Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Volume 9 Number 3
ABSTRACT
A good reputation can enhance the competitiveness of a nation and its corporate/product
brands. As China goes global, it is important
that it manages its reputation, its nation brand,
and shapes how it is viewed in the international arena. Ten challenges facing the branding of China are identified from a review of
the relevant literature. They center around the
key issue of whether China can be a coherent
brand, given the nations complexity, contradictions and enormity. The paper argues that
there are common denominators, which straddle
across the different outputs of a nation, that
can be used for nation branding. It ends with
a discussion of what are the possible values
and images that Brand China can embrace.
Corporate Reputation Review (2006) 9, 198210.
doi:10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550025
KEYWORDS: China; Olympic Games; na-
INTRODUCTION
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tions, then the citizens, outputs and corporations within their countries can join in to
live and exemplify these values in their day
to day lives. When a multiplicity of messages is spearheaded by both the public and
private sectors, all saying the same thing, it
is a powerful force (Olins, 1999).
The turnaround of Brand Spain, which is
often cited as a successful case in the nation
branding literature, is an example of this approach. In 1975, Spain came out of the iron
grip of the Franco regime, but was lagging
behind the rest of modern Europe. What
turned Brand Spain around were part careful planning and coordination and part
inspired individual and corporate actions
(Gilmore, 2002). On the one hand, there
were coordinated efforts by the government,
such as the hosting of the Barcelona Olympics, the opening of the Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, and institutional and
tourist advertising about the country. On the
other hand, Spanish corporate brands also
played a role in the rebranding of the nation.
Brand Spain was strengthened by the creation of international business schools and the
privatization and rapid global expansion of
Spanish multinationals, such as Telefonica,
Repsol and Union Fenosa (Olins, 2003).
The vastness of China implies multiple
regional markets with different economic,
political and social interests. This makes effective enforcement of policies a complex
matter at central, regional and local levels.
For example, the central government has
largely followed through on its WTO commitments by creating a stronger policy
framework for protecting intellectual property. However, the will and the ability to
enforce the policy at the local level are often
minimal. For Brand China, different outputs
with different unique selling propositions
may want to play up attributes that best promote them to the world. Therefore, tensions
such as whether to highlight Chinas tradition and heritage in tourism or to highlight
Chinas modernization in inducing foreign
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industries that they are a part of. In the computer industry, Legend used the technological know-how it learned from being OEM
to develop its own brand for the domestic
market. Once it gained sufficient expertise
in the domestic market, Legend launched
itself into the international arena under the
new brand name of Lenovo. Lenovo has
since acquired IBMs Personal Computing
Division in early 2005 as its next strategic
move to compete in the global marketplace.
This implies a nation that is progressive, ambitious and achievement-oriented.
Ramo (2004) adds to the idea that, in the
future, Chinas brand image will be strong
on innovation by claiming that only through
new thinking will China be able to progress.
There has been a massive investment in education such that China will soon match
America in the number of doctoral degrees
it awards. Those who believe that an organizations external image is a function of its
internal culture (eg Davies et al., 2003) will
point to other changes in Chinese society;
an economy based upon competence rather
than ideology (Shirk, 1993) and the change
from looking inward to becoming a global
leader. These are then indications as to what
might be emphasized in Chinas branding
strategy.
Some final clues as to how Chinas image
may develop can be grasped by examining
other changes in the country. The new generation of Chinese leaders is calling for a
peaceful development. Shanghai as a city has
buildings that can rival any in the world for
their modernity and sophistication, contrasting with the heritage represented by other
symbols such as the Great Wall and terra
cotta warriors. More Chinese are travelling
abroad and more tourists are visiting the
country, changing stereotypes among westerners whose main symbol of China might
have more to do with Chinese restaurants
and takeaways than with the worlds most
dynamic economy. The way the nation is
seen to handle both the Olympics and World
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Seaton, F.B. and Laskey, H.A. (1999) Effects of production location on perceived automobile values, Journal of Global Marketing, 13(1), 7185.
Shirk, S.L. (1993) The Political Logic of Economic Reform
in China, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Verlegh, P.W.J. and Steenkamp, J.E.M. (1999) A review
and meta-analysis of country of origin research,
Journal of Economic Psychology, 20, 521546.
Wang, C. and Lamb, C. (1983) The impact of
selected environmental forces upon consumers
willingness to buy foreign products, Journal of
the Academy of Marketing Science, 11(2), 7184.
Wee, C.H., Lim, D. and Tan, G. (1993) The image of
countries as locations for investment, in N. Papadopoulos and L. Heslop (eds). Product-country Images:
Impact and Role in International Marketing, The
Haworth Press, New York.