nation branding and its positioning vectors

7/27/2019 Nation Branding and Its Positioning Vectors

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NATION BRANDING AND ITS POSITIONING VECTORS. THE CASE OF ROMANIA

Pavel Camelia, Faculty of Tourism and Commercial Management, Bucharest,

Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Romania, [email protected]

Abstract

Nation branding is a controversial topic that has attracted increasing attention in recent years. The way in which a

nation is perceived, both domestically and from abroad, from the quality of its goods or services, to the attractiveness of

its culture and tourism, from investment opportunities and easiness to start-up a business, to its entrepreneurship

politics, economic policies and foreign policies, can be shaped under a brand, in order to give themselves a

competitive edge over their rivals in such areas as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and tourism. The main purpose of

this article is to investigate the concept of nation branding. The first section provides conceptual delimitations about

nation branding and the views of the different researchers found in the literature. In the second section we defined the

positioning vectors that encompass some of the great historical, cultural, touristic and religious symbols or

technological achievements capable to communicate a positive national image. The emphasis has placed on tourism

because often is the most visibly promoted aspect of a nation brand. Further, we presented the main benefits (i.e. to

distance Romania from the old economic and/or political system, which existed before transition; to create a positive

image) and challenges (i.e. lack of coordination among the elements of reputation management such as destination and

country branding, public and cultural diplomacy) of nation branding for Romania. Finally we drew some conclusion

about the need of nation branding for Romania.

Keywords: nation branding, country image, positioning vectors, Romania

JEL Classification: M31, M38, F21

Theme: Managing Marketing for Tourism

1. Conceptual delimitationsThe concept of branding has been traditionally associated with corporations and their products and services.

Today branding knows no boundaries. Branding is now applied to people, institutions, political entities, places,

destinations, cities and even countries or nations. By the end of the 1990s the term nation branding started appearing in

literature (Olins, 1999). In April 2002 The Journal of Brand Management devoted a special issue to the topic of"Branding the Nation" bringing together contributions from the leading experts in the field, including scholars (Kotler

and Gertner, 2002; Papadoupulos and Heslop 2002) and consultants (Anholt 2002; Ollins. 2002). It is to this day the

most comprehensive and up-to-date set of papers on state branding. Since then although there has been a growinginterest amongst academics and practitioners, the concept of nation branding is still in its infancy and the subject itself

remains somewhat confusing and debatable. This can be inferred by the different views expressed in the literature.

How a country is perceived, both domestically and from abroad, from the quality of its goods and services, to

the attractiveness of its culture and its tourism, investment opportunities and easiness to start-up a business, to its

entrepreneurship politics, economic policies and foreign policy, can be shaped under a brand in order to give themselves

a competitive edge over their rivals in such areas as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and tourism.In order to avoid any confusion of terminologies, it is important to define key terms used in the literature, such

as: nation branding (or country branding or state branding), nation (or country) brand, country (or nation) image and

national identity.

Different authors have attempted to define the term nation branding according to their understanding andinterpretation, and as such there is no single definition of the term.

Nation branding can be conceptualized as a special area of place branding. As the following definitiondemonstrates nation branding often refers to the mere application of branding strategies and tools for nation states:

Nation branding concerns applying branding and marketing communications techniques to promote a nation's image

(Fan, 2006). This definition also highlights that nation branding is concerned with image promotion that is identified as

the ultimate goal.

Another brand practitioner defines nation branding in a similar way but he identifies the government as theinitiator of branding, acknowledging its indirect involvement and influence: Nation branding occurs when a

government or a private company uses its power to persuade whoever has the ability to change a nation's image. Nation

branding uses the tools of branding to alter or change the behaviour, attitudes, identity or image of a nation in a positive

way (Gudjonsson, 2005).

Others however, see country branding as all embracing national brand strategy with the aim of creating

reputational capital through economic, political and social interest promotion at home and abroad or as a strategic self-presentation of a country through which a state can build a reputation around product category (OShaughnessy and

OShaughnessy, 2000).


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This quote also demonstrates nation branding, state branding and country branding are used interchangeably.

Nation branding remains the most popular and widely used form, followed by country branding and state branding.

