Nation Branding is the systematic and coherent management of perceptions surrounding a Country, Nation, or City that is inherent of political and social domains. In other words, Nation Branding and City Branding pursue not only economic goals, but offer a governance tool for development of territories through social, cultural, and environmental policies.
Both within academic debates and political praxis, there is a lack
of consensus on the notions of Nation Branding and City Branding, even about the name itself, varying from Destination or City Marketing to Country Branding and Place Branding. Some authors approach Nation Branding as a practice related to the nation formation processes and the national identity re-construction in the transnational context, others mainly associate it with the turning of politicians toward soft power, more critical reflections attribute Nation Branding to a model of governance that employs free market principles for the development of Countries, Regions, and Cities.
What is Nation Branding after all? The answer is a combination of all of these things.
-
Nation Branding Concept
-
Nation Branding Objectives
-
Nation Branding and Nation Marketing
-
Nation Branding Strategy
-
Nation Branding Terminology
Nation Branding concept
The modern hypercompetitive reality urges Places and Countries to look for new ways to stand out on the global scene, to find ‘unique’ traits that would distinguish them in the race for exports, investment, talent, and tourist attraction.
Countries aspire to build strong Nation Brands to foster and sustain primarily their economic growth, and to change the current position on the global mental map of developed/developing, advanced/backward countries for a more favorable one. In other words, to align perceptions about the country among global audiences with reality that people build and experience; very frequently, these two poles don’t coincide.
Slide 2
The quick, brown, bizarre, and thunderbird fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Slide 3
The quick, brown, charlotte, and red fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Nation Branding and Nation Marketing
Another confusion is that Nation Branding has a pure promotional function, and that a great advertisement campaign will solve all problems: Countries start investing money into marketing activities that might have a short-term effect but will not evoke “love” for a Nation or Country.
Nation Brand is about vision, what a Nation wants to be known for externally, what distinguishes it, what makes people proud of — the Central Idea ©. The Central Idea © should derive from national identity, not by artificially created images or statements.
Slide 2
The quick, brown, bizarre, and thunderbird fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Slide 3
The quick, brown, charlotte, and red fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The Central Idea © is the emotion, an unpronounced feeling that is evoked every time your audiences interact with a country. It flourishes all actions, activities, and policies that constitute Nation Brand. The schematic division between Nation Branding and Marketing is also applicable to a City Brand.
Slide 2
The quick, brown, bizarre, and thunderbird fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Slide 3
The quick, brown, charlotte, and red fox jumped over the lazy dog.
