Australia is the 2nd Best Country Brand in the World!

Futurebrand has ranked the brand of all the countries in the (1^st ?) world on several measures such:


Makes People's Lives Better

Creates Emotional Desire & Demand

Consistent Across All Touchpoints

Point of View on the Future

Drives the World Forward

Economic Performance and Power.



Well done Aussies! We are second best at something! Not quite sure what it is but we sure as hell are better than the US. That's a good thing isn't it? Well if it's a methodologically sound study then it is. Measuring the strength of a country's brand is a really difficult thing, the room for error is immense as individual experience varies wildly from one person to another. It all depends on who they asked. A review of Futurebrand's methodology gives little away but it seems like they've done their best to measure a fairly abstract concept. However, there is one line in their summary that stands out above all others:


"But above all, a strong country brand is more than the sum of its attributes: it makes peoples' lives better."



See this is the kind of crap that gives marketers a really bad name. A brand does not, and will not EVER make peoples' lives better. This is true marketing wankery at its finest. The brand of a country is more difficult to measure than any organisational brand because it doesn't have a graphical representation. In effect you're asking about the emotional and cognitive response to the mention of that nation, which is based on experiences with that nation. You're talking about an attitude based on experience. It's the experience that makes people's lives better, the brand is just a reminder.



The Country Brand Index (CBI) is a massive market research undertaking. Can you imagine the cost in surveying 3,400 people in 13 different countries? "In depth focus groups in 14 metropolitan centres" to come to the conclusion that a country brand can actually make lives better? Big bucks for a bucket of crap.


Sure, I've picked out one line in the entire executive summary, but read it carefully, it's Futurebrand that precedes this statement with the words "above all".


Shame.

  For those interested, the top five are: (last year's ranking in brackets)
1. Canada (2)
2. Australia (4)
3. New Zealand (3) 
4. United States (1)
5. Switzerland (11)