Relitalizing Europe_Volume II

Abstract: Building on the findings of the first Volume, this second volume aims to shape and develop the concept of a possible EU-branding campaign. Based on a detailed analysis of the current communication activities of the EU commission and on interviews of European communication experts, this paperproposes a substantial change to currentEU-branding efforts. One of thekey findings is that European communication especially misses out on creating an emotional attachment between the citizens and the political system of the EU. This papertherefore proposes to apply the Lovemarkconcept, developed by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, to a future EU-branding campaign. Using emotions, the EU could become an inspirational brand. Yet, according to the Lovemarkconcept, this is only possible if the EU-brandrespects its brand community, the citizens. Therefore, in the conceptualization process of an EU-branding campaign, the inclusion of citizens will be primordial. Based on the results of an online survey that the author designed for this study, a creative concept proposal will be developed in parallel.

Keywords: European Union, EU-branding, communication, marketing, emotion, Kevin Roberts, Lovemark, respect, inclusion, diversity, segmentation, synergies, stakeholder network