In reality, a country’s brand image has direct bearing on its economy. Country-related intangible assets in many ways influence the market-shares of brands and their marketing effectiveness, which is why no subnational or even company can be rated above its sovereign. But this could also be vice versa. For instance, Japanese cars and Japan’s global ratings.

BRICS, grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has set a distinctive example of great powers rising with "soft power," said Boris Martynov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Latin America Institute.

President Jacob Zuma has appointed leading businesswoman Charlotte Chichi Maponya as the new chairperson of Brand SA. Maponya takes over from Anitha Soni, who has chaired the board since 2009. Supersport CEO Happy Ntshingila has, meanwhile, been appointed as deputy chairperson to the Board of Trustees of Brand SA, formerly known as the International Marketing Council.

If South Africa could rebrand itself, there is no reason why Zimbabwe cannot and I am not talking about some socialist- sounding acronym or slogan. This calls for a change in mindset and approach.

The institutional efforts that have been made so far to integrate African nations politically and economically have so far failed to materialize any formal strength and lack any enforcement mechanism to uphold their rules... in the future, the regional economy would be organized on both voluntary (soft power) and coercive (Nigeria’s UN military commitments and South Africa’s financial prowess) bases.

"South Africa: Inspiring New Ways", the new slogan for championing the country locally and internationally, has been approved by the country's Cabinet following extensive development and consultation by Brand South Africa.

South Africa certainly has massive foreign-policy weaknesses: poor public diplomacy, inconsistent and unpredictable moves on the world stage, and political and technical skills deficits within the international relations department. But a dearth of morality is not one of them.

...the U.S. Constitution is now copied less frequently by countries writing new constitutions than in the immediate aftermath of World War II...The implicit fear, made manifest by a posse of commentators, is that our constitutional “soft power” is in decline -- much as our hard power is perceived to be faltering.