Pre-Olympic positioning

Yekaterina Tesemnikova. Exclusively to VK

“Hot. Cool. Yours” – the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic slogan which was presented 500 days ahead of the Games – sounds not so dusty. In Russian it sounds a bit crooked – “Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi” (Warm. Winter. Yours.) The deputy of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport and the Youth Affairs, Robert Shlegel, told Russian journalists that the slogan “is hardly can be called genius”: “It is a surprise that those who created the slogan used the word “hot” about the Winter Olympics. Probably they counted on some creativity. I cannot say it is genius or wonderful. I don’t think it marks the Olympic movement. Neither fish nor flesh.”

However, the head of the organizational committee Sochi-2014, Dmitry Chernyshenko, insists that it is “bright and creative phrasing.” The developers of the slogan state that it reflects the national character of Russia, the value of the brand of Sochi-2014, and the innovation approach to holding the Olympics.

At the same time, it is still unclear whether this slogan is oriented at internal consumers or foreign positioning. As for the last, until recent time composing of the pre-Olympic image of Russia has been successful. What a wonderful cultural performance was presented in the Sochi Center during the 30th Olympic Summer Games in London. It showed that multicultural Russia is unknown for the world. The initiators of London concerts of the Adyg ensemble Islamei said that after the end of one performance an Englishman told them: “This group is not from Russia, they have different music, and they don’t look like you. Why do you present them as if they are from Russia?” “They are our people! Our Circassians!” the organizational members had to explain.

The Olympic organizational committee acts within the strategy of “soft power” which elements have many times been announced at the top level. According to Russian Premier Medvedev, “the image of the country has practical significance. There are many examples when projects with Russian participation – Nord Stream – were hampered because the societies of some states considered them cautiously. Experts state that Russia belongs to countries with high investment potential which we cannot realize, unfortunately. Foreign investment inflows do not correlate with this potential. The lack of investment is connected with image and reputation losses which we suffer.”

Improvement of the image concerns the Sochi Olympics directly. It is interesting that ahead of the parliamentary elections in Georgia experts said that Rossotrudnichestvo which deal with forming the image will have to develop the strategy of support of Games 2014 in nearest months. They predicted that Tbilisi’s boycott might be supported by some other countries on the grounds of unsettlement of environmental and security problems, human rights violation and the Circassian problem. However, now it is unclear whether Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to continue promotion of the idea of “genocide of the Circassian people.”

Today cultural-sporting projects – the Caucasian Games, for instance – are called for working on the positive image of Russia. This year the games were held in Nalchik within the cultural program of the Sochi Olympics. According to Arsen Konokov, the head of Kabardino-Balkaria, the Caucasian Games became one of the most popular sporting events in the  North Caucasus.