Country names as brand names, and their role in country branding: Some cases from all over the world

Abstract

Today, it is widely accepted that “country brand councils” are established all over the world, including Hungary, and these bodies coordinate the strategic communications (or at least the marketing communications) of the country. It is also becoming more and more obvious that politicians discuss country branding and nation branding, and these terms appear in the public media, too.

Regarding the name of a country as a brand name is natural for place branding professionals, but it may offend those not familiar with this marketing practice. However, country names and brand names do cause the same reaction: when we see or hear a specific country name, we have certain associations in our mind. Then these associations help us decide whether we visit the place as a tourist, invest capital there, or purchase the products of the country.

Although the terms nation branding and country branding only appeared in 1996, there is an extensive literature dedicated to them, and organisations responsible for the coordination of country branding have been created in several countries.

The three main aims of country branding are: to attract more tourists to the country and increase their spending; increase the number and value of foreign investments in the country; and increase the international success of products originating from the country.

To this end, country branding harmonises strategic communications and marketing communications messages about the country. Its most important aspects include the building of the country image and a uniform visual and verbal identity.

Country slogans and country logos have been discussed in several publications, but brand names (country names) have not been in the focus of analyses, which is rather surprising as brand names are essential in commercial communications. Therefore this article examines this topic from a special perspective: Can a country change its name the way product brands do from time to time?

Changing a country name is most definitely a much more complicated issue than using a new product name, as geographical names (including country names) usually have long historical roots. These names are also strongly connected to the life of local inhabitants who have got used to them, therefore they are not easy to change.

Still, there are examples that could be analysed from the aspect of branding. In some cases the new brand name or country name is meant to symbolise a new beginning. For example, when colonies claimed their independence, the first thing to do was to create a new name for the country. And something similar happened when the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia broke up – the newly formed successor states started to use new names, or returned to their old names.

Some countries still have changing their names on the agenda. Possible reasons include the complicatedness of the country name, or its similarities with other country names, resulting in disadvantages in the competition of countries.

A country name is also extremely important because it is the only common element in the communications campaigns of the country – and wise countries make advantage of this, sometimes even integrating the country name in their slogan.