Brand new country – South Sudan

It’s official now. Throw your atlases to the bin – they’re useless now. A new country’s born today. It’s provisionally called South Sudan, which will be the baby country’s name while a better, proper name is found (to have a look at the South Sudan’s naming issue, you can read this previous story: Naming a…

Can a nation be rebranded?

A brand is a mental blueprint for consumers. Virtually anything can be branded. Branding can be organic. Branding can be deliberate. Branding is malleable to an extent. You can virtually brand anything including products, people and objects. Nations, too, come branded, sometimes willfully and sometimes by accident. A nation gets a brand identity based on…

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,…

What are ‘touchpoints’ in nation branding?

Branding specialists like to refer to ‘brand touchpoints’ as the instances when consumers interact with a brand. It might be a technical support service, a website, a shop or an employee. When we speak of nation brands, what can be “nation brand touchpoints”?  Here’s a list that may come in handy: Airline companies Exported goods People…