Kotler - Country as Brand, Product and Beyond - A Place Marketing and Brand Management Perspective

The American Marketing Associa-tion defines a brand as a ‘name, term,sign, symbol, or design, or a combina-tion of them intended to identify thegoods and services of one seller orgroup of sellers and to differentiatethem from those of competition’.Brands differentiate products and rep-resent a promise of value. Brands incitebeliefs, evoke emotions and promptbehaviours. Marketers often extendsuccessful brand names to new productlaunches, lending existing associationsto them. As a result, they speed up

COUNTRIES AS BRANDS ANDPRODUCTSBecause product features are easilycopied, brands have been considered amarketer’s major tool for creatingproduct differentiation. Even whendifferentiation based on productcharacteristics is possible, often con-sumers do not feel motivated or able toanalyse them in adequate depth.Therefore the combination of brandname and brand significance hasbecome a core competitive asset in anever-growing number of contexts.1

� HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1350-231X BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 9, NO. 4–5, 249–261 APRIL 2002 249

Philip Kotler PhDS. C. Johnson Professor ofMarketing, Kellogg GraduateSchool of Management,Northwestern University,Leverone Hall, Evanston, IL60208-2008, USA

Tel: �1 847 491 2725;E-mail:[email protected],[email protected]

David Gertner PhDAssistant Professor of Marketing,Lubin School of Business, PaceUniversity, Pleasantville/BriarcliffCampus, Goldstein 120,861 Bedford Road, Pleasantville,NY 10570, USA

Tel: �1 914 773 3704;E-mail: [email protected],[email protected]

Theoretical papers

Country as brand, product, andbeyond: A place marketing andbrand management perspectiveReceived (in revised form): 16th January, 2002

PHILIP KOTLERis the S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate School ofManagement, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. His ‘Marketing Management’ (10th edition) is one of theworld’s leading textbooks on marketing, and he has published 20 other books and over 100 papers in leadingjournals. His research spans strategic marketing, consumer marketing, business marketing, services marketing ande-marketing. He has been a consultant to IBM, Bank of America, Merck, General Electric, Honeywell and manyother companies. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from nine major universities in the USA andother countries.

DAVID GERTNERjoined Pace University as a full-time permanent member of the faculty in 2001 after visting and serving asprofessor and programme chair in several universities in Brazil and the USA. Dr Gertner participates in anumber of professional associations and has served as vice-president for research and publications of BALAS —the Business Association for Latin American Studies. Along with his research and teaching activities, Dr Gertnerhas also consulted for many companies. He has published and presented in conferences over 30 articles andpapers.

AbstractThis paper examines how widely held country images affect attitudes towards a country’s productsand services and ability to attract investment, businesses and tourists. It assesses the role ofstrategic marketing management in promoting the country’s image, attractiveness and products.

doubts about the quality of the productsdue to the low country brand equity.

In some instances a country maydeliberately use its name to promote itsproducts. For almost two decades now,American consumers have regardedCafe de Colombia (Colombian coffee)as a top-quality coffee. The promotionof Colombia, a country name, as abrand of high-quality coffee has beendone with the help of the Juan Valdezcharacter. This ‘quintessential cafetero’,and his mule are portrayed in a logocreated in 1981 to be used as a sealof guarantee issued by the NationalFederation of Coffee Growers ofColombia. The Cafe de Colombialogo has been extensively used inadvertising, promotional materials andcoffee packaging, providing a goodexample of integrated marketing com-munications as well as consistency.Efforts to promote Colombia as abrand of coffee included the spon-sorship of the two-week-long USOpen tennis tournament in FlushingMeadows in 1995.5 Consumer adver-tising featuring the logo has paid off.Colombia is the leading exporter ofcoffee to the US and Cafe deColombia holds over 40 per cent ofthe speciality coffee market in theUSA. A 1995 survey found that 83 percent of Americans interviewed as-sociated the logo with coffee and 53per cent properly identified it withColombian coffee.6

