PERCEPTION AND REALITY

PERCEPTION AND REALITY
By: Andleeb Abbas

Published in DAWN: 09-04-08

Being branded as the most dangerous place in the world is a perception which may be exaggerated and untrue, however, it is a result of a complete lack of image building strategy both at the national and media level. 9/11 has bought more attention to Pakistan than any other country; unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Internally the people of Pakistan perceive it as a country which has been sold to the Americans for 10 million dollars of military aid, a country struggling for its identity and security; externally it is perceived as a country which is a hotbed of terrorism and turmoil with very little of interest to offer to those looking for attractive areas of investment or enriching cultural exploration. As they say, there is some fire behind the smoke, and, that holds true about Pakistan as well. However to call it the most dangerous place in the world is definitely an exaggeration given force by a completely indifferent and irresponsible attitude of our various ministries and media responsible for presenting a more balanced picture of the country.


Let us look at the missing links in our image building strategy to make out what has caused this lopsided image:
Unbalanced Media Reporting- Bomb blasts are headline material, so are racial killings and other crimes and scandals. However the way they are handled by our media, or, let us say mishandled by our people incharge of giving official clarifications of what happened, adds fuel to fire instead of playing down the fears of all those involved. The electronic media industry is nascent and has just gone into a period of mushroom growth where every day a new channel is born. This frenzy of media competition has created a war for viewer attention. Most of these channels lack a planned entry where they should occupy a specific niche which gives them a respectable target audience to earn a return over their investment. However due to a lack of specific positioning, it is more of a “me too” strategy. The emphasis is not on creative programming, but “breaking news” or “we are the first there” or “always on the spot” slogans which mean nothing except that any sensational happening, and unfortunately in Pakistan’s case it is suicide bombing, every channel tries to give a more elaborate and more scary picture of the event in an attempt to hold on to the audience attention. In doing so they give plenty of food for the already wary foreign channels to use their clips to give the impression that it’s a place full of landmines blowing off uncomfortably regularly.
This would not be so overwhelming if the media balanced it by showing the positive side of the country by emphasizing the booming business climate experienced by many multinationals. The Cokes and Pepsis have experienced a much more receptive and lucrative market in Pakistan than they have in the much more complicated environment of India and China. Very little of these facts have been highlighted in any media strategy. Similarly the reporting and coverage of criminal incidents happening in other countries like India and US are hardly given the treatment we receive by their media, despite the fact that they do happen much more frequently than portrayed by both our own and foreign media. America has experienced four cases of random shooting in universities since January, which are similar to suicide bombing as the victim has first of all shot randomly in lecture halls and then killed himself. In four months 4 incidences in any other country would severely affect the image of the country, but for US, it is just a matter of news for a day or so and then back to Dow Jones and Britney Spears. India has had human rights atrocities as a matter of routine. Gujrat Muslim cleansing is not a unique incident, however the lack of media exploitation both in Pakistan and overseas, gives the perception of such incidents being just once in a lifetime events. Recently in Orissa in another bizarre Hindu fundamentalism exhibition, on the day of Christmas, 55 Christian churches and 600 houses were torched and burned causing immense damage and scare to the Christian population. Even a single church facing the same problem in Pakistan would have been splashed all across local and foreign media. But, surprisingly, such large scale attempts at Christian cleansing by the fundamentalists in India went almost unnoticed by all media.

Positioning Pakistan Positively-Most of the countries have a specific positioning strategy including those experiencing similar turmoil like SriLanka, Nepal etc. These countries are constantly advertising and developing publicity plans to highlight their positive attractions. They position themselves on their unique features and form slogans which are constantly played with attractive visuals on global channels like BBC and CNN. They also advertise them in print media and foreign magazines of repute like Fortune, Time, Newsweek etc. Malaysia’s “Truly Asia” theme has done wonders to their image despite having political and religious turmoil. India is “Incredible India”, Singapore is “uniquely Singapore”. Even small countries like Maldives and many Indian cities like “Go Goa” have separately marketed themselves on their beaches and have now become huge foreign attractions. Countries like Egypt, Indonesia which have had terrorism originating in them, have done clever advertising to neutralize the damage by showing their tourist attractions. Unfortunately Pakistan has no such strategy. From time to time you did see some feeble attempts by the government to advertise a few Pakistani exportable products, but they were so boring that nobody would like to see or remember them. It is thus imperative that Pakistan’s unique selling points be highlighted by developing a comprehensive media campaign. Pakistan has breathtaking natural beauty in the north and plenty of culture and tradition in all four provinces. However these need to be highlighted, not in the form of a bland long documentary, but a short, spicy, catchy advertisement with a memorable slogan at the end like “Pakistan-Naturally beautiful” with flashes of the most awesome mountain ranges being alluringly portrayed.
Countries, like products, are also like brands- people buy them on the image they represent. Pakistan has been branded as a destination to be avoided both in terms of business, sports or tourism. However history shows that countries like Nepal, Kenya or Bulgaria after almost being written off by many experts have strongly rebranded themselves as places with much to offer.
One of the top priorities of the new economic managers of this country should be develop a professional long term image building strategy to position Pakistan as a country full of natural beauty, exotic culture diversity and lucrative business activity-only by constantly highlighting these images will the country be able to bridge this huge chasm between perception and reality.