Three Questions with Israel's Consul General and CMO Strategy Summit Speaker Ido Aharoni
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Published: August 20, 2013
Israel has more than 100 embassies and diplomatic missionaries
worldwide, and Ido Aharoni is head of its largest one. As consul general
of Israel in New York since 2010, Mr. Aharoni's job is to cultivate
ties on a grassroots level and open America's eyes to Israel's culture
and industries. He oversees seven departments in the consulate, which
was the first office in the world to hold a press conference on Twitter.
Mr.
Aharoni launched "Brand Israel" in 2005 when he was serving as consul
for media and public affairs at the IsraelConsulate in New York. The
campaign is meant to "rebrand" Israel, emphasizing its relevance and
modernity. Mr. Aharoni, who joined the Israel foreign service in 1991,
calls his specialty "country positioning." In short, he's worked to
define what makes Israel attractive for tourism, foreign investment and
export, and then used those advantages to promote his country to
relevant audiences.
At Ad Age's CMO Strategy Summit in
San Francisco on Oct. 16, Mr. Aharoni will share how he's worked to
define Israel's brand and discuss how he deals with the obstacles Israel
faces, given its difficult geopolitical situation.
Ad Age: What do you hope to achieve as consul general?
Mr. Aharoni: On a philosophical
level, the goal of a consul general is to impart his country's message
in a reliable and authentic manner and to be able to cultivate
relationships and ties with people of influence. This is the mission
statement of a consulate: to build bridges, build relationships. It's a
new approach. In the past, not so long ago, 20 years ago, the
conventional wisdom was, all over the world, that the purpose of
diplomacy was to advocate; in other words, to debate. It came from a
long European tradition of debating. And the tradition of debate made
its way to the core practice of diplomacy, but that's changing.
Diplomacy is changing in front of our eyes. And the role of a diplomat
nowadays is not to win debates, but rather to build relationships.
Practically,
we have no fewer than seven different departments. Each is covering a
different aspect of the community. Public affairs produces events,
exhibits, ceremonies and conferences. Their job is to come up with
strategies to promote certain sectors in Israeli economy and to oversee
our entire social networking apparatus. We're very active on Facebook
and Twitter. We were, in fact, the first office in the world to hold a
press conference on Twitter.
We
introduced the concept of micro-marketing to governments as early as
2004. We were the first government to take bloggers seriously, to bring
them in groups to Israel as early as 2004. …And today, we look at the
blogosphere, and it's extremely friendly for Israel. The work that we do
is groundbreaking for governments. People from private companies,
perhaps, do things that are more brazen or innovative, but for
governments to do those kinds of things is rather unusual.
Ad Age: How do you deal with the misconceptions surrounding Israel?
Mr. Aharoni: There
is, at the end of the day, a reality which one cannot and should not
ignore. We are in the midst of original conflict. Today the conflict, by
the way, doesn't have a lot to do with us. But the most effective way
to deal with the unhappy situation is by simply not ignoring it -- and
not only not ignoring it but embracing it. So, strategically, you want
to come up with a strategy that is reliable and authentic and that is
able to correspond well with the geopolitics of your region.
So,
in our case, the strategy that we chose was to celebrate Israel as a
bastion of creativity, inspiration and innovation. It corresponds well
with the need to defend yourself, because necessity is the mother of all
invention. So, in our case, you ask me how do you cope with the
situation that Israel is still producing a lot of bad news? You simply
keep on emphasizing and highlighting your competitive edge, because that
includes the geopolitical situation in it.
Ad Age: How is country positioning helping Israel make a name for itself?
Mr. Aharoni: Country
positioning is mistakenly referred to sometimes as "nation branding."
Country positioning is what you do in order to improve the positioning
of your place, of your country, as opposed to your competition. It
requires two things. It requires a definition or an exploration of your
own relative advantage. What makes you unique or better than your
competitor? So, if you're Brazil, what's your competitive edge as a
country?
Once
you've figured it out, then the actual, practical ramifications are to
devise a plan to effectively communicate that very competitive edge,
that very relative advantage, to relevant audiences. Technology today is
allowing us as governments to engage in niche conversations. In each
conversation, you actually make a little contribution to the improvement
of your overall positioning. So, for example, Israel engaged in a very
productive conversation with the gay and lesbian community in Europe and
the United States. You see the results are immediate. You see that in
the number of gay tourists that are coming to Israel -- it went up
immediately.
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