Even when a country does not con-sciously manage its name as a brand,people still have images of countriesthat can be activated by simply voic-ing the name. Country images arelikely to influence people’s decisionsrelated to purchasing, investing, chang-ing residence and travelling. Countryimage can be understood as

consumers’ information processing andlearning. Brands have social and emo-tional value to users. They havepersonality and speak for the user.They enhance the perceived utilityand desirability of a product. Brandshave the ability to add to or sub-tract from the perceived value of aproduct. On one hand, consumersexpect to pay lower prices for un-branded products or for those with lowbrand equities. On the other hand,they pay premiums for their treasuredor socially valued brands. Brands haveequity for both customers and inves-tors. Brand equity translates into cus-tomer preference, loyalty and financialgains. Brands are appraised and tradedin the marketplace. Brand equity hasbeen pointed out to include manydimensions, such as performance, so-cial image, value, trustworthiness andidentification.2

The question here is: can a countrybe a brand? Is there such thing ascountry brand equity? Shimp et al.3

applied the term ‘country equity’, refer-ring to the emotional value resultingfrom consumers’ association of a brandwith a country. Country names amountto brands and help consumers evaluateproducts and make purchasing deci-sions. They are responsible for associa-tions that may add to or subtract fromthe perceived value of a product.Research has supported the idea thatconsumers are more willing to buyproducts from industrialised nations as aresult of country equity.4 Products bear-ing a ‘made in Germany’, ‘made inSwitzerland’ or ‘made in Japan’ label arecommonly regarded as high quality, dueto the reputation of these countries astop world manufacturers and exporters.At the same time, ‘made in Surinam’ or‘made in Myanmar’ labels may raise

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on product perceptions and attitudes.Leclerc et al.8 found in one experi-ment that the French pronunciation ofa brand name affects the perceivedhedonism of the products and attitudestoward the brand. They also found thatthe French branding influence persistedeven in a product taste test — that is,with a direct sensory experience withthe product.

Country images, or knowledgestructures related to places, or placeschemata, are commonly used asshort-cuts for information processingand consumer decision heuristics.People, especially in low involvementsituations, are sloppy cognitive proces-sors. They resist changing or adjustingtheir cognitive structures or priorknowledge. They prefer to adjust whatthey see to fit what they know. Theymay fill in information that is notpresented or distort the reality to fittheir mental representations. People arealso more likely to pay attention toinformation that confirms their expec-tations. They disregard informationthat challenges their knowledge struc-tures in a process known asconfirmation bias. They avoid theeffort necessary to reconstruct theircognitions, unless misrepresentationshave a cost for them or they find utilityin the revision of their schemas.Therefore, images can be long lastingand difficult to change. They can beassessed and measured, and they maybe managed and influenced by placemarketers as well.

THE IMPACT OF COUNTRY NAMES ONATTITUDES TOWARD PRODUCTSIn many countries, mandatory productlabelling requires marketers to disclosea product’s place of origin. This legal

‘the sum of beliefs and impressions peoplehold about places. Images represent asimplification of a large number of associa-tions and pieces of information connectedwith a place. They are a product of themind trying to process and pick out essentialinformation from huge amounts of dataabout a place.’7

A country’s image results from itsgeography, history, proclamations, artand music, famous citizens and otherfeatures. The entertainment industryand the media play a particularlyimportant role in shaping people’sperceptions of places, especially thoseviewed negatively. Not only areproduct categories such as per-fumes, electronics, precision instru-ments, wines, cars and softwarestrongly identified with certain places,but so also are societal ills such as Aidsepidemics, political riots, civil rightsviolations, attacks on the environment,racial conflict, economic turmoil,poverty and violent crime. All of thesehave been repeatedly and stronglyassociated with certain locales. Ofcourse, different persons and groups arelikely to hold different stereotypes ofnations since the mental phenomenonis inherently subjective. Sometimesthey are widespread however, andpervasive across elements of the samegroup — they are social cognitions,mental representations shared bymembers of a given society.

