Posted: October 20th, 2022

The Effect of Nation Branding Essay

The Effect of Nation Branding
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation

Table of Content
Tables of Contents 2
The Effect of Nation Branding 3
1.0. Background 3
1.1. Empirical Findings on Benefits of Nation Branding 5
1.1.1. Japan’s Nation Branding 7
1.1.2. Germany’s Nation Branding 9
2.0. Interstate Comparison of Brand Image 13
2.1. Complexity of Nation Branding 15
2.1.1. The Scope of Nation Branding 16
2.1.2. Ownership of Nation Brand 17
2.2. A Case of Poor National Branding; Lithuania 18
3.0. Use of Social Media in Public Relations on Nation Branding 22
3.1. Global Target for Nation Branding 24
3.2. Political View of Nation Branding 24
5.0. Summary & Conclusion 28
References 31

The Effect of Nation Branding
1.0. Background
The idea of country branding posits the power of either implicit or explicit geographical indication supplementing potential appeal of a country’s product or services. This aspect is created in order to establish price premium on the commodities besides stimulating customers’ loyalty towards the product or services. National branding as a concept rests on observations that it leverages more than a country’s exported products making a major difference in the perception of a country. The essential quality, reliability and performance elements are basically, the main factors constituting of costs of modern market places. Hence, brand has grown to become very essential factors in trade. Whether tangible or intangible, the role of intellectual capital is paramount in value addition to the product without subject to attractive and distinctive brand (Anholt, 2009). In the context of individual companies, most of our current companies have been able to increase and sustain their employees, customer loyalty and overall business processes through the development of strong brands which both customers and employees identify with.
This principle of individual companies also applies to countries. Without a consolidated and powerful positive reputation commonly referred to as the ‘nation-brand’ no country can effectively compete for consumers, investors as well as respect of other countries globally. Subsequently, country brand leverages every aspect pertaining to international engagement hence playing a critical role in the social, economic and political progress of the country. Resulting from clear leadership in the central government, all the stakeholders share a unique vision of the identity of a country hence achieving certain extent of harmonization in their activities and communications. This cites a huge opportunity for such a country’s image to present fair and positive present reality. In essence, the international audience is also prescribed to a higher probability of forming a coherent and positive view of the country in case majority of the information they receive from the country in regard are widely aligned (Anholt, 2011)..
Nation brand is also perceived as an important summation of intangible competitive asset of a country. The country’s vision, genius or citizens and its position in the market place are also defined by effective endorsement of a country or nation brand. There are certain factors that when aligned to a prospective strategy provides a sustainable competitive advantage with solid capacity to charge a consistent premium and the consent of customers to not only innovate but also extend the series of products on offer. Market capitalization in many states often attaches values to their brands which is often bigger than the tangible assets. There are numerous reasons that have been suggested as to why the intangible assets of poorer counties have been unable to work well for the nations particularly to spearhead economic growth and prosperity. However, brand theory indicates a major reason behind this scenario citing inadequacy or complete lack of strong strategic deployment of resources productively and in a harmonized manner (Szondi, 2008). These aspects create an inter-state disparity due to the differentiated strategy of undertaking international business processes.
1.1. Empirical Findings on Benefits of Nation Branding
Nation branding has been recognized as a major aspect that can promote economic progress of a state. In many instances, countries have developed very ideal strategies towards luring the international community for the investment in foreign states. This aspect has led to increased Foreign Direct Investment particularly in developing countries that have opened up for foreign investments. In this regard, Nation Branding has been established on the basis of proactive foreign policy development that has seen the growth in investments from the international perspectives. In return, this has promoted the local economies of the destination countries through improved employment levels and other economic activities that have promoted the overall well-being of the communities’ economies involved (Aronczyk, 2008). Using the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands IndexSM, the following table shows the 2015 overall ranking by nation branding.

Overall Brand Ranking 2015 (Top 10 of 50 Nations)

2015 rank
Country
2014 rank

1
United States
2

2
Germany
1

3
United Kingdom
3

4
France
4

5
Canada
5

6
Japan
6

7
Italy
7

8
Switzerland
8

9
Australia
9

10
Sweden
10

Source: (Anholt, 2015).
The Anholt-GfK Nations Brand IndexSM is conducted every year measuring the image of50 states with regard to the exports, culture, governance, tourism, people as well as immigration aspects. In the 2015 period, about 20,350 interviews in 20 major developing and developed countries that plays a pivotal role the international relations, business flows as well as trade and cultural activities. Using the updated online parameters and face to face interviews, the above results were realized and posted. In India, Brazil, UK, and US among others, race or ethnicity has been used to balance off the sample for analysis towards realizing the above results. National Brand constitutes a number of elements that enhance its development and resultant benefits as shown in the diagram below:

