Nation Branding Campaigns Research Articles

When the locals are Othered: hybridized representations of Latin American cultures and identities through nation branding

Abstract This study unveils how Latin American countries present to the eyes of educated, English-speaking audiences in the promotion of exports, tourism, and foreign direct investment offerings through different nation branding campaigns. Their invitations to come make use of strikingly similar strategies: (1) the “adventurous” foreigner venturing to explore a new land; and the (2) proud, local citizen, telling the newcomer what is so special about their nation. The main goal of this study is to introduce the concepts of “hybridization” and “equalization” as powerful constructs to analyze hybridized representations of Latin American cultures and identities through nation branding. This study adds to existing research on cultural nation branding, as well as critical-cultural studies that focuses on analyses of the “Other,” outlining the limitations of branding as a mechanism to promote contested and multifaceted constructs such as countries.

Influencer regulations, governance and sociocultural issues in Asia

Influencer regulations, governance and sociocultural issues in Asia

Power Imbalances and Contested Notions of the Nation: Latin American Nation Branding Through the Lens of the Cultural-Economic Model of Public Relations

ABSTRACT Public relations scholars have advocated for a functionalist outlook on nation branding, focused on the effectiveness of campaigns that promote diverse national identities and cultures abroad. However, power imbalances to such approach have been largely neglected in the literature. A critical-cultural approach to these issues is explored in this study, by placing emphasis on the cultural-economic model (CEM) of public relations. Through in-depth interviews with 25 informants involved with nation branding campaigns on behalf of different Latin American countries, this study advocates for an interpretive approach to this subject, by understanding that national identities are nuanced, reflect power imbalances between different actors within a society, and are in constant conflict with each other. This study calls to place more value on the contested notions of the nation that such campaigns represent in the promotion of a country abroad.

Wonderful Indonesia Campaign As Indonesia’s Nation Branding On Digital Media

Social media’s influence on purchasing decisions is on the radar of a multitude of industries worldwide and the tourism industry is no exception. Social media today is become a tool for countries in the world to promote tourism in their countries. Nation branding is a method for countries to differentiate and distinguish themselves from other countries around the world through branding. This phenomenon allowing countries to compete with each other to attract tourist from all over the world. Thus, every country needs special identity and uniqueness that differ a country from another. Indonesia is one of many countries that have been started a nation branding campaign that called ‘Wonderful Indonesia’ in 2011. Head of Ministry of Tourism of Republic Indonesia Arief Yahya stated that, in 2020 Indonesia have targeted 20 million of foreign tourists to come to Indonesia with a projected foreign exchange earnings of 18.5 billion USD (kemenpar.go.id). This study found that Wonderful Indonesia Campaign has been communicated through digital media (Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube). This study describes the channels that were utilized to promote the campaign and gives inputs to optimize the technical and content used in the campaign media.

Oegugin Influencers and pop nationalism through government campaigns: Regulating foreign‐nationals in the South Korean YouTube ecology

AbstractIn South Korea, it has become a growing trend for foreign Influencers to promote Korean cultures, especially through genres like mukbang (livestreamed binge‐eating), beauty vlogs (e.g. “A day in the life of”), reaction (e.g., K‐pop and K‐drama “reacts”). This is observed in popular cross‐platform hashtag streams like “oegugin” [#외국인; “foreign‐nationals”], and “oegugin‐baneung” [#외국인반응; “foreigner reactions”]. While institutions frequently deploy Influencers as ambassadors, the popularity of oegugin Influencers—particularly those of White descent—is prominently observed in South Korea alongside the global popularity of K‐culture. In response, this paper details the emergent interventions toward the development and regulation of the oegugin Influencer ecology, by reviewing the strategic choices of oegugin Influencers when they work with government ministries and companies, especially around nation branding campaigns and contents. Specifically, we consider how the discourse of nation branding and nationalism is being shaped, promoted, and advocated by oegugin Influencers in the form of popular culture, despite Korea's existing racial system, which can be contentious for its entanglements with online hate and xenophobia. Further, we focus on what we call “pop nationalism” as evidenced in the oegugin Influencers' nationalist contents, and discuss how racial boundaries are regulated in the (re)production and consumption of such contents.

