ABSTRACT
The concept of branding is usually applied to products. Branding has transformed the lives of many products and has made them big success stories, influencing patronage, sales, aspirations and image. This concept of branding can be extended to countries in their quest to transform and accelerate their developmental agenda and change their image for the better. In this chapter we will look at how some countries have consciously used national branding to change their growth and prosperity agenda. Others have adopted branding in their attempt to attract focused attention, both internally and externally and, as a result, targeted specific investment opportunities to help boost their economies. Nations like South Africa, Malaysia, China and Kenya have specifically focused on country branding and have even gone to the extent of setting up specific country brand offices solely to drive their national branding exercise. After a bitter election dispute that left many people killed, investors with cold feet and the country’s image badly battered, Kenya represents a specific example of a country that used branding to gradually instil confidence both internally and externally. Malaysia has successfully used nation branding to propel its tourism industry. Today, tourism is a major foreign exchange earner for the country, contributing substantially to that country’s economy. South Africa’s image both internally and externally suffered badly in the era of apartheid, virtually isolating it from the rest of the world. Today, some two decades after apartheid was dismantled, the country has used national branding to bounce back and is now Africa’s biggest economic success. These examples are not only analysed but lessons are also drawn that developing economies can use to employ effective branding as a strategy to enhance national development.
