When one looks at our top national brands with their domestic and international presence, it is befitting that South Africa continues to rank as a top destination not only for tourism but also inward investment. In this regard, the recent AT Kearney FDI Confidence Index ranks South Africa 13th globally, the only African country to be in the top 25 in the world while the EY Africa Attractiveness Survey attests to South Africa’s standing as the top destination for FDI projects on the continent.

The reputation of a country is comparable to the brand images of companies and products and it’s very essential for its progress and prosperity. The need to understand and embrace nation branding is therefore very critical. Subsequently, managing a country brand is about national, regional and international identity and the politics and economics of competitiveness. But what happens when a nation brand goes through a crisis?

"The difference between cool Korea and earlier Asian pop culture waves is that Korea has been working to make this happen for almost two decades. Korea is cool because it decided to be cool — it's the first country in history that has made being cool a massive policy priority, backed by the Korean government to the tune of billions of dollars."

For all RAK’s efforts, the nation-branding exercise has not been an immediate success, critics say.  But FutureBrand has also placed the UAE as the number-one brand of the future. “To achieve its goal of being a model country in the future, the UAE is actively investing in its own commercial and tourism ecosystems,” according to the 2012-2013 FutureBrand report.

PRWeek understands that the agency will be advising senior levels of the government, including the office of Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani. The retained work was won through a pitch and is understood to cover a broad remit ranging from government affairs through to nation branding. It comes as the country, which has the highest GDP per capita in the world, finds itself under increasing scrutiny internationally, and facing anger from its neighbors in the Middle East. 

South Korea has gotten some less-than-desirable feedback in its campaign to raise the country’s international profile: many foreigners can’t tell South Korea apart from its nuke-loving northern neighbor. Over 30% of respondents in a government-sponsored survey of 6,000 people in about a dozen countries said they couldn’t “easily distinguish between South Korea and North Korea when [they] encounter news, articles, movies, websites or other content about Korea.” 

Of course, like most countries of the world, Nigeria has her peculiar problems and very serious ones too.  While some of the negative commentaries are true, most Nigerians are actually hardworking, peace loving and friendly people. There's an obvious perception problem that needs to change!

Attending the Association of Asian Studies conference in Singapore last week, I realized that Japan’s global image is not what it might be. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan is back, but doubts are spreading about the version of Japan he is promoting. It appears that Abe’s energetic regional diplomacy has been undercut by his awkward views on history and failure to deliver on structural reforms.