Advertising by Countries in U.S.

Print Publications:
Competitive Nation Branding

Dr. Michael David Hazen

Alan Michael Teitleman, MPA
Nathaniel Stoltz
Minhao Dai

Wake Forest University

 Introduction

As the world has become increasingly globalized in the last twenty years, the idea of
branding nations in a fashion similar to that of products has become increasingly
attractive. Dinnie (2012) argues that “the application of branding techniques to nations is
a relatively new phenomenon, but one which is growing in frequency given the
increasingly global competition that nations now face in both their domestic and external
markets” (p. 17). This trend has only increased as the competition for global development
has become more acute with the worldwide economic slowdown of the past five years.
As Herstein remarked in 2012: “governments (countries), municipalities (cities), and
councils (regions) everywhere are racing to brand their assets in order to attain a
competitive edge over their competitors” (p. 148). This paper explores one aspect of the
nation branding phenomenon, the placing of advertisements by numerous countries in
prominent print publications of the United States for purposes of image enhancement.

Nation branding as a general topic has focused on the idea of developing a specific brand
for a country and marketing that brand on a worldwide basis for strategic national
purposes. While the goals of nation branding vary from country to country and the
methods are also diverse, they represent a strategic effort at international communication
between countries and selected audiences in other countries. As such, they deserve
attention as one element in the crowded environment of efforts to influence other
countries in our increasingly globalized world.

While a large number of papers and books have been written about the phenomenon, they
are also exclusively explanations of nation branding, arguments for its importance or
isolated case studies. Most such explanations are written by practitioners who are
concerned with explaining and justifying their activities. A few case studies have
emerged in recent years, but no systematic studies describing the nature of nation
branding practices exist. Not only is there a scarcity of empirical research on what is
being done in terms of branding countries, there are almost no studies of specific types of
efforts countries use. Therefore, this paper will provide a descriptive analysis of efforts
by a number of countries to influence selected audiences in the United States.

One particular form of nation branding that has been used extensively in the US is that of
country advertising. Such advertising consists of the placement of a specific
advertisement in a media outlet in the United States designed to affect a particular
audience and lead to changes in a country’s image related to economic and political
conditions. This paper will analyze a cross-section of advertisements placed in major US
publications over the last five years. In doing so, we will look at the way these
advertisements function as persuasive messages, the means that they use, and the
audiences they appeal to.
 Review of Literature

Branding

Branding as a marketing concept is based upon the metaphor of branding cattle. The
concept has been developed extensively in the marketing area as a way of distinguishing
products and establishing buyer identification and loyalty. The American Marketing
Association has defined branding as the “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a
combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of
sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition”. A more concise definition of
branding is provided by Dinnie (2008) who defines branding as “the process by which
companies distinguish their product offerings from those of the competition” (p.14).

Extensions of the Branding Concept to Countries

Fan (2010) argues that the nation branding concept can be traced to four sources: 1)
country of origin studies (COO), 2) place or destination branding, 3) public diplomacy,
and 4) national identity. Each of these approaches has moved the discussion closer to the
direct consideration of countries as brands and the promoting of particular associations
and attributes.

The idea of place branding can illustrate this process. Anholt (2010) notes that places
“have been promoting their attractions and their images throughout history” (p. 1), but it
has only been recently that the principles of branding have been applied to such efforts.
He highlights the concept of strategic place marketing as developed by Kotler, Haidar &
Rein (1993) as marking a significant step in the process.

Nation Branding

In defining the concept of “nation branding,” most writers want to distinguish it from a
country’s overall image. Kotler and Gertner (2002) define a country’s image as:

the sum of beliefs and impressions people hold about places. Images represent a
simplification of a large number of associations and pieces of information
connected with a place. They are product of the mind trying to process and pick
out eventual sensual information from large amounts of data about a place. (p.
251)

In this case, a country’s image is shaped by a large number of sources over a period of
time.