Source: (Anholt, 2015).
1.1.1. Japan’s Nation Branding
From the international perspective, Japan is ranked sixth best performing countries in nation branding as at 2015 although the country had been enjoying the best placed for quite some times in the past. Indeed, Japan have been making tremendous efforts to boost its economy though its reputation globally has been on the rise for quite a long time and continues to perform well in the international image perspectives. There are different analysis that has been made to establish the global ranking of the countries. These analyses use different but correlated elements to define interstate score on nation branding. With the Anholt-GfK Nations Brand IndexSM, Japan is ranked sixth. However, the FutureBrand’s annual Country Brand Index placed Japan first in the international branding prospects. The latter measure compares countries’ with regard to elements similar to those used to evaluate individual firms’ strength regarding several sets of consumer brands (Anholt, 2015).
FutureBrand research revealed a situation where respondents ranked a country highly based on a perception of a brand. Based on such ranking, the positive respondents ranking a country also express high likelihood that they visit the country in reference and further do business with it as opposed to other countries on the list. This implies that people have strong perceptions across six dimensions associated with status as well as experience. Subsequently, they perceive a country equally strong by virtue if aspects associated with quality of life, business and values similar to their perception and attitude towards culture, history and tourism among other aspects associated with a country. According to the modest research findings, strong nation or country brand creates a measurable competitive advantage through increased visitation, investments and advocacy besides having increased consumer preference for both products and services. This therefore means that it is preferential to manage a country identity as well as reputation as a corporate or a consumer brand. This aspect boosts the capacity of the individual country to attract high level of visitation through elaborate scheme of international relations (Anholt, 2015).
In this regard, Japan is credited with overtaking Switzerland with clear cross-cutting element of ‘uniqueness’. Majority of the viewers also cites the country’s prominence and association with the modest technology, education, art, health as well as heritage and culture as a source of critical nation brand. Indeed, Japan presents a case of a country that has been advancing steadily over time to surpass the rest of the world via robotic engineering and technologies. Thus, the country is associated with high expertise in technology, automotives and consumer electronics among others. This also led to the identification of innovations and technological segments as the areas in the country that has exhibited the most rigorous expansion in the country, thus spearheading the growth of other sectors (Gudjonsson, 2005).
1.1.2. Germany’s Nation Branding
Just before July 9th 2006 was characteristic show of the advanced global image growth of Germany. This was a celebration that was carried out for Brand Germany which is credited with an overwhelming success with the latest brand index ranking listing the country at position two of the admired country brand a significant rise from previous position seven. In addition to soccer, the world cup event of 2006 is credited with transforming the country brand from the past image of fun-loving, creative a modern country. Previously, Germany has had been perceived as an effective state but cold and unfriendly to people activities and social-cultural aspects.
This event achieved more than any politician on the land has ever achieved by imbuing the country with a senses of common destiny and pride. For instance, it was historical when the Britains Time on the final day pronounced on its headline news, ‘Never mind the Finals, the true Winners are Germany!’ This was a clear indication of the extent to which the brand Germany had grown within the period of reference. Hardly two years prior to the world cup, the country exhibited a different face from the previously known to have been plagued with self-doubts with its own president claiming it was on the verge on draining into a ‘collective depression’. This phase was gradually disappearing and to date, it is no more of the past outlook (Aronczyk, 2008).
Initially, various aspects and events that are credited with creating a prosperous country’s image were performing to the detriment of the country. For instance, the Germany Soccer Team had been clashed out from the Bundesliga, a European championship with a series of match fixing outrages across several of the regions eastern Germany in a manner that the politician had been advising different races purported to be aliens not to enter certain zones that had been encrypt to be, ‘no-go zones’. In delivering a promising brand achievement, German was determined to defeat the old perception and bad image which had been posited as the country being very conservative and generally boring. Every successful world cup is believed to demand a winning host team in order to show maximum support and enthusiasm of host country. In prior to the commencement of the game, it was reported that only about 8 percent of the Germans laid their support on their own national team. However, as the game progressed, the support had grown to the tune of 95 percent with the team ranked 59th in the Fifa Ranking. This growth was reportedly similar to the growing support of the country as well as the tremendous Germany brand that is believed to have facilitated the nation brand growth to the current position (Fan, 2006).
In return, German has an approximate of 5 million visitors with a relative brand audience of about 750 million people which is a remarkable reach out in the rebranding mechanism for a nation. Before the tournament, German print media were also filled with doubts about possibility of the national team making a win with possible indulgence of Neo-Nazi demonstration. Over the four weeks time, the Word Cup reported virtually no crime or violence thus a sense of comfort and safety for the visitors and the nation at large. Through the nationwide and the global reporting of the world cup eventuality, this experience was extended to the spectators globally and the local precincts with the message of ideal hosting of fan festivals. In fact, the fan festival was one of the mechanisms that further skewed the attention to the Germany brand where fans could also follow match proceedings from gigantic screens. This world Cup event was critical in boosting the German’s brand image which in turn lured the attention of important business partners and investors into the country (Aronczyk, 2008).
