Nation Branding as a tool to increase Soft Power-

a Case Study of South Korea and Estonia

SOFT POWER IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ROLE OF
MEDIA AND CULTURE: IRL1091
BENTHE VERMEULEN
Academic year 2022-2023
2905
Table of Abbreviations

ESC Eurovison Song Contest

EU European Union
PCNB Presidential Council on Nation Branding
Korea South Korea
Table of contents
Introduction

Section I: Nation Branding

Section II: Nation Branding Case Studies

§1. South Korea
§2. Estonia

Section III: Nation Branding Critical Discussion

Conclusion

Bibliography
Books
Articles
News Articles
Online Resources
Index and Databases
Introduction
The world is changing at a greater speed than it has ever before. Due to economic and
cultural globalization, communication barriers have disappeared. Location no longer tempers
the flow of information between people around most parts of the world. This increase in
transparency makes it harder for states to employ their military and economic leverage
without any backlash. (Cull 2008) A new way for states to utilize their power called soft
power has gained prominence. Joseph Nye coined this term defining it as the quality of
attractiveness flowing from an actor’s culture or behavior which makes it easier to build
partnerships, advance agendas, and work in the international space. (Nye 2004) The days
when diplomacy was solely conducted in dark rooms lay behind us. Today one way for an
international actor to manage the international environment is through engagement with
civilians of other states. This public diplomacy is multifaceted and contains many different
components one of which is the topic of this essay: nation branding. A state can increase or
leverage its soft power when using public diplomacy (Cull 2008) Nation Branding is the
practice of using corporate marketing techniques and methods to states to improve those
states’ international relations and standing.

This essay will take look at South Korea and Estonia, two countries that have successfully
used nation branding in their favor. Although these countries are very different in terms of
culture, language, environment, history… Both have proven that nation branding is a
technique that works to improve soft power and draw the attention of the international
community. Section I will briefly frame the notion of nation branding. Subsequently, Section
II of the essay will examine how South Korea and Estonia conducted their nation branding
campaigns, what their foreign policy objectives were, and if they were successful in reaching
them. Finally, Section III will critically discuss nation branding and assess these criticisms
when applied to South Korea and Estonia. The essay will end with a conclusion.
Section I: Nation Branding
A real academic consensus on the official definition of nation branding does not exist.
However, this section will try to conceptualize the notion of nation branding in order that it
is clear what is meant by the term in the context of this essay. Nation Branding refers to the
idea that the reputation of a country behaves similarly to that of a brand image of a
company or product. It covers the whole image of a country on the international stage, i.e.
political, economic, and cultural dimensions as well as how a complex bundle of images,
meanings, associations, and experiences are interpreted by other nations. (Lee & Kim 2020)

Nation branding is seen as a powerful political tool, especially for middle-power states
interested to increase their international standing and compete with other countries. The
power of nation branding lies in its capacity to create through the means of branding
techniques a differentiated image of a country so that it stands stronger in the competitive
global market. Nations compete for tourism, investments, aid, access to supranational
organizations, etc. A positive brand alone will not suffice, they need to identify what makes
them different from their competitors. Strong nation branding is thus needed if a nation
wants to achieve in promoting its national interests on the international playing field.
Branding a nation successfully can enhance a country’s image, and have positive economic
effects by boosting tourism, attracting foreign investment, and increasing the value and flow
of exports from the country. (Dubey 2019)

Section II: Nation Branding Case Studies

§1. South Korea

South Korea (Korea) has achieved rapid economic development; occupying the world’s 12th
largest economy in terms of GDP, and technological advancements; enjoying the world’s
fastest internet speed and a media-rich culture and has become a member of both the OECD
and G20 (Lee & Kim, 2020). However, it wasn’t that long ago that Korea was mainly
associated with its neighbor North Korea and the manufacturing industry within the public
perception and the media. With the rise of China as a manufacturing powerhouse and the
Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Korean government realized the need to rebrand its image
and did so by pushing the development of the IT and content (film, pop, and videogames)
industries. The government was mainly concerned that Korea was underperforming as a
middle-power. For instance, Korean brands were more recognized than the country itself
and when recognized these brands were thought to be Japanese. (Rockower 2012) The gap
between the current image of Korea and the real power needed to be bridged by focusing
on Korea’s soft power through nation branding.