Ham (2001) specifically talks about a country as a brand with his idea of a brand state,
which “comprises the outside world’s ideas about a particular country” (p. 2). The related
concept of country brands has been suggested by Delorie (2004). He defines it “as a
national identity that has been proactively distilled, interpreted, internalized among the
citizens and projected for international recognition to construct a favorable national
image, and enhance the nation’s competitiveness.” Delorie’s concept suggests a more
active process of managing a country’s image but puts equal weight on the process of
self-identity within a country and the process of projecting a particular image of that
country to the outside world through international communication.

Dinnie (2008) goes a step further, defining a nation brand as “the unique
multidimensional blend of elements that provide the nation with culturally grounded
differentiation and relevance for all its target audiences” (p. 15). This puts more of an
emphasis on the message that is projected to international audiences about a particular
country.

Characteristics of Nation Branding

A number of characteristics comprise the idea of nation branding. While the idea of
nation branding involves the active projection of messages about a country to
international audiences, it must also be noted that the result of such messages is a mental
image of a country in the consumer or audience’s mind (Dinnie, 2008).

Crucial to the nation branding process is the implication that in deciding on what
messages to use in shaping an audience’s image of a country, the starting point is with the
marketplace and audience for that brand (Anholt, 2012). Furthermore, in discussing
mental images, the role of pre-existing national stereotypes must serve as a backdrop to
any nation branding efforts.

Ham (2001) suggests another important characteristic about brands, particularly in terms
of states, arguing that branded states, like products, depend upon the trust and
satisfaction of customers.

Goals of Nation Branding

Numerous goals have been suggested as the motivation for the process of nation branding
process. They fall into three general categories: 1) economic development, 2) political
relations and 3) image repair. The category of economic development encompasses a
number of sub goals including attracting tourists, encouraging investment in the country,
and boosting exports (Dinnie, 2012). Anholt (2002) has even gone so far as to argue that
the effective positioning of underdeveloped countries is necessary to address the
economic imbalances of the global economic system.

The image of many countries has suffered over the last fifty years as a result of political
and economic instability. Nation branding provides such countries an opportunity to
address concerns in the international sphere of public opinion. Such approaches to nation
branding allow the possibility of repositioning a country’s image more favorably with
regard to a target audience.

The Nation Branding Process

The nation branding process is a complex one that involves a number of possible means
of addressing a country’s image with various audiences internationally. One tool that has
been used extensively is advertisements for targeted audiences in various media outlets.
Dinnie (2012) has argued that advertising can be a powerful tool in the nation branding
process, especially as one element of the overall campaign and strategy. Hildreth (2010)
sees it as particularly effective for promoting awareness or as a teaching tool.

Advertising is a tool for nation branding that can have a number of benefits, including
generating new markets, changing consumer behavior, and increasing sales (Dinnie,
2012).

Research on Nation Branding

Papadopoulos and Heslop, in a 2002 article, mention reviewing 766 works on nation
branding. Despite this sizable output of works, very little work exists that describes and
explores what is being done in nation branding. At the same time, Anholt called for more
empirical work on national brands. He argued that while there have been hundreds of
articles written about nation branding in recent years, there are very few real case
histories and little to no work that is directly applicable to the creation of nation brands.

Research Questions

This study seeks to address the lack of empirical work for one part of the nation branding
process: the use of advertisements. As such, we are seeking to address the following
questions:

1. What kind of countries seem to engage in country advertising?

2. What publications are used for country advertising?
3. What are the sources of such advertisements?
4. What are the targeted audiences?
5. What are the physical features of the advertisements as messages?
6. What are the goals of the advertisements?
7. What topics and themes are present?
8. What kind of argumentative structures are present in terms of conclusions,
support and reasons?
9. What modes of persuasion are used?

Methodology

In order to answer our research questions, we engaged in a content analysis of

advertisements appearing in number of U.S. print media over the course of the past five
years. These advertisements represent a wide variety of countries and address a diverse
set of subjects in an effort to reach targeted audiences within the American society.
Publications

The advertisements analyzed in this study were selected from the following publications:
Condé Nast Traveler magazine, National Geographic Traveler magazine, Foreign Policy
magazine, Foreign Affairs magazine, Fortune magazine, Forbes magazine, Technology
Review magazine, The Wall Street Journal newspaper, and the New York Times
newspaper.