In fact, a change in the country’s fans identity also changed dramatically with about 40 percent of the overall attendants of the fan festival comprising of women from different states. Subsequently, the new Bundesliga event in Germany is credited with a spillover effect though about two years ago, the same events witnessed only about 23 percent of visitors comprising of females with the current number of females rising to a third drawn from different parts of the world. Nation Branding, just like personal branding is mainly dependent on the self-image of the main characters, in which case, the citizens often acts as the main characters. The hosting of World Cup games was a medium opportunity for the country to showcase its unknown strength and therefore boost its position as far as international perception is concerned (Aronczyk, 2008).
1.1.3. Strengthening State Brand Image between Korea and France
The president of the republic of France and his colleague, from Korea has been working on a jot mission to establish a nation’s brand image as well as the challenge of its maintenance. In this contemporary influence of globalization, nation brand is very important than ever before. Indeed, increasing number of governments trying to manipulate the potential of commercial branding approaches towards enhancing their country’s image has increased considerably. In February 2014, the French President, Francois Hollande made a strategic move towards enhancing the image of his country by setting up a Strategic Attractiveness Council for spearheading the country’s branding prospects (Anholt, 2015).
Prior to this development, the Korean Government, in 2009, had established a presidential council for nation branding aimed at boosting the country’s exports, promote tourism and inward investment among other benefits. As a critical exchange between nations, Korea and France targets 2015 and 2016 as very crucial years for understanding one another and mutually promoting their respective images. At the individual companies’ level, brand image is defined through established marketing strategies while at the nation level, the nation’s image is mainly forged through a period of time. In fact, nation brand’s definition is derived from history, culture and the economy of a country among other variables (Fan, 2010).
From instance, the long history of France has been critical in shaping up her image of elegance and quality from which it now boasts of. Indeed, both art and industry are highly related. For instance, in the enlightenment age that led to industrial revolution and the recent information era that led to the development of digital collections through an open system focusing on virtually all fields makes some of the unique exposition of historical advancement that defines individual state image and overall brand. The level of experience that is gathered across different times, combine with open creativity perspectives paved way for France to establish pioneer technologies that include the France high-speed train and the Supersonic plane Concorde among others. More recently, the country has been associated with more successes arising from the more bionic medical research to the digital entertainment scenes encompassing artists that have spearheaded strong revolution across ages. This is often referred to as the, ‘French Touch’ (Fan, 2010).
On the other hand, though Korea is credited with a rich culture and history, it started rising in the global interest segment at around 2000 since when the country joined the group of developed countries in the world. Since then, the country has strengthened its image through a dynamic, innovative and equally successful nation. Indeed, Korea had understood the essence of soft power while the popular nature of K-pop Helped its reputation to grow even more worldwide. Majority of the Korean companies are therefore currently surfing in K-pop wave. Beyond this perspective of K-pop that triggered global sensation of the country, the culture of Korea is also diverse and has been credited with numerous awards such as the Kim Ki-duk’s film Pieta that won a 2013 Golden Lion Award. To this end, Korea depend on its tradition based on technological integration and modernity values to grow and extend its nation brand compared to France that depends on its timeless values (Anholt, 2015).
Research indicates that the opposing traditions in place of modernity are principally irrelevant in the process of developing a nation identity. With regard to Korea, it is credited with implementing a strong and quick modernization from 1970s an aspect that marked the emergence and subsequent revolutionizing of the infrastructure as well as the urban situation of the country. Nevertheless, Korea is currently capable of revisiting and learning from its immense history as well as rich culture. In order to establish and retain their reputation, the two countries’ governments must identify with the importance of dedicated policy towards fostering their respective nation brand’s image which may be done through support on education sector and the boost on individual awareness (Anholt, 2015).
2.0. Interstate Comparison of Brand Image
In the comparative perspective, Independent research indicates that the US remains a major player and perhaps the top in the comparative platform with regard to brand image while Germany follows after being squeezed backwards. This has seen the US ranked first in the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands IndexSM. . On the other hand, UK which is ranked third edges towards the top followed closely by France. This study that establishes the ranking of states by reputation or brand image measure the perception based on 50 developed as well as developing nations with consummate level of details on which the judgment is made. This study enquires principally on three main country’s attributes which are eventually combined and into six main dimensions for analysis after which the national image is based upon. These aspects are exports, culture, tourism, governance, citizenry and immigration.
