Capacities and Challenges of Branding in Lorestan Handicrafts
On the sidelines of the brand and branding workshop, we had the opportunity to talk with Ali Dadvand, PhD in Business and lecturer of this workshop, about the capacities and challenges of branding in Lorestan handicrafts.
Before we get into branding in the province’s handicrafts, let’s look at the pathology of this position on a national scale. As a first question, what harms do you associate with branding experiences in handicrafts?
Handicrafts in Iran are branded in nature and what has happened is that people all over the world know about Iranian handicrafts. But what is clear is the position that we as corporate brands have done nothing. It has been an Iranian carpet for many years, but no company has come to work and advertise on it. Creating a brand is a difficult process, but it is even more difficult to maintain a brand. Brands are living beings, that is, they have personality, they feel exactly, and they can communicate with their customer exactly.
Brands are born as living beings and die as living beings. The handicraft brand was born in Iran, but for some reason we could not maintain it. A number of the reasons are political, social and economic reasons that we do not go into, and a percentage of it is due to our own inefficiency. We thought that Iranian carpets would last forever and people would buy them if we forgot that countries like Pakistan, India and China could trade in the name of Iranian carpets. We thought because we make Iranian carpets ourselves and we love it. People also know Iranian carpets, we never introduced the carpet to the world, we never introduced the design to the customer, we did not advertise to say that Iranian carpets are different from Pakistani carpets, we did not advertise to say what is the difference between this kilim and that kilim .
When you create a brand, one of the most important parts after that is introducing the brand so that the customer notices how it differs from other brands, here we have a vacuum. A fake brand, a fake product that is not original, is sold in our country under the name of handicrafts, but we could not present our brand, which is also original, well. I believe that if a mediocre product is introduced well, it is better than a bad introduction of a great product, and the fact is that we have trouble introducing products.
But our second problem in the field of handicrafts is that the years of production of our products have been the same and have not changed. We have not updated our handicrafts with the culture of the people. So we have to produce the same kilim and move forward, but the reality is that people’s tastes have changed.
In this case, do you think it is not possible to change the nature and jeopardize the originality?
You see, every art or service has a core, that core should not be touched and should be preserved, but it has a series of packages and margins that we can change. We did not even change this border, for example, we could have changed the color combination of the kilim or its dimensions and its originality would not have been overshadowed, but we did not do that. Changes in these characteristics do not lead to a change in the originality of the kilim.
When we say we mean only Lorestan or the whole of Iran?
No, it means the whole of Iran, and this is an issue that we are dealing with in the whole of Iran, and not only in Lorestan handicrafts. Why didn’t we think that pottery could be produced in other colors as well?
Yes in terms of employment and business debate, but in terms of what people think about pottery and its authenticity?
First, this idea and memory is specific to people inside the country, but people abroad do not have memories and ideas in this regard, and second, the fact that antiquity is in the pottery itself, but not in its design and color, for example in Russia, Mamushka doll as a doll Traditionally, it is known that this doll is made up of five or six small dolls that are placed inside each other. The doll is the same doll and its originality is that different dolls are inside the belly and more interestingly, the same 30 cm dolls add as much value as our kilim if they take much less time and energy than our kilim or carpet. They spend it making it, and this is due to the fact that it is well introduced and fits the taste of this product.
Another point is that we have always introduced handicrafts as a functional product, and this is a disadvantage if in the world a percentage of handicrafts has a decorative aspect. In fact, handicrafts are the flag of a country that will carry with it all the art, culture, past and originality of a country. But we have not made this distinction, and how can we expect people to buy handicrafts until this is done?
Doesn’t commercialism affect the cultural nature of the issue?
First of all, I need to define the word being commercial in handicrafts, in business it is assumed that all people use a product, which is a disadvantage. If we had to divide that a group needs, for example, a functional carpet and a group of decorative carpets, then we should run these two groups in parallel. These two parts are separate and we could not separate them, and this affects the short-term perspective of both manufacturers and traders. Why don’t we have a business that is over a hundred years old? In the world, a small supermarket is over one hundred and fifty years old because it has a long-term view of the issue, we in Iran unfortunately do not have this view and this has caused problems.
Another issue is governance debates. We can liken this issue to a train moving inside a rail, how good it is, how well it is rail-mounted, in which direction it is rail-mounted, and the… issues we face in time periods. For various reasons such as political, economic and market, we have lost the world and could not be present, our idea was that the world is waiting for us to present Iranian handicrafts twenty years later, we have forgotten that in these twenty years competitors are not unemployed and They have taken over our market, it is very difficult to reopen in this market. The combination of these factors has prevented our handicrafts, which are also very valuable, from gaining a foothold.
What is the share of government, private sector and manufacturers to create and introduce the brand?
In my opinion, in the matter of branding, only the rails are in the hands of the government and the cultural heritage. If these rails are placed correctly, the producers will be encouraged and will pursue the production of the brand. In this case, the producers will take a large part of this investment and the train will move forward. One of the mistakes we have made in recent years has been that we have imagined that we should spend, let the private sector work to make a profit, while the right way is for us to pave the way for the private sector to play a leading role. History has shown that wherever we have intervened too much, it has failed, but wherever the private sector has intervened, it has succeeded. I see the role of the private sector, especially the producer, very strongly, and for the public sector, I consider the two roles of railing and changing the level of thinking of private sector managers.
What is your assessment of Lorestan handicrafts both in terms of acceptance and in terms of introduction?
I will not talk about Lorestan handicrafts and its quality and acceptance due to the specialization of the subject, but my personal opinion as a person who works in the field of marketing and sales, Lorestan handicraft products have a very high potential, but it has not been introduced at all.
One of the problems with this industry is that everyone thinks they have to produce; No one cares about good sales. Weak marketing and sales of handicraft products are always evident and this gap is not specific to Lorestan and can be seen throughout the country.
What is your suggestion for introducing Lorestan handicrafts?
For this issue, a series of short-term tasks and a series of long-term tasks must be done. In previous marketing, we have to determine everything. Where is Lorestan supposed to reach? By what title should it be known? tourism city? Agricultural city? industrial city? historical city? Craft City?
Every brand needs time to be built. The minimum time to create a brand at the national level is two to three years. It takes more time to brand the handicrafts of the province.
In your opinion, which of Lorestan handicraft products can be branded?
For this issue, handicraft products from Lorestan that are nominated for branding must have two characteristics. The first feature is to be desired by the customer and the second is that when we introduce that product as a brand, do we have the ability to offer it? This ability to provide means that we do not have restrictions on its production.
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