, professor of marketing and international business, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada, can talk about for hours. The former Procter & Gamble executive has researched international business expansion and strategy decisions, country equity and branding and place image effects on buyers. Country branding, he says, is just a five-year-old concept and few countries have mastered the art.
"It's a branded world. Previously, systematic country branding happened only in tourism as the place is the product. Now countries are fiercely trying to attract a major share of foreign investments. Another is agricultural exports which were being exported as commodities. But now the country of origin matters a lot especially after the health scares.
"Governments need to certify and validate the quality of the agricultural product ""so country brands make a promise by the producer to deliver consistent quality.
"Another new area is to attract foreign students. It's a significant source of revenue for countries like Australia, the US, Canada and the UK. If the number of foreign students declines, the government takes it seriously. Australia recently spent millions of dollars. It hired a New York-based agency to do research for them. It's a natural interest of the government and business to ensure the image of the country is properly managed.
The early country brands
"Obviously, the developed countries were the first to take up country branding. One example is Belgium, a small but rich country with a large interest in information technology, because of the hundreds of small IT companies there. But Belgium had to tell the world about its IT capability and there was no big global company from Belgium that would do that task. So Belgium launched a new advertising campaign as ".be" "" its international designator on the web, to indicate Belgium's technological advancement.
"Another recent example is Germany's branding after the unification. Germany was apprehensive about being cut off from the rest of Europe because of the role it played in the World Wars. In 2002-03, their campaign centred on its international designator on the web ".de" "" short for Deutschland. They split it into two parts "" "Deutschland Europa""" which illustrated the fact that they were a part of Europe.
"Scotland's work in this area is more systematic than any other country. They researched weaknesses and strengths. The Scots were negatively perceived as obstinate, stubborn and stingy, while courage, bravery and perseverance were the positives. The missing element "" which consumers often look for "" was the spirit of innovation. The Scots said, "We are not as innovative as the Americans. But we are innovative enough to project Scotland's image as an innovative nation." Also they translated "courage" into commercial terms as "courage to fight for the consumer".
"They also got a buy-in from the population through opinion polls. This is crucial. In the case of New Zealand, Canada and the US, the government never bothered to take public opinion in the initial campaigns. That's the starting point. You have to get a diverse group of organisations and individuals to cooperate and collaborate in a joint venture.
Brand Breakers
"Cooperation between business and government towards a joint campaign is a must. One of the reasons is the difficulty in coordination between different departments and interests within government. It is difficult to create and spearhead a single-minded effort towards establishing a country's brand image.
"There are many places where country branding has not worked. A lot of the early campaigns failed. The government officials do not realise that they don't know marketing exceptionally well.
"In my understanding New Zealand's initial campaigns failed. They tried to put the Kiwi bird in their campaigns, but they didn't quite understand the complications. The Kiwi bird would be known well in New Zealand, but would the entire world link New Zealand with the bird? Then they did not have enough industry participation.
"After lukewarm attempts in the initial stages, they seem to be more successful with the "Trade New Zealand" campaign, which is backed by research. That's working because a large number of industries within New Zealand have subscribed to a code of conduct and certification programme. Internationally, their exports have increased substantially.
"Another case is Canada's "Think Canada" campaign that ran for about 10 years with limited resources. It was a programme to make Canadians prefer local products. Over the last few years, they improved many elements of the campaign and got industry participation. A few big retailers started putting signs right at the store racks saying "Prefer Canadian Products". So people actually connected with the advertising. For international markets, it launched a systematic campaign called "Team Canada". This involved trade missions, trade fairs that showcased what Canada was about.
Good Old Branding Logic
"Commercial branding can offer a few lessons "" a good brand is supposed to appeal to different parts of the human experience "" the head (logic), heart (emotions) and the gut (it should make you feel good). That's what a government should do for the country brand. But there are differences between managing a company and a country. The government cannot dictate any terms on how business is supposed to promote itself to maintain the country's image. This means that the government only builds the campaign but cannot deliver on the promise it makes.
"So it must be very careful about what it promises. For example: the nature of the people does not change easily. In the past, Greek tourist destinations have said that Greeks are friendly and open-hearted. But it is difficult to control the behaviour of every individual at the many restaurants and hotels where tourists stay. And you may find Greeks who are not friendly, who turn this entire brand promise on its head.
"Also country branding needs research "" both within the country and how the world looks at it. In Canada, back in the 1980s, plenty of internal research was done on how Canadians looked at Canada. Today, most of the research is done outside Canada; and not internally. Both trends are not good. There has to be a balance. Influencing global opinion and national opinion are important.
"But it would be easiest for a small, compact country without less diversity and money to build a good country brand. Holland or Sweden are perfect examples "" little diversity, uniform geography, no great tussle between government and business. For countries like India and Canada it is a lot harder. Because these countries are large, they are diverse and they don't have many global business brands.
The expatriate brand ambassador
"That's a natural idea but I don't know if there's any serious research to justify this. I have seen just one small study that covered four or five nationalities. That research indicates little scope for migrants becoming brand ambassadors.
"In most cases, they consider themselves citizens of the country in which they are currently based. They might work in specific promotions. But I am not sure how it may help. The first step is detailed research. It requires a lot of collaboration among business and the government."
