Nation Branding Mauritius

[friederike]

It's already 2 years ago that I've been to Mauritius, but somehow I don't get rid of the island =)

Now I gonna have a presentation in my study program about the antion branding process of Mauritius. I read that one year ago, the new slogan as well as the new logo for Mauritius got introduced: "Mauritius: C'est un plaisir"
«Mauritius: C’est un plaisir», la nouvelle image de marque de Maurice

Now, I am interested to know what the population of Mauritius itself think about this campaign:
* Did newspaper/TV talk about this campaign even before it got officially presented or did you see it for the first time when the logo was published in the newspaper?
* Do they promotoe this new "image" of Mauritius even on the island itself or is it more used to attract tourists outside Mauritius?
* What do you think about the logo and slogan? Do you think, it represents Mauritius?

And I would also be interested in the opinion of the tourists:
* Did you ever see this logo before coming to Mauritius?
* Do you think it suits Mauritius?

So, in general, I am simply interested if and how people think about this image campaign (positively and negatively)

I'm looking forward to your replies!!

[Dietmar]

Hi Friederike,

indeed in Mauritius we did get some wind of this branding. On billboards especially across the island - if i remember correctly.

* Did newspaper/TV talk about this campaign even before it got officially presented or did you see it for the first time when the logo was published in the newspaper?

Yes. They found it particularly disturbing that the government choose a foreign agency to do this and especially the amount of money invested for the logo.
As it says here in the article : "Cette campagne de renouvellement d’image de marque été confié à la firme britannique Acanchi au coût de Rs 31m. Acanchi est une des grosses pointures dans le domaine du branding. Cette firme a aussi contribué au branding de Singapour." 31m is about EUR 775 000.
It is not exactly known what this branding package entitles and some media data would be interesting to see where the branding was displayed.

* Do they promotoe this new "image" of Mauritius even on the island itself or is it more used to attract tourists outside Mauritius?

Both.

* What do you think about the logo and slogan? Do you think, it represents Mauritius?

Mauritius: Cest un plaisir, would mean in english that its a pleasure to come and spend your holiday over here.

When a guest comes to Mauritius and visits a prestigious hotel or stays at a locals accommodation, in general their hosts or those hotels will show utmost hospitality to make your stay, well, a pleasure!

We could say, yes in a way it represents a fragment of Mauritius. But in my opinion as you asked to "think" i would say - its just marketing, presenting a product and telling to people, here buy it - its great, its unique, its Mauritius!

I am interested to know what the population of Mauritius itself think about this campaign

I will try to answer this a bit in a general way to what I have observed in the medias and people that I have met.
1. Without any deep thoughts of what branding is, first reaction of most persons will be: What a waste of tax payers money!
2. Why did Mauritius have to pay a foreign agency and not have the logo made here ?
3. When something goes wrong on the island, lets say you see a bus with heavy smoke pollution pass by, maybe even in front of such a billdboard, people will say: Mauritius: C'est un plaisir and have a good laugh - irony

That would describe in my opinion in average the interpretation of this branding. Ofcourse opinions and views will vary.

On the other hand, for the tourism industry of Mauritius, we definitely need BRANDING!

And as it says in the linked article :"Les différents partenaires du secteur touristique comptent, pour leur part, profiter du concept «Mauritius: C’est un Plaisir» pour attirer plus de touristes."

The tourism industry hoped or expected to have an increase in bookings by this campaign. By the way, what happened to the campaign now ? is it still active ?...

And I would also be interested in the opinion of the tourists:
* Did you ever see this logo before coming to Mauritius?
* Do you think it suits Mauritius?

I probably think most tourists will "not" have noticed it. But if you have some media data then we could say - ok such amount of poeple might have seen it.

[friederike]

Thanks for your reply! In the meanwhile, I searched a bit on the web and realized that there are a lot of negative voices about this campaign.

The thing that strikes me most is the concentration on the tourism-aspect. Before coming to Mauritius, it was for me primarily a destination for tourists, but then I discovered that firstly this isn't true and secondly how much effort Mauritius is putting into building up new economical branches, especially in information & communication technology.
I thought it was amazing how much work they put into attracting foreign investors in this field and at the same time tried to build up a solid base for education in this field to make mauritian people become qualified employees for this new kind of business.

And as I now saw the branding campaign, I was disappointed that once again the brand that is supposed to be for a whole nation is reduced on this touristic logo ..

PS: I really had to google a lot to figure out where this mountain is that the "M" is supposed to symbolise!