The Leading Brands of Spain Forum presented its Ambassador Brand and Spain’s Image Plan today at the Santander Financial City. The objective of the plan is to help improve Spain’s competitiveness by leveraging the international leadership of Spanish brands, thus improving global perceptions of the country’s commercial image or ‘Made by Spain’. In a message addressed to the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry, the brands recommended the establishment of a strategic alliance between the brands and the government in order to enhance the country’s image.

Accordingly, and to quote José Luis Bonet, the chairman of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum and Freixenet, “it is necessary to implement a co-branding strategy, that is to say, a partnership strategy, between the Spanish ambassador brands and the Spain Brand”.

Emilio Botín, the chairman of the Santander Group, one of the brands that is to spearhead the initiative, was also in favour of the idea, stating that “we are here today to capitalise on the experience of the Spanish brands that are the driving force behind the country’s image, thus making the Spain Brand a strategic asset that benefits everyone”.

The Ambassador Brand Plan is therefore a strategic project for the Spanish economy. Furthermore, the FMRE chairman, José Luis Bonet, pointed out that “with the current world economic slowdown and Spain’s special circumstances, where the slowdown has coincided with the exhaustion of a production model strongly rooted in the construction industry and domestic consumption, it has become more necessary than ever to promote the factors that strengthen competitiveness abroad, particularly technological and business innovation, and Spain’s commercial capital, that is to say, it is necessary to promote the Spanish brands that are competing successfully in international markets”.

To show their support for Spain’s Image Plan, this morning’s presentation was attended by the chairpersons of some of Spain’s leading brands, including Antonio Garrigues, Jesús Salazar (SOS-Cuétara), Ramón Calderón (Real Madrid), Luis de Rivero (Sacyr Vallehermoso), Gonzalo Pascual (Viajes Marsans), Enrique Puig (Corporación Puig), Rosa Lladró (Lladró), Antoni Pont (Borges), José Luis Astiazarán (LFP), José Luis Calvo (Grupo Calvo) and Salvador Tous (Tous), to mention a few.

One of the objectives of the plan is to double the number of Leading Spanish Brands within 5 years and to increase their average turnover from 40% to 60%.

Made by Spain

The Leading Brands of Spain Forum has proposed the term ‘Made by Spain’ for the plan, instead of the traditional ‘Made in Spain’ in order to reflect the fact that while the products and services may be marketed in other countries, the strategic decisions, design and sales and marketing plans are still associated with the country of origin – Spain.

The ultimate objective of “Made by Spain” is to create value for all of Spanish society. Over the past twenty years, the “Made by Spain” image has improved significantly, thanks to the success of our leading brands abroad, which has had major repercussions in the international press. The success achieved through the individual efforts of leading brands, which have generally not associated themselves with a country image that did not provide value, can now be harnessed to enhance the collective prestige of “Made by Spain”. In short, it is about addressing the historical imbalances of the Spanish economy, such as the current-account deficit, and enhancing perceptions of the country’s products and services in order to sell “more and better” to compete against global and emerging brands in a highly competitive international environment.

Necessary measures

It is important that the plan does not require new budgetary resources, but can use the existing ones more effectively and take advantage of the substantial investment made by the brands themselves.

Consequently, the Ambassador Brand and Spain’s Image Plan envisages a number of measures, including the provision of tax incentives to international ‘Made by Spain’ sponsors, the promotion of the ICEX’s Brand Internationalisation Plans, the Ambassador Brands’ participation in promotional and dissemination programmes to promote Spanish products and services abroad and the creation, through Cofides, of a venture capital fund to launch new Spanish brands or acquire foreign ones. All of the aforementioned are to be achieved in compliance with Community legislation on State aid.

The minister responds with a pilot project in the USA

The initiative of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum was welcomed by the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Miguel Sebastián, who said that “improving the country’s image abroad was one of the main objectives of the Ministry, considering that a good image abroad was key to the competitiveness of Spanish brands”, adding that “We are not seen as we really are”. Therefore, the minister not only stressed the need to collaborate with the Spanish ambassador brands, but also announced the launch of a Made in Spain image plan that would soon be pilot tested in the USA at a cost of 20 million euros.

While the leading Spanish brands welcome the idea, the FMRE managing director, Miguel Otero, pointed out that “what is really important is the spirit of the Ambassador Brand and Spain’s Image Plan, collaboration between the leading brands, and Spain’s commercial image overseas. Without collaboration, it will be impossible to create a powerful and credible message and, moreover, we will be failing to take advantage of the synergies between the huge investments made by the leading Spanish brands in countries like the USA, for instance”.