Indeed, the perceived influence of a country to the world influences their reputations beyond the capacity of their assets or even overall achievements. Although Germany has had a prolonged perception of leadership in Europe, German has been overpowered by US mainly through the loss of gains it had acquired during the World Cup season. Besides, the country also lost its position as a result of questionable governance that entails both domestic and international behaviors arising from its high profile stand on the European challenges including the unstable Eurozone economic situation and immigration. In essence, the perception of Russia on the governance of Germany also dropped considerably as a result of Germans proactive support on the anti-Russian sanctions too (Anholt, 2015).
UK holds a steady third position has been an improvement in this ranking. Other countries that demonstrated a significant improvement includes Japan and Italy that were above the average expectations while at the same time pushing top five nations further. On the other hand, Greece has been facing certain chronic economic issues hence for a long time; the country has been straining to maintain its image with considerable decline by virtue of all indicators used. Beyond the top 20 nations, there are other countries that have been performing equally well and are making significant efforts in their growth towards major brands globally. For instance, both Russia and Ukraine have also seen a significant gain by virtue of all the dimensions presented by the six dimensions on the Nation Branding Index (NBI) (Aronczyk, 2008).
Russia has also risen from the previous 25 ranking level 22 hence overtaking some of its rivals namely, Singapore, China and Argentina while Ukraine has moved from 48th position to 46th while overtaking both Kenya and Qatar. This advancement of the Russian performance by nation brand was a product of gradually declining Ukraine-Russian conflicts while there is a significant improvement in their performance by measure of governance on both states. There was an elaborate improvement in perceptions towards the countries’ behavior in peace and security segments (Aronczyk, 2008).
In essence, low scenes of conflicts has been perceived as essentially promoting the perception of the entire region in general while a country like Czech Republic having been edged past its counterparts in ranking profile. Similarly, Turkey is also reported to have increased its ratings but not significant enough to warrant its competitiveness with other Asian-Pacific nations such as Taiwan and Thailand. While Switzerland has been performing quite well in nation brand image, there are certain elements that have been indicated as the main aspects that has promoted its performance in the international perspective. For instance, the country is credited with highly efficient transportation, banking industry, beautiful sceneries, hospitable population and efficient business acumen among others (Aronczyk, 2008). These factors promote the ideal perception of individuals towards a country.
2.1. Complexity of Nation Branding
Nation Branding is considered very challenging in many aspects. Indeed, the practitioners often encounter significant challenges when attempting to brand a country due to the existence of complex structure of the nation brands. Nation brands are eminently complex in nature compared with either product or corporate brands although they may share certain similarities. However, nation brands could be very beneficial to any country globally in many aspects but create emotional benefits. Nation Branding is very complex, vague and diverse due to the existence of multiple stakeholders and other externalities which are firmly uncontrollable but influencing the country’s image. For a product brand, it holds a very simple and clears (Fan, 2010).
Nation brand seeks to promote the reputation of a country similar to the purpose of a corporate image that seeks to enhancing and developing effective relationship with stakeholders. On the contrary, the main objective of a product brand is often focused on boosting the respective product sales. This may however be incorporated into the nation brand perspective as well. Nation brand may however vary from economic to political and social-cultural perspective as opposed to both product and corporate brands which are virtually anchored on the economic dimensions. Besides, the audience of Nation Branding may be international and highly diverse (Fan, 2010).
2.1.1. The Scope of Nation Branding
Nation branding is relatively a new phenomenon to majority of countries worldwide. In this regard, practitioners have perceived a significant level of confusion in the concept. At time, this concept has been described as complex and exciting but very controversial subject. Indeed, the exciting part of the concept is derived from the fact that the practice is mainly used in practical application despite the existence of small bit of theory regarding the practice. Besides, this practice is considered complex due to the fact that it entails more disciplines than any other conventional brand strategies in existence. The controversy on this subject is derived from the fact that it is closed associated with political activities that eventually creates conflicting viewpoints and opinions. It is very important to note that nation branding process is complex in nature as it covers an elaborate number of political, historical, economic and cultural aspects (Aronczyk, 2008).
Besides, in the development of Nation Brand Index, the hexagon model comprise of six main dimensions which demonstrates elements with potentially high effect on the overall image of a nation. To assess nations, individual respondents from different countries are interview with directly through face-to-face interviews or through telephone interviews or otherwise internet based reviews. Nation Branding is also perceived as a necessity as it provides individual countries with the capacity to gain political advantages. For instance, Lithuanian has been performing extremely poorly in the national branding and has been making coherent steps towards establishing a unique position under the discourse of nation brand by virtue of developing effective public relation exercise (Aronczyk, 2008). Little had been known about the country’s heritage and aspiration. The country therefore championed a campaign towards informing ethnologists concerning the Lithuania’s ethnic origins, language development among other elements aimed at boosting its position in the perspective of nation brand image.
