n a world where climate change, economic dis-

become the norm, companies and nations alike need to re-evaluate how to drive growth and stay relevant for its stakeholders. They must address and focus on what they are especially good at and main-tain a proactive strategy for how that brings value to their individual markets.

In this essay I will investigate a recent brand-driven innovation initiative, which includes two aspects: the internal and external brand, in which I have been involved in the latter. This part of the brand is developed by the Icelandic nation and the Lon-don based advertising agency The Brooklyn Broth-ers. The campaign is called Inspired by Iceland and comprises a rebranding case for the entire Icelan-dic nation aimed to change and improve its culpa-

eruptions.1 Here, I want to examine what means are used to implement such a comprehensive task, what has led to its success and how many trends of this

as well.

A visionary platformAccording to Erik Roscam Abbing (2010), brand-driven innovation is the process that links the vi-sion of a given organisation to its users and custom-ers, at best, promoting sustainable and meaningful growth. A brand is not just a representation of the outside image of an organization, but is a platform that inspires and leads a process of change that cre-ates sustainable value by connecting the internal organisation to the outside world and its marketing

thus starts by being a process and ends by guiding the content.

Internal brandAfter being exposed to the mistake of relying na-tional economy on precarious international invest-

A Corporate Nation

1 A Corporate Nation HOW ICELAND HAS CHANGED ITS BRAND FROM WITHIN

ments, Iceland has in many ways gone back to ba-sics to start afresh. Acknowledging wrong doings

-en to become more reliable, responsible and trust-worthy. The effort needed to be collective, internal and democratic before it could become external and marketed. They have focused on what they are al-ready good at (renewable and natural resources and specialized companies), and then pushed that in new directions (EconomyWatch Content Team, 2010). In other words, Iceland has given itself a second

Recently BP has tried, like Iceland, to re-position itself in the global marketplace. However, what they did wrong was to focus on the external facets before trying to change from within. BP might try to tell the world that they are good-doers now, but if

faster than they can prepare for. Iceland, on the contrary, has emphasized change from within, starting with letting its portfolio of banks default in 2008. The collapse in the Icelandic currency ‘krona’ inevitably led to soaring prices on imported goods and services and left the country in necessity

They acknowledged early on that they were all in it together. In many ways, Iceland’s economic down-turn can thus be compared to BP’s oil disaster in the Mexican Gulf. Internal processes allowed failure

by Philip Linnemann

The brand connects

THE

INTERNAL

ORGANISATION

THE

OUTSIDE

WORLD

THE

MARKETING

FUNCTION

THEBRAND

THE

INNOVATION

FUNCTION

1

1 I presuppose that the receiver is familiar with both events.

and when competitors and former partners smelled the blood, both Iceland and BP weren’t prepared for the media and market genocide that waited them (The Economist, 2012).

External brandDespite a quick reaction, it was clear that an ingen-

enough to save Iceland’s reputation from being blamed responsible for world air travel turmoil af-ter the eruption of the volcano in 2010. The gov-ernment had to actively and rapidly do something to prevent another economic degradation and boost tourist numbers. The initial idea that The Brooklyn Broth-ers came up with was simple. To motivate, at one

time, the whole nation and beyond to show and tell the world how people can be ‘Inspired by Iceland’. Rather than targeting the tourists directly, the peo-ple of Iceland were engaged to share their own in-spiring stories. This not only disrupted the approach from being the voice of the government into being personal, intimate and intriguing, but also enhanced

with a mutual goal of telling the world what they really are. Conceptually, the Inspired by Iceland campaign is thus built on much the same principles as the business model developed by the Icelandic

AchievementsFrom the beginning, Iceland has worked their way from internal management to external marketing, rather than the other way around. As a result they have managed to maintain focus on their core val-ues and the message they wish to communicate, and inspire people to co-create and collaborate. This change highlights the importance of nations as a dependable brand in a globalized world economy, as it underlines the interconnectedness and mutual reliance of modern nations. But it also underlines the importance of organisational change and not

-parison to BP earlier in this essay. Iceland’s unfor-

to re-brand and re-design its political agenda and

2

3

A Corporate Nation HOW ICELAND HAS CHANGED ITS BRAND FROM WITHIN

LIST OF IMAGES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

3

economic growth model by supporting a thor-ough global re-positioning, generating a more sustainable model of growth and value creation for the small nation in the North. Highlighting

towards change, Iceland was act-ing very much like a company with an organi-sational culture in need of a transformation and acting ac-cordingly. This

newly shared responsibility has seen a great in-crease in engagement and as a result, Iceland’s economy stopped contracting by late 2010 and is now expecting a budget surplus by 2013 (OECD, 2011). There is one good reason for this. The brand “Iceland” has been developed as a visionary platform that motivates a con-tinual dedication to the development of inter-nal resource exploitation (cf. process2) while directing its external marketing model to being more reliable, inspiring and entrepreneurial (cf. content).

