This is an old story, yet an interesting one. According to the Economist, the European map is outdated and illogical. Here’s how it should look: And here’s the rationale: People who find their neighbours tiresome can move to another neighbourhood, whereas countries can’t. But suppose they could. Rejigging the map of Europe would make life…
Countries like Canada and New Zealand would benefit from a global branding strategy, writes Daryl Copeland. Yesterday evening I was in Gore, a smallish town of about 10,000 way down near the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. The motor camp in which I stayed did not yet have internet service – most…
Last week we published an interview with Wally Olins on his efforts to brand Poland (a project he worked for the Polish Brand Institute (www.imp.org.pl), as well as a short speech by Mr. Olins at a press room. Now it’s time to watch Wally Olins’ full-length keynote speech in Poland. As always, wonderful speech from…
As we reported last Wednesday, a Branding Bulgaria conference was held in Sofia on March 1. The day before, Simon Anholt, one of the participants at the conference, had given a half-day Masterclass to a number of government ministers and business leaders. After his participation in the conference, Mr. Anholt was interviewed by several Bulgarian…
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…
We’ve featured Bulgaria’s efforts to re-brand itself in the past, as when Bulgaria looked for its nation brand symbols back in 2008. Now, a nation-branding conference is to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, next Tuesday March 1st. The event will circulate around issues such as Bulgaria’s image, how it can be improved, what role is…
Following our story on Southern Sudan’s naming issue, readers of the Economist online paper have suggested a number of interesting ideas concerning the newborn country’s name. A pretty conservative reader said, “Like North and South Korea……the “South Sudan” seems good to me.” A reader said Equatoria could be a good name, since it’s a name used…
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…
Branding a nation entails “what is”, “what it stands for”, and “what it is going to be known for”. The director of the Latvian Institute, the country’s office for Latvia’s promotion, Ojars Kalnins, has written a short piece in which he explores how Latvia could find one of its roles on the global stage in…
It’s over two years ago since South Korea launched a nation branding programme. At first, it looked as just another (fake) ‘nation branding’ project consisting of a new logo, a new slogan, some ads and some press releases. But throughout these two years the South Koreans have proved that were bloody serious about branding, and…
We’ve looked at Switzerland’s standings on the Nation Brands Index before (look at the Switzerland at the 2009 Nation Brands Index post for an example). Now it’s time for GenevaLunch, a Swiss blog, to report about the country’s rankings in the 2010 edition of the Nation Brands Index, which evaluates the strength and attractiveness of…
The South Korean government needs to set up a unified source of information on what’s happening here as well as the country’s unique culture and history to meet the growing interest from foreigners following the successful hosting of the G20 summit last November, a Korean public relations expert told a Korean newspaper. “We must ask…
