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Rabat – Morocco used the global platform of the Expo 2020 in Dubai last week to launch “Morocco Now,” an investment brand that holds much promise, and elicits even more questions.
The marketing blitz that accompanied the launch of the “Morocco Now” brand was hard to miss. The campaign was not only one of the show-stealing presentations at the Dubai Expo, but also featured on iconic landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and Times Square in New York City.
The investment brand quickly became a topic for discussion, featuring on CNN as well as various regional media outlets. Much has since been said about the investment brand, yet the devil remains in the details. The question remains whether Morocco Now will constitute a new Moroccan standard of doing business, or whether it simply sells Morocco’s existing investment opportunities.
Marketing stunt?
The launch of Morocco’s new investment brand was accompanied by all the slickly-produced marketing material one expects to see from a multinational giant or corporate brand. Morocco Now’s branding was clearly intended to grab global attention at a global expo where every country aimed to dazzle others with their unique economic opportunities.
For Morocco, the expo was a moment to display the accomplishments that the North African country has achieved over the last two decades. Ever since the crowning of King Mohammed VI, the country has been going through a radical new development plan that is evident across the country.
The first thing a visitor crossing the strait of Gibraltar sees when approaching the coast of the bustling port city of Tangier are the hills, covered in windmills. From the very northern tip of the country, to the desert landscape of its southern border with Mauritania, green energy has become a symbol of the country’s new development.
While Morocco still faces several structural issues regarding inequality, education, healthcare, corruption, poverty and gender issues, the country has clearly undertaken a new approach that aligns neatly with international standards regarding climate change, sustainable business, and a favorable business environment.
Morocco Now seizes on these two decades of development, presenting Morocco as a place where business can thrive while ensuring climate priorities and value chains are weaved into every business opportunity.
Yet, within two weeks of the brand’s launch, its website now offers few details, promising only that a “new version” of the website is “coming soon.” After a successful launch, the question remains, what will Morocco Now really do?
New Moroccan Standard?
While Morocco Now emphasizes the country’s rapid development, it builds on this by promising four key factors that make Morocco “a reliable place to invest.” It describes the country as a “future proof industrial platform” that offers a certain standard to all foreign investors.
Those standards rely on the four pillars of Morocco Now, promising that all investments are sustainable, competitive, proven, and agile.
The brand emphasizes that Morocco has shown its agility amid the COVID-19 crisis, while it has a proven track record on mega projects, attracting foreign investment and making domestic investment in education.
It highlights Morocco’s competitive industry, offering low labor costs and highly competitive container fees for export. The country’s 54 free trade agreements makes it a “gateway to be part of Africa’s fast growth potential,” the program emphasizes.
Morocco Now itself describes the brand as an “identity” and as such it can be assumed the brand primarily aims to encapsulate the driving factors behind Morocco’s recent development blitz. The brand aims to describe Morocco’s attractive investment opportunities for international investors, without offering any new direction for domestic enterprises.
While Morocco Now’s website refurbishment could indicate the brand is now shifting to a domestic audience to ensure its pillars remain at the core of Moroccan business, only time will tell what this means in terms of tangible impact.
National project
It appears that Morocco Now is a brand that doesn’ only promote the country’s recent development, but additionally banks on the successful implementation of its new economic development model.
The four pillars that the Morocco Now identity is based on appears to neatly align with the development model’s promise of a “prosperous, skilled, inclusive, and sustainable” economy.
It additionally appears that, in many ways, Morocco Now is simply a rebranding of the basic tenets of the new economic model mixed with an overview of Morocco’s past two decades of development.
In itself, the new development model (NMD) is nothing short of a structurally bold plan. Yet Morocco Now’s own assessment of its NMD-inspired projections does in fact make the “Morocco Now” launch something of a marketing stunt instead of a bold new direction for domestic audiences.
To its credit, however, Morocco Now has generated significant buzz, and directed attention towards Morocco’s promising economic development and excited international trade prospects.
If the idea behind the project was indeed to communicate the national development strategy’s main ideas to foreign investors, the project appears to be a success. If not, the coming update to the website can hopefully further clarify the extent to which Morocco Now is aiming to impact domestic business practices.
Following the positive reception of the Morocco Now initiative, Morocco can take comfort in the merits of its new development model, and the promise it holds to not just improve Moroccan lives, but also invite foreign investors to invest in Morocco’s future promise.
Morocco is continuing to mature as a hub for trade and business, and Morocco Now appears to be another step in that direction. But there are still lingering questions and concerns that need to be settled – and the sooner, the better.
Morocco Now is arguably a more approachable and “sexy” brand than the rather technocratic sounding “new development model.” Morocco’s new model does deserve international attention, and if a simple marketing exercise can accomplish such a feat, so be it.
