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116
THE BRANDED NATIONAL
IMAGINATION AND ITS LIMITS:
INSIGHTS FROM THE POST-
SOCIALIST EXPERIENCE
1)
Nadia Kaneva
Department of Media, Film, and Journalism Studies
University of Denver, United States of America
Abstract
This article traces the limits of branding as a tool for (re)constructing
nations as 'imagined communities' (Anderson 1983). Drawing on ex-
amples from post-socialist Eastern Europe, I analyse discourses and
practices of nation branding from a critical perspective, rooted in the
theoretical traditions of political economy and cultural studies. Focusing
more closely on branding campaigns implemented by post-Soviet
Ukraine and post-war Kosovo — two nations seeking to assert them-
selves as independent actors on the global stage — I consider the im-
pact of nation branding on national identities and democratic govern-
ance. I identify three interconnected limits of the branded national ima-
gination as a structuring discourse for nation building. First, the branded
=
+
and third, it produces branded national subjectivities that contradict the
lived experiences of national populations. I argue that while nation brand-
ing effectively depoliticises national (re)definition, it may in fact serve to
reinvigorate ethnic nationalisms in the post-socialist region. Finally, I
suggest that although we must be aware of local histories and legacies,
the post-socialist experience can inform our understanding of the struc-
turing limits of the branded national imagination in other post-conflict
and post-colonial contexts as well.
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
117
1. Introduction
Since the late 1990s, a set of ideas and practices popularly known as
'nation branding' gained significant attention in business, policy, and
academic circles. Countries around the world began investing in various
branding programs in the hopes of gaining a competitive advantage
within a global marketplace. At the same time, nation branding was also
2'
claimed, "a proper national branding campaign can unite a nation in a
common sense of purpose and national pride" (Anholt 2003: 139).
2)
In
this article, I aim to problematise particularly the nation-building promises
of nation branders. Adopting a critical theoretical perspective, I trace
several important limits of branding as a tool for (re)constructing nations
as branded 'imagined communities' (Anderson 1983). In short, I set out
to offer some answers to the following question: If nation branding claims
to offer a new way of imagining the community of the nation, what are
the particular characteristics of this process and of the branded imagin-
ings that result from it?
In presenting my argument, I draw on examples from post-socialist
Eastern Europe — a region that has undergone dramatic economic,
political, and cultural transformations since the disintegration of the
Soviet bloc in the 1990s. Ultimately, I argue that in the post-socialist con-
text, nation branding has served to depoliticise efforts at national re-
definition because it subordinated the articulation of national identities to
market-oriented and outward-directed concerns. In other words, nation-
branding programs were routinely designed to satisfy the expectations
of a foreign 'gaze' (Urry 2002) associated with the needs and desires of
tourists, investors, lenders, and foreign aid organisations. As I will illus-
trate, in some cases government-backed branding programs gave fuel
to a nationalist backlash that has put into question the prospects of Euro-
pean integration and democratisation in the region. Importantly, al-
though my examples are drawn from the post-socialist context, I sug-
gest that they offer relevant insights for understanding the limitations of
branded national imaginations in other post-conflict and post-colonial
nations, including those on the African continent.
The rest of this article is organised in four sections. First, I dis-
cuss briefly the historical origins of nation branding and relate it to the
rise of branding as a management discourse and a set of ideas about
governance. Second, I offer a few theoretical coordinates that situate
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
118
my perspective within the current scholarly literature on nation
branding. Third, I explore the limits of a branded national imagination as
a mechanism for constructing and maintaining the nation. I draw pri-
marily on examples of nation-branding activities conducted on behalf of
post-Soviet Ukraine and post-war Kosovo — two nations that have
claimed independent statehood relatively recently. I look specifically at
programmes that were explicitly supported by national governments
and were also tied to efforts at national (re)definition that spoke to
domestic anxieties over national identity. In my analysis of these pro-
grammes, I identify and discuss three particular trends that limit the
branded national imagination. I conclude by offering some directions for
further critical research on this topic.
3)
2. The origins of nation branding
Once confined to the realm of commercial goods and services, brands
have infiltrated nearly every corner of contemporary capitalist societies
and cultures. Political parties, universities, religious institutions, museums,
artists, charities, and indeed entire nations have become accustomed
to regular branding and re-branding exercises. This was not always the
case. As sociologist Liz Moor documents in her book, The Rise of
Brands, while brands had been around as markers of ownership for a
long time, it was not until the 1990s that "a previously diffuse set of
practices — product design, retail design, point-of-purchase marketing,
among others — became consolidated into an integrated approach to
marketing and business strategy known as branding" (2007: 3, em-
phasis added). During the same period, agencies that specialised in
brand consulting began to emerge and brand management positions
were established in various organisations. Moor notes that the main-
streaming of branding depended, in part, on consultants' ability to
develop a new "conceptual vocabulary to describe the evolution of their
own ideas and practice" (Moor 2007: 5). In that sense, branding was
not merely a collection of particular marketing techniques and promo-
tional tactics. Rather, it emerged as an instrumental process of rational-
isation ,
models" that served as prescriptions for "the best way to run a busi-
ness" (Moor 2007: 5).
