In a survey expected to be released next week by London-based consulting firm Brand Finance, Canada gets high marks for the value and equity of its “brand.” And during tough economic times, stability has been a cornerstone of our success.

Brand strategist Peter Economides knows about taking brands at their lowest ebb and turning them into world-beaters. He was part of the team that helped create Apple’s “Think Different” campaign in 1997. ....Economides believes that Greece is at the point where an inspired and properly managed rebranding campaign could turn it into the “Apple of the Mediterranean.”

It being Hawaii, the assembled heads of state were understandably looking forward to some boxy aloha shirt action. But Obama...declared the 20-year tradition over. As disappointed locals have been keen to stress, the colourful shirts are a symbol of Hawaii's multicultural history and it would have been great for tourism on a group of islands that rely heavily on it.

"Emphasis is to increase the leisure market and position Rwanda as a major leisure destination. We have done a good job in branding Rwanda as a safe destination, so now we need to talk more about leisure," observed Rica Rwigamba, the Head of Tourism and Conservation at RDB.

America's got a new tagline: "United States of Awesome Possibilities." The country's new positioning comes courtesy of the Corporation for Travel Promotion, which this summer hired JWT to handle a global marketing campaign and is worked with branding firm The Brand Union to create a logo for Brand U.S.A.

The concept of “nation branding” is well established, and it’s clear what Medvedev has in mind, but it’s equally clear that calling an expression of high culture such as the Bolshoi Theater a “brand” like some commercial product merely demeans it.

Hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup was supposed to provide an unalloyed boon to Brazil’s global image. Yet tournament preparations have highlighted many structural weaknesses in Latin America’s largest country, and predictions that the World Cup will deliver enormous economic benefits should be treated with skepticism.

Tourism, a buttress of the economy upon which an estimated 15 million people depend, remains in a tailspin. Desperate to reverse the trend, the tourism authority even test-marketed the uprising.