The Imaginary Ecuador
A branding plan threatened by a double discourse.
Fernando Coronil’s book The Magical State opened my eyes to the power of national imagination in what can be called a country’s “branding plan”. Does Ecuador have a branding plan in place? Yes. Is it consistent? No.
The double discourse permeates every governmental action related to the areas of tourism and exports, as well as others that depend on external actors yet are still a direct consequence of how the others are framed in the branding of the country, such as direct investment. In the book, Coronil presents an analytical framework through which he explains the factors at play in the formation of a nation’s historical memory. He takes the case of Venezuela — which he refers to as a petro-state, whose economy is fully reliant on oil exports — and argues that constructed historical memory is built through a particular discourse which is not always consistent, coherent or even entirely true.

The imaginary Ecuador I carry with me wherever I go nowadays is an example of the effect of more than 10 years of political discourse being repeated to me in various ways and through different media outlets recurrently (just like a branding strategy that involves all elements of communications and messaging). A time in which our president has been elected and re-elected, promoting a leftist government, whose actions have not been particularly in line with this discourse. Hence, if one sees Ecuador as a brand, one can see that there are three sides to it: 1) what the government aims to project mostly through the tourism sector; 2) what the protests, the media and the opposition say about the government; and 3) the governmental actions that conflict with or put into question its primary discourse.
The branding plan promoted by the government emphasizes an idea (part of what we could call the brand beliefs and values) of a multicultural nation, open to diversity of views and opinions, and willing to protect the rights of all its different indigenous peoples— rights which are explicitly referenced in the constitution of 2008. This image also holds the idea of a country that respects the rights of nature (ours was one of the first constitutions in Latin America to include a section about the rights of nature). Hence, what we could call Ecuador’s “brand idea”, Ecuador Loves Life. The logo was adopted by the government in 2010 as part of its new institutional branding plan including the values already mentioned and as representative of a new era of tourism in Ecuador. Around that time, oil prices were at their highest worldwide, which gave Rafael Correa, who was and still is our president, the necessary financial resources — since most of the country’s revenues come from oil exports — to invest in the public sector (highways, public buildings, marketing for the tourism ministry) in an unprecedented manner.
Starting with exports, the whole narrative of the multicultural state can start to become less consistent. In 1972, Ecuador’s economic model went from being based mainly on agriculture and banana production to relay primarily on oil exports due to the discovery of immense, commercial quantities of this slick substance underneath the Amazonian soil. This marked the beginning of the Ecuadorian “oil boom”, which saw its peak when Rafael Correa became president in 2007. In this specific government, the brand beliefs were based on ideas of development, upscale tourism and a regained pride for who we were (and are). However, oil drilling did not necessarily mean “progress for all”, but an irreparable change in the lives of indigenous communities from the Amazon whose home was now the headquarters of big international oil companies operating in the area. This reality led to social unrest and motivated indigenous resistance to oil development in various cities across the country.
Meanwhile, the tourism industry kept flourishing — and with it images of Ecuador’s “soft power” — as the government took on a very effective branding strategy targeting international media (an ad of “Ecuador Loves Life” campaign was screened during the Super Bowl of 2015) and tourists from wealthy countries. The design of the campaign was colorful, modern and charming. It tapped into the beauty of the Galápagos Islands, one of the top touristic destinations in Ecuador, and the colors of the indigenous confederation flag. However, protests were escalating on the streets, one of them being the Indigenous Woman’s March on 2013, which put into question the state’s seemingly coherent, multi-national and pluri-cultural image by going against the “Ecuador Loves Life” campaign. The uproar on the streets during the days when the women marched from the Amazon to the Highlands of the country, showed how the mining and oil industries were doing the exact opposite of what the government’s projected national image upheld. Hence, these recurring protests — fairly covered in international media — also challenged the state’s “multi-national” image, that which portrayed itself as inclusive and as protector of all the indigenous peoples and nationalities.
In terms of direct investments, for a number of years, mining and exploitation of natural resources — mostly in the Amazon — has been the sector with the highest amount of investment compared with commerce, agriculture, or even construction. This is evidenced in the many deals the government has secured with Chinese companies that have invested in this sector in the past few years. Indigenous and environmental activist resistance, as well as the coverage of the debate in “alternative media” (the one which isn’t supported by the government financially) has been growing, deconstructing once again the branding plan; that prevailing narrative of national development that links economic policy with the development of the hydrocarbon and mining industries.
Can a nation’s branding plan remain always consistent and coherent? Most likely not. Given the era of high-speed communications and the globalizations processes taking place with the help of technology, it will become harder and harder for states (as brands)to be fully aligned to their branding message when many users are able to express opinions online, document controversies and share this information widely within seconds. Like brands, governments can be questioned by the public eye in every aspect of their policy, external or internal. Protests can become widely visible — as is the case with Venezuela currently — placing international attention on local politics and pressuring the government to take action and represent the social groups affected by specific policies or governmental corruption. However, as long as the national imaginary narrative remains present in the everyday life of its citizens, it will be able to justify governmental authority and sometimes to even overcome external or internal criticism.
In Latin America, and I would argue all other regions of the world, a critical mindset should be cultivated in all citizens through education, formal and informal, not only when it comes to commercial advertising by brands (which can’t be simply categorized as “good” or “bad”) but also by governments. Like brands, these behave according to their values, and as seen in the case of Ecuador, these are not always fully responsive to the worldwide challenges of our time, such as climate change, indigenous (or just people’s) displacement, over extraction of natural resources, systems of racism and exploitation, and others which can put their brand values into question. The national imaginary is the combination of a government’s branding plan, our own questioning of that plan, and the meaning of our identity extracted through our ordinary, everyday actions in each of our social realms.
REFERENCES
“La Marcha De Las Mujeres Llegó a Tunguragua.” El Comercio [Quito] 13 Oct. 2013: n. pag. Print.
Coronil, Fernando. The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1997. Print.
“INVERSIÓN EXTRANJERA DIRECTA.” BANCO CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR. Banco Central Ecuador, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.
Llopis, Enric. “Se Han Desmontado Pueblos Enteros Para Explotar Las Minas”.”Rebelion. Se Han Desmontado Pueblos Enteros Para Explotar Las Minas. N.p.,n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.