This is a post the official Korea Tourism Organization had on their Facebook wall recently.
If you could pick only ONE word to describe Korea, what would it be?^^
I had read at the beginning of the year that Korea is going to be rebranding its tourism campaign and logo, after the not-so-great “Korea, Sparkling” that InterBrand came up with. Additionally, I know that the government formed a whole organization just to deal with the rebrand.
But, I think there are a few things that are inherently wrong with trying to label a whole country with a SINGLE word.
- No country, city, person, object, or even color (how many “blues” are there?) can be adequately described with a single word – especially not an all-encompassing, generic word.
- Countries are naturally combinations of thousands of elements, traditions, characteristics, and experiences. To try and describe them all with ONE word is like trying to paint the Sistine Chapel with a single color of paint.
- Adjectives, even those that sound specific (“Incredible India” anyone?), are far too generic and can be applied to any number of other countries, or positive AND negative experiences (“Incredibly terrible service at that restaurant.” or “Is Japan really as incredible as people claim?”).
- Any single word (or country) may be misunderstood by a reader. Take “Korea, Sparkling” for example. Many tourists thought it meant “sparkling soda.” Take “Korea” for another example. Many Americans immediately think of North Korea whenever that word is mentioned. The connotations of both of these aren’t beneficial to a tourism campaign.
So, I have a suggestion:
If you’re thinking about a new Tourism brand, why not use a verb, rather than an adjective?
