IP, Nation Branding and Economic Development

Impeccable quality, performance and reliability are simply the cost of entry to most modern marketplaces - thus the brand has become a critical factor. Whether the product being sold is tangible or intangible, intellectual capital plays a vital role by adding value to the product: without a distinctive and attractive brand, few of today's leading companies could have achieved, still less maintained, their profitability, their market share, or the loyalty of their consumers and employees. The same basic principle applies to countries. Without a powerful and positive reputation or "nation-brand," no country can consistently compete for consumers, tourists, investors, immigrants and the respect and attention of other countries and the world's media.

'Brand' is a useful summation of the intangible competitive assets of an organization or a country: its vision, its genius, its distinctive character, its people, its promise to the marketplace. These are the factors which, when aligned around a clear strategy, give it sustainable competitive advantage, the right and the ability to charge a consistent premium, and customer 'permission' to constantly innovate and extend the range of products and services on offer. The market capitalization of many companies often puts a value on their brands which is many times greater than their tangible assets. For example, without brand value, the market capitalization of Xerox would be a mere US$481 million rather than US$6.5 billion. If it were possible to measure the brand value of countries, it would probably exceed their physical resources by an equally large factor.

There may be many reasons why the intangible assets of poorer countries have not been 'set to work' for the economic growth and prosperity of the country, but brand theory suggests a highly significant one: the lack of a powerful strategy for deploying them in a productive and harmonized way.

"Simply announcing one's existence will not attract tourism or investment; people need to be given motivating reasons for choosing to do business with a country... Small states in particular find themselves competing with one another for attention from audiences that are not always well-informed about them." - Estonia Style produced by the Brand Estonia project, which successfully changed the country's brand image.

Nation Branding

The idea of country of origin (COO) effect - the power of an explicit or implicit Geographical Indication to add appeal to products and services, to create a price premium for them, and to stimulate customer loyalty towards them - is well known. If Sony, Nintendo, Toyota and Yamaha were not first and foremost Japanese brands, it's hard to imagine that they would enjoy the same prestige, and the same applies to French luxury brands like Chanel and Moët & Chandon, and to German engineering brands like Mercedes, Bosch, Siemens and Audi.

The concept of nation-branding rests on the observation that COO actually affects far more than a country's exported goods and services - it makes a significant difference to perceptions of the country's

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