DISCUSSION

Nation branding has six dimensions, according to the work of Simon Anholt, the leading
proponent of nation branding. These six are investments, people, government, tourism, culture
and heritage, and exports. All six form a country’s nation brand. This is where other stakeholders
base the country’s reputation. With these dimensions, efforts can be made by anyone in the
country, consciously or unconsciously. Depending on how well a country performs based on
these dimensions, the country will either gain or lose both economic and political benefits. As a
way of going back to the intended purpose of the paper, the aim is to determine the key efforts of
a country in nation branding. This was seen in the data for Malaysia in the previous section,
showing the important efforts undertaken by the country to establish itself as a successful nation
brand.
In regards to the summary of results, Malaysia regarded nation branding as crucial in its
economic and political endeavors as evidenced by the efforts specifically undertaken to address
issues regarding their images or brands.
The creation of a nation brand council is integral. A nation brand council is composed of
government sectors and private partners, headed primarily by the former. They take upon the
task of creating, overseeing and managing the nation brand. This is evidenced by the Nation
Brand Task Force headed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia.
The success of multi-sectoral government and public-private partnership approaches of
nation branding lies in a coordinated strategy. The three countries extensively studied in this
research realize that nation branding is more than branding for tourism or for one particular
sector. Efforts beyond tourism have thus been identified. However, even with different targeted
audiences and different innate functions of government sectors, all three countries opted for
coordination. This coordination stemmed from the uniformly identified strength that addresses
the identified problems of each country.
Being a country with severe image problems that can be branched in its efforts, actors
and the six factors; there are identified shortcoming in each, hence, the approach to a successful
nation brand should be to target these weaknesses and to create solutions and if possible, to make
them the country’s strengths. A concrete example would be Malaysia who first regarded its
diversity as an issue of weakness, but now it is the foundation of its brand.
Furthermore, an identified national identity is integral to nation brand creation. It is this
identity that is reflective in the people, businesses and government sectors that allow recognition
and success of the nation brand. This is reflective in the theory of constructivism from the
discipline of international relations. Good practices and an innate association within the
government, people, and business of their national identity is the key for coordination. In the
end, as the nation brand trickles down, each citizen becomes a brand ambassador. This is also
evidenced by Mr. Teves’ words during the interview. The Philippines has not consolidated its
identity yet: fun, hard-working, hospitable, Spanish, Indo-Malay, or Indo-China descent, there is
a confusion. Without a national identity that is recognized to be true to all or at least most, there
can be no successful nation brand, as it will just be rendered deceitful.
 The creation and marketing of a nation brand is best left to professional brand creators. A
statement by Mr. Luz of NCC can best explain when he stated that when in need of a brand
(creation, design, marketing), one does not think to leave it alone to government which is
composed mostly of lawyers and accountants. For maximum efficiency, this particular task is
best left to agencies specializing in branding. From the data presentation in the previous Chapter,
it can be seen that all three countries tap private branding agencies and consultants, and then are
only monitored by government. The Philippines, too, took the right step through the NCC’s
decision to initiate a bidding among professional brand creators. It is because of this effort that
It’s More Fun in the Philippines as a tourism brand is highly successful and sustainable through
different administrations.
Putting into emphasis the cluster where Singapore, Malaysia and Germany belong and of
how extensive their campaigns are regardless of their development ranking, it can be inferred
then that economic status did not stop and even drove these countries to brand extensively and
sow its returns. Singapore, Malaysia and Germany are award-winning brands. The Philippines’
tourism brand was rendered to be cost-effective, and this is a step to the right direction. A nation
brand’s marketing strategy can be the same while not necessarily sacrificing its quality.
All sectors in government, business, and citizenry are key brand ambassadors. The
researchers note that there are sectors, especially businesses, local turned international brands,
and government who are at the frontline of nation branding. However, they highlight that
branding must reach the grassroots and must be kept in mind by the ordinary citizen. The nation
brand must come from an extensive understanding and ownership the identity of the state.
The government which is the frontline of the image of the country must be perceived as
uncorrupt, efficient and business friendly through best practices. The success of nation branding
does not stop at a great slogan and marketing campaign. Nation branding requires actual changes
and the pursuit of what a country seeks to be. For these changes to happen, government must be
clean and uncorrupt. A campaign will ultimately fail without actual developments in areas of
weaknesses.
In this world increasingly changing, as much as efficiency and brand trust, creativity has
become the new commodity the world market identifies. All countries seeking foreign
investment branded themselves as efficient and business-friendly, a place where economy
thrives. But in the latest trends, this aspect of efficiency should now be partnered with the same
sense of creativity. Hence, the flourishing of arts and culture scenes are rendered to be as
important as the hard economy.
Governments planning to brand must strive to create an environment of ease for visitors,
migrants and businesses. As much as Singaporeans are brand ambassadors or Malaysians,
Germans or Filipinos for their own country, visitors of the place, those who have hard and soft
experiences of the country are also brand ambassadors.
The research identifies and addresses the knowledge gap of the Philippine nation brand.
There has been no research done about comparing the Philippines to other countries under the
subject of Comparative Politics. There has not been much research relating the subject of nation
branding to political science or international relations. Thus, the paper recommends that more
studies ought to be done on nation branding in the context of the Philippines under the lens of
political science and international relations.