The importance of diverse stakeholders in place branding: The case of “I feel Slovenia”

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges in place branding lies in the ability to include stakeholders in brand building process. This is presented in the case of Slovenia, where country brand building was approached from an identity perspective. A three-step approach was employed in order to target three different groups of internal stakeholders: opinion leaders, representatives from selected key areas, and general public. Results from a quantitative study targeting 707 representatives from selected key areas are presented in the main part of the paper. Due to a strong agreement regarding brand identity elements, we assume that Slovenians share a common opinion about what the brand identity elements are. On this basis, the foundations and elements of Slovenian brand identity were built.