2.1.2. Ownership of Nation Brand
As opposed to a product or corporate brands, nation brand is owned by multiple stakes including all the citizens of a country. This however posts another form of complexity in nation branding in the determination of coordination of nation brand. In essence, nation brand does not merely belong to the brand mangers alone but to the citizens at large. Without a strong leadership, research indicates that no campaigns for nation branding can succeed. This approach that perceives all the stakeholders as potential owners of the nation brand is often embraced contrary to the approach that prescribes brand ownership to a particular group of individuals or corporate who are directly involved in the development of the brand (Aronczyk, 2008).
In the perspective that the entire citizenry is the owner of the nation brand, the government plays a significant role and further controls all other stakeholders in this context. Nevertheless, the government must also ensure the independence of long-term Nation Branding strategy free from political influence in order to sustain high level stability as well as consistency for subsequent governments. The lower stakeholders in the ownership of nation brand also comprises of their independent agendas and therefore providing a prospective mechanisms of a successful nation branding mechanisms. Another major approach to nation branding is involvement of a program-specific inclusiveness. Nevertheless, this form of a strategy may only be applied at a time when a country has embraced certain nation branding strategies as the foundation of the extensive strategic development with a significant recognition globally (Aronczyk, 2008).
The implication of the above state is that certain deficits in the aggregate country’s image are identified thus, in one or more dimensions, the country must be rebranded. Mainly as a result of this scenario, the choice made by the stakeholders in this case is dependent on the specific branding strategy and its objectives. Typically, the government is mainly involved merely in the preliminary stages in order to foster the initial stages of the nation branding campaign although afterwards, the private sector is actively engaged in the process while the overall role of the government decreases consecutively (Aronczyk, 2008).
2.2. A Case of Poor National Branding; Lithuania
The demand for nation branding in Lithuania became quite apparent in 1990s when the country became independent and a few number of people had significant knowledge of the concept. For it to survive in the context of foreigners, the country had objected to enhance its image and further compete for the share of FDI in the global perspective. This would be achieved through the country’s political and cultural influence boost through extended coverage from the international media perspective whenever possible. In fact, nation branding has been perceived a shear public relation exercise in a bid to persuade media to cover a country from the international perspective (Kaneva, 2011).
Lithuania first hit international newspapers, by becoming the first Soviet republic to gain independence. At the time, the Lithuania’s image was barely constructed as weak, small and fearless country. n the first years after independence, Lithuania had attempted to lure FDI through the transitioning of its economy from state-owned to market economy. However, in 1991 when the country’s elections led to the successful election of an ex-communist party, the country’s image faded away for potential investors who had gone associating the country with communism. However, the government had been making extra efforts and eventually launched a public relation campaign through the international media but this measure too failed miserable to change the negative publication of the country. Besides, the country’s diplomatic championship was also unable to shape it with regard to its coverage in the international media. Subsequently, the country’s image was subject to stereotyping and prejudice by the international media coverage (Fan, 2010).
Lithuania is credited with establishing branding motives at the time when the EU and NATO had begun discussing moves to invite new members in mid-1990s. In order to fit in the EU and NATO institutions, the ministry of foreign affairs of Lithuania thus proposes certain recommendations that aimed at improving the country’s image internationally. Nevertheless, not all the recommended motives were implemented. As a result of failed examination in this case, the country was not invited to the either NATO or EU. However, the process of nation branding was still perpetrated in subsequent years to date (Kaneva, 2011).
There are significant aspects that could be credited with influencing negatively the due process of nation branding in Lithuania. For instance, the image of the country was tainted by her citizens who had migrated to other countries such as Spain and Scandinavian region at around 2000. Indeed, the robust media coverage of these episodes also made a significant blow to the country’s effort to re-engage and construct its image in the international perspective. Though the country’s economy was strong at the time with the highest GDP growth across the entire Baltic countries, scholars considered it to be the biggest but also the most backwards economy among the three main Baltic Countries (Kaneva, 2011).
Continued efforts to enhance the country’s image in the international scenes bore fruits between 2003 and 2004 when the country’s basket ball team won gold medals from the basket ball championships held by European nations. As a result, the country became a member of both NATO and the EU. These moves were however subject to the nation branding strategies that has been applied by the Lithuanian Institute in 2001 which represented the country’s cultural, diplomatic and artistic achievements in the international scenes. Besides, the government had also been making countless efforts to emphasize on the Lithuanian FDI as well as coordinating information on its state in 2003. Nevertheless, this information was not effectively coordinated as the international media had been focusing on the surprising facts pertaining to Lithuania. Some of these facts include the articles written by European media depicting the country as being extremely poor (Fan, 2010).
