Nation Branding in the Andean Community: Decision 876 of 23 April 2021 for a Common Nation Brand Regime

On 23 April 2021, the Andean Community, comprised of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, adopted and published Decision 876 regulating the common nation brand regime for its territory. As a result, this integrated bloc of Latin American countries became a pioneer in this area. Decision 876 establishes a common regime for protecting country brands against any possible unauthorized registrations or the use of identical or similar signs in the Community’s Members Countries. It is interesting to note that, unlike other integration blocs in Latin America, the Andean Community has made notable progress in harmonizing regional regulations on intellectual property. In this sense, Decision 876 adds to its extensive legal corpus on the topic, with no similar rule existing in the other integration processes in the region. The Decision sets out the basic criteria related to Member Countries’ and third countries’ nation brands, the procedure for their protection and enforcement, and infringements.

Országmárka-rangsorok a Covid-19 világjárvány idején – „Az az egy fontos: legyetek jók most!”

A termékek és szolgáltatások világában jó ideje megszokottak a márkarangsorok: a top100-as globális márkalistát többek közt elkészíti az Interbrand és a BrandZ-Kantar-WPP is. Az Interbrand 2020-as listájának első öt helyén például az Apple, az Amazon, a Microsoft, a Google és a Samsung áll, őket követi az első, nem technológiai márka, a Coca-Cola. De a BrandZ-Kantar-WPP 2020-as rangsora esetén is hasonló a helyzet, ott az első öt helyezett sorrendje: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Visa. A klasszikus márkarangsorokhoz hasonlóan az országmárkákra is rendelkezésre állnak már toplisták. Sőt, szinte minden évben megjelenik legalább egy új ilyen. Van már Anholt Nation Brands Index, FutureBrand Country Brand Index, Anholt Good Country Index, Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking (Tourism Edition, illetve Trade Edition), Young&Rubicam Best Countries, Reputation Institute Country RepTrak és Global Soft Power Index is. Ezek mindegyikét lehetetlen taglalni egyetlen cikk keretei között, és nem is mindegyiknek van annyira friss országmárka-rangsora, ami már a Covid-19 járványidőszak alatt született, ezért most csak az első hármat vettük górcső alá közülük. A publikáció egyik célja az, hogy magyar nyelven először bemutassa ezek módszertanát, dimenzióit és faktorait, illetve az egyes rangsorok eredményeit, különös tekintettel arra, hogy 2020-ban miként változtak. Az írás másik célja, hogy rámutasson arra, hogy a jó országmárka, a jó országimázs alapja voltaképp nem más, mint maga a jó ország, pontosan ugyanúgy, ahogy egy klasszikus márka esetében is a kiindulópont a jó termék és szolgáltatás.

Open Innovation—An Explorative Study on Value Co-Creation Tools for Nation Branding and Building a Competitive Identity

Nation branding has gained increasing popularity among marketeers, academics, and practitioners during recent decades. However, awareness among multidisciplinary researchers has been raised in the recent past. The purposes of this conceptual study were to address the lack of research on the process of building a competitive identity for nation brands and to suggest the use of open innovation-based approaches, such as value co-creation, as new potential tools for such purposes. This study identifies, discusses, and evaluates two scientific models, the PERFA Framework and the Four Actions Framework, which were originally developed to increase value propositions in organizations, and applies them as suitable tools for nation branding in building a competitive identity. The authors argue that applying open innovation-based value co-creation frameworks will create a solid basis for competitive nation branding, as the method engages multiple stakeholders.

Toward more rigorous country brand assessments: the modified country brand strength index

PurposeThis study focuses on country branding indices. The main purpose of this study is to build an objective country brand strength index using secondary data. The new index, the Modified Country Brand Strength Index (MCBSI), builds on Fetscherin's (2010) Country Brand Strength Index (CBSI) but uses more rigorous methods and design to create a complementary index to be used together with the survey-based Anholt–GfK Nation Brands Index (NBI). The MCBSI also utilized human development, which is an important dimension of country brands not captured by CBSI.Design/methodology/approachThe MCBSI addresses three significant limitations of the CBSI by using an alternative methodology in constructing the index: specifically, it uses weights for the dimensions, longitudinal data, and relative values by dividing each factor by its cross-country maximum.FindingsOur index ranks 131 countries based on the strength of their country brand. A stronger correlation was found between the MCBSI and NBI than between the CBSI and NBI.Practical implicationsOur contribution has strong implications for both policymakers and academic researchers as it provides a tool for assessing the strength of country brands through accurate but less costly data compared to primary data collected by consultancies for country brand strength indices. The MCBSI informs country brand managers regarding how well their country brand performs across a range of critical dimensions, including export, tourism, foreign direct investments, immigration, government environment and human development.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the emerging academic literature on country brand indices. Currently, there is a lack of objective measurement instruments for assessing country brands. The MCBSI is designed for this purpose to complement the NBI by measuring country brands with objective secondary data. Viewed together, the NBI and our index overcome the obvious shortcomings inherent in each method by providing objective, factual data on country brand equity while providing insight into how people socially construct and evaluate nation brands.