Most country images are in factstereotypes, extreme simplifications ofthe reality that are not necessarily ac-curate. They might be dated, based onexceptions rather than on patterns, onimpressions rather than on facts, butare nonetheless pervasive. The simplepronunciation or spelling of a brandname in a foreign language may impact


COUNTRY AS BRAND, PRODUCT, AND BEYOND

measure. Perceived quality has alsobeen used as a dependent measure,operationalised in many ways. Someauthors contend that relevant qualitydimensions are different for differentproducts, and that a given country oforigin can be highly regarded in onedimension, such as Volvo’s reputationfor safety, while it may score low inanother, for example serviceability.13

Questions have also been raisedabout whether country image wouldreally be a summary construct orshould be decompounded in differentdimensions14 such as country of designand country-of-assembly,15 country ofbrand,16 country of product design,country of parts manufacture andcountry of product assembly.17

Another line of investigation con-cerns the impact of the country oforigin on highly valued global brands,such as Sony, Honda and Daim-ler-Mercedes. The topic has practi-cal implications given the fact that,for cost or logistical reasons, globalmarketers constantly relocate manufac-turing facilities or create new ones toserve local, regional or global marketsbetter. Some studies report that COOinformation can be less importantwhen other indicators of quality exist.18

For example, a global brand like Sonycould countermand a negative effect ofcountry of origin.19 But the oppositecan also happen, namely people thinkless of Sony when it is produced in acountry of low esteem.

Some investigators suggest thatcountry-of-origin effects can onlybe understood with respect toethnocentrism.20 Most studies using theconstruct ethnocentrism apply theCETSCALE developed by Shimp andShama.21 One example of this is theMalinchismo effect.22 In Mexico the

requisite has raised the interest ofmarketing researchers and practitionersin understanding consumers’ attitudestoward foreign products. For overthree decades, the so-called country-of-origin effect (COO) has been theobject of extensive investigation. In1993, a book edited by Papadopoulosand Heslop9 presenting only originalresearch on the topic was published. In1994, Peterson and Jolibert10 identified184 papers published in academicjournals dealing with country imageeffects. Country of origin has becomean integral part of the repertory ofextrinsic cues to product evaluations,along with price, brand name, packag-ing and seller, as opposed to the studyof the role of intrinsic qualities of theproduct such as materials, design, style,workmanship, colour, and smell.

Country-of-origin studies have beendeveloped for a variety of durableand non-durable consumer products,including cars, electronics, apparel,smoke detectors, and pickles. Findingsconsistently support the fact that con-sumers pervasively use country-of-origin information as an indicator ofquality. The simple manipulation of thecountry-of-origin or ‘made-in’ labelhas been observed to influence people’sattitudes, even when subjects are givena chance to see, touch, feel or taste thevery same physical product.11 Re-search has also evidenced that nationalstereotypes affect relationships betweenmanufacturers and foreign clients.12

The effect of country of origin hasbeen observed through research usingdifferent methods, such as surveys,experiments and conjoint analysis. Inmost studies COO is used as anindependent variable, while attitudestowards a product or a country’sproduct serve as the dependent


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imported ones even when providedwith information that the foreignproduct is superior.26

In conclusion, extensive research hassupported the impact of country oforigin on attitudes towards foreignproducts. Export promotion authoritiesin many countries recognise that theircountry’s reputation constitutes an im-portant asset to be managed.

MARKETING COUNTRIES ANDMANAGING THEIR BRANDSIn a world of over six billion peopleliving in nearly 191 independent states(and in many other still fighting fortheir sovereignty) the challenge ofbuilding a nation’s wealth has becomea critical business arena. Approximately80 per cent of the world’s populationlives in the third world, most of themin poverty. Problems such as lowliving standards, population growth,job shortage and poor infrastructure areplaguing nations worldwide.27

The challenge of national economicdevelopment has gone beyond thelimits of public policy. The neweconomic order has transformedeconomic development into a marketchallenge as well. Nations competewith other nations and strive to devisesources of competitive advantage.28

Thus today there are more reasons whynations must manage and control theirbranding. The need to attract tourists,factories, companies and talentedpeople and to find markets for theirexports requires that countries adoptstrategic marketing management toolsand conscious branding.