In an analysis of major U.S. print publications, these newspapers and magazines were the
ones that consistently printed country advertising. As can be seen, two of the magazines
featured travel information, two featured information on politics and international
relations, one featured information on new technologies and the two newspapers were
high circulation publications with an elite reputation.

Sampling

Twenty-eight advertisements were chosen from the above-mentioned publications with

each advertisement representing one country or geopolitical entity. The advertisements
appeared within the last five years. While the chosen advertisements were not randomly
sampled in a strict sense, they were chosen with no systematic principles of selection. In
some cases, the advertisement was the only example from that country and in other cases,
the advertisement was selected from a number that represented the country in the chosen
period of time.

Countries

The countries or geopolitical entities chosen represented twenty-eight different countries

from all parts of the world. Eight advertisements were from Europe: Scotland, England,
The European Union, Greece, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Nine
advertisements were from Asia: China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Japan,
Pakistan, India, Thailand and Vietnam. Eight advertisements were from the Western
Hemisphere: Brazil, Belize, Columbia, Mexico, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Ontario, and
Quebec. Three advertisements were from countries in the Middle East: Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, and Israel, while one advertisement was from Africa: South Africa.

Coding categories

In line with the research questions, coding categories were developed for the following
information:

1. The publication
2. The sources of the advertisement
3. Physical features of the advertisement
4. Goals, topics and themes of the advertisements
5. The argumentative structure of the advertisements in terms of conclusions,
support, and reasons
6. The modes of persuasion
7. The targeted audiences

Coders

The advertisements were coded by five graduate students who were trained in the coding
system. Each coder analyzed between four and eight advertisements.

Results

What kind of countries seem to engage in country advertising?

In the growing world economy, it is difficult to categorize countries in terms of their

economic and political development. Despite difficulties in classifying some countries,
for purposes of discussion the twenty-seven countries studied can be grouped into the
following categories.

1. Developed countries: Québec, Ontario, Scotland, England, Japan, Israel,

Monaco, Switzerland, Bermuda, and Saudi Arabia.

2. Rapidly growing countries: China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Hong Kong,
South Korea, Singapore

3. Struggling countries: Portugal, Spain, and Greece.

4. Developing countries: Belize, Mexico, Colombia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cayman

Islands, and Pakistan.

What can we conclude about the types of countries that are represented in these
advertisements? It would appear that the largest group comes from those countries which
we would classify as already developed. It would also appear that there are a substantial
number of countries that are seen as developing countries but making substantial progress
that sets them off from other developing countries. Third, there is a group of three
European countries which one can consider to be closer to developed countries by their
presence in the European Union. Finally, even those countries that are listed as
developing countries are not among those thought of as significantly underdeveloped. As
a result, we can probably conclude that those countries which advertise in the US are
either developed or are showing strong tendencies in that direction.

What publications are used for country advertising?

Eight different publications are represented in this sample. They range in frequency from
one magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, that has nine advertisements to three publications,
which are represented by only one advertisement.
 Condé Nast Traveler 9
Wall Street Journal 6
National Geographic Traveler 3
Foreign Affairs 3
Technological Review 3
Forbes 1
Fortune 1
Foreign Policy 1

In total, the largest number of advertisements appear in publications devoted to travel,

followed by eight advertisements in publications related to business.

Travel 12
Business 8
Politics and International Relations 4
Technology 3

Further analysis of the publications shows that while they all are nationally respected in
the United States, at least one publication in each category would be considered to be the
most respected in its category.

What are the sources of such advertisements?

While it is not always easy to identify the sources of such country advertisements, it
appears that in a majority of the cases some kind of government agencies are involved in
the sponsoring of the ads (20 out of 27 cases). In nine of the twenty-seven cases, there are
other groups involved in the sponsoring the advertisements. In most cases, these are
businesses, who provide funding for the advertisements and receive prominent mention
somewhere in the advertisement as a result. Finally, in eight of the cases, it is possible to
identify some advertising or marketing agency that was involved in the development of
these advertisements. While we suspect that such agencies were involved in the
development of more advertisements, their presence is not always made clear.

Goals and Audiences?

