Since July 2009, influential actors of the Australian business community have been calling for the creation of a Brand Australia Council, mixing public and private influences, to put forth the country on the global stage and capitalize on the already positive image the country enjoys worldwide.

With the celebration of Canada’s 143rd birthday last week and the upcoming G8/G20 summits in Toronto later this month, Canada has recently received a lot of attention in international media. The question being asked domestically is centered on its national identity; specifically, people want to know: does Canada have a “brand” that it can export overseas?

Who said branding was only done by companies?

In the last few years there has been a distinct trend for countries to brand themselves in order to foster tourism and domestic industries.

Nation branding has been a major topic here on our blog. Previously, we have already talked about the impact on national image of hosting and participating in major world events and of making sure domestic firms produce high-quality goods for export, but both of the measures discussed were indirect processes to change the perception of foreigners to a country. But what if the country specifically invests in nation branding for the sake of nation branding?

Often, the results of nation-branding are not simply based the acts of the nation itself but the responsibility of all the companies and their products/services that represent the country itself. The positive brand attributes possessed by a company brand often can improve the brand image of the country with which the company is identified. Thus, the consistently good quality and high reputation achieved by many brands from a country can generate positive feelings for the country from people around the world who come in contact with the brands.

Barely in 2009, the city of Shanghai is already looking forward to 2010, when the Expo 2010 World’s Fair lands in China for the very first time. There is nothing is bigger for the hometown crowds than their proud city hosting the big show, but one thing comes close: the Americans are most likely not going to show up.

For the many Chinese travelers attracted to the exotic nature of Southeast Asia, a new option may be in the horizon. After years of developing and promoting the traditional “新馬泰” (Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand) packages, ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) member states agreed today in the 29th Tourism Forum held at Hanoi, Vietnam to promote the entire region as a one-stop tourist destination for foreign tourists in order to cushion the negative impacts of the global financial downturn. As stated by Malaysian Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman, the destination branding effort will “not only sell each country separately but to have one ASEAN campaign.”

We have previously talked about the top brands in terms of brand value both worldwide and in China, but we have never talked about the best country brands.
This is why today we decided to look at the latest Country Brand Index (CBI) recently released by FutureBrand.