With recent improvement in nation branding, the government has been spearheading measures to maintain the country’s position while creating avenues towards enhancing its further. The government has also started contemplating on the modest nation branding mechanisms that would consecrate the uncontrolled situation that ranged over years. One of the measures that have been put by the government includes the announcement of ‘Vivat Lithuania!’ competition that aimed at receiving proposals from the private companies dealing with public relations to spearhead the implementation of the branding of the country in the international perspective in 2005. However, despite the generation of very many ideas regarding matters that would promote the nation brand, Lithuania, majority were not implemented at all. In fact, there was a resultant confusion arising from the local media reporting information concerning a rival media favored by the government thus, wining the tender for implementing the recommendations. There were apparently no measures aimed at consolidating the views and ideals of various stakeholders into the due process hence crippling the nation’s prospects to sell its image in the international perspectives (Kaneva, 2011).
Private companies have also been on the forefront in enhancing the nation brand of Lithuania. In 2009, the Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius became the European capital of culture. This was aimed at promoting the country’s image. Subsequently, the Lithuania’s development Team Agency advanced their mechanisms of nation branding by hiring external sources from Saffron’s Brand Consultants, a renowned global branding agency. The result was an image selling guide entitled, ‘Selling Lithuania smartly’ where a number of recommendations for this objective were drawn and resultant tangible benefits were realized. Nevertheless, these advances were merely focused on economic development as the selling point for Lithuania and subsequent attraction of FDI into the country (Kaneva, 2011).
From the above measures that the country is credited with, there are numerous mistakes that were done resulting to unsuccessful nation branding towards changing the perception of the international community’s towards Lithuania. For instance, the country’s main challenge was and remains, to manage its reputation. However, it is still unclear due to the complexity issue mentioned earlier on the party that could be charged with upholding the countries reputation. The government of Lithuania on its part was unable to decide on the best placed companies for offering the more productive nation branding strategy while the information about the choice of the company and the criteria used was fashioned against the public knowledge (Kaneva, 2011).
The country’s citizens are very essential in defining its image in the public domain particularly in the international perspective. Subsequently, the process of nation branding can be fundamentally effective if the government engage the citizens into the strategy formulation and subsequent execution while dialogue with other stakeholders would elongate the success capacity of the process but such were overlooked in Lithuania. In addition, poor communication between stakeholders while paying very minimal if any attention to the Media Relations also sabotaged the prospective mechanism of addressing nation branding practice. Indeed, research indicates that the ability of a country to manipulate and influence positively, negative coverage by media institutions in foreign destination would result in considerable benefits to the Lithuania and any other state in that state. The collaboration with foreign media and effective communication among stakeholders could have been the most effective mechanisms for enhancing nation branding for the country thus, spearheading brand growth in the international destination (Aronczyk, 2008).
3.0. Use of Social Media in Public Relations on Nation Branding
Open dialogue both internally and abroad can create an avenue for developing a competitive nation brand. Nations must be more credible and establish their relationships through the social media platforms. Countries are however focused on their names in the coining of social media tags in order to engage the international community more constructively. For instance, the website for many countries also have a link to social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo among others. Besides, those individuals visiting the page across the globe can also watch videos and learn a few issues about a country. This platform has been often manipulated by many states towards enhancing the performance of the countries in the international image perspectives. For instance, one may watch the videos of Iceland characterized with such elements as playful, modernity and very creative state of affairs that may lure the attention of many visitors (Kaneva, 2011).
The construction of such Iceland project through the social media or internet wall was aimed at promoting tourism through the introduction of Iceland as a friendly and welcoming state. Research indicates that this social advert has resulted to a 20 percent increase in tourism since 2011 when the advert was launched. This is a sample instance of successful public relation exercise through the social media that has been credited with immense effect in luring international community into a country. Indeed, it demonstrates a prospective mechanism of relationship building through social media as well as the involvement of all citizens in nation branding process (Kaneva, 2011).
In essence, mass media advertisements is however not as powerful as used to be in the past due to the highly informed nature of the modern society. The current generation is highly conscious while avoiding marketing messages as much as possible. As a result, many organizations are targeting newer approaches away from advertisements and marketing. In the view of this position, nation branding agents must also engage in this shift and consider the changing customer behaviors. Nevertheless, the case of Iceland has a fundamental impact of pressing upon the importance of strong relationship with the audience globally. However, successful media driven nation branding processes are rare. For instance, Lithuania had attempted to promote its brand mass media channel such as CNN but the strategy did not impact any positively to the nation brand in the long-run (Kaneva, 2011).
3.1. Global Target for Nation Branding