A cocreational approach to nation branding: The case of Chile

This case study examines Marca Chile’s nation branding campaign “Chile Que te Quiero” (Chile, I Really Love You). The campaign, that ran between 2016 and 2018, aimed to facilitate dialogue among Chileans around their shared national symbols, traditions, and cultural artifacts to cocreate meaning around their nation brand. In this article, we propose that professionals working in nation branding campaigns should act as facilitators of dialogue among different publics within a country to find points of convergence and divergence around what constitutes the identity of their nation. The key role of dialogue and cocreation of meaning within public relations scholarship is explored.

Creating one nation? Ethno‐national imaginaries, audiences and the critical reception of TV nation branding messages

AbstractAlthough we are aware that nation branding features across the media, discussion and debate continue over its perceived influence in peoples' everyday understandings and lives. This paper, by way of a response, examines peoples' reactions to specific government campaign messages of patriotism and unity designed to combat internal ethnic conflict in Malaysia. Malaysia, at this time, provides a unique subject of analysis as it includes an instance where a domestically focused nation branding campaign is being employed to instigate unity among ethnic groups residing within a country with a history of ethnic conflict and social engineering policies. The project introduces several TV campaign story examples, identified for their prevalence in the 1Malaysia nation branding campaign, to representatives from three prominent ethnic groups in Malaysia to map their responses. The paper finds that group representatives interpret the stories using their shared insider views of the nation or ‘ethno‐national imaginaries’. Their acceptance of, and critical challenges to, the images and narratives of the TV campaign stories are seen therefore to reflect group representatives' wider positions, interests and participation in an ongoing political conflict shaped within the logics of the Malaysian nation.

Policy of nation branding in the Republic of Korea

The current interest in the Korea’s nation branding model is due to the rapid and apparent change of attitude to Korean cultural and industrial products globally. The policy of national branding has been implemented in the Republic of Korea for over 20 years. At the first stage, the creation of a favorable image of the country was supposed to help bringing the high standards of living and a developed economy into line with the predominantly negative assessments of Korea by foreign audiences of potential consumers of Korean products. The “Korea brand” building strategy is realized by the state with the implementation of branding campaigns through partnerships with private corporations. Public-private partnership allows ensuring the continuity of the process due to the mutual interest of the participating parties as raising the status of the “Korea brand” brings both political and economic dividends. In order to shape the social behavior of Koreans, domestic advertising campaigns are also organized in support of the objectives of improving the country’s image. Nation branding campaigns aim at promoting the country’s development goals, gaining international recognition in various fields, and are supported by South Koreans. At the same time, certain aspects and practices of implementing this policy encouraged public debate on the issue with the range of opinions from supportive to critical ones. The desire for international recognition, combined with the participation of many actors in the implementation of nation’s branding policy, often led to the incorrect presentation of Korea, its history, sports, and culture causing unexpected and undesirable results.

Observing Nation Branding Campaigns through Social Media

In a 2019 article titled “Evaluating the effectiveness of China’s nation branding with data from social media”, we looked into the perspectives and attitudes of the netizens on Quora to find out about their attitudes toward China’s national image. A total of 7680 comments to hot topics on Quora were collected during a span of two years. The results of content analysis indicated that the ranking of effectiveness of the different aspects of China’s nation branding is as follows: (1) history, (2) place, (3) language, (4) political and economic systems, (5) culture, (6) people, (7) infrastructure, and (8) social institution. Based on the results of the study, a model for evaluating the success or effectiveness of nation-branding campaigns was proposed.

