GeoBranding Blog

While most self-marketing countries consider themselves tourism brands, leading companies in the space have found that only about a quarter of these countries actually qualify as country brands.

Experts say that nations like Germany, Japan, Dubai and Ireland are leveraging clear narratives and a balance between status and experience to grow tourism and investment revenue while some established destinations that have failed to articulate a clear story have slipped out of a true branded status.

On a tactical level, leading marketing firms have found that excessive inclusion by stakeholders has neutralized the image of destinations while clear storytelling—and the courage to leave out additional features—is leading to dramatic increases in tourism bookings, investment and even country-of-origin product sales.

Christopher Nurko, Chairman of FutureBrand, says the “kitchen sink” approach to destination and country branding and the pressure for all stakeholders to be represented in national campaigns have emerged as major obstacles for effective nation branding. Conversely, he says that simple narratives are translating to revenue leaps, and imagining social media opportunities for the visitor is an ideal starting point for brand marketing innovation.

In a recent keynote presentation to George Washington University’s School of Business, Nurko said that flagging every attraction in logos and ads was now a typical brief from clients and that it crushed consumer recall. “It’s forcing people to drink from a firehose—campaigns are [clogged] with features, as if stakeholders are saying, ‘don’t forget [to include] the buffets; don’t forget the beaches.’”

Nurko was the branding genius behind the transformed image of Dubai and the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, where, unforgettably, Queen Elizabeth II appeared to leap from James Bond’s helicopter and where a massive upsurge in tourism numbers was triggered for years to come.

He was also the man who convinced Nelson Mandela to adopt the rebranding of South African Airways, stating that “the best meeting in my entire career and life: presenting the new tailfin for SAA to the ultimate decision-maker, Nelson Mandela. Talk about being nervous for a meeting.”

In this rare case, his client was also his best brand asset, as he remarked in an earlier interview, “Images of South Africa really did change because of Nelson Mandela.”

In 2015, the capital of the Netherlands and home of the International Criminal Court—The Hague—chose to abandon the “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” approach and rebranded itself simply as “the city of peace.” In doing so, it had to push back against well-meaning Dutch stakeholders, who understandably wished to also highlight the city’s fine beaches and local culture. However, largely as a result of this clear differentiation, it hosted 135 international conferences in 2016 (a 50-percent increase on 2015), with almost 300 delegates to each spending roughly $1,500 per person and promoting untold word-of-mouth value to others on their return.

Similarly, the city of Nashville, Tenn., has many marketable virtues. However, it was only after Nashville was rebranded as “Music City,” in conjunction with the physical development of attractions like Music City Center, that visitor spending boomed to $5 billion and an extra $1 billion flowed for new development, supporting almost 60,000 jobs.

In a recent podcast with the Wharton marketing department, Philip Kotler, Marketing Professor at Northeastern University and an expert in nation brands, agreed that simple, clear messaging is crucial for country branding.

Indeed, Kotler suggested that one way to cut through the muddied messaging problem is that governments could appoint a single Cabinet-level executive who is charged of all levels of national branding.

He told Wharton, “The job is really this: for a country to figure out what its culture and character are all about, and then to do the branding work to transmit that idea to other people. Ireland once had a minister of marketing handling tourism, investment and Irish goods. But I don’t know of any nation that now has a responsibility center for checking on whether they’re improving their image or not. But I would make an argument for doing that, whether you call it a minister of marketing or a brand manager. Wouldn’t it be nice to put someone in the state department or the department of commerce who is tracking the brand and even measuring brand equity?”

Above all, Kotler says every nation needs a clear self-concept of their culture.

“For example, [consider] the Japanese culture—we think of their tea ceremonies, the bonsai trees and Samurai legends and so on,” he says.

Meanwhile, Wharton’s country brands expert, Professor David Reibstein, illustrated how effective that simple brand clarity can be: “I note, in particular, the campaign going on in India right now of ‘Make in India,’ not ‘Made in India.’ It is trying to attract other businesses to come and produce goods in India and probably draw them away from China.”

FutureBrand is now repositioning the image of countries like Bhutan and Ireland with mobile-first country branding based on a deep data analysis of nations’ core characteristics with respect to the travel drivers of target audiences.

Overall, the ROI on destination branding is now beyond question. Just one report by Britain’s National Audit Office showed that the country enjoyed a net return of $1.5 billion for every $140 million invested in marketing. However, Nurko insists that the positioning and short- and long-term recall value of these campaigns is critical in turning investment into sustained revenue and an impactful reputation. He told George Washington business students that clichés used in country and city branding simply skipped off of the consciousness of consumers.

He cited Ukraine’s recent national branding effort as a classic example of how not to market a destination—not only with the use of clichés and slogans like “safe and nice,” but also with complex messages that reinforced negative stereotypes.

“Ukraine is at the bottom of the list of country brands, [despite a real effort]: Their brochures [effectively] said, ‘Murder, rape and death [are] less than some,’ and that ‘the vast percentage of armed personnel speak English’—not exactly the way to make a tourism [brand]!”

Instead, Nurko says that clear storylines do take hold. In a report, he stated, “The goal for marketing is to resonate and be remembered for associations that amplify and direct preferences to enable choice. Too many times, marketing professionals and agencies believe their own hyperbole or ignore the requirement for being unique and authentic.”

Worse still, his company has found that the use of “[inauthentic], stereotyped and stock-shot imagery” leads to ridicule and can actually reduce the likelihood of someone visiting the city or country marketed.  

“An effective brand strategy should be soundly based on data-driven insights, analysis and evaluation of a destination’s ‘product’ truths, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. A strong element of creative thinking and communications execution must bring these to life.”

Nurko says that established destinations are most interested in converting positive attitudes to actual bookings and that website and social media channels are the most important means of leveraging that awareness.

“[Millennials] really do judge destinations by their ability to take selfies,” he says. “It is now about the personal experiences millennials want to have—to have unique experiences. You can transform an unheard-of location to a No. 1 destination just through social media.”

But Nurko warns, “Not every country is a brand.”

FutureBrand differentiates between countries (those with below-average perceptions), status countries (those where perceptions are biased toward attributes), experience countries (those with perceptions biased toward culture, tourism and made-in), and country brands (those with above-average perceptions across the status and experience dimensions that have measurable competitive advantage over their peers.

Only 22 of 75 destination nations qualified as country brands, but Nurko said those outside that category should urgently invest to become included for reasons far beyond direct tourism revenues.

“Understanding of consumer and business tourism drivers can help  create more effective business models, marketing and management strategies,” he says.