Country usually refers to a geographic territory and to locations or places where a specific culture is produced and in

this sense 'country branding, is place branding. Nation refers to people with identities and culture and therefore nation

branding is better-suited term to describe the process of branding people. Eastern Europe as well as federal states and

their federate entities provide many examples where the boarders of a country do not follow the ethnic and linguisticboarders of a nation and country branding is a more appropriate and less sensitive term than nation branding.

Whatever is the term used, there is a general agreement among nation branding scholars as well as practitioners

that countries and their governments should engage in nation branding to differentiate their countries from others to

gain competitive advantages. A core idea of nation branding is to identify the 'uniqueness' of the country, its people,

culture or landscape to identify and draw on features that distinguish and differentiate a country from other.

Related to nation branding is the concept of country or nation brand. In order to clarify the notions, it isimperative to stress that the brand is a status and the branding is a process, that polishing the brand and his image. The

nation branding process is a kind of improvement from the current image to the wish image of a nation while a country

brand defines a symbolic construct, which emphasizes the positively memorable, attractive, unique, relevant and

sustainable qualities of a nation (Allan, 2004). A countrys brand can emit a positive or a negative aura around a

countrys products and services. This is the reason for that governments and countries are beginning to employ branding

and marketing techniques to show their regions and countries to the rest of the world, in order to increase theirinternational profile, attract foreign direct investments and make the places ideal destinations for tourism and trade.

As any other brand, the country (nation) brand consists of both image and identity. Similar to the problem of

many definitions of brand image, there are many definitions of country image, which can be classified into three groups(Hsieh et al., 2004):

(1) overall country image: a countrys image is defined as the total of all descriptive, inferential, and informational

beliefs that a consumer has about a particular country; in similar way Kotler and Gertner (2002) consider that a nations

image can be understood as the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person holds regarding a specific country. A

nations image represents a simplification of a large number of associations and perceptions that people hold about the

nation, including its geography, history, economy and culture.

(2) aggregate product country image: the entire cognitive "feel" associated with a particular country's products or with

the perceived overall quality of the products from that particular country: e.g. research shows that products originating

in developed countries receive favourable attitudes from consumers in developing countries; for others a nations image

is perceived as having attributes that carry over into product and services originating from that country (Kotler and

Gertner, 2002), and

(3) specific product country image: a countrys image can be linked to specific products. Product-country images

capture matches between country image associations and specific product categories. German cars, French wine, andCuban cigars are favourable product-class country image matches. A consistent and favourable product-country match

would occur when the perceived strengths of the country are important product benefits or features.

Whatever is the definition used, we must emphasize that every nation has an image which can vary across time

and across countries to a greater or lesser extent, and this image colours both consumers perceptions of a countrys

products and services and investors perceptions of the country as a place in which to do business. So country image is

not a static phenomenon, but country images are long-lasting and difficult to change. That is why in order to improve a

countrys image it may be easier to create new positive associations than try to refute old ones.

It should also stress that images can be classified on a public and private scale according to whether the image

is shared by others or is peculiar to the individual. Public images consist of the shared images of many individuals and

are those of interest for marketing purposes.

Trying to initiate a debate about the widening of the branding approach over national and geographical entities

comprises a difficult task of defining its abstract content: the national identity, that is fundamentally multi-dimensional

and often is regarded as one of the most complex tasks, as the brand image of a nation tends to have conflictingcharacteristics (Fan, 2006; Wilder, 2007); it can never be reduced to a single element. The formation of national identity

is by nature a subjective process and submits to changes along with the progression of time. The attempt to even it out

across cultural barriers or to paste past constructions of national identity over the present day structures, will fail to

acknowledge the intrinsic subjective and fluid nature of national identity. An identity is not a thing, it is a description

for ways of speaking about self and the community, yourself and your community and accordingly, it does not develop

in a social void but rather in relation with manifest forms of existence.

2. Positioning vectors of nation branding. The case of RomaniaThe way in which a nation is perceived can make a critical difference to the success of its business, trade and

tourism efforts, as well as its diplomatic and cultural relations with other nations. A strong nation brand must provide a

unique set of values that create, in time and voluntarily, positive associations with nations and support their positioning

on the international market. From the perspective of current paper, this unique set of values is defined as positioningvectors that encompass some of the great historical, cultural, touristic and religious symbols or technological

achievements capable to communicate a positive national image.


