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…

Interview with a Nation Brands Index representative

The BrandingKorea.org website, which is an independent publication that monitors and discusses the strategies, activities and challenges related to the promotion of the Korean destination, has published a worth-reading interview with Xiaoyan Zhao, Senior Vice President and Director of the Nation Brand Index study at GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. In the interview, Mr….

Korea wants to shake ‘Korean Discount’ off

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…

Korea urged to revamp overseas PR system

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…

Is Tyler Brûlé a new nation branding evangelist?

The flamboyantly punctuated Tyler Brûlé, the known global style guru and editor in chief of Monocle magazine, has in recent weeks shown strong interest in nation branding and country brands. In ‘Fast Lane’, his weekly column at the Financial Post, the chieftain of “the Lufthansa audience”, as he calls Monocle’s reader base, has touched the…

Branding Is Key For Countries

A country’s ‘brand’ matters whether it is an advanced or developing economy. Successful countries identify their image and key products, and prioritize the appropriate policies to strengthen such attributes. This is a more obvious requirement in some sectors, such as tourism, where countries develop hospitality industries and infrastructure such as convenient airport facilities. However, such…

Update on South Korea’s nation branding project

It’s been about two months since we last reported about South Korea’s nation branding project, so it’s time to make an update. South Korea’s nation branding project is a high-speed train and things occur on a monthly basis. Since its inception in January 2009, the Presidential Council on Nation Branding is operating as a watchtower…

South Korea’s non-stop nation branding programme

No doubt, South Korea’s nation branding project is very ambitious, and the Koreans take it seriously. For instance, the presidential jet, bynamed the “Air Force One” was recently revamped, and the exterior design was supervised by the Air Force and the Presidential Council on Nation Branding too. The Korean branding project is also very active. No month…

Korea: is it legitimate to make your own nation brands index?

Last week we reported that Korea’s nation branding council president Euh Yoon-dae annouced that Korea won’t evaluate the success of its nation branding program against the Nation Brands Index (as it had been previously indicated), but against another index, whose design and creation has been charged to a fellow Korean foundation, the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI)….