Nation branding

Nation branding describes the attempt to create an image for a state that is comparable to that of a trade mark by using communication techniques from brand technology . The aim is to positively influence awareness of and trust in a country abroad in order to promote tourism , exports and investments by foreign entrepreneurs and to be perceived as a positive actor in political relations with other countries.

Nation branding ties in with existing, mostly diffuse, judgments and images about a state and a nation. Existing characteristics of a state such as its political structure, culture and geography are taken into account as well as the population, which is also a target group for nation branding. Because for a successful nation branding, the own population must also convey the desired image credibly.

In contrast, according to the political advisor Simon Anholt, German attempts like Du bist Deutschland or Land der Ideen are directed too much inward. Anholt himself is critical of nation branding today, because the image of a country cannot simply be improved with marketing campaigns, but rather "what cities and countries do and not what they say".

In Switzerland, Presence Switzerland was founded in 2000 as a state institution to manage and coordinate nation branding.

Nation Brands Index (NBI)

rank	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008
1	DEU	DEU	DEU	United States	United States	DEU	United States	United States	United States	United States	United States	DEU
2	FRA	JPN	FRA	DEU	DEU	United States	DEU	DEU	DEU	DEU	FRA	FRA
3	CAN	GBR	GBR	GBR	GBR	GBR	GBR	GBR	GBR	FRA	DEU	GBR
4th	GBR	FRA	CAN	CAN	FRA	FRA	FRA	FRA	FRA	GBR	GBR	CAN
5	JPN	CAN	JPN	FRA	CAN	CAN	CAN	CAN	JPN	JPN	JPN	JPN
6th	United States	ITA	United States	ITA	JPN	JPN	JPN	JPN	CAN	CAN	ITA	ITA
7th	ITA	United States	ITA	JPN	ITA	ITA	ITA	ITA	ITA	ITA	CAN	United States
8th	SUI	SUI	SUI	SUI	SUI	SUI	SUI	SUI	OUT	SUI	SUI	SUI
9	SWE	SWE	OUT	OUT	OUT	OUT	OUT	OUT	SUI	OUT	OUT	OUT
10	OUT	OUT	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE	SWE

Simon Anholt 2012

In order to measure the reputation and image of a country in a wide variety of areas, Simon Anholt developed the Nation Brands Index (NBI). The first index was published in May 2005 and then updated quarterly. In 2008, Simon Anholt merged with the American branch of GfK in New York and publishes the study as the Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index (NBI) only annually.

In 2008, the index collected data from an online survey of 20,000 people in 20 countries (1,000 per country). The survey participants rated 50 selected nations on the following criteria:

• Culture (also sport)
• Politics / government
• Economy (products / export items)
• population
• Immigration and Investment Potential
• tourist attractiveness.

According to the Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index (NBI) from autumn 2008, Germany had the best image of all nations worldwide, thus confirming the position from the study in the last quarter of 2007. In 2017, Germany rose to first place, the USA, which had previously been first back to sixth place.

Simon Anholt is also the author of several other indexes dealing with the image of places. Among other things, he publishes a City Brand Index and a Good Country Index every year .

literature

• David A. Aaker : Management of the Brand Value , Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-593-34706-7 .
• David A. Aaker: Building Strong Brands. Simon & Schuster, New York 2002, ISBN 0-7432-3213-5 .
• Simon Anholt: Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions. Palgrave Macmillan, London 2006, ISBN 0-230-50028-5 .
• Simon Anholt, Jeremy Hildreth: Brand America. The Mother of All Brands. Cyan Books, London 2004, ISBN 1-904879-02-0 .
• Franz-Rudolf Esch : Strategy and Technology of Brand Management. 5th edition. Vahlen Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8006-3537-5 .
• Ying Fan: Nation Brand: What is being branded? In: Journal of Vacation Marketing. Volume 12, No. 1, 2006, pp. 5-14.
• Angelika Gimpl: Nation Branding: Development of a national brand identity with special consideration of public relations using the example of Lithuania, Latvia and Nigeria. Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-5717-9 .
• Mihalis Kavaratzis: Place Branding: A Review of Trends and Conceptual Models. In: The Marketing Review. Volume 5, No. 4, 2005, pp. 329-342.
• Philip Kotler : Marketing Places. Free Press, New York 1993, ISBN 0-7432-3636-X .
• Philip Kotler, Somkid Jatusripitak, Suvit Maesincee: The Marketing of Nations. A Strategic Approach to Building Nation Wealth. Free Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-684-83488-X .
• Heribert Meffert , Christoph Burmann , Martin Koers: Brand Management. 2nd Edition. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-409-21821-1 .
• Nigel Morgan, Annette Pritchard, Roger Pride: Destination Branding. Creating the Unique Destination Proposition. 2nd Edition. Butterworth-Heinemann, London 2004, ISBN 0-7506-5969-6 .
• Wolff Olins: The New Guide to Identity. How to Create and Sustain Change Through Managing Identity. Gower Publishing Company, Hampshire 1995, ISBN 0-566-07737-X .
• Seppo K. Rainisto: Success Factors of Place Marketing: A Study of Place Marketing Practices in Northern Europe and the United States. Espoo 2003.
• M. Spiekermann: Nation Branding: San Marino on the way to becoming a brand. In: CI-Portal (Ed.): Prof. Robert Paulmann. Mainz University of Applied Sciences, 2005.
• Tim Stiehl: Public diplomacy equals nation branding? A theoretical delimitation of two concepts for the external representation of states . VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2011, ISBN 978-3-639-34484-4 .
• Sicco van Gelder: Global Brand Strategy. Kogan Page, London 2003, ISBN 0-7494-4469-X .
• Marianna Melerowicz: National Branding in Poland. In: AICELS Law Review - Journal on Central European Law. No. 1, Rincon (USA): The American Institute for Central European Legal Studies (AICELS), 2009.

Web links

• The "Austrian Brand" - What makes a country attractive. Cover story. In: The Gap . No. 129, September 10, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marlies Fischer: Researcher: Countries are like branded goods…. In: Hamburger Abendblatt. February 18, 2006. (abendblatt.de)
2. ^ Peter van Ham: The Rise of the Brand State: The Postmodern Politics of Image and Reputation. In: Foreign Affairs . September / October 2001.
3. ↑ J. Pennekamp: Creative tension. States are looking for the smartest slogan. In: Hamburger Abendblatt. February 18, 2006. (nationbranding.de) ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Anamaria Georgescu, Andrei Botescu: Branding National Identity. SÖX 203, Masters' thesis, Spring semester 2004, Lund University, Department of sociology, p. 33.
5. ^ Henning Hoff: Sweet Germany. After the soccer World Cup: image change through “nation branding”. In: epd media. No. 64, August 16, 2006.
6. ↑ A picturesque backwater. In: The Gap . September 10, 2012, accessed September 10, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Presence Switzerland .
8. ↑ Simon Anholt: Germany from the outside. Brand integrity. In: Journal for Culture Exchange. No. 3 + 4, 2005.
9. ↑ Image study: Germany has the best reputation. In: The Sueddeutsche. (sueddeutsche.de)
10. ↑ Germany in first place in the image ranking. Anholt-GfK Nation Brands Index (NBI) 2017. (gfk.com)