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Different authors have mentioned different dimensions of country branding (Brymer, 2003; Roberts, 2004;

Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2002), and according to Anholt (2007) these can be synthesized as Nation brand hexagon

that comprises six vectors:

Tourism Today tourism is often the most visibly promoted and loudest aspect in branding a nation, as most

tourist boards and many other public institutions spend lots of money on selling the country around the world. The

most countries only clearly brand themselves for tourism purposes, so much so that tourism branding tends to beconfused with state branding. As Anholt (2003) has rightly pointed out, this is because tourist promotion is usually the

only way in which countries ever consciously engage in marketing themselves to the outside world

Investments Countries of intense development stay testimony of how they attract, integrate, and invest in

talent and facilitate business ventures, which were a recurrent cause for their growth. A nation brand can have the power

to create positive responses and attract forces to precarious sites. The investment topic is very complex. Firstly, they are

subjects of legislation, and adequate promotion of a welcoming environment. Secondly, it is the performance factor thatneeds to be considered. It is about the peoples willingness to live and work in a country for a substantial period, and

their views on which country would be the most suitable location for setting up an overseas branch of their company.

Inward investments, which mean the recruitment of foreign talents and students and the expansion of foreign companies

into the own country do also belong to this sector.

Export brands often can be seen as ambassadors of each countrys image abroad (e.g. Mercedes as the

brand of Germany or Nokia for Finland). A national brand that is largely known at an international level, which isdistinctive and attractive, is one of the richest assets a country can have and give to export. A powerful, distinctive,

broad-based and appealing national brand is the most valuable feature of a state: think what Made in Japan means for

electronics, or Made in Italy for fashion or shoes. Products and services produced in each country is one of the mostpowerful ways of constructing and maintaining a national image.

Foreign and domestic policy (or public diplomacy) Public diplomacycomprises a governments range of

interactions not only with its foreign counterparts but primarily with non-governmental individuals and organizations

aimed at furthering its image and reputation through mutual understanding. This dimension may be regarded with care

to the strategic imperatives of the brand. It plays an important role in the image that is perceived and judged by other

nations. Policies are suggested to be in an amiable connection with the other channels of communication.

Culture and heritage Governments might not treat growth as only an economic issue. This approach would

only run the risk of developing a two-dimensional brand image, significant only for investors, and other similar

concerns. Culture and heritage are means to provide a third dimension, giving to the nation the sense of sumptuousness,

distinction, confidence and respect abroad through cultural exchanges and quality of life at home through peoples

appreciations of or intentions to consume its popular, more commercial cultural products and activities (as e.g. music,

art, literature, design etc.). Culture and heritage can influence a nations reputation immensely.

People is representing the human capital of each country and is an important element in the process ofpropagating a certain image of national identity, throughout their achievements, their experiences and exchanges among

themselves and with people from other parts of the world. Also, presumably they are the beneficiaries on the long term

of those programs.

The people represent one of the vectors of positioning that can translate some of the complex characteristics

and contradictory aspects of a country to the world. We are referring here at the people as ordinary citizens, not just the

obvious propagandistic channels like the media or the politicians. It is about people who could become ambassadorsof their country and who can induce positive changes for their nation.

Each countrys level of emphasis on each of these six vectors will vary depending on its brand essence and

competitive advantages.

Further we tried to apply positioning vectors to the particular case of Romania.

In the sphere of tourism, the starting point for Romania might be to provide information to business

associations and travel agencies in the perspective of creating a national brand. Conferences and symposiums have

taken place debating this matter and considering the process of elaborating a national brand for tourism and the practicalmethods that the government and the business associations could use together in a similar way to the ones employed in

other countries. In our opinion, we believe that Romania should promote only those touristic attractions that are unique

in Europe or even in the world, such as:

Bucovina monasteries Bucovina is a region of monasteries, unique in the world for their colourful exteriorfrescoes. The impressive number of churches to be found in Bucovina, with their fine exterior and interior frescoes,

have been preserved and handed down from mediaeval times, and because of their uniqueness and artistic value, wereadded to UNESCOs World Cultural Heritage List in 1993. There is, indeed, no other place in the world where such a

group of churches, with such high quality exterior frescoes, are to be seen.