Nation branding, cultural identity and political polarization – an exploratory framework

PurposeThe objective of this research is to propose a framework which is apt to assess how a nation branding campaign could promote cultural identity by ultimately curbing political polarization.Design/methodology/approachBy relying on a multidisciplinary approach that blends theoretical constructs from different fields the methodology is based on a mixed-method approach whereby the qualitative data stemming from a set of interviews with key-informants is coupled by a survey of Colombian citizens in order to gain in-depth insights over the impact of nation branding on political polarization.FindingsFrom the findings, it emerges that a campaign based on nation branding and targeting domestic citizens could curb political polarization within Colombia, by also fostering cultural identity.Research limitations/implicationsThe study considers only Colombia. To fully assess the robustness of the framework it would be useful to extend the analysis to a broader range of countries and to a wider set of domestic issues.Practical implicationsThe research not only provides in-depth insights on how nation branding can be used effectively in order to curb political polarization but also practical guidance on how a nation branding campaign can be effectively designed. The findings are relevant to policy-makers that have the opportunity to implement informed and educated nation branding campaigns not just overseas, but also to strategically address important domestic issues by engaging the domestic stakeholders.Originality/valueWhile country branding has been extensively investigated within the context of international business, we have a relatively limited understanding of its domestic impact. In contrast to traditional country branding literature, this paper aims to theoretically advance our understanding of nation branding and its effect on political polarization, as well as gauging its impact on cultural identity.

The PowerPoint Nation: Branding an Imagined Commodity

In the formation of the modern nation state and the social imaginary of nationalism in the nineteenth century, the media and representational practices have, among most scholars, been ascribed a prominent position. The question is, however, how have changes in media technologies, from mass media to digital and interactive personal media, impacted on the national imaginaries over the past few decades? This article discusses what happens with the social imaginaries when national(ist) symbols are reproduced through the medium of PowerPoint, as one of the main tools for constructing images of the nation in nation-branding campaigns, i.e. promotional campaigns initiated by governments in conjunction with corporate actors with the aim of producing an attractive image of a country for foreign investors and tourists. It is concluded that the representational technology of PowerPoint produces a nation as an imagined commodity rather than an imagined community.

The mediatized nation. Identity, agency and audience in nation branding campaigns

Nation branding es una práctica dinámica que se desenvuelve de manera rápida, es un subproceso de un proceso de mediatización más amplio, utilizada para promover o reajustar imágenes de un Estado-Nación para turistas o inversores. Especialmente, los Estadios-Naciones jóvenes, sienten la necesidad de crear nuevas imágenes de sí mismos a los ojos del mundo, pero, como esos Estados-Nación también tienen una historia de soberanía aún breve, precisan simultáneamente, construir una solidaridad<br />social y una comunidad interna a fin de formar una base necesaria para la construcción de una Nación. Este artículo parte de esa tensión y abordar tres temas: agencia, audiencia e identidad, que consideramos es necesario de una mayor teorización debido a que la práctica está intentando aún encontrar su forma. Estos temas son discutidos en relación a los esfuerzos de creación de marca del nuevo Estado de Ucrania, en Europa oriental, en la última década. Se concluye que hoy las campañas de Nation branding, son orquestadas también por agencias de relaciones públicas internas (a lo contrario del dominio anterior de las agencias británicas) que tienen en consideración el público interno de otras maneras, diferentes de las campañas de branding anterior, y que traen cuestiones de construcción de identidad mucho más complejas de las que fueron utilizadas anteriormente. El caso ucraniano ilustra, así, la mediatización de símbolos nacionales en la sociedad contemporánea.

Evaluating the effectiveness of China’s nation branding with data from social media

In the past few decades, the rise of China has become the theme of heated debates, the central question of which is whether China will rise peacefully or as a “threat.” Faced with various speculations and predictions about China’s possible future course of action, Chinese political leaders and eminent scholars began engaging in the making and projecting of China’s soft power as well as a series of nation-branding campaigns. In order to study and evaluate the effectiveness of China’s nation-branding campaigns as well as how well the general public receives them, we looked into the perspectives and attitudes of the populace to find out their attitudes toward China’s national image. In this article, we intend to scrutinize the public opinions toward China as reflected by the questions and answers on social media ( quora.com in this case), using content analysis. As the findings show, the ranking of effectiveness of the different aspects of China’s nation branding is as follows: (1) history, (2) place, (3) language, (4) political and economic systems, (5) culture, (6) people, (7) infrastructure, and (8) social institution. Based on the results of the study, a model for evaluating the success or effectiveness of nation-branding campaigns was proposed.

