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…
A recent story on The Media Line featured on how Middle Eastern countries have been tapping professionals to polish their public images in recent years. With its popular reputation as a hotbed of religious extremism, war, terror and political repression, the region naturally seems to be fertile soil for rabid image wizards. Because of the…
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…
Lebanon was ranked in 194th place among 200 countries and territories around the world and in 18th place among 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the third quarter of 2010, according to the 2010 edition of the Nation Brand Perception Index (NBPI). Lebanon also came in 41st place among…
