Gold Magazine April - May 2013, Issue 25 | Page 82

Think about it.
It can be
done

the last
word

Summarising a resilient nation
By Peter Economides

I first came to Cyprus in the Eighties.
But I really came to understand the Cypriots many years later, during the Nineties.
That’s when I first met my dear and close
friend, the late Andy Hadjicostis, in New
York. It was he who gave me my first taste
of the Cypriots. Charming. Personable.
Doggedly determined. And remarkably
adept at the game called survival. So adept
that survival means to thrive. The Cyprus
miracle.
Years later I worked with Bank of Cyprus. My brief was to develop a brand
positioning which would better reflect the
values and belief system, both of the bank
and the society. Because that is where great
brands live. Where belief and value systems
overlap and coincide. It’s what creates that
most powerful of things called brand loyalty.
In a previous column I presented my
view that a brand is not a logo. Well it’s
not a slogan either. These are signatures.
And in the best cases they summarize everything the brand stands for. Just do it. Think
different. Open happiness. Come to Marlboro
country.
Σκέψου το, γίνεται. (Think about it. It can
be done.)
That’s the line I developed for the Bank.
It was not something that came to me in
a flash of creative inspiration. Nor was it
the result of laborious analysis. That’s not
the way I work. It came to me after hours
of interviews within the Bank’s ecosystem.

Interviews with managers, employees,
customers, the media, trade unionists and
politicians. After hours spent interacting
with Cypriots over drinks, a dinner, in

The real European
crisis is not an
economic one. It’s a
social crisis

taxis. It came because it was right. And it
came as a natural summary of everything I
had discovered about this remarkable little
island nation.
A nation that had been to hell and back
again. A nation with the resilience needed
to survive in its position on the volatile
geopolitical fault line that it occupies.
Over the past few weeks I have witnessed
the most remarkable cliffhanging television.
I was riveted to this bizarre combination
of drama and comedy, soap opera and
epic serial. But it was tragic. Always tragic.
Because you suspected how it would end.
With the instant dismantling of the single
biggest industry on the island.
Σκέψου το, γίνεται.
And I was struck by this thought: that
the real European crisis is not an economic
one. It’s a social crisis. And the real deficit
is a democracy deficit. A humanity deficit.
And it felt as if some kind of protestanttype punishment was being handed out. To
people portrayed in the media as masters of
a money laundering “casino economy”.
My biggest fear is this. By and large, the
world does not know that much about Cyprus. The image that is being formed right
now will stick and Cyprus will become
what the media is portraying. That is sad.
But I know that the Cypriots will bound
back. Because the Cyprus miracle is not a
miracle. The Cypriots are.
Σκέψου το, γίνεται.
Think about it. It can be done.

info: Peter Economides is a Brand Strategist and founder of Felix BNI. He is a former Executive Vice President and Worldwide Director of Client Services at global advertising agencies McCann-Erickson Worldwide and TBWA\Worldwide. He has worked on some of the world’s most iconic brands including Coca-Cola, Apple, Absolut,
illy, Audi and Nike. In Cyprus, he has been involved in branding projects for Bank of Cyprus, Sigma Television and easy-forex. Peter is based in Athens. Follow Peter
on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/economidespeter or on Twitter @petereconomides

82 Gold the international investment, finance & professional services magazine of cyprus