Colin Roberts from the cultural partnership Bewnans Kernow said at a recent conference event that, “Cornish identity is a very powerful marketing tool. We need to understand how Cornish distinctiveness is used – and how it can be used even more – in all aspects of business. Many businesses had woken up to the benefits of playing on strong “Cornish Values”
Ginsters - Promoting Cornwall
Among others, high profile speakers at the event included Council chief executive Kevin Lavery, VisitCornwall chief Malcolm Bell (Head of VisitCornwall) and Proper Cornish chairman, Phil Ugalde.
The conference explored the competitive advantages that can be gained by understanding and using Cornwall’s inherent characteristics, and how Cornish culture and identity and Cornish business can co-operate further in order to develop and maximise both economic potential and cultural distinctiveness.
It’s a fact that many large businesses in Cornwall already use these competitive advantages. Companies such as Ginsters, Pendennis Superyachts and Proper Cornish, (who are the UK’s leading handmade Cornish pasty manufacturer) are using Cornish words, place-names and symbols to promote and present a confident, outward facing Cornwall to the wider world.
Cornish sports are also promoting Cornwall, including Truro City FC, Lanson RFC.
A distinctive Cornwall Blaze Marque has been created to identify leading companies in the Duchy that not only promote Cornwall’s business credentials, but also help challenge perceptions that Cornwall is purely a tourist destination. Eligibility criteria have been created to establish which businesses can hold the Blaze Marque.
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The Cornish Blaze Marque
To encourage the promotion of Cornwall, any funding or planning permissions should be dependant on how much a businesess intends to promote Cornwall. Funding could be witheld from companies that use bland names like ’Westcounty’ ’South West’ or ‘Heartlands’ these ‘brands’ do nothing and say nothing about Cornwall.
