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Tyler Moon, Gina Brereton, Byron Dang, Chelsea Dovidio, Trevor Lewis, Danielle Anderson, Michael Potter, James Williams, Jimmy Yaji
= __ What does it Mean When a Country Brands Itself? __ =

Introduction

We live in a world where globalization has changed the way people do business, the way jobs are created, and the way countries compete with one another. In this growing interconnected world, countries are finding it almost impossible not to compete with each other on some level. Whether it is one country competing for more tourism or another competing for more foreign investment, countries are quickly adopting many corporations’ strategies when it comes to selling itself and branding.

Today, whether people like it or not, most countries have started to brand themselves like products and services have in the past. Since most tourists and foreign investors do not have the time nor the money to learn everything about a new country before investing or visiting, it is more cost efficient and easier for them to by-pass all of the details and read a few simple identifying factors about the country of interest. Countries that want to be successful have realized this and started developing images that fit their desired goal or business model. For example, an article by Change Agent ( [] ) lists some of the most common clichés or branding images people identify with certain countries: “France is about fashion, Italy is about style, America about power and money, Germany about engineering and Japan about technology” (Change Agent, 2006). = =

The Basis of Branding

The basic principle behind a country branding itself is much like a corporation branding a product. Creating a simple yet memorable image that appeals to the target market of tourists, consumers or foreign investors is a key component in the branding process. Like many of us have learned in beginning advertising or marketing classes, brands offer a kind of image often times that have personalities and faces like humans. Brands enable the consumer to feel better about his or her purchase and create a type of connection between the two. The consumer gets to know the personality of the brand and with that generally knows what to expect. With this information the consumer makes a conscious choice whether or not to buy. In all reality one can think of everything in the world as having a brand, even you and me. What type of image that a person puts out will determine how valuable they will be in all facets of life: the job market, relationships and in friendship circles. What you are known for influences who and what invests in your time and money. The same goes for products and the same for countries.

So it is less about a country trying to sell itself as it is countries creating an image that creates a more attractive face for tourism, investors and consumers. It is said that one of the most important things in life are good first impressions. The cliché statements/brands that Change Agent described above are often times many people’s first encounter with a country. The key is to develop a concentrated target market and then base your brand off of those markets wants and desires. A good brand does and so does a successful country. An article about nation branding in Forbes magazine says it best, “A country's image as a reliable player in global economic affairs and an agreeable place to visit creates a virtuous circle that makes it desirable to live and make business there, thereby attracting partners and qualified professionals” (Analytica, 2010) Brands are important for products, people and now countries.

** Nation branding includes ** []

• place – geography, tourist attractions; • natural resources, local products; • people – race, ethnic groups; • history; • culture; • language; • political and economic systems; • social institutions; • infrastructure; • famous persons (the face); • picture or image 

 References

1. A 1. Analytica, O. (2010, June 30). Website is Key for Countries. In Forbes. Retrieved April 18, 2011, from http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/29/branding-countries-economy- business-oxford-analytica.html

2. Branding a Country (2006, March). In Change Agent. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://www.synovate.com/changeagent/index.php/site/full_story/branding_a_country

3. Fan, Y. (2005, March). Branding the Nation:What is Being Branded?. Retrieved April 21, 2011, from http://www.commlex.com/kaneva/YingFan.pdf

__ **A Positive “Nation Brand” = A Positive for the Country** __

According to Simon Anholt, a nation branding expert from the UK, the modern way of thinking is “to think of a country as a brand that’s got a franchise and a personality” (Anholt, 2009). By doing so, a strong nation brand can have many positive outcomes for the country as a whole. According Anholt mentions six areas that a country is measured: exports, governance, culture, people, tourism and immigration/investment.

One of the most prevalent advantages of a country with a strong brand is an increase in tourism. By having a positive strong nation brand, more people will want to visit your country, and will think of your country when planning a vacation. With the increase in tourism comes a need for more local jobs which in turn helps to stimulate the economy. Nation’s brand images can help turn an economically suffering nation into a thriving one. Take Croatia, for example, who after going through a period of war in the 1990’s, was perceived very negatively in the eyes of most people. However, after positioning themselves as a great tourist destination with beaches and small towns, their economy started to pick back up and tourism was on the rise. Their negative image was turned into an attractive place to visit and do business in a very short period of time.