Practicing citizen diplomacy 2.0: “The Hot Dudes and Hummus—Israel’s Yummiest” campaign for Israel’s branding

The concept of citizen diplomacy is central in public diplomacy studies, although so far very few studies have documented real-life cases of citizen diplomacy initiatives. Moreover, the few cases documented mainly represent government-initiated citizen diplomacy rather than bottom-up projects, and mostly for governments with a positive image. This study describes, based on data from Instagram Insights, a case study of a high-profile citizen diplomacy initiative started by four students from Israel, a country with a highly problematic international image. The students launched the Instagram account “Hot Dudes with Hummus—Israel’s Yummiest” gaining attention from leading international entertainment outlets and attracting around 42,000 Instagram followers, over 90% from outside of Israel. To better understand the reception of the campaign, the paper is complemented by a content analysis of user comments sentiment, revealing that 67% of the comments contained positive sentiment. The study illustrates the potency of citizen diplomacy initiatives and shows that in the age of online social networks, citizens who understand the online social media environment can lead efficient nation branding campaigns.

An investigation into the core appeals for nation branding to attract and retain talent to enhance a country’s competitiveness

PurposeThis study aims to empirically examine the most common appeals recommended for use in nation branding campaigns to attract and retain skilled professionals from abroad to enhance a country’s economic competitiveness. To assess this, the authors examine how the image and reputation of a country as a destination and location for talent compare to its actual performance in terms of attracting and retaining skilled professionals. This comparison provides useful insights into the aspects of a country’s reputation that matter most for attracting the talent it needs to enhance its competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multivariate analysis to examine a sample of 122 countries using secondary data from the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the UNDP and other non-governmental sources, such as the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. It then tests the results using a sample of 35 OECD countries to assess whether they apply to all types of countries equally.FindingsThe study finds that the two most important factors for ensuring that a country is maximizing its potential to attract skilled professionals are the availability of employment and the degree of ethnic and cultural diversity within the host country. The most important factor for ensuring that a country is maximizing its potential to retain talent, the study finds, is the availability of employment. This does not mean that other factors do not matter, but employment and diversity are crucial for attracting talent from abroad.Research limitations/implicationsThe study also tests the overall results of the study by using a smaller sample of 35 OECD countries. It finds that the availability of employment and high levels of GDP per capita (i.e. wealth) is important for attracting and retaining skilled professionals in more industrially developed countries.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the few empirical studies to examine nation branding to attract and retain talent from abroad to enhance national competitiveness. Its findings suggest that a multifaceted and holistic framework-based approach to nation branding to attract talent, such as that recommended by Silvanto and Ryan (2014), is less likely to work in the short term than an approach which primarily emphasizes employment and diversity.

Nation Branding Endeavours of Azerbaijan: Reshaping National Image

Every nation possesses a certain nation brand image, with or without nation branding. A well thought-out nation branding campaign can, however, project a nation’s image and solicit its global recognition. Such an endeavour concurrently instils a greater sense of belonging, self-determination and ideals of public communication in the domestic audience. The value of nation branding for tapping the economic potential of a nation remains arguable. In this paper, an effort has been made to understand how a developing country like Azerbaijan is gaining international recognition through an apt utilisation of nation branding tools. Strategic, conceptual and practically relevant aspects are being analysed to ascertain the efficacy of nation branding techniques and their impact on national image building. With occasional reference to the international brands of the developed countries, this study is focused on the endeavours of Azerbaijan to market its name and build its own national brands.

