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Anholt Nation Brands Index: Despite Impressive Increase in Financial Valuation, Brand America Still Struggles with Reputation Around Peace and SecurityTibet comes up short in ranking debut; Brazil, Poland and Czech Republic top brand improvement chartSeattle, WA – May 31, 2007 – The findings of the latest Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI), the first analytical ranking of the world’s nation brands, were released today. The Index, created by government advisor Simon Anholt and powered by global market intelligence solutions provider GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), revealed that despite the continued unpopularity of the USA’s foreign policy interventions and the impact of these policies on the perceptions of its people, products, culture, tourism and immigration, Brand America again achieves the highest financial valuation of its brand image with nearly $20 trillion. This represents a 10 percent increase over 2006, according to the 2007 Nation Brand League Table compiled by Brand Finance. The United States ranked 11th overall out of 40 nation brands in the Q1 2007 NBI, dropping one slot since Q4 2006. “Brand America is mostly affected by the reputation of its government,” explains Anholt, author of the NBI report. “It ranks 26th out of 40 with respect to overall governance, and even lower in the specific area of international peace and security, coming in 37th ahead of only China, Israel and Iran. Typically, public opinion is good at separating government policies from other areas – people can disapprove of a nation’s official policy, but still admire its products, landscape, people and culture. America has shown, however, that if the policies are unpopular enough and pursued long and aggressively enough, they will eventually contaminate people’s perceptions of every other aspect of the nation too.” The damage to America’s reputation is not yet total, however. The U.S. continues to rank first among countries that “excel at sport,” edging out Germany and Russia. Similarly, the U.S. took first place for “contemporary culture, such as music, films, art and literature” ahead of France and the UK. Yet, Brand America still suffers in the cultural heritage department, coming in 38th out of 40 before Estonia and Latvia. The Anholt NBI surveyed over 25,000 consumers across 35 countries about their perceptions of those countries across six areas of national competence: Investment and Immigration, Exports, Culture and Heritage, People, Governance and Tourism. The people polled represent 70 percent of the world’s population and more than 80 percent of the world’s economy. The 2007 Nation Brand Value League Table by Brand Finance plc For the second consecutive year, Brand Finance plc has conducted a brand valuation for each nation featured in the NBI, using an adapted version of the ‘royalty relief’ method, a valuation technique widely used in commercial brand valuations. To undertake the brand valuation, Brand Finance first determined the five-year forecast GDP for each nation. It next produced a Brand Rating for each nation brand using seven economic performance measures (source: IMD), eight infrastructure and efficiency measures (source: IMD) and six consumer perception measures (source: NBI). The resulting Brand Rating is therefore based on robust and objective measures to score each nation brand. Finally, Brand Finance identified a notional Brand Contribution or Brand Royalty for each nation brand and produced a brand valuation for each one. In Q1 2007, nine of the Top 10 nation brand financial valuations remain the same compared to Q4 2005, with USA topping the chart, and the exception of China taking Australia’s place.
Brazil, Poland and Czech Republic Most Improved Nation Brands Through a process of slow and steady improvement, Brazil and Poland now top the brand improvement chart, both with a 2.9 percent increase in their overall scores over a 12-month period. The Czech Republic is the 3rd most improving nation with 2.8 percent, followed by the UK, which not only ranks again as the overall best nation brand in Q1 2007, but also shows an improvement of 2.1 percent itself since last year. Brazil’s progress in large part is attributable to two factors: it topped the table of increases in the culture dimension over this 12-month period, with 4.1 percent – far ahead of the next most improving nation in culture, Poland, which registered an increase of 2.1 percent. Brazil was also the most improving nation when measured against the factor of willingness to live and work in the country. The country with the biggest reduction in overall score – nearly 3 percent – was China, which is not alone in its region to be losing ground in the image stakes. Four out of the five nations with decreases in overall score of over 2 percent were East Asian nations. Tibet Debuts as Guest Nation Tibet was included in this NBI edition for the first time to test the notion that Tibet has a clear enough identity to compete alongside sovereign nations. Although the results for Tibet were better than for the other two guest nations from past NBIs – Israel and Iran, Tibet emerged with a disappointing overall ranking of 33 out of 40. What Tibet can consider encouraging is its potential for tourism aspirations, achieving 16th place out of 40 in this category. This however masks considerable variation among the questions. As a place of great natural beauty, Tibet ranks 6th, ahead of Italy and Norway. On historical and built heritage, it came in at 11th place. Given its relative inaccessibility and lack of infrastructure, however, survey respondents were reluctant to translate these impressions into actual tourism intentions. As a place that people were likely to visit if money was no object, Tibet ranked 24th. Note to Editors: To download a copy of the Anholt Nation Brands Index summary report, please go to: www.nationbrandindex.com. About the Anholt Nation Brands Index The Q1 2007 Anholt Nation Brands Index polled 25,756 consumers between March 2nd and 19th, 2007 on GMI’s online data collection platform. A 200-1,000 representative sample based on age, gender, and where applicable, geographical region, race and ethnicity, was collected in each of 35 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the USA. For further information about the Anholt Nation Brands Index methodology, please contact GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) at info@gmi-mr.com or visit www.nationbrandindex.com. About Simon Anholt Simon Anholt is recognized as the world’s leading authority on the branding of countries, regions and cities. He is a member of the UK Government’s Public Diplomacy Board, and works as an independent advisor to around 20 other national, regional and city governments on brand strategy and public diplomacy. Anholt developed the concept of the Nation Brands Index in 2005. He is founding editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, and the author of Brand New Justice, Brand America and Competitive Identity – the New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions. For further information about Simon Anholt, please visit www.earthspeak.com or email speak@earthspeak.com. About GMI GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only provider of integrated solutions for global market intelligence for market research firms and Global 2,000 companies. Solutions include market research software, desktop analysis tools, 24x7x365 service bureau, and one of the world’s largest, highly profiled, double opted-in managed panels, providing reach to six million consumers in 200+ countries. Founded in 1999 with world headquarters in Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on five continents. In 2006, the company ranked #93 in Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500. For more information, please visit us online at www.gmi-mr.com or email us at info@gmi-mr.com. About Brand Finance plc Brand Finance is a leading independent intangible asset valuation and brand strategy firm that helps companies manage their brands more intelligently for improved business results. Since 1996, Brand Finance has performed hundreds of brand valuations with an aggregate value of over $150 billion. The company is headquartered in London, UK, and has 18 offices around the globe. For more information on the Nation Brand Value League Table methodology, please visit www.brandfinance.com or email us at info@brandfinance.com. Media Contact:
Tim Smith |
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