Lithuania launches country branding perfume

We’ve reported about Lithuania’s nation branding issues before. Some proposed the idea of changing Lithuania’s country name back in 2008, London-based Saffron Consultants were hired to develop a strategy for Lithuania’s brand in 2009, and we reported on how that strategy turned into video in 2010. Still today, Lithuania seems to be looking for new…

Interview with a Country Brand Index representative

Last week we reported about BrandingKorea publishing an interesting interview with Xiaoyan Zhao, a representative of the Nation Brands Index. Now it’s turn for Victoria Berry, a representative from FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index, to be interview by Clement Brossard and David Robert. Here are some of the interview’s highlights: About the Country Brand Index’s nature:…

China: Rebranding 101

Even if you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you have heard about China’s impressive economic growth and its continuing rise as an important global player. A few weeks ago, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released an informative report on the disparities between Chinese and American public diplomacy activities today. Most importantly, the report,…

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….

Viva Polonia – Wally Olins on Poland’s re-branding

In the last weeks we’ve tracked Wally Olins (not Wolff Olins as some say) involvement with Poland. We published a video about Wally Olins on Brand Poland, and the following week we published the entire speech (Wally Olins’ keynote speech in Poland). Now here’s an article written by Wally Olins himself on Poland’s nation branding….

Redrawing Europe’s country map

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 According to the Economist, the European map is outdated and illogical.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…

What’s in a nation brand?

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…

Wally Olins’ keynote speech in Poland

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…

Simon Anholt on Brand Bulgaria

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…

Wally Olins on Poland’s country brand

No doubt, Wally Olins is one of the world’s most experienced and influential nation branding experts. He has worked with many countries including Portugal and Poland, but with the latter he’s gone through his ups and downs. He paused his nation branding work for Poland because of political reasons, but also because of  cultural misunderstandings,…

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…

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…