In examining the goals of the advertisements, there is usually a close relationship

between the goals and the groups of people who are targeted as the audiences of the
advertisements. Information about the targeted audiences can be inferred from the
publication’s readership profile and textual references and suggestions. In addition, the
text of the advertisements usually provides information about the goals of the
advertisement in terms of the themes and topics discussed.

In the case of these advertisements, the audiences and goals show clear correlations. For
example, advertisements with goals related to economic investment and development will
appear in publications read by people who are in a position to make such investments. In
thirteen of the advertisements, there are clear references to business and investment
opportunities. In addition to such references, the advertisements appear in publications
where the readers would include leaders in business and people with the resources to
invest in other countries.

In addition, a number of these advertisements also seem to be focused on elements of the

country’s international image. For example, advertisements from Colombia clearly speak
to the investment opportunities in the country while at the same time speaking about
political issues that have negatively affected the image of the country in the past. In the
case of China, the information provided about the Chinese economy might appear to be
negative in speaking about deflation. However, such a message may have more to say
about the country’s business image than about investment opportunities. Such an
advertisement in the Wall Street Journal could be aimed at increasing confidence among
business leaders about the information being provided about the state of the Chinese
economy.

In the case of advertisements focused on travel, in all cases, there seems to be a goal of
attracting travelers to that country as part of a strategy for economic development.
However, such advertisements often differ in several respects. In some cases, it is clear
that the particular travelers that compose the targeted audience are meant to be those who
have a high degree of disposable income and who are looking for luxurious kinds of
experiences. On the other hand, other advertisements emphasize features such as nature,
natural beauty, cultural and historical significance, and romance in an effort to lure
different kinds of travelers.

What modes of persuasion are used?

In examining the modes of persuasion used in these advertisements, it must be

remembered that probably all of the advertisements make some use of all the elements of
persuasion: argument, emotions, and credibility. However, clear patterns emerge about
what modes of persuasion are emphasized in the case of particular sets of goals and
intended audiences.

In the first case, that of travel-based advertising, it is clear that they are playing on the
emotions of the audiences. The particular emotions being appealed to vary widely
depending on the themes and topics of particular ads. Therefore, as a result, some ads
seek to evoke emotions related to happiness and enjoyment while other ads seem to
evoke emotions related to beauty. It is also interesting to note which modes of persuasion
perform a secondary role in such ads. While some of the advertisements clearly evoke
emotions in a fashion to bolster the credibility of the country, in most cases, the emotions
seem to serve as the basis for arguments about the about the attractiveness of the country
as a travel destination.

In the second case, that of business and image related advertisements, there is a clear
primary emphasis upon the arguments being made and the resulting logic advanced in
favor of the business opportunities present in the country. Such advertisements often will
marshal facts, statistics and data in an effort to support some kind of logical conclusion
about the investment opportunities or changes in the economic climate of the country.
Such arguments usually are bolstering elements of the credibility of the country.

In some of these cases, particularly where the image of the country is part of the appeal of
the advertisement, the arguments are seeking to repair the image of the country to
overcome some kind of past economic or political instability. In other cases, the
arguments about the business climate are designed to convince the potential investor that
the country is stable and trustworthy in its business structures and political environment.

Conclusion

Nation branding is clearly a phenomenon that is ever expanding in the era of

globalization. While this phenomenon assumes many forms in the modern age, the form
of the country advertisement is clearly a popular means of image improvement and repair
for a significant quantity of geopolitical bodies across the world. The significance of
country advertisements to countries and their governments is borne out by the heavy role
of government agencies in the genesis and production of the majority of advertisements
examined in this analysis. In conducting this analysis, we have made inroads on
understanding the frequency and significance of the mechanisms and messages that
underlie this important form of international communication. A wide array of countries,
most of whom have some degree of development, use this form for a number of purposes
in the spheres of economic development, image repair and political relations. It is also
clear from our analysis that countries favor emotional appeals to grow their tourism
industry, whereas appeals to logic and credibility characterized the bulk of business and
politically-based advertisements. There is a significant amount of further research to be
conducted into this important facet of international communication, but we have outlined
several clear characteristics of and strategies driving country advertisements and the
greater phenomenon of nation branding.