The Polish national 'brand'

What is Poland's 'brand' -- the distinguishing feature, that immediate association, that reputation, the thing that immediately rings a bell when the word Poland, Pole or Polish is heard world-wide? For the Italians it is art treasures, opera, Mediterranean cuisine, Roman ruins and (on the downside) possibly the Mafia connection. For the Germans it could be philosophy, scholarship, precision engineering, beer, oom-pa-pa folk music in Lederhosen, the Oktoberfest, the 'Ordnung muß sein' obsession and maybe vague reminiscences of the Heil Hitler period. Long before Amsterdam became synonymous with debauchery and international drug smuggling, Holland was thought of mainly in terms of the old Ducth Masters (painters), obsessive cleanliness (scrubbed streets), windmills, tulips and wooden shoes....

What do you see as the positive hallmarks of the 'Polish national brand'? (There's enough negativity on PF, so let's just stick to the positive this time.)

If you landed a fat contract to create the proper PR, what would you focus on? What would be the easiest to sell?

First of all:
-we should fight associating us with EASTERN EUROPE. Poland is a CENTRAL EUROPEAN state which belongs to the WESTERN WORLD (EU, NATO, OECD, Catholicism, Indo-European roots). This could stop common certainty that Poland = Soviet State

-we should abandon pan-slavism because it's harmful for Poland to be associated with Russia, Ukraine or Bulgaria. Poland is just Poland, not a part of mysterious "Slavia" or other ****. Politicians should stop using the term "slav"

This 2 things are a good start for us

As for PR slogans:

Pope, Solidarność, Vodka, Beer, Pierogi, Sausage, Mead, Chopin, Uprisings, Few important historic events - stopping Mongols, Turks and Bolsheviks, good parts of PRL (places like Nowa Huta are a magnet for tourists), Our regional folk, Moustache, Tatry, Masuria, Bisons, Jewish/Christian orthodox heritage, Magnateria mansions

How should Polish nation be presented?

As conservative patriotic educated people. We have to avoid Western Europe mistakes with being associated with liberalism and socialist ideology

A simple slogan wouldn't hurt either:

"Make a friend of Poland and you have a friend for life."

(and of course...."Make Poland your enemy, and we will never forget.")

"Poland - The ideal lives."

or something a little more defensive...

"Empires couldn't pull us apart. What makes you think you can?"

And, please, these are light-hearted suggestions. Nothing here means I want Poles to start harming anyone. But, the strength of Poland has always been its ability to come together, fight the common foe, and to support friends.)

Makes sense. The Europeanisers would like Poland to be melted down in a uniform, nondescript ragoût. But there will never be a Polish brand based on uniformity, nothingness and a alck of distinctness. The main problem is that other countries first engaged in widespread cultural sharing and image-building in the 19th and 20th centuries when Poland was partitioned and fully independent for only 40 of the past some 240 years.

Besides the Soviet image which Russia has yet to live down, in the 19th century it became famous for its ballet, vodka, caviare, composers and novelists.

The bottom line is that makinmg up for lost time will be extremely difficult when we live in an era marked by widespread aping of America's cheap and tacky popculture scene.

LOL - I'd love to see this on a T-shirt!

Kielbasa4every1

Again, as a Polish-American, I cannot agree more or add anything else to this. My wish is that Poland realizes her greatness in her own light.


Yeah, that really DOES have a certain ring to it :)

Why?Does it even matter if it's eastern,western or whatever Europe?I don't think so.What important is what Poland is and how Poles live there, not how someone calls it.I have no problem whatsoever with being Eastern European.Matter of fact when asked I like to say I am EASTERN European and people make faces like they expected some two headed monster.So,lets not be oversensitive about it and just do whatever we can to make Poland a better place regardless the geographical location.Does it make any sense what I am saying?


And not every Pole is conservative.Some are libertarians like myself.

Yes. Eastern Europe has a bad rep in the world. If we want to improve our PR we have to show what we are in reality not by some silly cold war definition

Besides Eastern Europe = Eastern Orthodox christianity

It's just silly to call Slovenia or Czech Republic Eastern Europe if these countries were highly influenced by Germany and Austria

Why would we even care?Personally I don't give a flying phuck about what foraigners say about Poland as long as Poles in Poland are happy.The thing is that most is not.

It must be added that PR in Poland is rather decentralized. For example city of Poznań has their own trademark used everywhere (attached pic) and promotes itself on its own. Look here:

watch?v=a3FGKqvsW4s << youtube reference because I can't post links yet because of anti spamming system

The same goes for every other major city like Wrocław, Kraków, Warszawa, Gdańsk itd.