The Presidential Council on Nation Branding (PCNB) was established in 2009 as a response to
Korea’s poor ranking of 33rd out of 50 countries according to the 2008 Anholt-GFK Roper
Nation Brand Index (Dubey 2019). They had the responsibility of enhancing Korea's
reputation as a nation. The PCNB launched a nation branding project with 10 action points.
These efforts were taken because Korea has struggled with its visibility on the global stage,
being flanked by Japan and China. Korea is a middle power, and the global public is either
unaware of them or holds negative opinions—thus requiring the need to secure global
attention (Rockower 2012). During its four-year run, the council was very successful in
branding Korean pop entertainment culture overseas. The support of the public sector has
resulted in the rapid growth of the Korean entertainment business. Low-interest loans and
subsidies were given to music companies, cinema and drama productions, and computer
game developers (Lee & Kim 2020) This has resulted in the explosion of the Korean wave
around the world, with K-pop, K-drama, and K-movies being immensely popular with foreign
audiences. Korea successfully carved out its image through a nation rebranding campaign
focused on the export of culture. As Nye explains that soft power relies on the expression of
a nation’s values, culture, and policies to help guide the preferences of others, nations
seeking to develop and transform their nation brand, should foster and promote their own
unique culture and values. (Nye 2004)

The rebranded Korea reminds people of advanced media technology, as well as popular
Korean Wave stars and other entertainment content (Li et al. 2021) Korea’s nation branding
was given an extra push during the COVID-19 pandemic. Korea managed to flatten its
number of infections through aggressive testing and excessive contact tracing. (Lee & Kim
2020) This attracted global attention as a response the government started a diplomatic
campaign to elevate Korea’s brand by leveraging its experience with the virus. The country
was able to ship millions of masks, medical supplies, and test kits to other countries. For
instance, as the US encountered supply shortages, Donald Trump personally asked President
Moon Jae for help. As a result of its success in battling COVID-19, Korea’s sports
competitions were able to return to action ahead of other countries, even being broadcasted
by American sports channels. Lee & Kim conducted a sentiment analysis of social media
posts on Twitter and Instagram. The results showed overwhelmingly positive sentiments,
with 89.4% positive posts, suggesting a favorable nation brand for Korea. Their overall
findings pointed to an improvement in Korea’s global image, and that the country is
perceived by others as a global health leader.

In conclusion, the Korean nation branding campaign has proven to be incredibly successful in
transforming the country’s image from being associated with the Korean war and
manufacturing to being associated with high-tech, entertainment, and effectiveness. This is
reflected in an increase in soft power. For instance, Korea rose from 14 th place in 2020 to 11 th
in 2022 in the Global Soft Power index conducted by Brandirectory. Furthermore, according
to the Soft Power 30 Index, Korea ranked 19 th in 2019 which is the best ranking Korea has
had since the index was launched in 2015. Korea’s powerful neighbors Japan and China still
rank higher in both indexes, but nation branding was able to differentiate the country from
them making it a redoubtable competitor for tourism and foreign investments in the area.
§2. Estonia