Dissemination and consensual perceptions of nation brands: a framework for future research

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to comment on the article by He et al., and to propose a framework for the worldwide dissemination of a nation brand image as a way to understand the nature and resilience of nation brands. Design/methodology/approach The approach is conceptual with illustrative examples. Findings By integrating research on the dissemination of cultural narratives in a power structure with the literature on shared reality and consensual perceptions, this paper develops a framework for future research on the factors that impact the emergence of a consensual image about a nation brand. These factors include the nation’s political and economic power, the widespread adoption of the nation’s language and the nation’s cultural attractiveness. The framework further proposes that these factors positively affect the likelihood that people would develop an image of what they perceive is widely shared about a nation brand, or the shared reality about the image of such nation brand. The framework also elaborates on some of the consequences for perpetuating the nation brand image and for reinforcing brand-affiliative consumption behaviors. Practical implications This paper offers a framework that allows marketers to further understand the worldwide dissemination of nation brands. Originality/value The paper integrates a novel framework with recent findings about the psychology of globalization, opening avenues for future research on nation branding.

Building strong nation brands

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a new conceptual model for nation branding, rooted in the marketing literature, with associated tasks for the nation brand marketer. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on the extant literatures on brand identity systems, cultural branding and brand equity to develop a conceptual model for nation branding. The author also identifies five key challenges faced by the nation brand marketer. Findings Nation branding has captured the attention of policy makers around the world, but has only received limited attention by international marketing scholars. Much of the work on nation branding is done by practitioners who regard nation branding as a separate field of inquiry. The author argues that nation branding is an important emerging new form of branding, and that we should use and adapt the rich branding literature to deepen our understanding of nation branding and develop plans for action. The author proposes a model for nation branding, which consists of six stages. Furthermore, the author identifies five issues that keep the nation brand marketer awake at night. Originality/value The paper integrates three streams of work on branding to develop a new, six-step model for building strong nation brands. For each stage, the key tasks for the nation-branding marketer are identified.

Nation branding: the strategic imperative for sustainable market competitiveness

Purpose Nation branding strategies are gaining priority as an area of research because of increasing market complexities and the rising importance of national competitiveness ranking. The sustainable development of a nation brand, when properly managed, will provide the economic incentive to attract investors, tourists and generate income for local communities. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on delineating the strategic imperatives for sustainable market competitiveness of nation brands. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts an eclectic approach in examining a wider range of factors such as sustainability and market competitiveness to develop a synergistic nation brand. Findings For nation brands to remain competitive, it is essential to understand the key determinants of market competitiveness. These determinants include sustainable tourism factors such as culture, heritage, environmental and integration of internal and external stakeholder groups from the public and private sectors. Originality/value This paper provides a framework for the analysis of sustainable market competitiveness factors of the nation brand. It also provides implications for nation branding and future research agenda.

QUANTITATIVE PERCEPTIONS OF BACKUS’S E-GOVERNANCE MODEL

This study was conducted to determine measures of dispersion for normal distribution of nation brand ranking in line with Backus’s e-governance model adoption. The significance of this study dwells in the quantitative interpretations of Backus’s e-governance model for rebranding African nations. This is an exploratory study, which is based on the emic perspective (author’ s viewpoint) built on literature reviewing and inferential statistics. The results show that the probability for investors to select randomly South Africa as business destination P (RSA) is 35%. The mean of top 10 African nation brands being 61.2; South Africa’s brand variance of 156.8; and standard deviation of 5.8 translates better reputation and positioning from the sample (n).

The Mental Map of National Hierarchy in Europe

Cultural schemas inform people’s perceptions of the hierarchical order of nations, which in turn can perpetuate the power of cultural schemas. We theorise that longstanding, western-centric schemas of development and cultural wealth are tightly linked to people’s perceptions of national hierarchy. We examine European publics’ evaluations of their own and other European countries across many attributes using data from the Nation Brands Index surveys. We find that European publics rank northwest European countries highest on developmental attributes and southwestern European nations highest on attributes of cultural wealth, while they rank eastern European countries lowest in both categorisations. Moreover, we show that publics’ rankings of countries load to two related but distinct factors, the contents of which closely reflect schemas of development and cultural wealth. This evidence suggests that these two distinct schemas are simultaneously present in Europeans’ perceptions of national hierarchy.