As we consider the transposition of branding onto the nation-
state, it is important to recognise these historical roots for at least two
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
119
reasons. First, as a management tool, branding was meant to provide a
new form of organisational control or, put differently, a new 'technology
of governance'. This approach reflected the neoliberal spirit of the new
global order that emerged after the end of the Cold War and held the
promise of a post-political, technocratic, and perhaps even globalisation-
friendly nationalism (Van Ham 2001). That is why it is hardly surprising
that, as the 21
st
century rolled in, branding became increasingly popular
with national governments around the world. This was especially so in
countries where there was a pressing need — often externally man-
dated by organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank — to show compliance with the principles of mar-
ket economy and liberal democracy in order to receive foreign aid.
4)
Post-socialist, post-colonial, and post-conflict societies were particularly
well suited for inclusion in the category of nations 'in need of' (re)brand-
ing. Indeed, 'transitional' and 'developing' nations were promptly identi-
fied by brand consultancies, hailing mainly from London and New York,
as potential clients for their services (Aronczyk 2013).
Secondly, entrepreneurial and charismatic brand consultants, in-
cluding Wally Olins, Simon Anholt, and others, were instrumental in
evangelising the ideas of nation branding as they sought to expand this
field of practice and to gain new clients. Not only did they offer their
services to national governments around the globe, but they also pro-
duced some of the early, programmatic texts on nation branding. In one
of these texts, Olins (2002) argued with characteristic aplomb that
nations had always been brands. To illustrate his point, he used the po-
litical history of France — transforming from kingdom, to republic, to
empire — and equated the parallel changes in French national narrat-
ives and symbols with 'rebranding'. He ridiculed those who opposed the
use of the vocabulary of branding in relation to national reinvention and
attributed their reticence to "snobbery, ignorance, and semantics" (Olins
2002: 246). Olins held a degree in History from Oxford and could cer-
tainly toss around historical trivia with ease. At the same time, it should
not be forgotten that his livelihood as a brand consultant to govern-
ments depended on his ability to sell his ideas to political bureaucrats
and to national elites in the countries he advised.
5)
In short, the early lit-
erature on nation branding was hardly scientific and was intended to
support the efforts of branding practitioners to drum up new business
'=8)K %88*>
These efforts appear to have paid off handsomely. Olins had pre-
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
120
dicted that, within the first decade of the 21
st
century, nation branding
would become a "normal national practice" (Olins 2002: 248). Indeed,
many countries have engaged in branding exercises that extend far
beyond run-of-the-mill tourism- and export-promotion campaigns (see,
+'=8)4ü9%88D
8$ <L I M 8 ; 8" ; I '
2015). In some cases, the language of branding has been eschewed
by governments in favour of more established and politically palatable
33!I%"5
2002). In other cases, governments have embraced the vocabulary
and the managerial logic of branding and have institutionalised them by
setting up organisations whose very names broadcast this stance. One
such example is the government-funded agency Brand South Africa,
which was originally established in 2002 as the International Marketing
Council of South Africa — a Chief Executive Office (CEO) appointed by
the President of the Republic of South Africa heads Brand South Africa.
The organisation frames its goals explicitly through the language of
branding. As one can read on its website, Brand South Africa was
created "to help create a positive and compelling brand image for South
Africa" and its "main objective is the marketing of South Africa" (Brand
South Africa, undated). Many other nations have established their own
nation-branding bodies, but Brand South Africa is one of the earliest
and longest-running institutions of its kind in the world.
6)
What does this mean for scholars today who are interested in
the applications and implications of nation branding for nations? One
key point I want to reiterate is that the entire literature on nation brand-
ing, including its critical strands, has evolved 'in response to' the original
claims of brand practitioners, expressed in their writings, speeches, and
numerous public presentations. These claims were often metaphorical,
overly enthusiastic, and frequently designed to bring in new business.
Nevertheless, they were successful in establishing a dominant narrative
about the power of branding as a neutral tool that governments can use
to advance national goals and that narrative is still appealing to govern-
ing elites today. In later years, some brand consultants have sought to
retract or augment a few of their earlier claims. For example, Simon An-
holt who takes credit for coining the term 'nation brand' has written sub-
sequently about the flawed nature of the concept, noting that nation
branding may in fact be "a myth, and perhaps a dangerous one" (An-
holt 2010: 1). Nevertheless, there is no evidence that interest in nation
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
121
branding is fading. In fact, its appropriations and interpretations con-
tinue to multiply. The sheer range of promotional and communication-
based initiatives that are undertaken in the name of the nation by state
and non-state actors makes them difficult to classify as 'genuine' brand-
ing or as some other form of national advocacy, promotion, or propa-
ganda. Indeed, the politics of labelling certain practices, programmes,
or institutions as 'proper' nation branding may constitute a topic worthy
of scholarly investigation in its own right. To be clear, this is not the
focus of this article. Yet, it is a point worth making because it highlights
the highly contested boundaries of nation branding as a field of practice
and of scholarly inquiry.
