A Dent on Brand ‘Australia’

Australia is considered to be one of the most sought after nations by many Asian students who aspire to pursue their higher education; or has this been a statement of the past in view of the horrific incidents that have taken place in a period of less than a month. Two separate barbarous attacks in less than a month on four innocent souls, where one is proving to be fatal and to top it off both attacks were on Indians. Boy! This definitely leaves a scar on Australia not only as a destination for further studies but also as a tourist location.

Let us look at this situation from the point of view of a marketer, and you would definitely emphasize on the attitudinal change of people particularly students towards Brand Australia and hence their resultant behavioural alterations that takes route from the change in attitude. The country down under had, quite a few years ago, grabbed my attention when I was in pursuit of a good university to do my M.B.A. and it had appealed so well to me that I had considered going there which did not happen due to financial constraints. The attributes that drew me closer to choosing Australia included reasonable cost of living, fewer people meaning less competition, flexible class sessions and many more; all this led into an attitude formation of Australia (which is considered as the attitude object - product) which promised to paint a rosy picture for my future endeavours. Many of my friends, who had formed the same attitudes and had the money to fly there, did end up in the land down under and are studying hence are the successful buyers. This attitude towards Australia remained intact until the recent attacks which has done nothing but dented the Brand equity (the sum total of all the attributes) of Australia; at least in India whether or not it has the same influence elsewhere.

Marketers hope to change the attitude of a consumer who favours a competitor’s brand and thereby form a favourable attitude towards their products, through various change strategies that are available to them. The attitudinal change, if has not been achieved right, then there is a chance of a negative impact on one’s brand. What the Australian goons (racists) have done is that they have forced many of us to change our brand beliefs about Australia thus forcing us into behaving in a different manner choosing from other nations (competitors) to be a better destination for either studies or vacations. Albeit, efforts from the country to try and re-establish the same attitudes in people that it had earlier so successfully achieved have started; with a policeman flying to India to brief prospective students on "safety strategy tips" which was never done prior to the attacks.

I sure as hell want to listen to Andrew Symmonds’ comments on his countrymen’s Racial Vilification. Hope Shravan Kumar undergoes a miraculous recovery and hope there still exists something called as harmony in this world which seems to have vanished.