{"id":33758,"date":"2012-01-11T01:15:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T01:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=33758"},"modified":"2012-01-11T01:15:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T01:15:55","slug":"the-rebranding-of-a-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=33758","title":{"rendered":"The rebranding of a nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">As Sierra Leone struggles to shake off the legacy of the past and promote enormous strides taken in recent years, Rwanda is enjoying a status as Africa\u2019s least corrupt and most business friendly country<em>.\u00a0 (Photo: Acanchi Chairman, Fiona Gilmore)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">With President Kagame\u2019s intention to move from an \u2018aid\u2019 to \u2018trade\u2019 based economy, his country (Rwanda) is seen as role model for progress; in good standing on issues of political and economic stability, safety, minimal corruption and openness to the private sector.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In contrast, recent headlines on Sierra Leone have highlighted political violence, timber scandals, corruption investigations and drug smuggling among other things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In the Rwanda resurgence the country\u2019s Brand Strategy was key to enable them manage the future, stimulate enterprise, strengthen unity and allow the world all that was happening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">To this, Rwanda was assisted by countries branding specialist Acanchi, and who had previously helped the Dominican Republic, Mauritius, Hong Kong and Lebanon develop their brand identities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">After in-depth research and consultation, Acanchi developed the brand \u2018<em>Enduring Spirit\u2019, <\/em>an inspirational distillation of the spirit of the people, place and history.\u00a0 \u00a0An umbrella strategy tailored for groups in Rwanda and around the world &#8211; citizens, the Diaspora, returnees, investors, tourists and public opinion formers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In March of 2010, Brand Rwanda was launched for stakeholders, the public and private spectrum. Leaders were trained as Brand Ambassadors and nationwide workshops were held.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Rwanda\u2019s resulting international perception bears testament to the success strategy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In November 2011, the Acanchi Chairman, Fiona Gilmore, visited Freetown to offer her specialist guidance. It was her belief that the time was ripe for Sierra Leone to change its image.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u201cThe potential is clear, she said, successive governments have created a fertile environment for investors, which up until now pay dividends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u201cSierra Leone is poised to become one of Africa\u2019s best investment destinations. I am excited at what I have seen and Acanchi looks forward to returning to help Sierra Leone achieve this goal,\u201d Ms. Gilmore\u00a0affirmatively assured.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u201cRwanda, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Cambodia &amp; Vietnam have all successfully upset the ghosts of their past, why not Sierra Leone?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><em><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong><\/strong><strong><em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Sierra Leone struggles to shake off the legacy of the past and promote enormous strides taken in recent years, Rwanda is enjoying a status [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,673,1],"tags":[11154,11155,11156],"class_list":["post-33758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national-news","category-uncategorized","tag-acanchi","tag-fiona-gilmore","tag-rebranding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}