When (or if) you think of Lithuania, what springs to mind? Are you trying to remember if its capital is Riga* or Vilnius? Do you vaguely recall its high unemployment and suicide rates or its past as a Soviet pawn?
That's exactly what Dainius Rutkauskas feared.
Which is why he came up with a novel way of rebranding his little country. Lietuvos Kvapas is Lithuania's "national perfume" – or, strictly speaking, its national air freshener, since it is not, Rutkauskas admitted, designed to be dabbed behind ears or on wrists ("though it will do you no harm").
Developed by Rutkauskas and two other Lithuanian entrepreneurs and produced by the French perfumery Galimard, Lietuvos Kvapas – literally, "the scent of Lithuania" – is an attempt to create a positive national brand.
"If I say chocolate and watches, what do you think? Switzerland. If I say Guinness and leprechauns? Ireland. Fish and chips? England. But here in Lithuania we don't have an internationally recognised symbol of our identity," said Rutkauskas. Since the £25 scent went on the market earlier this year, 1,000 bottles have been sold – mostly, said Rutkauskas, to local tourist offices and businessmen keen to improve Lithuania's image abroad.
The prime minister's chief of staff ordered bottles to give to the heads of other Baltic states at a recent summit, and the foreign minister sent one to every foreign ambassador in Vilnius, the capital.
The defence minister even flew 20 vials out to Afghanistan to give Lithuanian soldiers a reminder of home.
The scent is a heady mix of bergamot, wild flowers, ginger, raspberry and grapefruit, with base notes of amber, cedar, sandalwood, patchouli and, intriguingly, "tree moss and tree smoke".
An accompanying range of scented candles have just come on the market – rrp €15 (£13.20) for a big candle and €8 (£7) for a set of tea lights. And a set of soaps and other toiletries are likely to follow.
"The fragrance is a marketing tool," said Rutkauskas. "It's a way of showing the world what we can do. It's a way of promoting Lithuania as a modern country, rather than just an old Soviet satellite state. To many people in the west, Lithuania has a bad image. They read in their newspapers of Lithuanians committing crimes or doing weird stuff. But we are not criminals or bandits.
"We are a modern country with technological knowhow and we want to communicate this to the rest of the world.
"The perfume is unusual. It's a way of starting a conversation."
*No, that's Latvia