Nation branding as a market-shaping strategy: A study on South Korean products in Vietnam

Abstract

This paper focuses on a topic that has been largely overlooked in the contemporary marketing literature: the role of the state in shaping markets. While a growing body of research offers alternative perspectives about markets from the neoclassical perspective, it ignores the degree of embeddedness of the state in markets. In view of this theoretical gap, we investigate the market-shaping activities of states in emerging economies. Our context is the creation of a Korean cultural product market in Vietnam. Based on a document analysis of the nation branding projects of Korea and Vietnam, we investigate how these states are involved in shaping Vietnamese markets for Korean cultural products through their international and national activities. The findings reveal that whereas the Korean state is mobilizing and building diplomatic ties to promote the Korea’s image in Vietnam through its cultural products, the Vietnamese state profits from these products for its East Asian oriented cultural policy. Three actions are being taken by the Vietnamese state: (1) controlling the distribution of Korean cultural products, (2) framing media producers’ and consumers’ behaviors, and (3) creating a network of collaboration between selected Korean and Vietnamese media producers. Through their nation branding practices, the Vietnamese and Korean states act as institutional entrepreneurs in shaping the Vietnamese market for Korean cultural products.