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ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS: nation branding, country branding, country-of-origin effect, product-country image, place marketing
Nation branding and nation brand are two different concepts. A nation has a brand image with or without nation branding. This paper examines the concept of nation branding, focusing on the central question of what is being branded. It differentiates nation branding from product branding, and draws comparisons between nation branding and productcountry image. Paradoxical issues around the concept and the wider context in which nation branding can be applied are also discussed. More research is needed to find out if and how nation branding could help economic development in a country. As many other non-marketing factors also affect a nation's image, the role played by nation branding may turn out to be only a modest one.
INTRODUCTION
Nation branding is a relatively new area, although studies of the effect of country image on product purchase have been around lor several decades.'" Despite the recent surge in interest amongst both academics and practitioners, and more publications, research on nation branding is still in the infant stage, and the topic itself remains as a complicated and somewhat confused construct. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of nation branding; in particular, it discusses what is being branded; what are the differences between the nation brand and product brand; the link between nation branding and the country-of-origin effect; and the paradoxical issues and the wider context in which nation branding can be applied.
WHAT IS NATION BRANDING?
A nation generally refers to a large group of people of the same race and language,4 while a country means an area of land occupied by a nation. Although nation and country are used interchangeably in the literature, there is a subtle difference between nation brand/ image and country brand/image. Various tenns found in the literature can be classified into three categories: product related, national level and cultural focus (Table 1). Terms such as the country-of-origin (COO) effect are closely related with the product. The product-country image is embedded as part of the product brand, and is meaningless if separated from the product. The concept of nation brand or country equity refers to the nation as a whole; it describes the country's intangible...