Hired by The Brooklyn Brothers, my role in this project began back in April, when I joined them on a 5-day trip to Iceland to in-vestigate and document the creative mental-ity shared among Icelandic designers, artists and architects. What I met, and not only in the creative community, was an outmost entrepre-neurial population eager to do what it takes to lift their economy and reputation. As product designer Hafsteinn Juliusson tells me in an in-terview: “After the crisis we believe. We say: “Ok, these are the values that we should invest in”” (Juliusson to Linnemann, 2012). At this point I realized that I’ve been a witness to innovation in its most valuable form – transformational innovation.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Roscam Abbing, E. (2010) The brand connects. Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA.

OECD (2011), OECD Economic Surveys. OECD Economic Outlook. [online data]. Available at: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932445467> [Accessed 27 April 2012]

Linnemann, P. Rolling Studio (2012), Photograph, Langitangi: Inspired By Iceland.

BBC News (2011) [Internet]. Available from: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/

The Economist (2012) What’s in a name? [Internet]. Available from: <http://www.economist.com/node/21553033> [Accessed 26 April 2012].

EconomyWatch Content Team (2010) Iceland Trade, Exports & Imports [Internet]. Available from: <http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/iceland/export-import.html> [Accessed 27 April 2012].

Juliusson, H. (2012) Iceland after the crisis Q&A. Reykjavik, 10th April 2012. [Hafsteinn Juliusson is the Founder and Design Director of HAF by Hafsteinn Juliusson Ltd].

Hancock, K. (2012) Inspired By Iceland Q&A. London, 24th April 2012. [Katie Hancock is the Account Manager on the Inspired By Iceland campaign from The Brooklyn Brothers London].

OECD (2011), OECD Economic Surveys. Iceland 2011, OECD Publishing. [Internet]. Available at: < http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eco_surveys-isl-2011-en> [Accessed 27 April 2012]

Roscam Abbing, E. (2010) Brand-driven Innovation: strategies for development and design. Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA.

2 As explained in section 2, A visionary platform.

A Corporate Nation HOW ICELAND HAS CHANGED ITS BRAND FROM WITHIN

Philip: How do you think the design scene in Ice-

Hafsteinn: First of all, it has been growing, so you have got a lot of new designers. It has become big-ger and people are more open to get their stuff out on the market and people are more eager to produce stuff as well.

Philip: So has it been affecting the way that you as designers collaborate?

Hafsteinn: Yes, but mainly I think it’s not only from the designers within, but also from society. Society accepts more things produced in Iceland or things produced with this kind of design mental-ity, and I think that is the main thing. People are willing to spend let’s say 10 dollars more on this plate, because it’s designed with some kind of mes-sage or meaning, so they choose that instead of the cheaper plate that they can get in IKEA. There is more demand from society on this new approach on products. I think that has been the main change, and of course that leads to more designers willing to work and develop their own stuff, because they are speaking to the market somehow.

Philip: Previously [prior to the interview] you talked about your project “Superfarm” that focused more on the materials and the origins of the prod-

Iceland after the crises

Q&A

Apendix 1 A CORPORATE NATION

ucts rather than the products themselves. Is that a common ideology for Iceland?

Hafsteinn: Yes, but that as well I think are feelings

-ing about how we can, how do you say, motivate ourselves as a society. And work more with what we have instead of importing everything. So I think, yeah, it has been changing a lot and the design of

ways for our resources, energy and materials to be used.

Philip: Do you feel more united as a nation now after the crisis?

Hafsteinn: Yeah, what I think has been good about the crisis is that people are actually thinking about what is real and what is our identity.

Philip: So what would you say that is? What are your core values?

Hafsteinn: Well I would say the energy and the cre-ativity of the people. Then you have of course the nature and the ingredients and this kind of openness to everything. People are really willing and open to do new stuff and that’s one of the reasons why I love to be a designer here. If you go to any kind of work-shop people are always willing to help you and do everything for you. After the crisis we believe. We say: “Ok, these are the values that we should invest in.” As I was describing earlier [prior to the inter-view], the most promising Icelandic companies are working with creatives. You have the CCP online game, and then you have another company, which is called Ossur that is working with prosthetics and

going on. The Icelandic innovation and know-how is here and that’s what people wanna work in and people know that this is what we should invest in. This is the core or the treasure of Iceland.

INTERVIEW INFORMATION

Interviewee

Interviewer

Conducted

Location

Contact

Hafsteinn Juliusson (HAF)

Philip Linnemann

Tuesday the 10th of April 2012 at 2.00pm (duration: 9 minutes). Café Haiti, Geirsgata 7b / Fisherman’s Wharf No. 2, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.

Hafsteinn Juliusson / h@hafsteinnjuliusson.com / http://www. hafsteinnjuliusson.com