Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking

Bloom Consulting, has created this World Ranking in order to answer the fundamental

issue at the heart of every country, corporation and soul: how does one become attractive?

Luckily, the rationale behind such a question for a nation is quite simple.

A country wishes to draw the interest of people in order to create wealth.

In other words, the purpose of country branding is to bring economic growth.

We asked the creators of the ranking to answer several questions for everyone to understand the importance of this issue.

Why you decided to make this rating?

Bloom Consulting conducted this study in order to answer the fundamental question at the heart of every country, corporation and soul: How does one become attractive?  The goal of our ranking is to provide a complete, comprehensive and objective view of each country’s brand.  We want to promote the importance of country branding. Country branding should be used as a strategic development tool, literally, to create an impact on GDP. It is a tool to establish the vision of the country to increase economic development.

During your research, were you contacting and interacting with the countries’

representatives? if yes, which was their reaction?

During the research phase we used information gathered through the Tourism Board Organizations (TBOs) of the respective countries associated with the World Tourism Organization. Information regarding strategies used by countries to attract FDI was taken from the Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) of the respective countries associated with the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA). 

When these TBOs were not accessible through the Word Tourism Organization or IPAs were not accessible through the WAIPA, information was gathered from embassies or chambers of commerce.

As we only contacted the countries TBOs or IPAs regarding validation of the data they did not have reactions per se regarding our research. Some were collaborative and provided us with deep information while other resisted

Did you use some exact rankings as an example?

No we did not use other rankings as an example. Our ranking is entirely independent from others and as such takes into account many factors and variables others do not.  For example, our ranking takes hard facts and official data supplied by the countries into account as opposed to surveys and interviews. Also henceforth we have considered the power of Google and tourists and investor demand analysis when conducting the 2012 research, an aspect which no other ranking has taken into consideration before.

Can anyone judge your research as fair and impersonal?

Yes. One can judge our research as fair and impersonal since it is not based on opinion and perceptions. It is a combination of Official Financial information mixed with what the world is offering and what the world is looking for.

Are you going to apply your ranking list for some studies, publications, etc?

Presently our ranking list is available on our website for interested parties to read. Our vision is that this information should be available for anyone to read and understand a country brand is a valuable tangible asset that generates wealth and economic development.

How long did it take to write your research?

In order to accurately conduct the research we took more than half a year when compiling the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Rankings.

For some countries with the “negative impacts”, do you have any suggestion?

Canada for example, has not been able to match the success of its neighbour in the global ranking, as they have ranked 23^rd in the Bloom Consulting Country Branding Ranking© for tourism.

This rank is fairly low when compared to other countries with similar characteristics. Canada’s negative rating factor indicates that its country brand strategy lowers Canada’s position in the global ranking. Even though country brand strategies of both countries share similar characteristics, the US incorporates the 5 most valuable positions for the region, while Canada does not. In order to increase the effectiveness of their strategy Canada needs to include more valuable positions within their brand strategy.

In other words, Canada needs to differentiate itself better.

You can follow the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking Web site here http://www.bloom-consulting.com/.