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EDITORIAL

What makes a Country Brand?

The international company FutureBrand listed in its worldwide comparative study “Country Brand Index” of 2010 the following key dimensions for the perception of a country brand: 1. Tourism; 2. Heritage and Culture; 3. Good for Business; 4. Quality of Life; 5. Value System.

In comparison with the previous study, Portugal moved up 5 places to the 29th place in 2010. Switzerland moved up 6 places to the 5th place. The winner is Canada, before Australia (2nd), New Zealand (3rd) and the USA (4th). Brazil felt 6 places to the 41st place. Most remarkable is that Switzerland is the highest ranked country without English as official language, considering that the language is an important factor for the brand awareness due to its unifying force in global communications and commerce.

Contrary to Switzerland, the weak point of Portugal is – after all no surprise - the criteria “Good for Business”. On one hand it is no secret that Portugal has to implement favorable and over all stable corporate residency regulations in order to be able to attract international companies, as Switzerland did very well on this grounds. On the other hand, what the agency Moody’s doesn’t see out of its Manhattan office, the crisis is originating a wave of entrepreneurism in Portugal with interesting new companies and products in niche markets where flexibility and quality is demanded.

However, what truly differentiate a country brand in the end, are its associations and attributes – the things that people think of when they hear a place name, or look at a photograph or plan a trip. But above all, a strong country brand is more than the sum of its attributes: it makes people’s lives better, because positive associations attract awareness, and awareness of the key audiences means investment.

I am writing this in times when Portugal is under constant fire of negative headlines (“moody times”). Looking at the before listed 5 key points of brand perception, everybody who knows well this country knows that Portugal has still a lot of potential to move further up the scale.

With this spirit of continuing work by updating and enhancing the country brand awareness - because without awareness there is neither estimation nor preference – of Portugal, we are glad to announce that the CCISP started to plan Portugal brand building events in Switzerland.

But first, we wish all associates and partners very inspiring summer holidays.

Gregor Zemp
General Secretary