National Branding

The globalization, describing the process of the increasing linkage between countries
due to modernization, is the formative phenomena at the present. Whereas for the
consumer this development leads to an enlarged range of products and services to
choose from, for the supplier this means an increased competition. Companies have
to install subsidiaries all over the world, in order to participate in this globalized
competition. But not only companies face this strongly competitive structure, nations
also deal with this problem. They have to find right answers for questions like: “Why
should a company invest in our country?”, “Why should a tourist visit our country?” or
“Why should someone want to live in our country?” (Association for Place Branding
and & Public Democracy 2007a, date of retrieval: 06.06.2008). A significant answer
to these questions can be provided by the image of the nation, since every nation
has its perception, history and culture, being responsible for the formation of an
image. According to this image, people have associations about a nation, which
influence them in their decision making process. These associations might not
always be positive, especially in times when the image is for example incorrect or
outdated (Anholt 2006a: 98). Then the image is no longer able to support the nation’s
economical, political or developmental goals.
In order to avoid this, nations have to find new ways to promote themselves, and to
attract the attention of people, might they be tourists, high potentials or investors.
One of these new ways is National Branding. A concept, that already proved its
positive effect on products by increasing the sales volume and the customer
retention, seems to be the right idea for nations to face this challenge.
The following paper deals with the difficulty of adopting the concept of branding for
the national level, and thus to attract the nation’s target group and to mark a decisive
advantage over other nations. The approach is based on a theoretical and practical
chapter about National Branding, and closing up with a possible future development
and a conclusion.