Why are we rejecting our famous brand, our shorts?

Anyone seeing the brand images knows, instantly, what corporation they represent.

Bermuda once had a trademark that was as distinctive.

It was a male image of our bright Bermuda shorts, knee socks and blazer.

We had weaker images attached to that, the bits and pieces of our heritage handed down from Europe and Africa, like afternoon tea, red-jacketed soldiers, Gombeys and cricket.

Withdrawal

Over the past five years, certainly since 2005, Bermuda and Bermudians have mostly succeeded in doing what the Coca-Cola company almost did. We un-branded ourselves.

Years ago, Coca-Cola Corp. tried to develop a new brand by introducing ‘New Coke’.

The effort failed and saw a rise in demand for its predecessor,  ‘Classic Coke’.

Coca-Cola’s board of directors quickly forced a withdrawal of the new idea and fired the management team that developed and introduced it.

The Nike Corp now feels that its ‘Swoosh’ mark is so well entrenched that it can now afford to leave out the word ‘Nike’. That is the power of branding.

I’m no fashionista, but over the past five years I have noticed that in the rest of the world, women’s shorts have become accepted business wear.  These shorts are what were once known as ‘Bermuda shorts’.

So, through lack of attention to the world around us, Bermuda passed up an opportunity to push its ‘brand’. The same applies to the increasing frequency of men wearing ‘Bermuda length’ shorts in public places. Another opportunity lost.

But that is not the only loss. A far more critical loss is the habit, more pronounced now, of business people in Bermuda not wearing the ‘national dress’ of Bermuda shorts and blazer.

It was, and is, particularly noticeable that Bermuda’s last Minister for Tourism and the current Director of Tourism forswore and forswear wearing Bermuda shorts.

This is akin to the CEO of Coca-Cola publicly drinking Pepsi or the CEO of Nike striding around in Adidas. It is simply bad corporate practice.

Some Bermuda residents — even some Bermudians — may, and possibly do, have hang-ups about parts of our heritage.

Gombeys

Some of them may have deep reservations and possibly even deeper antipathies about holding on to images from Bermuda’s past.

Some, like the hotshots at Coca-Cola, may feel that Bermuda needs to re-brand itself.

But what does Bermuda re-brand as? Should we use only the Gombeys and try re-branding as Africa in the Atlantic?

Do we forego Bermuda shorts for shiny Armani and Hong Kong suits and re-brand as global GQ in the Atlantic? 

Should we forget the Brit customs and go fully American and re-brand as Small Town Everywhere USA — but with no decent mall or nearby McDonald’s?

Why don’t we fly in some higglers, set up an open-air market in Dockyard and re-brand as a Jamaican out-island?

Bermuda’s long-time and carefully cultivated image as a pleasant place inhabited by pleasant people who go to work in shorts and blazers, who are friendly and polite, who keep the island as if it were a garden and who follow social and public customs that grew out of a combination of British, Caribbean and African customs is actually as real today as is the trademarked Swoosh and Coke logos.

The trouble is that some people, especially some in high places, seem unable to understand this and seek to alter Bermuda’s existing — but now much weaker — image.

Bermuda’s image has weakened only because the people in charge have been making the same kind of big corporate mistakes as the Coca-Cola hotshots.

Images are hard to come by but easy to lose. Good images are even harder to come by.

Bermuda once had a distinctive and good visual image that was as clear and precise as Nike’s Swoosh.

If Bermuda is serious about ramping up its tourism market, then Bermuda — all of Bermuda — needs to get serious about image.

If not, do not waste any more dollars and time on advertising and marketing.

Just give Bermuda’s advertising and marketing money to someone in the Seychelles, Maldives or Antigua. It will have the same impact because Bermuda will be an undifferentiated product.

Bermuda and we Bermudians are what we are. Or we are not. No half-ways. 

Bermuda and Bermudians need to sort out just what we are,  then actively market that singular identity and brand.