Invest In Greece

The Hellenic Center for Investment (ELKE) has now become the Invest in Greece Agency. Sounds interesting, however, before cheering that someday we will overcome Mongolia, let’s see how the implementation goes.

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I can’t help it, I have to comment on the website, cause there are some things that… ; If one accesses the Greek and the German version of the website, they will notice that the menu, the news and highlights section and some other elements are still in English (let alone the context differences). I guess we are working towards and eu language version .
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Ministry of Economy and Finance:
Fact Sheets on the Economy of Greece

Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
The Economic Diplomacy of Greece

Secretariat General of Information, About Brand Greece:
A New Economic Policy: creating a favorable environment for investment
Greek Business Presence in Southeastern Europe

Greek Economy & Markets:
Trends and Prospects for the Economy 2008

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2007 TOP COUNTRY BRAND RANKING

The index is issued by Futurebrand, a global brand consultancy. Not too bad for Greece, however, if one takes a closer look on the additional rankings for 2007, interesting remarks can be made. Greece appears to be in the top 10 of only two categories; History and Art & Culture. It’s rather obvious both categories are part of our heritage, thus, we didn’t have to do much on their promotion (these babies speak for themselves ). Most barbarians are aware of them through their education (promotion for free forever? ). The rest categories require work and effort, today, and that might be an indicator that we may not be doing as well in tourism as we thought we were.

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Brand vs Attitude

I read an interesting story at enimerosi24.gr on how the product relies on the employee’s mood or attitude and not on the brand name. That is something I have experienced in the past and I’m pretty sure it must have happened to you too. No matter the brand and how well established it is, it doesn’t take more than an employee’s (the seller) bad day, bad mood, wrong attitude (whatever you call it) to stigmatize our perception of the product as customers. They are a company’s “face” when they are trying to sell or provide a service, thus their approach towards the customer makes the difference. Of course, that works in a good way as well. I’m sure there are plenty of times where not only were we pleased by our purchase but from the service provided as well and that is something we keep and associate to the product ad the brand as well. This discussion is fundamental and essential for marketing, sales, customer service, etc.
The story takes place in Piraeus, Greece in a Starbucks where the author being fond of their warm chocolate went in and ordered one to enjoy it there. After an initial delay the employee prepared it but to go, therefore, our author pointed out the mistake and the employee offered to make the change. It was then that another employee was involved (with a manager like attitude) having a bit offensive attitude towards her colleague. Her idea was getting on with the order quickly and move on, which resulted into having spilled the coffee all over the mug. To the author’s surprise and after asking to have it cleaned, the employee (with the manager like attitude) had a very rude attitude as if she was doing her a favor. Finally, in order to demonstrate her authority, she replied she should wait in the queue to get a new one, thus another unpleasant delay for our author. Based on the whole incident, the author realized how influential an employee’s attitude could be to the customer’s perception of a product or brand.
The full story available here but in Greek , I’m sorry !