While some countries, such as United States, UK, or France, take decades to form their brand based on their long history and culture, according to Thomas Cromwell and as seen in the Croatia example: “it is possible for a country to shape its brand in a relatively short time if it has a clear strategy to do so and devotes the necessary resources to the task.” Either way, a strong national brand has many advantages to the country as a whole and should help to define “who” the country is and what they stand for.

References

1. Anholt, S. (2009). Nation Branding: Branding Australia. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from http://nation-branding.info/2009/02/18/branding-australia/

2. Cromwell, T., & Kyriacou, S. (2009). The Concept and Benefits of Nation Branding. In East West Communication. Retrieved April 21, 2011, from http://eastwestcoms.com/res_the_concept.htm

**__ How Technology Impacts a Nation’s Brand Equity __**

With the advancement in technology, many countries around the world are able to develop very quickly. The ability to urbanize over a small time frame allows for a rapid change in direction of a country. Also, the ability to connect and communicate with people around the world through the use of technology allows for increase in tourist traffic. The harnessing of today’s technology can and will increase a country’s brand value. Because of the Internet, telecommunications and other advancements in communication in the past decade have really had a positive impact on nations looking to increase their brand image. Countries have constructed integrated campaigns to increase their nation’s brand equity.

Dubai is a perfect example of what technology can accomplish for a country’s brand. Over the last 15 years, an explosion of urbanization has increased the value of Dubai. With the building of skyscrapers, luxury hotels, shopping malls, and man-made islands, the city state has become “a top tourist destination and a shopping Mecca—a New York/Las Vegas/Miami rolled into one,” (Bagaeen, 2007). Dubai has become an “instant city” in the last decade; this is incredible compared to major cities around the world that developed over centuries. With the combination of a favorable geographic location and a growth oriented government, Dubai has allowed for foreign investment in real estate to create one of the top tourist attractions around the world. The way Dubai has done this is by branding itself, “…as a successful city state and has turned itself into a transport hub,” (Bagaeen, 2007). The success of Dubai’s brand image has been the result of successful, luxurious urbanization of its city, as well as its use of technology and marketing, which has attracted over 5 million tourists per year. Also, Dubai expects over 15 million tourists per year by 2020.

**Dubai : Source Flikr.com Creative Commons By: Andrey http://bit.ly/jumfUt**

Dubai has used the internet to market itself as a “must see” destination. The Government of Dubai established the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in 1997, which its sole purpose is to plan and supervise the development of the tourism market. Through online interactive marketing, the department has developed popularity and traffic to its website (www.duabitourism.ae), Facebook page (over 213,000 likes) and eventually to its country. This use of technology has led to the incredible development and investment in Dubai over the last 15 years. As a result, Dubai’s brand image and popularity around the world is on the rise and far from its peak.

**Dubai Cityscape Source: Flickr.com Creative Commons By: Crazy Diamond** [|**http://bit.ly/klXZZI**]



Another example is Germany. In 2006 Germany was the host of World Cup. They wanted to transform from “old and archetype” to more of a modern sense. Not only did this help the country update its infrastructure but it also created jobs and brought in a lot of revenue to the country. For example, “In its 2006 financial report FIFA reported event-related revenues for the 2003-2006 period of about 2.986 billion CHF; 1.66 billion alone from TV rights for the 2006 World cup and 714 million from marketing rights” (Schwetz, 2008). New upgrades to existing stadiums, increased demand for security, etc. all created jobs for the German people.

** Sttutgart, Germany Source Flickr.com Creative Commons By: Lux Tonnerre **[|**http://bit.ly/maV3a7**]

Germany radically transformed its image ever since 2006. They have a campaign on Facebook dedicated to travel, their website is high in rich media, and they are also on Twitter. Their social sites allow tourists to interact with Germans or other possible tourists on what to do in Germany and must see spots. A country’s website not only has the capabilities to research what a country has to offer but it gives the prospective consumer a first glimpse and image of what the country is all about. Most country’s websites are very interactive and have high amounts of rich media and graphics embedded in the site. Even consumers can book travel, all done on the site.