Estonia is a small country in the North of Europe with a population of only 1,3 million.
Admittedly it may not be the first country that comes to mind when discussing soft power
and nation branding. However, the country has invested in an extensive nation branding
campaign to make it more appealing for foreign investments, and tourism and broaden its
export market. (Jordan 2015)
Estonia gained independence in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Right from
the start of its independence, the government tried to make a clean break from its Soviet
past under the notion of returning to Europe. The return the Europe discourse served was,
on the one hand, the expression of the political intention to join the European Union (EU)
and on other hand the symbolic recognition of belonging to the European family. The
Estonian government set out on a course to court the EU by molding itself to European
principles and passing extensive economic reforms. As a result, Estonia was invited for EU
accessions negotiations in 1997 ahead of Latvia and Lithuania. However, Estonia remained
widely unknown around the world this changed when the country won the Eurovision Song
Contest (ESC) in 2001. Trying to capitalize on the gained attention the Brand Estonia
campaign was launched during the lead-up to EU accessions talks in 2002. The campaign
focused on the image of Estonia as a Nordic European country. This sentiment was echoed
by Estonian politicians who spoke frequently of Estonia as a Northern European country and
that an accident in history links Estonia in the minds of people with the East instead of the
West. (Jordan 2015) Brand Estonia tried to distance the country from its Soviet past by
presenting it as country going through a positive transformation. However, the Brand
Estonia campaign was wildly criticized by Estonian citizens as they “saw through” the
campaign and rejected the manipulated image imposed on them. (Jordan) One of the major
reasons for criticism was the complete othering of the Russian minority in Estonia expressed
by Brand Estonia. This combined with the poor communication of the campaign made the
campaign unpopular with citizens. However, the open criticism of the campaign showed that
democratic rule was consolidated in Estonia.
As the country rebuild itself after the fall of the Soviet Union, large investments were made
in information communication technology and data infrastructure, laying the groundwork
for a digital state (Kattel and Mergel 2018) The Estonian government invested a lot of time
and resources into branding the country abroad as a digital nation. (Blue 2020) Enterprise
Estonia launched the e-Residency initiative in 2014 to expand Estonia's economy and
community by attracting foreign nationals to start businesses there, capitalizing on the
nation's rising reputation for digital expertise. Anyone with a desire to operate an internet
company may access Estonia’s transnational digital identity. This enables Estonia to stand
out visibly in the global market and increase local income through businesses that only
operate online. The country has emerged as the perfect location for international
entrepreneurs and remote digital nomads looking to launch a business in the European
Union. According to the Estonian government, E-residence has considerably increased the
state’s soft power. E-residency connects willing foreign nationals to Estonia through digital
identity and business, encouraging interconnectivity that strengthens soft power. The
country received positive commendations from world leaders such as Merkel and Abe
boosting international awareness about e-residency and Estonia overall. E-residency
supports Estonia's active presentation of itself as a digital nation and demonstrates the
exportability of the country's digital solutions. (Blue 2020) Moreover, it should provide the
country with security. As it receives attention from the West and gains a positive reputation
as a digital state, the government believes that a world that is aware of Estonia’s unique
contributions may be more incentivized to guarantee its territorial integrity.

In conclusion, the lack of attention from the world during the Soviet occupation has
motivated Estonia to leave its mark on the international stage by employing the strategy of
nation branding. Firstly, nation branding was used to gain access to this community as Brand
Estonia was mainly focused on distancing the country from the Soviet Union and exerting
influence on the EU accessions talks. With the launch of the e-residency in 2014 Estonia tried
to capitalize on its growing reputation as a digital state. In offering a transnational digital
identity to foreigners the government aims to build its soft power and provide territorial
security by building a network of foreigners affiliated with the country, making it hard to
ignore Estonia in the future.
Section III: Nation Branding Critical Discussion

This section will be a personal reflection on the concept of nation branding and its relation to
soft power using South Korea and Estonia as case studies. As discussed, nation branding is
the idea that the image of a country behaves similarly to the image of a product. However, I
dare to argue that this isn’t the case. On the one hand, every country indeed has a brand,
the image that appears in foreign audiences’ minds when mentioning the country. On the
other hand, I do not believe that this image can be easily altered through branding. (Anholt
2008) According to Anholt, national images are not created through communications, and
cannot be altered by communications. I think the failure of the Brand Estonia campaign can
be ascribed to a too heavy reliance on the communicative branding of the country, giving it a
logo, a slogan, and brochures. The Estonian public did not relate to the image that was
communicated and thought it was a waste of government funds, subsequently, the Brand
Estonia campaign was not continued. This touches on another point I want to expand on;
countries are not as stable in their management as companies are. They are subject to public
opinion, elections, and government changes, which makes it much harder to portray a
unified message to the world.