Wooden churches of Maramures Maramures is considered a unique region because of a mixture of threethings: amazing landscapes, genuine people and the simple civilization of wood, with the famous wooden churches that

are remarkable examples of well-preserved religious architecture that emerged from the Orthodox traditions and Gothic

style influences. Because they are an exceptional expression of the cultural heritage of this mountainous area of

northern Romania eight of these churches are included in UNESCO World Heritage List since 1999. Another reason tovisit Maramures is the Merry Cemetery from Sapanta that is unique in the world and has become an important tourist

attraction because of its original character. This paradoxical name is due to the vivid colours of the crosses and the

amusing or satirical epitaphs carved on them.


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Danube Delta from an ecological point of view the Danube Delta is quite unique in terms of scenery,landscape and habitat.The Danube Delta is the largest and the best preserved deltas of Europe and has more than 300

migratory and permanent bird species, 160 kinds of fish and 800 plant families. These wetlands preserve covers more

than 1,678,000 acres comprising channels and canals, reed islands, numerous lakes and marshes, oak forests intertwined

with lianas and creepers, desert dunes and traditional fishermen villages. In 1991, it became part of the UNESCO

patrimony, being the only delta in the world that is declared a Biosphere Reserve. The villages with fortified churches in Transylvania situated in the heart of Romania, Transilvania has a

special cultural landscape, resulting from the multicultural combination of some ethnic groups that came here down

through the centuries. This region presents a unique characteristic in that it is home to a great number of rural

strongholds and fortified churches, most of them from war-times. Some of them (e.g. fortified stronghold from Biertan)

were included in the UNESCO patrimony since 1993.

The Muddy Volcanoes from Berca this is a natural reservation very scarce in vegetation, where the soil ismade of dried mud coming out from small volcanoes mouths. The reservation is unique in Europe, with similar

phenomena being observed in Siberia and Australia.

Romania is a country with immense tourist potential, with so much impressive scenery and history to be

witnessed, that it is a worthwhile adventure into Eastern Europe.

From the point of view of investments, Romania has become in the last years an appealing target for a large

number of foreign investors. This trend was emphasized after 1st of January 2007 when Romania joined the EU,representing a new chance for the economy development. One of the reasons for Romanian state to attract foreign direct

investments is the need for promoting Romanias image in the international business environment in order to get further

official foreign financing.In order to improve the business climate and to offer incentives for large investment projects, the Parliament

has issued in 2001 the Law No. 332 regarding the promotion of direct investment with significant impact on the

economy. Investment that qualify has a value higher than USD 1 million (or equivalent), is made in the forms and ways

provided by the law and contributes to the development and modernization of the Romanian economic infrastructure,

determining a positive spin-off effect in economy and creating new jobs. Direct investment with significant impact on

economy are allowed in all economic sectors with the exception of financial, banking, insurance and re-insurance, as

well as the sectors regulated by special laws.

A significant step forward taken for improving the relationship with the investors is the establishment of a

governmental agency in charge with attracting and maintaining the contact with foreign investors in Romania. This is

the Romanian Agency for Foreign Investment (ARIS), which has as main objectives to increase significantly the

investment volume in Romania, to actively promote investment opportunities and to offer professional services for

foreign investors, all along the investment cycle.

Besides the law on direct investments with significant impact on the economy, the other most important legalincentive offered to direct investment in Romania is the new single tax reform, (with a single tax rate of 16%)

introduced by the newly elected liberal government at the end of 2004. This fiscal revolution brought Romania among

the most competitive investment destinations in the region. Romania has a leading role in attracting foreign direct

investments in Southeast European region. The entire volume of foreign investment in Romania reached 1.752 billion

dollars, with a number of 43,219 joint ventures, according to the latest information released by the Romanian Agency

for Development. From the point of view of the territorial repartition, the foreign investment in Romania is continuing

its trend of previous years by maintaining a high profile in Bucharest (approximately 66% of the invested capital, and

approximately 82 of the number of newly set up companies).