Strategic place marketing concernsthe enhancement of a country’sposition in the global market-place.It requires understanding the en-

term Malinchista designates betrayers ofMexico, those who purchase foreignproducts and devaluate the Mexicanidentity. The name comes from aMexican woman known as LaMalinche who served as interpreter toCortez during the Spanish invasion in1519. La Malinche became Cortez’sconfidante and mistress, and helpedhim defeat the Aztec King MontezumaII.

Extending the understanding of theethnocentrism effect, Klein et al.23 havealso researched how animosity towardsa foreign nation would affect nega-tively the purchase of products. To thisend they investigated the attitudes ofChinese consumers toward Japan andJapanese products. The authors arguethat ethnocentrism and animosity havedifferent implications for perceptions ofproduct quality. Animosity is a countryspecific construct, while ethnocentrismis described as people viewing theirown in-group as central and reject-ing what is alien, unfamiliar. Ex-amples of animosity would includeJewish consumers avoiding Germanproducts, discussed by Hirschman,24

and Australian and New Zealandconsumers boycotting French productsin protest at nuclear tests in the SouthPacific.

Other studies have investigated anumber of possible mediators of thecountry-of-origin effect. Motivationhas been studied as a possible one,and research supports that country-of-origin effect is more likely to oc-cur when consumers are under lowmotivation.25 Researchers have alsoinvestigated the role of cultural dimen-sions in the COO effect. For example,individualism and collectivism havebeen used to explain why consumersprefer home country products over



large-scale international campaign hasbeen implemented to get tourists toperceive the ‘Turkey’ brand as closer toGreece’s position.29

Assessing a brand’s image and how itcompares to its competitors’ images isa necessary step in designing thecountry’s marketing strategy. Todaythere are many reasons why nationsmust manage and control their brand-ing. The need to attract tourists andfactories and companies requires con-scious branding strategies for the dif-ferent target groups. But some of thebranding may be in conflict, forexample when Ireland wants to attracttourists (beautiful country image) andsoftware experts (high-tech image).

‘Strategic image management (SIM) is theongoing process of researching a place’simage among its audiences, segmentingand targeting its specific image and itsdemographic audiences, positioning theplace’s benefits to support an existing imageor create a new image, and communicatingthose benefits to the target audiences’.30

To be effective, the desired image mustbe close to reality, believable, simple,appealing and distinctive (there are al-ready too many ‘friendly places’ outthere).

Brand managers use several tools topromote the country’s image. One is acatchy slogan, such as ‘Spain —Everything Under the Sun’, ‘Flanders— Europe’s Best Business Location’,‘Miami — Financial Capital ofSouth America’, and ‘Scotland —Silicon Glen’. Visual images orsymbols also play a role, suchas the Eiffel Tower (Paris/France),Big Ben (London/England), RedSquare (Moscow/Russia), the Statue ofLiberty (New York/USA), and the

vironmental forces that may affectmarketability — that is, the strengthsand weaknesses of the country tocompete with others, such as the sizeof domestic market, access to regionaltrade areas, education of the popula-tion, tax incentives, skilled labour, costof labour, security and other factors. Italso entails monitoring the externalenvironment, gaining, a dynamicunderstanding of opportunities andthreats, as well as the competitiveforces in the environment. The processmust involve government, citizens andbusinesses, all with a shared vision. Itrequires setting and delivering theincentives and managing the factorsthat might affect place buyers’ decisions— these factors include image,attractions, infrastructure and people.

The following subsections will dealwith different tasks of country brandmanagement — managing the image,attracting tourists and attracting fac-tories and companies.

