Is Nation Branding a Marketing Communication Exercise?

Simon Anholt in’ Why nation branding does not exist?’ thinks otherwise and I would like to discuss Anholt’s views whether nation branding is a marketing communication exercise or it goes beyond mere marketing.

The Misconception

The idea that it is possible to ‘do branding’ to a country (or to a city or region) in the same way that companies ‘do branding’ to their products and services, is vain and foolish. There is no shred of evidence that shows marketing communications programmes, have ever succeeded, in altering international perceptions of places.


Why is nation brand important?

Today, the world is one market; the advance of globalization means that every country, city and region must compete with every other for its share of the world’s commercial, political, social and cultural transactions. In such an environment, as in any busy marketplace, brand image becomes a critical factor; the necessary short cut to an informed buying decision.


It’s more accurate to say that ‘nation branding’ is the problem, not the solution. It’s only when people start talking about branding rather than just brand that the problems start.

It is public opinion that “brands” countries. In fact countries need to fight against the tendency of international public opinion to brand them as a single entity.

Governments need to help the world understand the real, complex, rich, diverse nature of their people and landscapes, their history and heritage, their products and their resources: in other words, to prevent them from becoming mere brands.

It would certainly make life easier for many governments if it were possible to brand places: it would conveniently reduce the success criteria for their economic and political competitiveness to having a big enough marketing budget and hiring the best marketing and PR agencies. But of course the reality is more complex; national images are not created through communications, and cannot be altered by communications.

If marketing communications works so well for products and services, why shouldn’t they work for countries and cities?