In the nation branding process, foreign audience is the main target group. Their respective perceptions towards a nation form the immediate image of a country. As a result, the target of nation branding is therefore altering the image towards enhancing its competitiveness in the global arena. Nevertheless, the international audiences have different extent of knowledge and experiences about each country as far as the cultural values influencing their perceptions are concerned. During fateful planning processes, the nation branding strategy is critical in making the analysis of a target group. This implies that different countries should select different nation branding strategies that would suit their respective situations (Dinnie, 2010).
Nation brand could also be perceived as a consistent unit and therefore, choosing different strategies for different countries would create a sense of disunity. Indeed, research indicates that the main challenge in nation branding is the choice for communicating a single image to different audience spread across different countries. Te pre-existing images about a country forms the main picture while at the same time, it remains very important to define the specific features of a nation brand in one country and a different perspective in another country (Dinnie, 2010).
3.2. Political View of Nation Branding
With the fast-growing advertisements industry in the course of 20th century, there were a number of techniques that were established which did not only aim at persuading customers to buy certain products but also competing products in the market. Branding experts have also been persuaded that nations may also be perceived as branded products through an increasingly global competitive segment. Nation branding has been widely manipulated in the global arena over the last few decades through the extensive use of branding techniques by nations that have been envisaging the concept of brand management under the shield of public diplomacy (Aronczyk, 2008).
In both the traditional and the emerging market economies, there has been concrete devotion towards immense set of financial resources in the branding process that focus on the establishment and communication of special images regarding national identity with the official objective of luring tourists, workforce and skilled manpower at large to invest and operate in a given country towards increasing internal productivity and boost exports. Besides, in the world market places, the theoreticians, politicians and other civilized people also emphasize on the rewards including but not limited to increased credibility of nation in the international segment particularly, through political influences. Nation branding is also perceived to create fair distribution of resources and overall wealth in the world countries globally (Kaneva, 2011).
Indeed, it is also presented as a major element in the political, cultural and economic success of any state worldwide. As a result, neglect of nation branding is therefore credited with serious negative consequences on the country’s economic social-economic performance. There are however certain perceptions that tend to complicate the performance capacity of nation branding in increasing the potential impact to the nations and further diluting the real engagement potential of countries in mechanisms that would inspire effective nation branding. For instance, nations are perceived to be very complex in nature and their communication is taken on multitude channels hence the concept of branding is often overlooked by virtue of viewing a nation like a product or a company. Some of the immense figures in national branding incorporates the view of marketing and virtually agrees that nations barely behave like actual brands (Aronczyk, 2008).
The perception that nation branding requires a complicated conceptual approach and organization but operates as corporate branding is extensive in nature. As perceived in the focus of corporate brand, nation brand is intended to capture the nation’s inner identity in the international perspective. This is also intended to transform the identity to a malleable offer that can suit different categories of buyers. Indeed, it has been found that countries behave just like independent brands by being in recurrent state of competition with one another. In this regard, nation branding is their perceived as an essential continuation of diplomacy as well as a necessity for a country to successfully participate in the global marketplace. Similarly, other proponents of nation branding as argue that nations have been consistently involved in branding processes (Kaneva, 2011).
The deterioration of standards in the countries’ performance in the global image perspectives, there has been serious concerns over the essence of nation branding since it has not formed the subject of debate among academic and professional for a long period of time despite its influence on the social-economic performance of states within the international market segment. For any open economy which forms the majority of the global economies, the attention to international market segments as well as sources of other finished and raw product is very crucial. Nation branding is not simply financed and supported by internal governments but also an institution of both governmental cultural and political entities (Aronczyk, 2008).
In many instances, nation branding has also been depicted as a form of cultural policy that seeks to united nation-states and further enhances the symbolic legitimacy of certain social orders in a country for effective social-economic and cultural performance of the country in reference. In this regard, cultural policy as defined in the context of nation branding tries to intervene on a pool of interconnected systems of understanding which are grossly embodied within a framework of social practices through the stimulation of new categories of individuals. Such social policies are not mere exemptions but rather paradigmatic instances of current forms of government and could be best analyzed within a framework of neoliberal ‘governmentality’. This term refer to the manner in which state exercise control by virtue of engaging traditional means of identifying itself in a pool of cross-cutting cultural elements in the global perspectives (Kaneva, 2011). Similarly, it also denotes the approach to national identity in international perspective demonstrating how power may be dispersed to entail self-government on individuals which eventually become a clear embodiment of powers.