Managing the imageWhy do many more tourists visitGreece than Turkey? The Turkishclaim that they have longer coasts,unpolluted waters and superb ar-cheological sites to delight any visitor.Still, an overwhelmingly larger numberof vacationers seeking sun and antiq-uities pick Greece instead of theneighbouring Mediterranean country.Turkey has tried to reposition thecountry and manage its troubled image.It has hired a public relations firm topromote the country worldwide as amajor democracy, quite different fromthe image of a human rights violatorspread several years ago by the movieMidnight Express. Tourism is a pivotalindustry to Turkey’s economy, and a


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million and travel and tourism gener-ated directly and indirectly 11.7 percent of global GDP and nearly 200million jobs.31 In 2020, the numberof people travelling internationally isforecasted to increase to 1.6 billion andthe revenue from international tourismshould gross more than US$2 trillion.32

Tourism creates direct and indirectjobs in hotels, restaurants, consulting,transportation and training; it increasestax revenues; and it helps the exportingof local products. These benefits donot come without a price, however.Tourism has been criticised for thedestruction of the natural environmentand threats to local cultures.33

Country brand managers must un-derstand that different places attractdifferent tourists. The tourism marketcan be segmented by the attractionstourists seek, such as natural beauty,sun, adventure, gaming, events/sportsor culture/history. The market can alsobe segmented by areas, regions orlocations, by seasons, by customers’characteristics, or by benefits.34 To besuccessful in the tourism industry acountry must be very specific aboutwhat it wants to market and towhom.

Countries with natural beauties, ar-cheological sites or a strong cultureand history will attract natural tourists,those drawn to existing features of theplace. If too few natural attractionsexist, the country needs to undertakeinvestment marketing to build attrac-tions or to promote events that willattract tourists. Money also has to bespent to build an adequate infrastruc-ture, safety and services.

Tourist managers must undertakeresearch to understand the valuestourists seek as users (performance,social and emotional values), as buyers

Corcovado-Christ Statue (Rio deJaneiro/Brazil). Events and deeds arealso strongly connected to places andused to promote a country’s image, likethe Oktoberfest (Germany), the RioCarnival (Brazil) and the WimbledonTennis Tournament (England).

Confronting a negative image canbe an arduous challenge. The brandmanager has no control over en-vironmental factors that may keeptourists and investors away, such asnatural disasters, political turmoil andeconomic downturns. Even more dif-ficult can be controlling how themedia and the press disseminate acountry’s problem, often creating orperpetuating stereotypes. A Turkishspokesperson once said that Turkeyreceives much worse press than itdeserves. In some instances, managersmistakenly try to fix the country’simage without fixing the problems thatgave rise to it. No advertising or publicrelations will make an unsafe placesafer, for example. Attracting tourists tothe place without fixing the problemwill lead visitors to bad-mouth thecountry and worsen its image.

To improve a country’s image, itmay be easier to create new positiveassociations than try to refute old ones.When many people hear the nameChicago, the Bulls and Michael Jordancome more often to mind than AlCapone.

Attracting touristsIn the 1990s, according to the WorldTourism Organization (WTO), in-ternational tourism arrivals grew at anaverage rate of 4.3 per cent a year. In2000, international tourism grew 7.4per cent, the number of internationaltourism arrivals reached a total of 699



taxes, complementary industries andnew exports (100 per cent of theproduction would be exported to theUSA). It could also leverage theconfidence of other global investors inthe country. The analysis took severalmonths of hard work by a number ofhighly ranked Intel executives. Itincluded several field trips before theteam was ready to recommend ashortlist of four countries: Brazil, Chile,Mexico and Costa Rica. The finalchoice was not Brazil, the largest LatinAmerican economy and market. Nordid Mexico, a member of NAFTA andthe most accessible location to In-tel’s headquarters, become the choice.Chile, the fastest-growing and moststable economy of the continent withone of the best and least-expen-sive telecommunication services in theworld, also lost out. Surprisingly, CostaRica won the prize.35

