The Changing Nature of Nation Branding: Implications for Public Diplomacy

Nation branding seeks to generate positive outcomes in trade and investment, export promotion, tourism promotion, talent attraction, and a range of other fields. Governments adopt different approaches in developing and implementing nation brand strategy, with varied emphasis on traditional marketing communications, citizen engagement, and digital and social media. In recent years the trend towards user-generated content, already well established in other contexts such as product and corporate branding, has played an increasingly prominent role in nation branding. This development challenges policymakers to strike a balance between the crafting of a consistent and coherent brand on the one hand, and accepting and integrating the manifold and uncontrollable contributions of stakeholders such as individual citizens on the other. The disruptive rise of user-generated content presents a considerable challenge to the conventional top-down approach hitherto dominant in the field of nation branding. A further challenge to nation branding stems from the rise of city brands as increasingly powerful and influential players in the global economy.