Nation branding may therefore be perceived as an elongated aspect of traditionally reviewing the internal capacities of a country through the recognition of standard process and mechanisms that has critical competitive advantage in the global arena. The publication of national image in the worldwide perspective form a ideal path to which citizens of different states worldwide forms their decisions to visit as tourists or potential investors of a country or destination in order to reap from the advertised opportunities. Some countries place the entire process in the domains of its cultural or natural heritage. This points at important features and cultural elements existing in a country that act as a distinct element often in-existence in other states. In essence, when a country identify with particular natural elements that cannot be duplicated by artificial means in another, this may form a major source of competitive advantage and a lucrative tourist attraction scenario for the international community (Dinnie, 2010). However, these endowments would remain principally futile if the country with such supplies lacks the right attitude and capacity to inform the international community of their existence. Subsequently, Nation branding therefore play a pivotal role in informing the international community about such elements.
5.0. Summary & Conclusion
Finally, nation branding has been perceived as a new phenomenon in most countries worldwide. Over the years, countries have been making stringent measures to enhance their images in the global arena. However, while this has been sought after as a mechanism that promote internal success of countries owing to its effect on increasing local earning on tourism and foreign direct investments (FDI), many countries have witnessed unsuccessful measures to enhance their international images despite their focus to the real goal. One of the main reasons behind this failure is lack of coordinated efforts towards the process of achieving a solid nation brand as well as the interplay of development and politics which has influenced the performance of such projects. For instance, a country like Lithuania has been credited with successive attempts to establish a strong nation brand though futile. Some of the reasons behind their failure have been lack of corporation among the nation brand management teams and the citizenry with the country’s citizens on emigration to countries such as Spain contributing negatively to the establishment of a competent brand image.
The eventual process of building a nation brand and its maintenance is however perceived as a complex. Nevertheless, this analysis provides a serious inter-relationship between nation brand and corporate branding such as their shared property by aims of managing reputations and rapports of their stakeholders. Some countries including the Lithuania employed several measures to enhance their overall image in the international domain. The use of public relation theory is one of the approaches that were perceived as critical in defining a good relationship with the international communities.
Another major source of failure of Lithuania state to establish a competent national brand was the fact that the country did not engage positive media posting management from the international perspectives. As a result, the country was adversely affected by the negative reporting from the international media an aspect that further foiled its attempt to grace its international image. The analysis of this paper also revealed that Lithuania was also unable to manage its reputation because it could not effectively control its media message filing as their existed no mechanisms that would manage media relationship hence, both local media and international media contributed to the deterioration of the country’s image in the international scenes. The media was part of the robust contributors to the dwindling image of the country. Furthermore, the recommendations that were made on the best ways possible to enhance its image were also virtually neglected while others were implemented partially hence the ineffectiveness of the recovery process after independence.
Some of the most successful countries have been identify and ranked as per the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands IndexSM. This framework focused on six main dimensions in the ranking that were critical to making social-economic change in the countries. The ranking also targeted 50 countries comprising of both developed and developing countries worldwide. Under this ranking the elements that were considered includes; governance, cultural heritage and tourism among others. From this analysis certain factors are also identified as potential impediments to nation branding including conflict and poor governance. Similarly, there are multiple factors that are considered as elemental to the upgrade of nation branding mechanisms. These include excellence in artistic and technological world. For instance, Germany is placed top at one point in time due to its excellence in football games as deduced from the 2014 world cup competition as well as technological proficiency that has been noted over recent achievements. These elements constitute some of the significant factors that contribute to the enhancement of a national image.

References
Anholt, S. (2015). Anholt nation brands index: how does the world see America?. Journal of Advertising Research, 45(03), 296-304.
Aronczyk, M. (2008). ‘Living the Brand’: Nationality, Globality, and the Identity Strategies of Nation Branding Consultants. International journal of communication, 2, 25.
Anholt, S. (2011). The Anholt-GMI city brands index how the world sees the world’s cities. Place Branding, 2(1), 18-31.
Anholt, S. (2009). Brand new justice: how branding places and products can help the developing world. Routledge.
Dinnie, K. (2010). Nation branding. Routledge.
Fan, Y. (2006). Branding the nation: What is being branded?. Journal of vacation marketing, 12(1), 5-14.
Fan, Y. (2010). Branding the nation: Towards a better understanding. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 6(2), 97-103.
Gudjonsson, H. (2005). Nation branding. Place branding, 1(3), 283-298.
Kaneva, N. (2011). Nation branding: Toward an agenda for critical research. International Journal of Communication, 5, 25.
Szondi, G. (2008). Public diplomacy and nation branding: Conceptual similarities and differences. Netherlands Institute of International Relations’ Clingendael’.

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