Linked to foreign direct investment is export brand, the second major issue for the national brand. In case of

Romania, the concept of Made in Romania, which is the basic slogan of a strong national brand, had for Romanian

people various negative connotations because Romanians loved everything which was not Romanian because "Made in

Romania", as a sort of brand has suffered from the communist era and the memories people have left of it. The current

reality in Romania is typified by the fact that a growing number of Romanian producers do not recognize their productsare made in Romania. Moreover, they prefer European or international connotations to their businesses. The label put

on the product seems to matter more than the actual quality of the product. Furthermore, the tag sticking out of the

product and revealing an inscription like Made in Italy (but it can easily be any other European country) confers

automatically a quality, immediately recognized, which overpasses that of the similar Romanian product. This may

diminish a healthy economic identity. Romania is facing now a serious problem since the country is not associated with

any particular product, which could be made with excellence inside the Romanian borders. Valentin Ionescu, the

president of the association for promoting Romanian products and services and the coordinator of the program Made in

Romania, affirmed: If the Swiss have their watches, the French, the wines, Italians are known for making pasta and

pizza and the Bulgarians for pickled cucumbers, the Romanians cannot distinguish themselves through a product, and if

we do not appreciate ourselves, nor we can convince the others. (Quote from the newspaper Cotidianul, March the

11th, 2007).

Speaking about foreign and domestic policy, in the case of Romania, government tries to articulate a coherent

public diplomacy strategy that brings together and gives coherence to the various activities carried out abroad by theGovernment that fall under the umbrella of public diplomacy.

As a result of its foreign policy, Romania was the first country from Central and Eastern Europe, to sign up for

NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which is designed to enhance cooperation with partner states via consultations,


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joint exercises, and information sharing. At the Prague summit, Romania was formally invited to join the organization,

with accession planned for 2004.

EU accession was the countrys priority in foreign policy. Acceptation as a member of the European Union

opened up a vast economic market and pushed Romania further ahead. This fact enhanced business relations and

tourism and promoted the image of a more secure, democratic and stabile Romania. However, there is still much to

achieve. Today, too often, the political leadership structures are shaken by corruption scandals. The new generation ofintellectuals and professionals is expected to take over the leadership.

The domestic policy has to cope with a lot of minorities and human rights issues, poverty reduction and social

protection. Due to the globalised media, all the political mistakes are immediately accessible to the worldwide opinion.

These are the case of the street children, gypsies minority problems, and the standard of living and so on.

The past, culture and heritage of a nation are key elements of its present. Together with the promotion of

natural beauty, Romanian culture, which has its own uniqueness, may represent a very powerful tool in positioning thecountry on a plain worldwide tourist offer. One of the most promoted cities for culture and heritage is Sighisoara, which

is an outstanding testimony to the culture of the Transylvanian Saxons, a culture that is coming to a close after 850

years and will continue to exist only through its architectural and urban monuments. Sighisoara is a small fortified city

in the border region between the Latin-oriented culture of central Europe and the Byzantine-Orthodox culture of south-

eastern Europe. The apparently unstoppable process of emigration by the Saxons, the social stratum what had formed

and upheld the cultural traditions of the region, threatens the survival of their architectural heritage as well. For 15years, there is organized the Medieval Art Festival. In 1999 Sighisoara was included in the UNESCO patrimony,

being, together with other European cities with the same type of monuments, on the World Heritage Cities list of

protected monuments as well.Others important cultural, educational, artistic and sportive events have to be advertised worldwide in order to

provide positive associations with Romania. These events can be: George Enescu international festival, Mihai Eminescu

international festival, Transilvania international film festival, Sibiu international theatre festival.

Another important dimension of nation branding is the mythology and the traditional stories, from ancient

times, one of the main means through which the history of a culture is preserved and perpetuated. In the case of

Romania, we have to notice the popularity of the Dracula myth on the global space and its predictable branding

potential. A cultural phenomenon as Draculas myth might be explained in relation with two kinds of developments.

One is purely entertainment, in its industrial commercial approach (as for example Disneyland). Another dimension in

which might be decoded is the connection with global cultural movements. If we try to analyse what is the element of

attraction related with the vampires subject, we might force a comparison with the movie Interview with a Vampire.

Here, vampires are symbolically associated with a counter-culture banished from the civilization course, as an anarchic

and alternative community. Accordingly, the portrayal of a Draculas myth consumer is to be seen also among the rock,

punk or hippie so called marginal cultural movements. This interpretation does not empowers the fabrication of anartificial myth, but on the contrary, sustains that Romanians are giving their contribution to the world culture at the very

present moment, because this culture is at this particular point in an assembling process. Moreover, a very successful

festival of rock and contemporary theatre is already annually held in Sighisoara, one of Draculas presumed residences.

