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Livros: "Trading Identities - Why Countries and Companies Are Taking on Each Others' Roles" de Wally Olins

WALLY OLINS'S latest book, Trading Identities: Why Countries and Companies Are Taking on Each Other's Roles

(The Foreign Policy Centre, 1999), poses some interesting issues about the national branding of countries and the identities of multinationals.

Both topics have been hot issues in the 1990s-CAP has covered, for instance, attempts to create national identities and brands for Britain, Germany and New Zealand in the past-but once again it is over to Olins to take a proverbial step back and examine the ideas at play.

National branding, he writes, is nothing new. Every country which has gone through some turmoil attempts to create new traditions from the old, along with new ideals. Olins's example of France's five republics, two empires and four kingdoms illustrate this convincingly, and offers a lesson to today's countries.

Here's a resume on his seven step plan on how to build a country brand:

.1 Set up a working party with representatives to start the programme (media, arts, government, education, etc.)

.2 Find out how the nation is perceived by its people and by nations abroad (qualitative and quantitative analysis)

.3 Consult with opinion leaders to look at national strengths and weaknesses.

.4 Create the central idea on which the strategy is based with professional advisors (idea needs to be powerful, true, simples and, if possible unique)

.5 Visual articulation of the central idea. Design visual identity.

.6 Segment your messages in order to target different audiences: tourism, inward investment, exports, etc.

.7 Create a liaison system through the working party to launch the programme in governmental activities and encourage supportive actions from organisations in commerce, industry, arts, media and so on.

url: www.amazon.co.uk