South Africa is Africa’s most valuable country brand, study says

South Africa was named Africa’s most valuable nation brand last Wednesday (May 25th, 2011) at the announcement of the fourth BrandFinance Global Nation Brands League. The BrandFinance Global Nation Brands League’s valuation is conducted every year by Brand Finance, an independent brand valuation consultancy. Now in their fourth year, the league covers a global sample…

Branding the Nenets region

We continue to look North. Some weeks ago we imagined how a country sitting around the Arctic Sea would be like if ruled by Tyler Brûlé (the Nippon-Nordic Confederation) and now we look at a region which could enter the confederation thanks to its Arctic credentials. In truth, we don’t normally look at anything below…

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…

Why Costa Rica is a winning brand

Dorie Clark, CEO of Clark Strategic Communications, is a marketing and communications consultant. She’s written a small piece on why Costa Rica is a winning brand from the touristic point of view: I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica — and along the way, discovered that almost everyone I know has either traveled…

2010 Country Brand Index released

It’s November and it’s time for the annual Country Brand Index to be released, as we announced on our Early Results from the 2010 Country Brand Index post. This index is a yearly study made by FutureBrand, a global brand consulting firm, and is based upon a global quantitative research study with 3,400 international business…

Ukraine launches new nation brand identity

The Ukranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a new nation branding identity for Ukraine. The accompanying website, BrandUkraine.org, features the main elements of the new Ukranian brand identity, from logos to images, and from color palettes to ornamental shapes. The website, however, has been criticized in Ukraine because of its non-obvious navigation pattern and…

Does your country need some nation branding?

This week I wrote about 12 recipes for country branding – that is 12 ways to ‘brand’ your country and take the appropriate measures to prompt your country’s image to move towards the desired direction. But, how do you know that your country needs some country branding? You aren’t sure about it? Maybe it’s hard…

How the new Brand Australia logo may apply

On Wednesday we informed about the new ‘Brand Australia’ nation branding concept. As part of the initiative, a new logo has been introduced to brand all things the country wants to tag as ‘Australian’ to convey the country’s new image tactics. The logo, as we explained, symbolises the country’s growth and expansion. “It embraces the…

Brand Ireland is as good as gold

Ireland is on the spotlight lately from a nation branding perspective, and not only because of its beautiful green fields and good beer. The country has gone financial turbulences in the last months, and the country is in a process of re-thinking itself. This is a process other countries like Greece, Iceland and Dubai, which…