Costa Rica, the smallest of the fourfinalists, a country with only 3.5million people, ended up winning theIntel plant. The country was not evenon the original shortlist. Costa Ricawon because it used many of theprinciples of place marketing. It alsocounted on the great job of the officialsof CINDE — Coalicion Costarricensede Iniciativas para el Desarrolo (CostaRica’s Investment Promotion Agency).CINDE followed the recommendationof the World Bank to target theelectronics industry. A consultant fromthe Irish Development Agency (IDA),that country’s successful investmentpromotion agency, also assisted inCosta Rica’s effort. Instead of waitingfor Intel’s questions, CINDE’s officialsanticipated them and provided theinformation Intel might need. Thepursuit for Intel’s investment involvedthe active participation of many

(convenience and personalisation) andpayers (price and credit). Thecompetitive environment must also bemeticulously analysed. Consumers haveliterally thousands of destinationchoices. They will be drawn todestinations that they perceive to offerthe best value either because they offerthe most benefits or because they areinexpensive or more accessible.

Tourism requires image making andbranding grounded in the place’sreality. The tourist manager can usedifferent tools. Jamaica invests millionsof dollars each year in advertisingtargeted to American vacationers.France ran a campaign to get Frenchpeople to portray a warmer attitudetowards tourists. Famous residents,events and new attractions can alsohelp build or revamp a destination’simage. The ultra-modern GuggenheimMuseum in Bilbao, Spain, has given astrong facelift to the city and hashelped to attract visitors and newinvestors. Hosting sports events or theOlympics can give another lift to acountry’s image

In spite of tourism’s importance, acountry cannot expect the incomegenerated by tourism to solve all of itsproblems. On the contrary, the countrymay first need to solve its problems inorder to be able to generate the wantedtourism income.

Attracting factories and companiesIn 1996, Intel Corporation’s worldwidesite location team was asked to makea recommendation about where thecompany should place its first plant inLatin America. Numerous countriesfiercely competed to be the recipientof the US$300–$500M investment —money that would bring in new jobs,


KOTLER AND GERTNER

tional characteristics companies areseeking as they relate to labour,tax climate, amenities, higher educa-tion, schools, regulation, energy, com-munication and business (see Table 2).

Today, countless countries and citiesare trying to attract high-tech in-dustries. One of the reasons Costa Ricacould attract Intel investments wasbecause of the high level of technicaleducation in the country and thenumber of electronics firms alreadylocated there.37 As Harvard profes-sor Michael Porter38 argues, compet-ing or complementary industries tendto form clusters of excellence thatbuild productivity. The rivalry andcompetitive pressures among com-panies located in these clusters forcethem to innovate. That would explainconcentrations of similar businessesin places like Silicon Valley (ITand software) and New Jersey (phar-maceuticals). Countries must define theindustries they wish to build, and plansites to appeal to these specific in-dustries from the very beginning.

To compete, countries must beprepared to offer strong financialincentives to lure prospects. Theseincentives include tax exemption,work training, infrastructure invest-

people, including business professors atthe Instituto Centroamericano deAdministracion de Empresas (INCAE),state ministers and the dean of theInstituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica(ITCR). Even the country’s formerPresident Jos Maria Figueres gotinvolved and personally discussed thebusiness with Intel’s executives. Presi-dent Figueres, who was educated atWest Point and pursued graduatestudies at Harvard, had been com-mitted to attracting high-technologyinvestments to Costa Rica, rather thaninvestments based on cheap labouror the exploitation of nationalresources.36

One of the most interesting facets ofplace marketing deals with countries’efforts to attract new factories andbusiness investments. These are ex-pected to create new jobs andeconomic growth, with an overallbenefit on the country’s economy.Because of the dramatic improvementsin telecommunication and transporta-tion services worldwide, global com-panies are now searching for newlocations that might bring down theircosts. This has transformed supply-chain management, logistics and siteselection in core competencies withinglobal companies.

