“Natio Brands”
-AChirantan Chatterjee & Devi Yesodharan
ET Intelligence Group

1. What are the essentials that a nation looking at branding itself would have to look into?

Simon Anholt Now you're asking too much! I couldn't even hazard a guess on this unless (a) I had a chance to study the country, meet the Govt, hear their plans, research the market, and (b) get paid for it!

Simon Anholt
Two things: One, Does the nation have a clear, coherent strategy for economic, social and cultural development? The brand strategy needs to mirror this exactly, so if the place doesn't know where it's going then it is unlikely to make a success of branding itself.
Two, What is the possibility of coordinating the tourist board, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Inward Investment body, cultural institute, key private sector players, and getting them to back the initiative?

Dr Paul Temporal The key requirements are creativity, strategy and absolute objectivity, because the things which people in a country think

Dr Paul Temporal
The principles of branding are the same whatever is being branded. Firstly, there must be a long-term vision for the brand in terms of what the brand should stand for emotionally in the minds of consumers. There should be a brand position that carefully defines why the brand is better and different from the competitors, and a set of values to which all people who can impact on the brand image subscribe. These are common factors whether it is a brand of a car, mobile phone, hair shampoo, an airline, or a nation.

Dr Peter van Ham
Asking what the name "India" evokes in Holland may get you a different response than in the UK. It has to do with history, local knowledge, and the presence of people from India in these two countries. As with all branding, the idea is to think globally but to act locally. It is also aspirational: Where is a country now, and where does it want to be in the coming decade? India has the name of being the biggest democracy in the world. Of course, the democratic quality of India leaves much to be improved, but internally, this "image" could be used to drive democratisation forward. It's also a major asset internationally, since it gives you credibility, political status and thereby influence.

Dr Wally Olins
A nation interested in branding needs to ask the following questions- 'Why do you want to do it'? It can be for tourism, but more importantly for FDI, to increase exports of one's indigenous products, and finally to gain a political influence aided by commercial strength. The second question that should follow is 'Do we need to do it'? That should be motivated by the reality - the way the outside world views us is different from what we really are. And the third question should be 'Who is my audience'? It can very well be that Mexico is not that important to me, but US is or EU is. So if that's the case identify your target audience and outline your brand vision to suit their tastes.
Finally, on the actualisation part one should think about 'What do you want to say'? Take the example of Spain or Portugal and you understand how branding can change the perception of a nation. I perceive that India is an immensely important state in World Geopolitics. In my mind it would be one of the most powerful countries in the next 20-30 years, so if we have a branding of India it would only aid it.

2. How is this different from say, a consumer brand? What are the common factors?

Simon Anholt
Some of the techniques for researching the initial state of the brand and awareness, planning the strategy, managing the media are very similar to working with a consumer brand. Proper targeting and segmenting the audience, creating a viable positioning for the country in the international marketplace - all these come straight from commercial branding. The key differences are (a) country is vastly more complex and contradictory than a consumer brand and (b) the effectiveness of the campaign depends utterly on having the backing, understanding and support of the population and (c) the actions for communicating the brand tend to be policy choices and 'big events' rather than advertising campaigns or PR initiatives.

Dr Paul Temporal
The difficulty that nations/countries have is that they often send out mixed messages because they have many sub-brands that are powerful in their own right and which compete for talent, FDI, customers, resources and budgets. So the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Foreign Office, the Tourism body, the armed Forces, Sports Ministries, Home Affairs, Domestic Trade, Economic Development Boards all advertise in similar markets and compete, sending out different messages. Strong corporate brands manage all sub-brands so that they all line up behind the master brand and promote it as well as their own cause and values. Strong brand management is what nations lack.

Cont