According to Anholt, a positive nation brand thus can’t be communicated, it must be earned.
National images don’t change that easily as they are very robust. This explains why a
successful nation branding campaign doesn’t necessarily result in big rise in soft power. To
promote a national image the soft power of the nation must be examined so that it can be
effectively exploited abroad. This is what Korea did when it started heavily investing in its
entertainment business. Estonia also switched gears from a heavily communication-based
nation branding campaign to a nation branding campaign that is founded on the digital
strengths of the country. Therefore, I believe South Korea and Estonia to be fascinating case
studies of successful nation rebranding campaigns. In the case of Korea, this rebranding
correlated with a rise in its soft power further exemplified by its adequate handling of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Estonia hopes to increase its soft power by branding the country as a
digital state and the e-residency. By granting e-residency to foreign nationals the country
hopes to engage with the international public. Studies have shown that Estonia is perceived
positively by its e-residence and that they feel affiliated with the country. However, as of
today, there are only 98731 Estonian e-residents. This makes me believe that the country’s
nation branding campaign might be reaching its limits.

Conclusion

This essay studied two nation branding campaigns in two very different countries: Korea and
Estonia and how it relates to their soft power. The First Section tried to define Nation
Branding as discussed, the term has no official definition and rather refers to an approach
taken by states to promote their countries similarly to products to gain a positive perception
in the minds of foreign audiences.

The first part of Section I focused on Korea. As examined Korea used to be associated with
manufacturing and the Korean war. A gap existed between the economic powerhouse Korea
was becoming and its soft power. To counteract this the Korean government gave massive
public support to the entertainment business resulting in the explosion of the Korean wave
around the world. Korea’s image was given another boost during the COVID-19 pandemic
when it was able to lend support to other countries as it had successfully battled the virus.
Today we think of Korea as an advanced digitalized society with a booming entertainment
business. Through rebranding Korea was able to carve out its prominence in Asia, no longer
being completely overshadowed by China and Japan. This resulted in a rise in soft power.

The second part of Section II looked at Estonia. The government wanted to make a clean
break with any Soviet Union association. Trying to capitalize on the attention gained from
hosting the ESC, the government launched the Brand Estonia campaign. However, this
campaign didn’t resonate with Estonians as it imposed an image of Estonia as a Nordic
country completely othering its Russian heritage. Estonia attempted to capitalize on its
increasing status as a digital state by introducing the e-residency in 2014. By establishing a
network of foreigners linked with the nation, the government hopes to increase its soft
power and enhance territorial security.
In conclusion and as discussed in Section III, the success of nation branding relies on the
understanding of a country’s soft power potential, not on a flashy marketing campaign. This
approach may be helpful to attract tourists, but it doesn’t help a country exert more
influence on the international stage.

Bibliography

Books

Jordan, P. (2015). "Walking in Singing: Brand Estonia, the Eurovision Song Contest and
Estonia’s Self-Proclaimed Return to Europe, 2001–2002". In Histories of Public Diplomacy
and Nation Branding in the Nordic and Baltic Countries. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft power: the means to success in world politics. New York Public Affairs.

Articles

Blue, A. (2020). Evaluating Estonian E-residency as a tool of Soft Power. Place Branding and
Public Diplomacy, 17 (4), .359-367.

Cull, N. J. (2008). Public Diplomacy: Taxonomies and Histories. The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 616, 31–54.

Dubey, H. (2019). The Concept of Nation Branding and Its Adoption in South Korea,
International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 4(4), 3031-3038.

Lee, S. T., & Kim, H. S. (2020). Nation branding in the COVID-19 era: South Korea’s pandemic
public diplomacy. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 17(4), 382–396.

Li, E. P. H., Min, H. J., & Lee, S. (2021). Soft power and nation rebranding: The transformation
of Korean national identity through cosmetic surgery tourism. International Marketing
Review, 38(1), 141–162.

Rockower, P. (2012). Recipes for gastrodiplomacy. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy,
8(3), 235– 246.
Online Resources

Alimaskoski, D. (2022). How Estonia won the Nation Branding Game. Synami Media
https://www.synami.media/branding-tips/how-estonia-won-the-nation-branding-game/
Accessed on 29 January 2023

Anholt, S. (2008). Why Nation Branding does not exist.

https://europaregina.eu/downloads/orangecontest/SimonAnholtNationBranding.pdf
Accessed on 29 January 2023

Kattel, R. and Mergel, I. (2018). Estonia’s digital transformation: Mission mystique and the
hiding hand. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Working Paper Series.
https://www.ucl. ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2018/sep/estonias-digit al-
transformation-mission-mystique-and-hiding-hand. Accessed on 29 January 2023