A Brand for Latvia

Our preestablished ideas of any country is one of the results of a country’s branding. Attaching a label to a nation in order to make it easily recognizable and memorable can help a country make big steps in its development, making it a worthy investment. So where does the Eurovision Song Contest fit into this? The event itself is a chance for a country to engage in self-promotion. A country’s participation and ranking within the contest can bring many benefits, whether the nation’s brand is being strengthened, changed, or established. But depending on a country’s circumstances, the efforts for a nation to make their mark, especially in Europe, are nothing to scoff at. Latvia is no stranger to this predicament. Latvia shows a variety of different nation brand opportunities, which can be seen in its recent ESC performances, compared with their national identity and political context. This blog post will reexamine the elements featured in past blog posts and outline details which signal the possible use of nation branding as well as assess whether it aligns with what Latvia’s actual branding strategy is, if it exists. In the Latvian performances from 2015 to 2016, the country takes a resurgence in its attitude towards the contest.

              It is stated in the previous blog post about how Latvia took its performances in the years 2015 and 2016 with a much more serious demeanor. Using a more powerful approach, “Love Injected” by Aminata and “Heartbeat” by Justs gained high rankings for Latvia in two consecutive years. Impact was a vital ingredient in both performances in order to draw the people’s attention towards the country.  However, since the last blog post, both songs have also shown other subtle traits which may or may not match up with Latvia’s image. The first performance to revisit is 2015.

In the case of the 2015 performance, another theme besides love and impact was religion. It was not explicitly mentioned but conveyed through images and visual effects. This would have conflicted with what Latvia used to be in the past, with over half of the population not belonging to a religion. But recent studies show that religion has made a resurgence in Latvian society, with many denominations of Christianity now prevalent among the people. (GESIS, 2015) Through this display, Latvia appears to convey itself not only as a country with religious acceptance, but also as a country that has changed from what it used to be. Latvia has come far when it comes to the religion of its people. Reanalyzing the performance from 2016 yields another unique theme.

In 2016, the Latvian performance showcased an industrial feel through its dark backdrops and colors. However, Latvia is a country with an overall good environment, with lots of protected nature territories. (“Latvia country briefing,” 2015) In the context of the country’s brand, this performance does not make sense, and it especially lacks any direct alignment to the themes of the previous performance. But it does have connections to Latvia’s past while it was part of the Soviet Union, a time when the country experienced the most industrialization. (Frasher, Hall, Hildreth, and Sorgi, 2003, p. 13) Overall, the ESC performances show one side of Latvian nation branding, but its national identity shows another picture.

              The country of Latvia’s national identity is a conflicted one. It was mentioned in the first blog post regarding Latvia’s national identity that the country is home to not one, but two identities, as a result of the coexistence of the Latvian-speaking people and the Russian-speaking minority. Both identities opposed one another, with bad history between them stretching back to World War II. This conflicted national identity aligns with the Eurovision performances because of a common ground in diversity. The performer in the 2015 performance has both Russian and Latvian blood. (Eurovision Song Contest, 2016) Rather than choosing one of the identities to be forgotten, both can help bring about a new one. Both identities within the country can integrate with one another to develop a new identity. This shows that conflicts between the two identities within Latvia have a chance to stop. Latvia’s branding becomes broader between religion, industry, and diversity. In addition, the country’s politics expand the type of branding Latvia can do.

              When it comes to Russia and Latvia, it is an understatement to say both countries have a complicated relationship. Their history dates to when Russia occupied the country during World War II and made Latvia part of the Eastern Bloc, a group of countries lead by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union disbanded, a Russian minority was left within Latvia’s borders. Since then, the minority within Latvia has endured hardships due to unfair laws and persecution. (Cheskin, 2013, p.290) This aligns with Latvia’s diverse national identity, since Russia plays a major part of both aspects. Russia’s involvement in Latvia’s history can be considered what caused most of Latvia’s branding complications in the first place. If one were to brand Latvia from a political or historical standpoint, the main selling point would be that it is not the same Eastern Bloc country it used to be a few years ago. Taking all this into consideration, how does the country’s branding look?

              Overall, there is no doubt that Latvia is already taking steps to begin establishing a nation brand. Throughout most of the aspects examined in this blog post, many approaches can be gathered on how it can be done. It can also be inferred that Latvia is starting to take the benefits Eurovision can bring much more seriously than before. The biggest misalignment in how Latvia is approaching their branding is the difference between what is shown about the country onstage and what is told in the country’s history and politics. Being a part of the Eastern Bloc has affected Latvia heavily, forcing the country into obscurity. The biggest evidence of the country’s decline in personality comes from the thoughts of Latvians back in the early 2000’s: “Latvia has nothing to offer…We can’t change we’re a peasant culture…We just left a Union, again we must go to a union?” (Frasher, Hall, Hildreth, & Sorgi, 2003, p. 8) Now as the years pass, the country is starting to engage in self-promotion through the ESC and beginning to engage in nation branding, from an especially broad approach at that.

              Latvia’s approach to nation branding and Eurovision is being taken seriously as the country makes steps into the future towards greater development. Whether it be through the country’s past or the prospective future, Latvia plans on making its comeback after earning its own place on the map. There are high hopes for Latvia to finally become a European country to remember.

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References:

Cheskin, A. (2013) Exploring Russian-speaking identity from below: the case of Latvia. Journal of Baltic Studies, 44(3), 287-312. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2012.712335

Frasher, S., Hall, M., Hildreth, J., & Sorgi, M. (2003). A Brand for the Nation of Latvia. Report, Said Business School, Oxford University. Unpublished. Retrieved from: http://pdc.ceu.hu/archive/00004151/01/brand_rep.pdf

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. (2015). International Social Survey Programme: Work Orientations IV – ISSP [Data set]. doi:10.4232/1.12848

Latvia country briefing - the European environment — state and outlook 2015. (2015, February 18). Retrieved from: https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/countries/latvia