** Nuremberg, Germany Source Flickr.com Creative Commons By: Cigornia ** [|**http://bit.ly/j6wBtc**]



References

1. Bagaeen, Samer. Brand Dubai: The Instant City; or the Instantly Recognizable City. 2007. International Planning Studies Vol. 12, No. 2, 173–197. St. Mary’s, University of Aberdeen, UK.

2. (2011, April). In Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Retrieved April 19, 2011, from http://www.dubaitourism.ae/ 3. Schwetz, W., & McGuire, D. (2008, November). FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 GERMANY: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR UNION REVITALISATION. Retrieved April 19, 2011, from http://www.global-labour-university.org/fileadmin/GLU_Working_Papers/GLU_WP_No.5.pdf

**__ Pros and Cons of a Country Looking to Increase “Brand” Value __** **__ (Social and Economic) __**

For approximately the past decade, countries have adopted the idea of branding themselves. There are multiple reasons but among the highest is a social and economic purpose. Countries today have taken the initiative to treat themselves as a company and campaign themselves as large national and international firms do.

Example: Let’s start small then go big. You’ve seen the California commercials and how ‘us’ Californians want other Americans to come visit with the Arnold quoting, “when can you start?” Now go bigger. Think of a country, countries for that matter that have used themselves as a brand to increase their social and/or economic status. How about South Africa last year advertising their country around the world as they hosted the famous FIFA World Cup?

There have been many countries that have gone about creating value for their company through branding. Below are some examples.

__Sports__ 1. The Olympics 2. FIFA World Cup 3. Stanley Cup 4. World Baseball Classic



__Vacation and Travel__ 1. London 2. Sydney 3. Milan 4. Paris

__Festival and Events__ 1. Octoberfest –Germany 2. Royal Wedding- England 3. The Vatican

Social Pros

The pros to creating and increasing your country as a brand for social and economic reason start off with just getting travelers from around the world to visit your country and for any reason. The country can create the reason such as a sports or festival event or the traveler visits for their own reason. Socially, revolves around the “going with the flow” theme. It also makes the country stay up to date with enhancing the community and keeping up patriotism for their country. Social Cons

The cons to this may be that money spent of tourism and the overall appearance of the country by the outside community, meaning other countries, shouldn’t be a priority in the financial budget or in fact even needed. The campaign also needs to match the country and any bad publicity on a country would be the ultimate political mess. Another con is an uncontrollable. What others think about a certain country or people is out of that country’s control but their whole purpose of a social campaign to build brand value is to of course eliminate this problem.

Economic Pros

The pros here are much simpler. Any social pro automatically leads to a pro in economics. Tourism is huge in contributing to a countries economic welfare. There are places around the world that attract major tourism and some places solely depend on tourism to keep the country stable. Of course other things than tourism can help. Products, domestic companies, and the sort create major economic value. Take Germany and BMW. Not much needs to be said here. How about Holland and Heineken beer? Economic Cons

The cons to increasing your brand for economic purposes would be that your social is not working, which may dampen your economic value. Now in relation to another pro, if a domestic company or a domestic company that has off shore headquarters, such as British Petroleum, may leak responsibility and turn heads towards the country with that company. Why didn’t regulations and laws help prevent what happened in the Gulf with the BP oil spill. Many looked at England to take action to fix this problem.

**__Group Video__**

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__** Conclusion **__ A range of basic principles including demographics, politics, and culture has influenced the techniques of countries branding themselves via social media today. As we have seen, Dubai’s use of the internet was a first in advertising a country’s brand. Germany’s use of Facebook today has increased their tourism revenue and intrigued foreigners to socialize with their citizens to cultivate more interest and knowledge of their country.

Innovative states like California may have influenced countries such as South Africa to brand themselves via television commercials in addition to social media sources.

Ultimately, social advances for a country have a positive effect on economic advances for that same country. It is important to note that everyone and everything is a brand-worthy commodity in our vastly diverse and ever-growing world of media technology.