Country marketers must understandhow companies make their site selec-tion. Usually they begin the process bychoosing a region in which to in-vest (eg, Latin America) and collect-ing information about the potentialcountry candidates (see Table 1). In thisphase, each country must be able toprovide accurate and reliable informa-tion. Better, it should anticipate infor-mational needs, as CINDE did in thecase of Intel’s site selection. Thecountry should understand the loca-


Table 1 Basic information sought by businesssearching for a location

Local labour marketAccess to customer and supplier marketsAvailability of development site facilities

and infrastructureTransportationEducation and training opportunitiesQuality of lifeBusiness climateAccess to R&D facilitiesCapital availabilityTaxes and regulations

Source: Kotler et al. (1993), p. 232


likely to be more crucial aspects inthe development of the decision.Numerous cases show that the deci-sion is also highly influenced by themarket performance of the promotionagency and the commitment of localauthorities.

CONCLUSIONSA great deal of empirical research hasattested that country images are impor-tant extrinsic clues in product evalua-tions. They are familiar, they elicitassociations and they can influenceproduct evaluations and purchase deci-sions. Country images can lend apositive reputation to a whole category,such as French wines or perfumes, oreven brand it — Cafe de Colombia.

Beyond serving as brand names,countries can be products as well. Theycompete in the market for tourists,factories, businesses and talentedpeople. Thus countries must embarkon more conscious country branding.This requires the following strategicmanagement approach.

ments, interest subsidies and even stakeparticipation. Attracted by the potentialproceeds of new factories andbusinesses, some nations fail to analysethe true cost of successfully attracting acompany or plant. Incentive wars haveled to a situation in which each createdjob costs tens of thousands of dollarsthat might never return to thecommunity. The inducements can farexceed the benefits that the countrymight get. For example, in the late1990s a new governor of the southernBrazilian state of Rio Grande do Sulquestioned the incentives offered by hispredecessor to an automobile manufac-turer. Withdrawing from the deal, Forddecided to build the new facility in thestate of Bahia, which offered Ford evenmore inducements to attract thebusiness.

Studies have shown that althoughgovernment inducements play an im-portant role in the site decisionprocess, they rarely determine the finalresult. Proximity to consumer orsupplier markets, qualified labour, andconfidence in the administration are


Table 2 Locational characteristics: old and new

Characteristics Old New

LabourTax climateIncentives

Amenities

SchoolsHigher educationRegulation

EnergyCommunicationBusiness

Low cost, unskilledLow taxes, low serviceLeast-cost production, cheap

land and labourHousing and transportation

AvailabilityNot KeyMinimum

Cost/availabilityAssumedAggressive chamber of

commerce, etc

Quality, highly skilledModest taxes, high servicesValue-added adaptable labour force,

professionalsCulture, recreation, museums, shopping,

airportQuality schoolsQuality schools and research facilitiesCompatible quality of life and business

flexibilityDependability/reliabilityTechnology accessPartnerships

Source: Kotler et al. (1999), p. 227

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Elimimiam, J. U. (1999) ‘Attitudes ofdeveloping countries towardscountry-of-origin products in an era ofmultiple brands’, Journal of InternationalConsumer Marketing, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp.97–116.

(5) Chicago Tribune (1995) ‘In love with JuanValdez at US Open’, Chicago Tribune, 12thSeptember.

(6) http://www.juanvaldez.com/menu/logo.html, 15th July, 2001.

(7) Kotler, P., Haider, D. H. and Rein, I.(1993) ‘Marketing Places: AttractingInvestment, Industry, And Tourism ToCities, States And Nations’, Free Press, p.141; Kotler, P., Asplund, C., Rein, I. andHaider, D. H., (1999) ‘Marketing PlacesEurope: Attracting Investment, Industry,And Tourism To European Cities,Communities, States and Nations’, FinancialTimes/Prentice Hall, p. 160.

