NATO Hires a Coke Executive to Retool Its Brand
ToN | 16.07.2008 16:17
NATO Hires a Coke Executive to Retool Its Brand
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/world/europe/16nato.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
By STEPHEN CASTLEPublished: July 16, 2008BRUSSELS — During the cold war, when Western and Warsaw Pact tanks massed on either side of the Iron Curtain, the idea of a brand for NATO would have been ludicrous because everyone knew why it was important.
Not anymore.
Less than a year before its 60th anniversary, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is determined to revamp its image, establishing a media operations center for Afghanistan and hiring an executive from Coca-Cola to manage the way the alliance is seen around the world.
Nineteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, confronted by evidence of ignorance or indifference among many in its 26 member nations, NATO is rethinking how it communicates with the taxpayers who pay for it.
Unlike the European Union, which also has its headquarters in Brussels, NATO does not conduct regular opinion surveys, but an internal document on the alliance’s image cites some telling data from German Marshall Fund surveys. While the number of those who believe NATO remains essential for security increased in the United States by 4 percent from 2002 to 2007, it declined by 19 percent in Germany, 12 percent in Britain, 13 percent in Italy and 8 percent in Poland.
Another internal document notes that large parts of the population of NATO countries have only vague ideas about the alliance, its purpose and policies.
In response, NATO has created an Internet-based service called NATO TV and the media center for Afghanistan.
More radical changes are planned, said Jean-François Bureau, a former chief spokesman for the French Defense Ministry who became NATO’s assistant secretary general for public diplomacy last year.
“We have the green light to think about branding policy for NATO,” he said.
The executive from the Coca-Cola Company, Michael Stopford, has spent two years guarding Coca-Cola’s image and will join NATO as deputy assistant secretary general for strategic communication services in August. Mr. Stopford, a British-born American, is a specialist in managing reputations. Before working at Coca-Cola, he also held jobs at the United Nations and the British Foreign Office.
Mr. Stopford declined to comment because he had not yet taken up his new position. But his top priority is likely to be helping the organization explain how it has an impact on daily life, and why trans-Atlantic security should not be taken for granted.
At NATO headquarters, this work is seen as vital to the alliance’s future.
“We are acting on the basis of public support,” Mr. Bureau said. “It was true for the Balkans, and it’s more important for fighting terrorism. If people don’t feel that there is a link between what the soldiers are doing and their own security, then legitimacy is at stake.”
The 1999 Kosovo conflict was a serious test for NATO and divided people across Europe. The bombing campaign itself was widely debated, with Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent in London, describing the huge, four-pronged metal logo outside the alliance headquarters as the Death Star, a reference to the Empire’s evil forces in “Star Wars.”
Increasing support for NATO will not be an easy task, according to Nick Witney, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Defense is no longer a business of manning the ramparts or preparing to resist invasion,” he said. “It has to be about an attempt to project stability. It is a hard doctrine to get people to believe in.”
The idea behind NATO TV, to be temporarily financed by Denmark, is to bypass the conventional news media, which the alliance’s chief spokesman, James Appathurai, says is too focused on the negative.
“We are using the Web like everyone else uses the Web: to get around the filter of the news editors,” he said. “Not to show propaganda, because it is true, but to show the other side of the story, which is not getting through the filter.”
Mr. Witney believes that remaking NATO’s image may be easier said than done.
“Brands do go to the basic purpose: what is the point of this organization?” he said. “NATO lost its primary rationale on the day the Warsaw Pact closed up business. It has been casting around for a different identity and role so it remains relevant. The jury seems to be out on whether it has succeeded.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/world/europe/16nato.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all By STEPHEN CASTLEPublished: July 16, 2008BRUSSELS — During the cold war, when Western and Warsaw Pact tanks massed on either side of the Iron Curtain, the idea of a brand for NATO would have been ludicrous because everyone knew why it was important.
Not anymore.
Less than a year before its 60th anniversary, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is determined to revamp its image, establishing a media operations center for Afghanistan and hiring an executive from Coca-Cola to manage the way the alliance is seen around the world.
Nineteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, confronted by evidence of ignorance or indifference among many in its 26 member nations, NATO is rethinking how it communicates with the taxpayers who pay for it.
Unlike the European Union, which also has its headquarters in Brussels, NATO does not conduct regular opinion surveys, but an internal document on the alliance’s image cites some telling data from German Marshall Fund surveys. While the number of those who believe NATO remains essential for security increased in the United States by 4 percent from 2002 to 2007, it declined by 19 percent in Germany, 12 percent in Britain, 13 percent in Italy and 8 percent in Poland.
Another internal document notes that large parts of the population of NATO countries have only vague ideas about the alliance, its purpose and policies.
In response, NATO has created an Internet-based service called NATO TV and the media center for Afghanistan.
More radical changes are planned, said Jean-François Bureau, a former chief spokesman for the French Defense Ministry who became NATO’s assistant secretary general for public diplomacy last year.
“We have the green light to think about branding policy for NATO,” he said.
The executive from the Coca-Cola Company, Michael Stopford, has spent two years guarding Coca-Cola’s image and will join NATO as deputy assistant secretary general for strategic communication services in August. Mr. Stopford, a British-born American, is a specialist in managing reputations. Before working at Coca-Cola, he also held jobs at the United Nations and the British Foreign Office.
Mr. Stopford declined to comment because he had not yet taken up his new position. But his top priority is likely to be helping the organization explain how it has an impact on daily life, and why trans-Atlantic security should not be taken for granted.
At NATO headquarters, this work is seen as vital to the alliance’s future.
“We are acting on the basis of public support,” Mr. Bureau said. “It was true for the Balkans, and it’s more important for fighting terrorism. If people don’t feel that there is a link between what the soldiers are doing and their own security, then legitimacy is at stake.”
The 1999 Kosovo conflict was a serious test for NATO and divided people across Europe. The bombing campaign itself was widely debated, with Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent in London, describing the huge, four-pronged metal logo outside the alliance headquarters as the Death Star, a reference to the Empire’s evil forces in “Star Wars.”
Increasing support for NATO will not be an easy task, according to Nick Witney, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Defense is no longer a business of manning the ramparts or preparing to resist invasion,” he said. “It has to be about an attempt to project stability. It is a hard doctrine to get people to believe in.”
The idea behind NATO TV, to be temporarily financed by Denmark, is to bypass the conventional news media, which the alliance’s chief spokesman, James Appathurai, says is too focused on the negative.
“We are using the Web like everyone else uses the Web: to get around the filter of the news editors,” he said. “Not to show propaganda, because it is true, but to show the other side of the story, which is not getting through the filter.”
Mr. Witney believes that remaking NATO’s image may be easier said than done.
“Brands do go to the basic purpose: what is the point of this organization?” he said. “NATO lost its primary rationale on the day the Warsaw Pact closed up business. It has been casting around for a different identity and role so it remains relevant. The jury seems to be out on whether it has succeeded.”
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