The federal state of Baden-Württemberg – home of the Swabians and the Badeners – has a new slogan. In the next few years, “The Länd” will initially be used nationally, but soon also internationally, to promote new sympathies for the federal state in the south-west of the republic. According to Wikipedia, Baden-Württemberg is the German state with the highest exports, the second-lowest unemployment rate, the fourth-highest gross domestic product per capita, the most patents registered per capita and the highest research and development expenditure in absolute and relative terms.
DOES HOMELAND NEED TO ADVERTISE ITSELF?
“We can reinvent everything, including ourselves” is one of the accompanying slogans – a homage to the nationally successful slogan: “We can do anything. Except speak Standard German”, which “The Länd” is now replacing. The internationally unpronounceable Baden-Württemberg is to become “The Länd”, at least for marketing purposes. The south-western state wants to use it to profile itself as a leading high-tech location as well as a region with a high quality of life. “I don’t think it took me 30 seconds to realise: this is it, this fits,” said Minister President Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) during the presentation of the slogan last November in Stuttgart. Everyone really understands “The Länd” now, it is self-confident and flashes a little self-irony. Baden- Württemberg is initially spending € 21 million on the campaign – perhaps not very much to make a brand internationally visible. The plan is to spend €7 million a year for three years. From 2022 onwards, it will also be used internationally – in London, for example, taxis will carry the imprint. Success will be determined by the presence and concrete implementation in the international target markets.
RECRUITING SKILLED WORKERS
According to its Minister of Economic Affairs, Nicole Kraut- Hoffmeister, The Länd is currently short of 20,000 to 50,000 skilled workers per year, and the slogan is also intended to help make the tongue-twister Baden-Württemberg easier for foreigners to grasp. What then is one of the main purposes of the campaign? The recruitment of skilled workers. The state is in the process of converting its economically strongest sector, the automotive industry, to the requirements of the next decade, away from the combustion engine and towards electromobility and hydrogen. This affects a large part of the industry, including suppliers. Time is running out, Volkswagen in Lower Saxony is leading the way. The aim of this umbrella brand campaign is to better position the federal state nationally and internationally in the strong competition for the best brains. Perhaps it plays a role that the south-western state, unlike its neighbour Bavaria, always has to fight for its image. Economically equal – but the Bavarian attitude to life has not yet been transferred to The Länd. Yet the southwest is not inferior to Bavaria in terms of culinary and cultural offerings; The Länd is a centre for Michelin-star chefs as well. Douce Steiner, Germany’s only two-star chef from the restaurant/hotel “Hirschen” in Sulzburg am Neckar, is also involved in the campaign.
The new sympathy campaign replaces the self-deprecating previous campaign with the slogan “We can do anything. Except speak Standard German”, which was launched in 1999, 22 years ago (!). Despite all the prophecies of doom, the campaign was successful and the slogan has become firmly established in many people’s minds. Let’s let The Länd have an effect on us in the future.