(8) Leclerc, F., Schmitt, B. H. and Dube, L.(1994) ‘Foreign branding and its effects onproduct perceptions and attitudes’, Journal ofMarketing Research, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp.263–270.

(9) Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L. A. (eds)(1993) ‘Product and Country Images:Impact and Role in InternationalMarketing’, Haworth Press, Binghampton,NY.

(10) Peterson, R and Jolibert, A. (1994) ‘Aquantitative analysis of country-of-origineffect’, working paper, University of Texas,Austin.

(11) Examples of country-of-origin researchinclude Nagashima, A. (1970) ‘Acomparison of Japanese and US attitudestoward foreign products,’ Journal ofMarketing, January, No. 34, pp. 68–74; Han,M. C. and Terpstra, V. (1988)‘country-of-origin effects of uni-nationaland bi-national products’, Journal ofInternational Business Studies, Vol. 14,Summer, pp. 235–255; Chao, P. (1989)‘The impact of country affiliation on thecredibility of product attribute claims,’Journal of International Business Studies,Spring, pp. 75–92; Hong, S. T. and Wyer,R. S. (1990) ‘Determinants of productevaluation: Effects of the time intervalbetween knowledge of a product’scountry-of-origin and information about itsspecific attributes’, Journal of ConsumerResearch, Vol. 17, 16, pp. 277–288; Wall,M., Liefeld, J., and Heslop, L. A. (1991)‘Impact of country-of-origin cues onconsumer judgments in multi-cue situations:A covariance analysis’, Journal of the Academy

— The country needs to carry out aSWOT analysis to determine itschief strengths, weaknesses, oppor-tunities and threats.

— The country then chooses someindustries, personalities, naturallandmarks and historical events thatcould provide a basis for strongbranding and story telling.

— The country should then developan umbrella concept that wouldcover and be consistent with allof its separate branding activities.Among the possible concepts wouldbe a country of (pleasure, quality,security, honesty, progress), or otherconcepts.

— The country then allocates sufficientnational funds to each branding ac-tivity deemed to have a potentiallylarge impact.

— The country creates export controlsto make sure that every exportedproduct is reliable and delivers thepromised level of performance.

References(1) Aaker, D. A. (1991) ‘Managing Brand

Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of aBrand Name’, Simon & Schuster Trade,New York.

(2) Lassar, W., Miittal, B. and Sharma, A.(1005) ‘Measuring customer-based brandequity’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol.12, No. 4, pp. 11–19.

(3) Shimp, T. A., Saeed, S. and Madden, T. J.(1993) ‘Countries and their products: Acognitive structure perspective’, Journal ofthe Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 21,No. 4, pp. 323–330.

(4) See Wang, C-K. and Lamb, C. W. (1983)‘The impact of selected environmental forcesupon consumers’ willingness to buy foreignproducts,’ Journal of the Academy of MarketingScience, Vol. 11, Winter, pp. 71–85; Cordell,V. V. (1993) ‘Interaction effects ofcountry-of-origin with branding, price, andperceived performance risk’, Journal ofInternational Consumer Marketing, Vol. 5, No.2, pp. 5–16; Agbonifoh, B. A. and



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(19) Tse, D. K and Lee, W. (1993) ‘Removingnegative country images: Effects ofdeposition, branding, and productexperience’, Journal of International Marketing,Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 25–48.

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KOTLER AND GERTNER

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(36) Ibid., p. 6.(37) Ibid.(38) Porter, M. (1998) ‘Clusters and the new

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(33) Kotler, P., Bowe, J. and Makens, J. (1996)‘Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism’,2nd edn, Prentice Hall, NJ.

(34) Kotler et al. (1003), ref. 7 above; Kotler etal. (1999), ref. 7 above.

(35) Nelson, R. (1999) ‘Intel’s site selection



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Kotler - Country as Brand, Product and Beyond - A Place Marketing and Brand Management Perspective