Russia took the 20th place in Country Branding Ranking 2012

Bloom Consulting Company released a new annual Country Branding Ranking. According to this ranking the USA continues its reign as the world leader in the 2012 Country Brand Ranking both for Trade and for Tourism, the strong overall performance and excellent CBS Rating ensured its’ continued dominance. For the first time, the United Arab Emirates, joined some of the Asian Tiger economies in the top 25 both in the Tourism and Trade Rankings.

Asia performed extremely well in the 2012 Ranking. Eight Asian countries finished in the top 25, with China as number four. Aided by both strong tourism receipts and CBS Ratings, Thailand (6) and Malaysia (14) significantly improved from last year. For the first time, Macao was evaluated as an individual country and finished with a bang at number eight. A notable absence was Japan.

Russia takes the 20^th place in this ranking between Croatia and Portugal. The progress is called here “Slightly Strong”.

CBS Rating is calculated using brand strategy economic performance analysis and analysis of Online Search Demand. The country brand strategy is measured through brand tags, the key words that reflect the brand strategy of each country. For the first time in any country or nation brand ranking, Bloom’s Online Search Demand (OSD) is able to show if a country supplies what tourists are seeking, and how well the country is matching this demand.

Brand tags function as the ‘supply’ side of the tourist-destination equation. Thousands of brand tags were collected from each country’s official tourism agency and then classified into 38 different clusters that relate to adventure sports and activities, natural features, local culture and traditions, or gastronomy. Each cluster is assigned an economic value in order to rate the relative returns gained from each brand tag.

Domestic and international tourist searches for the brand tags and related words were then analyzed, country by country, in the most used search engines, to show the country’s accuracy match and quantify Online Search Demand. By considering the OSD, Bloom Consulting is able to show if a country offers what tourists are seeking, and how well the country is matching this demand. This identifies the gap between supply and demand. The more accurate a country is, the better the CBS Rating.

The Ranking for Tourism you can see here - http://www.bloom-consulting.com/sites/default/files/files/Bloom_Consulting_Country_Brand_Ranking_Tourism_2012.pdf 

Greece wants to promote the brand… Greece

Ministry of tourism and Greek national tourist organization (GNTO) intent to revive brand “Greece” and to improve country’s image such way.
 

Last years Greece endured bad times, the country are split a lot of camps, all political, economic and social life of Greece is like seethe copper full of different movements and ideas. Greeks lost their identity and most of them actually don’t understand importance of returning to former greatness of Greece. After Olympic Games in 2004 Greece was the fifth between the most famous world brands but since 2006 this country has been losing its positions and now it is 39^th. GNTO General Secretary said: “Greece doesn’t need any decorations. Greece is white and blue colours without any symbols, just a name. Brand “Greece” appeared long ago, always it was very well known”. Real value of Greek brand is that it is outside time, it’s not a logo or sign and it appeared of itself without intentional work of PR-managers, designers and brand-makers.

 Greek national tourist organization offered its own variant to rebrand. There will be Greek flag with blue and white lines and with inscription “Greece: classics for all the times”. GNTO wants to explore market, take part in international tourist exhibitions, collaborate with search and reservation systems, renewing of its web-portal, publish materials about Greece in international media… The whole campaign will cost 11 millions euro which can excite population and people inculpate powers in squandering. 

Meanwhile some initiatives to improve Greece image have appeared from the Greek private sector. The first project is “Greece Is Changing” supported and sponsored by large Greece companies such as Fourlis, Costa Navarino, Aegan Airlines and others. “Greece Is Changing” is network of like-minded businessmen, colleagues and friends who want to invite foreign investors and tourist to see through habitual stereotypes and look for Greece new view. They want to create Greece image like stabile area for independent business, for successful development and investments.
 

The second project is “Reinventing Greece” which appeals to Greek-Americans who travelled to Greece to conduct some media projects to report on how its citizens live today. Young people occupied with communications, journalism or public relations ask Greeks about government, business, write down their ideas and views and gave let their voices to be listened in international discussion.

 I think that Greece have already done all possible to be famous and recognizable. It’s not only see, sun, beaches and hotels. It has incredibly reach and ancient culture which is 3000 years old. Greek literature, theatre, arts, philosophy, mythology became founders of modern European culture. And what to speak about inimitable Mediterranean cuisine. But in general it’s necessary to note that returning to background, to interesting and inpatient history, to national identity will help Greeks to renew their national brand.

by Valentin Ivanov

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Poo Internet. New barter in Mexico City

In the end of April a lot of colored containers like dustbins appeared in Mexico City parks. On there bottoms there are special balances. As soon as something falls to them, a Wi-Fi router actuates, and the Internet begins to work on the whole area of the park. That thing is… doo-doo. More dog excrements mean more time of wireless Internet. It is not necessary to have a password to access to Wi-Fi therefore you can check your mail and read Twitter absolutely free.

 

 “Poo Wi-Fi”. This action was thought up by advertising agency DDB by the order of Internet service provider Terra which finances installation and set-up of containers and routers. The idea is to kill two birds with one stone: to provide public places by free wireless Internet and to do these places cleaner. With population of 20 million people the Mexican parks became an excellent experimental territory because of huge popularity of dogs as pets and low consciousness of citizens themselves.

 “It is more interesting for people to look at their telephone but not to watch their dogs walk. And so Wi-Fi in the parks is good motivation to stoop down, gather excrements and put them into containers” – they say in DDB.

A cheerful promo video was disseminated when DDB started up the campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwpRnA_-jaY&feature=player_embedded

There dogs poos are compared tactfully with chocolate ice-cream. In the sense to impress infantile psyche. On parks’ territories the white bones are hanged and they attract attention of people. These bones are Wi-Fi routers. In the day time the managers stay there and tell about idea and show where to take a special packet. But above all – the access time depends directly on size and weight of “deposits”. It makes someone to feed dogs with hearty meal, others to gather waste of another’s pets. It doesn’t harm a cause.

It is credited one minute of Internet for five grams. So, Mexico dogs produce 600 tones of excrements yearly. And if to gather all them it is possible to get free Internet for 228 years.

In spite of that idea aroused hailstorm of jokes and wonders, people began to use the service very actively and the parks became cleaner. In the future DDB and Terra want to use filled containers like bioreactors and generate electricity for the parks. But it is only one weak point of “Poo Wi-Fi” project. The containers now don’t tell excrements from ordinary litter and stones. You can pelt with everything and the Internet will work in any case. It is imperfection at least but not terrible. To walk along paths and grassplots became more pleasant.

So if you’ll be in Mexico in transit take a scoop with you and save on some pesos.

by Valentin Ivanov

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/.