India – Brand that country!

With its impressive performance, Brand India is a recurrent topic on the nation branding field as the rapid changes taking place in the country force old perceptions to be updated and cope with the image of the new India rising. We’ve recently had articles like this one and this one about India’s new image. Now…

The Ripple Effect of Country Branding

Daniel Florian, associate director at the Berlin-based public affairs consultancy Dimap Communications, mentions a study by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) whose conclusions are pretty interesting: A study by the renowned Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) found that a positive image indeed helps to attract multinational companies. “Even after taking into account…

10 tips to improve South Korea’s image

As you all are well aware of, South Korea is embarked in a nation branding project that should enhance its image in a few years time. The country feels a little like the ugly duckling that wants everyone to know it’s really a swan, and it’s investing millions of dollars to upgrade its image so…

Brand Qatar – To B or not to be?

In today’s increasingly global marketplace, where plethora of choice and successful mass production have resulted in thousands of advertising messages bombarding us every day, it is interesting to note the rise of the brand. As a measure of quality, consistency and trust in a company’s products and services, the brand has taken centre stage in…

Branding conference to be held in Belgrade

The 7th International Brand Conference “Branding regions and cities – foreign direct investments, export growth and tourism development” is going to be held on 10 June 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia. This year’s edition is particularly interesting to Nation-Branding’s audience since the Fair has a particular focus on place branding. With the program of highest quality…

Korea’s urge to look better

As most of you known, South Korea is embarked on an ambitious nation-branding project. While the country is almost leading the way by incorporating many good tactics and strategies, it’s also true that the programe has a darker side – the country’s invention of a custom-made nation brands index, something we discussed here. This index…

Brand Bulgaria conference held

Bulgaria is one of those countries that emerged to the world after the fall of the Iron Curtain, but that hasn’t made itself an identifiable image yet. The country is now thinking about what’s Bulgaria image now, how it has changed since 1989 and how the country can prompt it to go to the desired…

Top Gear – Mexico episode highlights power of nation brands

The recent episode about BBC’s motor show Top Gear’s remarks on Mexico, Mexicans and Mexican products highlights the sometimes under-valued power of nation brands. The episode vividly showed to what extent countries are haunted by stereotypes and cliches, and how commercial brands and products are many times judged by their country of origin rather than…

A mission for Finland

As we announced on this update on Finland’s nation branding project, the Brand Finland delegation published the results of their work last Thursday, November 25th. The delegation, set up in 2008 by Alexander Stubb, the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, was charged with the task to think and discuss ways to make Finland more visible,…

Brand Africa forum video marathon

Several video clips have been posted on the Internet about the recent Brand Africa forum, and we’ve compiled them all on this video marathon. The first one is made of some cuts from speeches by Dambisa Moyo, Miller Matola and Simon Anholt, and the second one is the nation branding panel’s highlights, while the third…