Gogouyave.com's Forum
Our first marketing debacle must have begun with Christopher, laying the ground-work to convince his two accomplices, Isabella and Ferdinand of the riches to be had if only they would support his endeavor of a conquest.
His East by West plan was undoubtedly the beginning of a perceptual debacle that had incorporated the entire Caribbean islands; from his alleged discovery to his naming and mischaracterization of the people as West Indian. On his return to Spain, no one could have been the wiser as he sold the idea of the existence of a rich Indian race and culture in the West waiting to be plummeted. Since then and with the advent of our African Slave Forefathers in the region, no one even bother to see the eventual oxymoronic confusion it would lead too.
“Black ‘West Indians’ with African heritage and Voodoo Dolls in hand, Stick Fighting and dancing to Shango Drums”.
Fast forwarding, a few months ago, we learned that our government, with the help of some marketing specialist from Barbados (I believe) had embarked on implementing a new initiative to showcase our Grenada to the rest of the world. This came in light of world renowned Formula 1 Car Racing Driver, Louis Hamilton's adoption of Grenada (Grand Roy to be exact)in recognition of his parents birthplace and the recent exposure Kirani James had given to us after winning our first gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. Our government thought that it would be prudent to seize the opportunity resulting from the contribution of these two men and have it coincided with its "new" Home Grown Economic Program; all of this, while simultaneously revisiting our established logo as "Grenada, The Isle of Spice". They thought the time had come to replace it with, among all things...."Pure Grenada" and after much to the chagrin and complaints of many Grenadians, decided to change it again, this time, to "Pure Grenada, the Isle of Spice".
But still, it did not end there, because some of our more learned Grenadians in the Marketing Profession, quickly reminded us that there are marked differences between a "logo" vis a vis ,a "brand" and as the latter was not addressed with any specificity by our government, the logo changed initiative was at best, making a moot point.
So what does Pure Grenada, the Isle of Spice really mean? For one thing, it implies that what the world was receiving from us all along (as little as it was) had some measure of impurities hence not a true reflection of what we had to offer. Another interpretation could be that the uniqueness of our products indicates some level of specialty, giving us a clear advantage over our competitors. But even that may not be the case because to think of ourselves as the isle of spice carries with it an abundance of variety for which we are a great distance behind .......say, Jamaica for example. Worse yet, we have been plagued with a series of devastating hurricanes (the last being Emily and Ivan) that reaped havoc on our agricultural industry. And even though we have rebounded quite nicely with increased production in some of our major products _chiefly Nutmeg_ we still remain lagging behind our competitors in most other countries.
So this brings us to the associative 'purity' of this newly adopted logo as it may pertain to the natural esthetic beauty of the flora and fauna of our country; somewhat recognized in our past marketing strategy, only this time it had require a new perception with a new meaning and purpose. A promotion of our strengths; our contributions and our talents; something which had remained hidden/un-noticeable from the rest of the world and it is precisely with this line of thinking where I would make a case for our town of Gouyave also.
"The Real Gouyave" (as I would refer to it, with all its positive attributes of our separatist attitude-‘We have we Bellie’
that little town of ours, with its long established tradition of self-reliance that seems to mesmerize visitors from all over the world must position itself to claim its rightful place in the Pure Grenada. This line of thinking may have been preceded by that of our Dr. John Wright’s “conversational balloon” on this very same idea of a revised perception.
The question of whether it was time for our Gouyave to be regarded for accomplishments other than the traditional “Fishing Town” that many have become accustomed to hearing was enough for a re-visitation of his sentiments in that same manner of this Pure Grenada Logo initiative. No one can deny that we have, sitting among us, without the fan-fare of notoriety and glamor, some of the more brilliant minds Grenada has to offer. And particularly, if we were to view the contributions from our L`Anse alone, they would be the envy of whole other Parishes in Grenada.
