Competitive Identity

Transcription

1 Competitive Identity

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3 COMPETITIVE IDENTITY The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions Simon Anholt

4 Simon Anholt 2007 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

5 CONTENTS List of Figures List of Tables Introduction vii ix xi 1 What is Competitive Identity? 1 Why branding has a bad brand 3 What is a brand? 4 Brand management and the nation 7 Country of origin effect 9 Public diplomacy 12 Marketing and governance 15 Why the age of Competitive Identity has come 19 The need for standards 21 2 The Theory of Competitive Identity 25 Where national reputation comes from 25 Dealing with reputation 27 The benefits of Competitive Identity 28 Implementing Competitive Identity 30 Brand-informed policy 31 The virtuous circle of Competitive Identity 34 Propaganda and Competitive Identity 37 Belligerent branding 41 3 Understanding National Image 43 When nation brands change 46 When nation brands don t change 54 The self-images of countries 56 Measuring city brands 59 v

6 vi Contents 4 Planning for Competitive Identity 63 Dealing with an information gap 65 Analysing the Competitive Identity task 66 Getting attention 71 Building the CI team 73 Developing the identity; developing the strategy 75 The structures of power 81 Communicating the Competitive Identity strategy 85 5 Implementing Competitive Identity 87 Tourism and Competitive Identity 88 Brands and Competitive Identity 91 Using country of origin more creatively 95 Culture and Competitive Identity 97 Making culture magnetic 101 The population and Competitive Identity 105 Education and Competitive Identity 107 Sport and Competitive Identity 108 Poetry, ceremony and ritual Competitive Identity and Development 113 Competitive Identity and the transition economies 117 Africa and the continent branding effect 120 Competitiveness beyond capitalism 123 Notes 129 Index 131

7 LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 The hexagon of Competitive Identity The virtuous circle of Competitive Identity The City Brands Index hexagon Association of Olympic Games with host city 109 vii

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9 LIST OF TABLES 3.1 Financial valuation of nation brands Shift in Egyptian panel s rankings for Denmark Country rankings overall, and of themselves, 2005 (Q4) Results of the first City Brands Index Public awareness of major cultural/sporting events 110 ix

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11 INTRODUCTION I first began to write about an idea I called nation branding in My original observation was a simple one: that the reputations of countries are rather like the brand images of companies and products, and equally important. The idea of brand management is still an important part of my work, but I now call the approach Competitive Identity, because it has more to do with national identity and the politics and economics of competitiveness than with branding as it is usually understood. Ten years on seems like a good moment to pause and take stock of where this thinking has led, and how the field has developed: because it is a field today, with its commercial and academic communities, consulting firms, publications, conferences, research, and a rising number of fulltime professionals in national, city and regional administrations. This book is an attempt to collect together some of the practical experience, theories, research and case notes I have gathered during this exciting decade of intense activity and learning, and to present the current state of my arguments for the role of brand management in national policy, strategy and development. It isn t my intention to give a detailed recipe for creating Competitive Identity, because there is no standard formula: the process must always be a collaborative one, and of course every place has its own aims, circumstances, resources and competences. So I have limited myself to describing the theory of Competitive Identity, and a sketch of the main drivers, challenges and opportunities in the field, interspersed with some case notes. One of the reasons why I continue to find this subject appealing is because it s such a big intellectual, moral and philosophical challenge: these are genuinely difficult concepts to grasp, to employ and to communicate. For a long time I was puzzled by this, as I somehow didn t expect the subject to be so demanding: branding is, after all, only a xi

12 xii Introduction quasi-science related to shopping. I now realize that although the usual context of brand theory may be buying and selling and promoting consumer goods, this is a thin layer that covers some of the hardest philosophical questions one can tackle: the nature of perception and reality, the relationship between objects and their representation, the phenomena of mass psychology, the mysteries of national identity, leadership, culture and social cohesion, and much more besides. The idea that I call Competitive Identity is already much more than an academic curiosity at the fringes of marketing: it is now the intense focus of many, if not most, governments. Ten years ago, my conversations on the subject were largely theoretical, and mainly with marketing academics. Now the talk is far more urgent and practical, and it is with ministers, ambassadors, city mayors and regional administrations, international organizations and donor agencies, heads of government and heads of state. Today, every place on earth wants to do something to manage its international reputation; yet we are still very far from a widespread understanding of what this means in practice, and just how far commercial approaches can be effectively and responsibly applied to government, society and economic development. Many governments, most consultants and even some scholars persist in a naïve and superficial interpretation of nation branding that is nothing more than standard product promotion, public relations and corporate identity, where the product just happens to be a country rather than a bank or a running shoe. So at this point, Competitive Identity or nation branding could go two ways. If the naïve model becomes dominant, and causes a sufficient number of countries and cities and donors to waste sufficient amounts of money on futile propaganda, it will fail to gain any credibility with policy makers, and will simply go out of fashion. If, on the other hand, the growing community of thinkers and practitioners in the field does manage to raise the discussion to the level of intellect, responsibility, expertise and maturity that it needs and deserves, it could be a very different story. Just as brand management has proved to be one of the most potent instruments for devising strategy and creating wealth in the commercial sector, so its application to the development and competitiveness of states, regions and cities could have enormous and far-reaching impacts in the years to come.

13 Introduction xiii It is my hope that this book can play a part in ensuring that in another ten years time, the tale I will have to tell will be closer to the latter than the former. London SIMON ANHOLT