The McKinsey Effect

Ahh, the global consulting giant McKinsey's effects are showing in Bhutan's marketing of itself as a Shangri-La tourism destination.

To wit, its new slogan: Bhutan, Happiness is a Place, replete with the national flower, the blue poppy, in the logo.

According to this item, the global advertising giant Ogilvy and Mather came up with that genius phrase, but you know it's tied to McKinsey's involvement with helping the Kingdom over the last year or so with "monetizing" its "brand," meaning, the whole Gross National Happiness thing. Which remains the world's best and unwitting marketing slogan, uttered by the fourth King of Bhutan in the seventies as a casual response to a question about Bhutan's then burgeoning development strategies….

The Tourism Council of Bhutan elaborated in this release: "As the popularity of Bhutan keeps growing, TCB went through exhaustive research on finding the best way to showcase the nation as an exclusive high-end destination. The task at hand was to enhance the uniqueness of the nation, its culture, tradition, environment, architecture and religion together with the philosophy of Gross National Happiness and merge them seamlessly into one logo. The team did intensive research, reaching out to hundreds of respondents including tourism stakeholders for feedback on their impressions of Bhutan. Parameters were drawn and rankings made on the various unique selling points (USP) of the nation."