Romania with its deeply impressive multinational cultural heritage and its wonderful landscapes, cities, and flora and

fauna has immense possibilities if it can harness them effectively.

The people represent one of the vectors of positioning that can translate some of the complex characteristics

and contradictory aspects of Romania to the world. A survey realized by Brandient (2006) revealed what Romanian

people think and feel about Romanian people and Romania. The results are showing a community: rather traditional and

conservative, with a strong post communist mentality (especially on the topic of patriotism), but with high tolerancetothe novelty and creativity, openness to the Western values (as comprised in lifestyle) and balancing a contradictory

optimistic - pessimistic feeling; quite unreliable, short-term oriented, superficial, inconsistent, and non-disciplined;

reluctant to competition and prone to egalitarianism. Some of the greatest Romanian intellectuals see us like

undisciplined, obsessed to denigrate ourselves, weak and spineless, egocentrics, with show-off attitude, dreamers,gamblers but also creative and friendly.

In present Romanian people developed different perceptions on different markets and different audiences,

based on context while in UK, Germany and France some bad deeds of our co-nationals tarnished our reputation, in

US, Canada or in Japan, the perception is totally different and Romanian people are perceived as hard workers, well

performing in the IT sector, friendly, open etc. A specific case is the one of Spain, where more than 2 million

Romanians are working. The Spanish people directly in contact with Romanians think they are good workers, warm and

friendly, while the Spanish people learning about Romanians only from media have a rather bad impression.

Generally speaking, Romania projected outside an image of a poor country (especially in capital resources)

with a strong agrarian component (actually agriculture contributes only 13% to GDP) a source of handicraft and a post-

communist behaviour (corruption, unreliable attitude and lack of entrepreneurial spirit risk averse).

If this is the set of associations that Romanian nation and country have developed in the mind of internal and

external audience, the rebranding exercise will have to impose a set of decisions to dilute the negative perceptions about

Romania and to subsequently replace those with favourable/positive perceptions based on accepted and recognizabletruths.


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3. Benefits of nation branding for RomaniaAdoptinga branding oriented approach to nation presents both advantages and disadvantages. The benefits are

that this approach can help:

To distance the country from the old (economic and/or political) system, which existed before transition: In thecase of Romania the aim was to distance himself from the images of communism and the negative connotations evoked

by Eastern Europe, which often meant backwardness, despair, something poor or inferior. During the Cold War,

Eastern Europe and communism became synonyms and have been used interchangeably; therefore, many countries intransition which include and Romania have consciously defined and position themselves as Central European countries.

To change negative or false stereotypes or reinforce some positive stereotypes associated with the country andits people: Construction of the country brand must draw on the defining features of Romania and of Romanians.

International television channels (e.g. TV5, CBS, BBC) came in and out of the country covering orphanages,prostitution, pedophilia and beggars, have defined us every time as a poor, unsafe, backward country. This is one of the

reasons why in the outside world the stereotypical image of Romania remains strong - with all the shadows of the post-

war dictatorship and ill-managed orphanages. Today, it is a priority to build a more positive image of Romania abroad.

Through Romania Brand will first of all require the removal of the classical images, stereotypes and clichs

whose perpetuation abroad we seem to be unimpressed with. Under the People and Personalities heading, we find

almost exclusively references to Ceauescu, Dracula, the post-90 Romanian immigrant, the begging gypsies, the local

and central barons. In terms of character and behavior, Romanians are perceived as living on the principle if I cant

have it, no one else should, while also being known for their disregard for rules, bribery, cronyism and public fund

theft, indolence, ignorance, lack of dignity in relation to foreigners and recent history, lack of social cohesion, the hitand run mentality, tolerance for corruption. As for the Simple Imagery, Romania is defined by poverty, the wooden

plough, roving gypsies, mud brick houses, orphans, stray dogs, gloomy hospitals. Finally, in terms of events, foreigners

know us for the 1989 revolution, the miners riots and the illegal adoption scandal. Some of the stereotypes can be

deeply rooted and difficult to change although cultural diplomacy and relations may prove to be a more efficient and

credible way of changing them.

