
00:21:53
things of that nature uh to celebrate so
00:21:56
we identified five six pillars
00:21:59
under the banner of a celebration of the
00:22:03
unique Israeli creative Spirit one of
00:22:05
innovation and and perseverance and
00:22:07
resilience and we started to promote
00:22:12
them you know creating those Niche
00:22:14
markets and those n conversations and
00:22:16
it's been extremely effective for us one
00:22:20
perfect example is our relationship with
00:22:23
the uh uh lgbtq Community even here in
00:22:27
Philadelphia we have uh this coming May
00:22:29
a big uh LGBT Summit uh from May 3rd to
00:22:33
May 5th co-sponsored by the um Israeli
00:22:37
consulate here in Philadelphia and it's
00:22:39
going to be a big celebration of
00:22:41
Israel's openness in this
00:22:44
area all this is very interesting as as
00:22:46
you change your strategy uh and your
00:22:49
approach to broaden the conversation
00:22:51
Beyond just
00:22:53
conflict uh how is your how is the
00:22:57
changing uh perception of Israel
00:22:59
affecting The Branding of Israeli
00:23:02
companies sadly most Israeli companies
00:23:05
for many many years shied away from the
00:23:09
uh from the super brand so if you look
00:23:12
at the most successful Israeli companies
00:23:14
they have international names with the
00:23:16
exception of tea that has a Hebrew name
00:23:19
most of them shied away from it so you
00:23:21
look checkpoint amdoc Converse these are
00:23:24
all Israeli companies but you you you
00:23:25
will never know the advantage that we
00:23:29
have is that on the municipal level in
00:23:32
Israel see when we started the process
00:23:35
10 years ago when I first came up with
00:23:37
the idea of let's look at Israel the
00:23:39
same way you look at the
00:23:40
product um the number one sub brand of
00:23:44
Israel was the Israel Defense Forces
00:23:48
IDF I would say the second most
00:23:50
recognized brand name was the mad and
00:23:53
the third most recognized brand name was
00:23:55
Uzi a submachine gun so everything
00:23:58
everything all the beacon sub Brands
00:24:01
under the super brand were all related
00:24:05
somehow through the conflict they all
00:24:07
supported the DNA of the brand Today
00:24:12
part of the change part of that new not
00:24:15
new but part of this reinvigorated
00:24:17
narrative that is being celebrated by
00:24:19
Israelis and people that go to Israel
00:24:21
one of creativity and Innovation is the
00:24:24
fact that the new emerging sub brand uh
00:24:28
most of the come from the municipal
00:24:29
level most notably the city of Tel Aviv
00:24:32
that is emerging as the beacon sub brand
00:24:34
today of Israel together with the city
00:24:36
of Jerusalem that is doing a great great
00:24:38
job and other places like hia the city
00:24:41
of hon which happens to be my hometown
00:24:43
that really changed its image in the
00:24:44
last 15 years and emerged as a as a as a
00:24:49
very powerful sub brand so the brands
00:24:52
that redefine Israel today all come from
00:24:55
the municipal level right uh and and the
00:24:58
efforts that you have made over the past
00:25:00
decade to to burnish Israel's brand are
00:25:04
there any things that you would have
00:25:05
liked to try but you haven't been able
00:25:07
to try yet things that I would of course
00:25:10
yeah I would have loved to bring the
00:25:12
Olympic Games to
00:25:13
Israel I don't think it will happen soon
00:25:17
but we have to work on it well someone
00:25:19
has to the some preliminary work was
00:25:21
done about that but I think uh um more
00:25:25
more realistically uh what we need to to
00:25:28
do is to bring to Israel some major
00:25:30
conferences uh you have to put Israel on
00:25:32
the map in the area of
00:25:35
wellness and uh and um business tourism
00:25:41
we're not getting enough uh business
00:25:43
people to come and and and uh work in
00:25:46
Israel and have fun at the same time uh
00:25:49
so this is an area that we have to
00:25:51
improve and of course the most important
00:25:52
thing that I think we need to do as a
00:25:54
nation is to restore the kibuts as a
00:25:58
point of Attraction not the old kibuts
00:26:01
which is an old Collective communal
00:26:03
agricultural farming Community but the
00:26:05
new kibuts which is um a uh a center of
00:26:10
wellness and I think that the new kibuts
00:26:12
the kibuts of the future uh can be a
00:26:15
great addition to the Israeli tourism
00:26:17
industry which is thriving these days uh
00:26:20
we just had a record year 2011 and
00:26:23
hopefully 2012 will even break that
00:26:25
record great well ID thank you so much
00:26:29
for joining us today thank you for
00:26:30
having me it's been a pleasure
00:26:35
[Music]
