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.

The Country Brand Index is a global study that ranks countries as brands and assesses opportunities, insights and findings related to nation branding. It polls 10,000 people to express their overall impression about different countries’ tourism, culture, politics, respect for human rights, commerce, and investment.

The newly-published 2008 issue shows Australia as the best national brand for the third year in a row, with the title of “the best residence for the tourists”. Canada ranks second for its security, friendliness and fitness for the family traveling.
The rest of the top 10 countries include USA, Italy, Switzerland, France, New Zealand, UK, Japan and Sweden.

The 2008 Country Brand Index analyses also the new trends, tourism motive, challenges and opportunities for single countries in terms of branding.

The report includes also an analysis of China nation brand after the Olympics. The country is rewarded as the most impressive country brand in light of how well it responded to the challenges represented by the Olympic Games as well as for its capacity to address the so-called “deficit of global respect”, a term coined by journalist Orville Schell to describe the sense within China that the country’ s international standing is not in line with its self-image.