To create a positive image: Foreign perception of Romania will largely depend on the countrys handling ofthe diplomatic and image crisis in the world i.e. image crisis in Italy has the main image blow dealt to Romania in

2007. An important detail must be considered, namely that the anti-Romanian sentiments in the Peninsula did notemerge with the Mailat case. The anti-Romanian sentiment pervading all levels of the Italian society is summarized by

Parboni (2006): The most violent, dangerous race, willing to kill for a handful of change... An ethnic group always

featured in the Most Wanted section. Romanians fear nothing, spare nobody, even children and women, always operate

in gangs to complete their countless criminal activities. They have a monopoly on prostitution and card cloning.

Endless clashes between political players, notes, resignations, corruption and misuse of authority, mediascandals. This has the 2007 image of Romania, as of recently labeled as crime exporting country.

Three country branding experts have successively warned us that it is more expensive to change a negative

perception into a positive one, than it is to build a positive one from scratch. Romanias negative image is created by

an image vacuum, expert Simon Anholt believes; for Jack Trout, Romania is reduced to nil in terms of image,

whereas the celebrated Wally Olins urges us to accept that Romania is not a particularly important country in the

world (Cristescu, 2008).

To position Romania as the reliable and eligible member of the new system, the transition is aiming for, or thatof an international community: For Romania this meant that is democratic, politically stable country with emerging and

promising market economy. The most important foreign policy goals were to join NATO and the European Union, two

super brands, what contributed to the improvement of the Romanian international image.

Branding can also facilitate (re-)defining and (re-)constructing national identity: A study showed thatRomania is losing step-by-step its national identity. Due to economic reason, young people leave the country to work

abroad and they adapt very easily to working conditions, forgetting their own traditions. Evan the ones that remain inRomania forget about traditions. A good example is that they forgetting the Dragobete, which is the Romanian

traditional feast love celebrating, in favor of Saint Valentines Day (Nicolescu and all, 2007).

4. Challenges of Nation Branding for RomaniaThe points are just a few examples of the challenges of country branding and they include, but are not limited

to:

Lack of coordination among the elements of reputation management (destination and country branding, publicand cultural diplomacy): Branding a country requires a level of coordination and trust that is unattainable in Romania

because there is no synergy and collaboration among these functions. Romania can be more successful in one of theabove dimensions but rather poor at others. A good example is that it has been successful in public diplomacy, but

Romania has been unsuccessful like a tourism destination.

According to Brymer (2003), Creating a branding program for a country demands an integration policy that mostcountries do not possess the ability to act and speak in a coordinated and repetitive way about themes that are the most

motivating and differentiating a country can make.


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Late start: Althoughat the beginning of the 90s, a Commission for the Improvement of the Image of RomaniaAbroad was created, the first attempt to build a national brand concept was in 2003, when government started realized

that the Romania had image problems. Since then there have been several such projects and significant amounts of

money have been spent. First was The Eternal and Fascinating Romania intended to improve Romanias image

abroad followed by, Romania always surprising and the most recent attempt was in 2007 Fabulospirit campaign.

Country promotion is politicizedand it becomes the victim of domestic politics, especially when there is noagreement among the different political parties about how or by whom the country's reputation should be managed

abroad. This is the case of Eternal and Fascinating Romania which launched a scandal into the Romanian politicalarena and the Romanian Presidency has been associated with this scandal.

Lack of continuity and strategic approach. In Romania as in many Central European countries the new electedgovernment has erased the efforts of the previous government resulting in discontinuity of country promotion. Soon

after, however, the new government also 'realises' that there is an 'image problem' abroad and tries to set up institutionsand develop new strategies to deal with them. Another barrier to continuity is the high turnover of staff and

professionals as many of those who developed or worked on the project at the beginning are long gone. This is the case

of Fabulospirit project, which was ceased after the resignation of Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and a

new leadership was promoted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

No strategic coordination among the institutions and actors involved in country promotion: The number oforganisations and institutions engaged in country promotion can hinder the process and coordination and strategic

approaches are of crucial importance. In Romania for example, the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

the Ministry of Culture as well as a the Romania Chamber of Commerce and others institutions have all been involved

in country promotion sometimes communicating different and uncoordinated messages. According to Brandient (2006)the communication messages about Romania are chaotic, unconvincing, unattractive and unclear, like disparate pieces

from different puzzles.