The soft power of commercialised nationalist symbols: Using media analysis to understand nation branding campaigns

Since the late 1990s, nation branding has attracted a lot of attention from academics, professional consultants and government actors. The ideas and practices of nation branding are frequently presented by branding advocates as necessary and even inevitable in the light of changing dynamics of political power and influence in a globalised and media-saturated world. In this context, some have argued that nation branding is a way to reduce international conflict and supplant ethno-nationalism with a new form of market-based, national image management. However, a growing body of critical studies has documented that branding campaigns tend to produce ahistorical and exclusionary representations of the nation and advance a form of ‘commercial nationalism’ that is problematic. Importantly, the critical scholarship on nation branding has relied primarily on sociological and anthropological theories of nationhood, identities and markets. By contrast, the role of the media – as institutions, systems and societal storytellers – has been undertheorised in relation to nation branding. The majority of the existing literature tends to treat the media as ‘neutral’ vehicles for the delivery of branding messages to various audiences. This is the guest editors’ introduction to the Special Issue ‘Theorizing Media in Nation Branding’, which seeks to problematise this overly simplistic view of ‘the media’ and aims to articulate the various ways in which specific media are an integral part of nation branding. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and problematises both the enabling and the inhibiting potentialities of different types of media as they perpetuate nation branding ideas, images, ideologies, discourses and practices.

Nation Branding in Transition Countries: A Multimodal Analysis of Romania and Moldova Tourism Campaigns

The nature of nationhood is changing in the age of globalization, marketization, and mediatization. In this context, the nation is built as a brand with the aim of attracting tourists and increase economic development. A particular case of nation branding is to be found in Romania and Moldova, two countries that started to reposition themselves after the fall of communism. In this context, this paper focuses on a comparative semiotic analysis of two nation branding campaigns initiated by the Romanian and Moldavian Governments: “Discover the Place Where You Feel Reborn” (Romania, 2014) and “Discover the Routes of Life” (Moldova, 2014). In so doing, a multimodal approach (Iedema, 2003; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; Van Leeuwen, 2001) is employed, highlighting the importance of image, sound and text as semiotic resources in the discursive configuration of Romania’s and Moldova’s nation brands, comparatively. Special attention is given to the analysis of logos, websites and videos, comprising different communication situations used to create meaning in the tourism campaigns. The paper investigates how elements of neoliberal ideology are addressed in two governmental campaigns, comparatively, considering the “marketization of public discourse” (Fairclough, 1993).

Nation Branding in Transition Countries: A Multimodal Analysis of Romania and Moldova Tourism Campaigns

The nature of nationhood is changing in the age of globalization, marketization, and mediatization. In this context, the nation is built as a brand with the aim of attracting tourists and increase economic development. A particular case of nation branding is to be found in Romania and Moldova, two countries that started to reposition themselves after the fall of communism. In this context, this paper focuses on a comparative semiotic analysis of two nation branding campaigns initiated by the Romanian and Moldavian Governments: “Discover the Place Where You Feel Reborn” (Romania, 2014) and “Discover the Routes of Life” (Moldova, 2014). In so doing, a multimodal approach (Iedema, 2003; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; Van Leeuwen, 2001) is employed, highlighting the importance of image, sound and text as semiotic resources in the discursive configuration of Romania’s and Moldova’s nation brands, comparatively. Special attention is given to the analysis of logos, websites and videos, comprising different communication situations used to create meaning in the tourism campaigns. The paper investigates how elements of neoliberal ideology are addressed in two governmental campaigns, comparatively, considering the “marketization of public discourse” (Fairclough, 1993).

Reshaping the National Image of Azerbaijan through Nation Branding Endeavours

Every nation possesses a nation brand image, either with or without nation branding. A well thought out nation branding campaign can however, project a nation’s image and solicit global recognition. Such an endeavor concurrently instills a greater sense of belonging, self-determination and ideals of public communication in the domestic audience. The value of nation branding for tapping the economic potential of a nation remains arguable. In this paper, an effort is being made to understand how a developing country like Azerbaijan is accruing international recognition through apt utilization of nation branding tools. Strategic, conceptual and practically relevant aspects will be analyzed to ascertain efficacy of nation branding techniques and their impact on national image building. With occasional reference to the international brands of developed countries, focus will remain on endeavors of Azerbaijan to market its name and build own national brands.