The purpose of branding is to add value to your bottom line. A strong brand lets you differentiate your offering from others, it lets you charge a premium for your service, and it builds customer loyalty. Julian Moore, who looks after New Zealand’s brand for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, says his wife is skeptical about the importance of brands. He quipped that next time he was travelling, he’d bring her back some perfume from Poland: aah, the romance of Warsaw. So he’s got a point about the power of country brands!

This blog has been posting about cultural tourism in the last couple of weeks, and while on the subject, it’s worth checking out the country brand index by FutureBrand, a global brand consultancy. They’ve ranked country brands (based on research, expert opinions and relevant statistics):

1. Australia
2. USA
3. Italy
4. France
5. Greece
6. UK
7. Spain
8. New Zealand
9. Maldives
10. India

FutureBrand ranks countries across a range of categories, including history, art and culture, relaxation and resort, business, and entertainment. New Zealand rates high in some obvious areas: natural beauty (no. 1), off the beaten track/exotic (no. 4), outdoor activities/sport (no. 1), safety (no. 3). We also rate high for families, at no. 2.

Interestingly - and of particular relevance to delegates at the Maori Tourism Conference - New Zealand is no. 2 in the authenticity category: presentation of distinctive, genuine and unique cultures (although we don’t feature in the top 10 for history or for art and culture).

FutureBrand reports that authenticity is a key branding component and is growing in importance - indicated by its high ranking among travelers’ needs and wants.

The global desire for authenticity favors countries which tend to have more preserved and unique cultures, and creates a strong opportunity for developing or emerging countries to leverage. Sense of place, culture and character must be evident as a country expands or creates its travel, tourism, trade and investment offerings.

A country’s ability to be authentic, deliver authentic and communicate authentic is probably one of the biggest destination advantages today. People want to experience the true essence of a different place. This is the magic of a country brand. Mexico, India and New Zealand all do solid jobs of communicating something authentic. Countries like Thailand, Oman and South Africa are starting to pursue this approach as well. … if you can claim and provide authenticity, do it.

FutureBrand also notes that the web is still the critical channel for promoting countries. Not only is it popular for researching a destination, but it’s where people go to purchase travel-related services. All grist to the NZLive mill - if you want to increase international audiences for your cultural activity, merchandise or service, you need to be on NZLive! Here’s some figures from the report:

• Nearly 60% of adult web surfers have shopped for travel-related services on the Internet in the last 6 months.
• 28% of leisure travelers and 31% of combined business and leisure travelers cite the Internet as the place they will go to book their next trip, making it the most used booking channel.
• Online travel spending reached $34.7 billion in the first 6 months of 2006, an almost 15% increase from the same period last year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am and is filed under Research, Cultural tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.