CTCS 517: Nation Branding

Consumerism portrayed in The Persuaders is directly related to products you can physically buy, with real money and in real time; products that are made for self-satisfaction consumption. For example, Coca-Cola, Absolut Vodka, Song Airlines. All these products are being branded as something more than the product itself. They represent feelings, emotions, status; and by choosing to consume them, the buyers are making a statement of who they are or who they aspire to be.

But what happens when what you are trying to brand is something you can’t buy, like a country? You are trying to “sell” foreign audiences your culture, your touristic attractions, your investment market, your language, etc. Nation Branding is a relatively new concept, although the idea has been around for several decades. The aim of nation branding is to “create a clear, simple, differentiating idea built around emotional qualities which can be symbolized both verbally and visually, and understood by diverse audiences in a variety of situations.” In order for nation branding to work effectively, it must include political, cultural, business, and sport activities and apply them in a marketing communication strategy to promote a nation’s image.

Opposite to product branding, there is no tangible offer in a nation brand, hence its attributes are hard to define. Instead, a nation brand could create emotional benefits to its consumer, rather than functional. On the other hand, since someone does not own a nation and the name is not something you can simply change to accommodate you brand, nation branding is done by companies that use the nation’s image and create a nation brand for commercial advantage.

In the past, creating a more or less homogeneous idea of what the identity of a nation was was a relatively easy task. The idea of what “British-ness”, “American-ness”, or “Japanese-ness” entails relied on the stereotypes formed around each nation (British being proper, snobbish, and on time; American being freedom and consumption; Japanese being disciplined and technical). With the increase of migration, the popularization of multiculturalist ideal, and the online connections, these stereotypes are constantly changing. What does British-ness means nowadays with such a multicultural population?

I don’t have the tools to argue against or in favor of consumerism (we can talk in 20 years from now), but at the moment I believe it is the wrong question to ask. Rather than good or bad, right or wrong, we could ask how is that changing the societies we are living in. Consumerism has gone beyond buying a Coca-Cola, it has transformed even they way we refer to a nation or a country. What are the benefits we are getting from this consumerist way of life and what are we missing?

To see more about nation branding campaigns:

Cool Brittania- United Kingdom, 1990’s- On Nation-Branding