Messages and slogans are outdated or too general. The other project, Romania, always surprising" is dyingafter a short honeymoon. The World Tourism Organization criticized both the campaign and the slogan of the project

and proposed that serious measures should be taken to enhance Romania's visibility abroad. Richard Batchelor, the

chief of international consultants team from World Tourism Organization said that slogan simply surprising didn't

communicate the essence of Romania for any potential visitor.

Image is more important than reality and the brand or the messages are not credible: Reality and imageshould always correspond otherwise the promotion becomes 'perception management' when the aim is to manipulate

perceptions. The Romanian government banned the shooting of a film about gypsies in Romania as it shed a very

negative light on Romania before its accession to the EU. The government was concerned about the image this film

would portray about Romania. The negative publicity about the ban, however, resulted in more harm to the country and

its government. Lack of financial and human resources, which is a common problem in each country. Romaniahas been spent

significant amounts of money for promoting its image abroad. First was the 6 million EUR album entitled "The Eternal

and fascinating Romania," followed by the 1.7 million USD (Obae and Barbu, 2004) project "Romania - always

surprising" from 2004. Other source announced that the total costs of the campaign were around 7.6 million USD at the

level of 2004 (Niculescu, 2005). The difference occurs due to what was considered by those sources. It might be that the

first source only indicates the budget for creating the spot and the mix of image to be used in the campaign. And the

second source spoke about the total promotion costs which included the spot and its broadcasting, the printed materials

and the participation to tourism fairs and expositions. Other 9 million EUR have been spent for promoting Romania

tourism destinations in Spain and in Italy, as there are the major hot points where Romania developed a negative

country image. The most recent attempt was last year's "Fabulospirit" campaign, estimated at EUR 5 million, with a

precious slogan worth EUR 100,000. After all of these amounts has been spent, for Romanias image abroad, the results

are results are risible, mainly due to a lack of strategy and consistency.

Conclusion

I have tried in this paper to review some related literature in the growing area of nation branding; the benefitsto countries as well as the challenges for creating a nation branding program have also been discussed. I have also tried

to use the Romania as a case study to highlight good and bad practice.

The need to professionally rebrand Romania remains an emerging and powerful, albeit disputed, issue. We do

consider that there is no more intelligent and effective way to take advantages of the historical, economical and social

opportunities than by investing in raising our nations profile both in front of the Romanian people and worldwide.

Otherwise each and every of our countrys momentum opportunities, each and every of the brilliant recommendationsand ideas coming from politicians, businessmen, consultants, intellectuals and organizations will fail under the

obstruction of the inadequate, out of control issue of country/nation image. We will iterate bellow our reasons for

Romanias rebrand: The worlds perception over Romania is still far off the Romanian reality. It is wrong to think that a brand is a

brand only if it is positive, favorable. Until now Romania is a brand and not necessarily one capable of


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creating fans and empathy. Romania has an uneven, rather negative image, full of unwanted stereotypes and

clichs.

Our beautiful geographical locations cannot succeed to attract tourists and generate businesses by themselves,our best young talents dream to leave Romania for a better future outside, our products have not succeeded to

build preference and positive associations on foreign markets, our legal system and corrupt way of doing

business still keep the investors away.

The Romania brand is the Achilles heel of the current economical opportunities and problems. No matter howmuch effort Romanian commercial brands would make to build something outstanding, unique and valuable infront of the global village audiences, the set of associations generated by the countrys origin will negatively

affect the mentioned effort, even in the case of very good intrinsic quality.

The communication messages about Romania are chaotic, unconvincing, unattractive and unclear, likedisparate pieces from different puzzles.

The fact that we have a country brand with image problems is the result of the way we (all) have communicated our

national identity and positioning (promise) for the last 16 years. By our actions, we have generated this image it didnt

come up from nowhere, but from our negligence and lack of professionalism.

It is obvious that Romania does have a brand which has incorporated rather negative associations than positive

ones. And it is obvious that in order to compete, to accelerate growth and to reborn our nation as a modern 21st

centurycommunity Romania must be managed likes a brand.

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nation branding and its positioning vectors

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