Australia is World's Favourite Nation Brand

Australia is the winner and Turkey the loser, while the US is let down by its politics and France fails in the hospitality stakes. This is the global perception of the brand appeal of 25 countries, according to the second quarterly Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index (NBI) report.

The NBI, led by brand expert Simon Anholt, ranks nation 'brands' based on perceptions of a country's cultural, political, commercial and human assets, investment potential and tourist appeal. The second report analyses 25 countries, compared with just 11 last quarter. Australia, a new entry, replaces Sweden as the world's strongest nation brand, while Russia and Turkey remain at the bottom at 24th and 25th, respectively.

Anholt identifies common themes among the high scorers. 'To be a top brand,' he says, 'a country needs to be stable, liberal, and democratic with a tendency to neutrality. Australia comes top perhaps because it is more Swedish than even Sweden itself.' Australia is the first choice for quality of people, tourism and investment / immigration, though it achieves low rankings for products and culture.

The US scores highly for investment and quality of products (third and second respectively), but loses out on its politics. When asked how much they trust a country's government to make responsible decisions about peace and security, the public ranked the US 19th - just above South Korea, China, and Russia, but below all other Western nations.

France sits at the lower end of the richer Western nations on just about every count apart from culture, where it comes second after Italy. A particular concern for the country's tourism industry is the low ranking (19th) for perceived hospitality.

The UK is the only major economic and political power in the top five. Its people (3rd overall) and culture (4th) are key factors, and it also scores well for its products (6th) and as a place to invest in (5th).

China is in the bottom third for most rankings except cultural heritage, where it ranks number two after Egypt. Despite its global manufacturing strength, Chinese-branded products come last, below those of India, Russia and Turkey.

Direct experience of a country, for example visiting as a tourist, has a positive effect on perceptions, but attempts at marketing apparently do little to change the brand image. As Anholt says, 'A country isn't a packet of soap powder that you can sell to a consumer'.

However, Mitch Eggers, COO of global research for GMI, believes that countries can improve their brands, stating that the NBI is a 'valuable tool to help governments and organizations develop a plan to address these strongly held perceptions'. Anholt adds: 'A powerful and positive nation brand provides a crucial competitive advantage in today's global marketplace, where countries compete for investors, tourists, consumers, donors, immigrants, the governments of other nations and the media.'

Complete ranking of all 25 nation brands

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. Switzerland
4. UK
5. Sweden
6. Italy
7. Germany
8. Netherlands
9. France
10. New Zealand
11. United States
12. Spain
13. Ireland
14. Japan
15. Brazil
16. Mexico
17. Egypt
18. India
19. Poland
20. South Korea
21. China
22. South Africa
23. Czech Republic
24. Russia
25. Turkey

10,000 consumers were surveyed in total, with representative samples of 1,000 (3% margin of error) in each of the following ten countries: Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom and United States. Consumers were not asked questions about their own country.

The new countries covered in the latest NBI are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, South Africa and Switzerland.

More details of the NBI report are at www.nationalbrandindex.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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