December 1st, 2014
Mr. Hubert Hughes
Chief Minister of Anguilla
Minister of Tourism
Government Offices
The Valley
Anguilla
Dear Mr. Hughes,
On behalf of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association, I wanted to check in to find out the status of the current branding process exercise and document a concern.
Consultations were recently held on the island to unveil proposed brand ideas and the current brand of ‘Tranquility Wrapped in Blue’ was basically thrown out by the Global Brand Strategist as not suitable for the island’s brand position for various reasons, most of which were and still remain issues that must be fixed and maintained by the relevant authorities of Government. Changing our brand without fixing the core reasons given will result in further “brand confusion”. We find that the process was flawed as it was more of a presentation of proposed new brands and their possible applications, rather than a true and thorough consultative consideration of all brands INCLUDING “Tranquility Wrapped in Blue”.
We wish to reiterate that the AHTA is still holding dear the brand slogan “Tranquility Wrapped in Blue” as we find that it is unique, powerful, intimately connected to Anguilla within the market and travel trade and it finds greatest appeal within the client base and local host population. This was evident at the public presentation where the majority of persons present could not understand why we were moving away from Tranquility Wrapped in Blue, and expressed it. The other proposed options that were presented by the Global Branding Strategist team were too generic and did not differentiate the island. The Sustainable Tourism Master Plan which arose out of a rigorous consultative process of all stakeholders also supported the use of the brand “Tranquility Wrapped in Blue”. We made the mistake before to depart from “Tranquility Wrapped in Blue” to the generic “Feeling Is Believing” and Anguilla paid for it dearly with confusion/lack of differentiation in the marketplace, a scenario that we can ill-afford to repeat.
The AHTA cannot endorse any new brand and will not do so until a thorough on island consultative process is undertaken and out of that process comes our brand. Kindly keep us informed of the current status and the proposed way forward to accommodate stakeholder concerns, as this branding exercise proceeds.
Regards
Mr. Delroy Lake
President of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