Even on the ITB in Berlin Poland has always multiple stalls presenting every region/city autonomously


PR is what brings tourists and investors to Poland which means a lot of money. Money usually makes people happy

wildeckerenegat wrote:


I pay 800zl every month to an organization I simply have no use for but have no choice in the matter. How's that for socialist ideology.

Oh, and believe me, nobody sees Poland as liberal.

There you go, fixed that for you ; )

Socially conservative, fiscally borderline socialist. Worst of both worlds.

Personally I believe Poland would do best to focus on its natural wealth and traditions to create a distinct national brand that would set it apart from others. This might include emphasising:

PRISTINE NATURE: Białowieża and bison, (back-bred) tarpans, wolves and bear roaming at liberty in their natural habitat would surely be a feather in the nation's cap. Other nature resources such as the Biebrza and Warta wetlands, the rugged Bieszczady Mts, etc. are also worth promoting. (The downside of this is that too much tourism brings in the cash but also tramples the natural habitat.)

FOLK CULURE: The folklore to some extent that has preserved itself in various Polish enclaves is an alternative to the ubiquitous industrially produced global popculture that surrounds us. Corpus Christi processions in £owicz and elsewhere, Palm Sunday contests in the £omża area, and the highlander lore of the Tatras are but a few examples.

TRADITIONAL FOOD: Traditional food -- breadstuff, sausages and cured meats, pickles, cheeses, cakes -- produced the time-honoured way using natural ingredients is a pleasant change from the pre-packaged, chemically treated fake food that abounds nowadays. (I am fully aware that Polish supermarkets are full of the gorący kubek type crap one finds everywhere these days, so this is just a suggestion as to the components that could go to create an attractive national brand.)

FAMILY AND RELGIOUS VALUES: Strong family and religious values would also be a welcome change to many. Warsaw, Kraków and Poznań could not outdrug and ourdebuach Berlin, Amsterdam and London even if they wanted to so why even try. At best they would be poor imitations.

CULTURE: The Land of the Winged Horseman exhibition (on Poland's Sarmatian Baroque period) that toured the US in the 1990s made a huge impression on those who viewed it, but such events are few and far between. Chopin Year activates are another positive example exploited at the Shanghai Expo and elsewhere. Due to today's prevalence of popular culture, a greater effort should be made to create and export music, videos, films and other art forms enjoying mass appeals that could easily catch on world-wide.

Believe it or not...the Football EC will be Polands biggest chance to make a brand name for itself.
Hopefully the polish PR-manager know this.

Show the media what a nice country you are, advertise tourism to get known...every tourist is a multiplier because he is telling at home about it...and you will make changes big time in the minds of the world.

For Germany in 2006 it worked fantastically!
It didn't happen accidentally...

brandsandbranding-online.co.za/how-germany-won-the-world-cup-of-nation-branding-and-how-south-africa-may-clinch-the-title-in-2010-dr-nikolaus-eberl/

Poland could achieve the same turnaround!

I ageree that in terms of a one-off evnet the EC presents Poladn wtih a unique opportunity.
Tell us how the World Cup changed Germany. Did tourism soar? Did export orders increase or what?

This world cup changed Germany and the impression of it greatly.
It's now talked about as the "Wunder von Bern", the "Wirtschaftswunder" and even the re-unification.

You can kind of pin it on the invention and development of the Fan fests...Germany opening the games from the closed stadiums to all fans and their families who wanted to come to the party but couldn't get a ticket..putting up fanmiles and big screens everywhere.

For four weeks it was just a happy party with happy people under a blue sky. Millions of people could watch it on TV world wide, Germany in the midst of Europe got "invaded" by millions of Europeans many of whom could take a look for themselves at the new, modern Germany and all that changed the perceptions greatly and in the long term.

During and after the games Germany led all popularity polls...the power of images full at work here!
And yes tourism soared during and afterwards..

I don't see why Poland can't achieve the same..you are practically in the same situation (for other reasons) as Germany was till shortly before the games. Searching for yourself and your place in Europe.

But you can bust this chance too...South Africa wanted to achieve the same...they studied all what Germany did, they spoke with german experts etc...but we can now already say that South Africa did not make the best of this opportunity.

Polonius3 - I agree with your post but I''d add to this history

Bratwurst Boy - Unfortunately our promotion at Euro 2012 will be spoiled by Ukraine. But I hope European fans aren't that ignorant that they don't see the difference between Poland and Ukraine

I wonder if the Poles in charge of 2012 are doing their homework. Everything in Poland these days seems to ultinatley boil down to brak środków (a lack of resources meaning Z£).

Lack of funding? I don't think so. We're the biggest beneficiary from EU. Problem is with beaurocratic processes like tenders, appeals and other things which waste time

Also the company responsible for organizing Euro2012 wastes money on outsourcing services which could be done by the workers of this company