3. Theoretical coordinates
In an article titled, "Nation branding: Toward an agenda for critical re-
search" (Kaneva 2011b), I attempted to map out the fault lines within
the literature on nation branding, offering one of the first interdisciplinary
reviews of research on this topic. I had two main goals in this mapping
exercise. First, I wanted to demonstrate the extent to which knowledge
production on nation branding was dominated by marketing academics
and branding practitioners. I hoped that by illustrating this I might pro-
voke interest among scholars in other disciplinary traditions, including
political science and international relations, media and communication, as
well as the humanities. I believed then, as I do now, that multi-disciplinary
perspectives could lead to more nuanced and comprehensive under-
standings of nation branding as a set of practices and ideas.
My second goal was to open up a space for critical and
historically situated analyses of nation branding that might bring to bear
concepts from social theory in order to move beyond descriptions of the
applications of branding and toward explaining its political and cultural
'implications'. It seemed to me that to talk about (re)shaping national
identities in a purely pragmatic, instrumentalist way — as marketing ex-
perts tend to do — obscured social relations of power and domination
that operated within and among nations. I wanted to make these power
relations visible so that they could be examined and contested. Draw-
ing on constructivist theories of nationalism and national identity, my
premise was that nation branding was never a politically neutral exer-
cise because the (re)definition of national identities and cultures in
history had often been accomplished at the expense of real or imagin-
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
122
ary 'others'. Furthermore, policing the boundaries of national identities
involved various forms of symbolic and physical violence that sought to
maintain social control. In short, I was interested in articulating a new
perspective on nation branding — one that was not beholden to the in-
strumentalism of marketing and the self-serving logic of brand consult-
ants.
I proposed a conceptual map of nation branding research, which
consisted of four quadrants marked by two dimensions that reflected
the key ontological assumptions of researchers (see Figure 1). Be-
cause the rhetoric of nation branding promised to merge ideas about
the workings of 'markets' with ideas about the making of 'nations', I used
those two concepts as the guiding dimensions of my map. The vertical
vector of the map plotted research on a continuum of 'consensus/dis-
sensus' where consensus-oriented studies viewed markets as natural
and politically neutral, while dissensus-oriented studies saw markets as
social constructions which were not immune to political processes and
pressures. The horizontal dimension of the map was labelled 'essential-
ism/constructivism' and it reflected the assumptions of researchers re-
garding national identities. Essentialist-oriented approaches saw national
identities as more or less fixed, while constructivist-oriented approaches
assumed that national identities were perpetually constructed and con-
tested. Studies within each quadrant on the map envisioned different
possibilities and challenges for nation branding. Overall, the studies in
the 'consensus' top half of the map viewed nation branding as neces-
sary for contemporary nations that were said to exist in conditions of
market globalisation. By contrast, studies in the 'dissensus' bottom half
of the map were more interested in critiquing the practices and ideas
associated with nation branding and questioning the consequences of
marketisation more broadly (Kaneva 2011b: 129-130).
I situate my own research in the dissensus/constructivism quad-
rant of this conceptual map — a position that aligns my approach with
critical theoretical perspectives. I view nation branding as a field of prac-
tice and an ideological discourse for re-imagining the nation. I am par-
ticularly interested in the ways in which business and political elites
employ the language and practices of branding in their struggles to gain
and maintain legitimacy. My approach towards marketisation is influ-
D6)$*
markets as social constructions. Furthermore, my conceptualisation of
nationhood is rooted in the constructivist tradition exemplified by the
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
123
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
ŽŶƐĞŶƐƵƐ
ŝƐƐĞŶƐƵƐ
ƐƐĞŶƚŝĂůŝƐŵ ŽŶƐƚƌƵĐƚŝǀŝƐŵ
Promises of Nation Branding:
Capturing the essence of a nation.
Representing national identity.
Primary Recommendations:
Marketing research to determine messaging.
Marketing communications campaigns.
Promises of Nation Branding:
Transforming national governance.
Managing national identity.
Primary Recommendations:
Policy-making and legislation.
Institution building and training.
Problems of Nation Branding:
Conflicts between economic and political sectors.
Inability to control the brand message.
Primary Critiques:
Lack of coordination of branding efforts.
Misrepresentations of national identity.
Propaganda critique.
Problems of Nation Branding:
Ignores historic inequalities among nations.
Privileges the economic, obscures the
political.
Primary Critiques:
Commodification of national identity.
Depoliticisation of national identity.
Long-term implications of marketisation.
&ŝŐƵƌĞϭĐŽŶĐĞƉƚƵĂůŵĂƉŽĨŶĂƚŝŽŶͲďƌĂŶĚŝŶŐƌĞƐĞĂƌĐŚ
124
work of Benedict Anderson (1983). Anderson's famous description of
nations as 'imagined communities' provides a specific point of depar-
ture for my analysis in this article. In introducing this concept, he points
out that, "communities are to be distinguished ... by the style in which
they are imagined" (1983: 6). Following Anderson, then, I explore the
ways in which the discourse and practices of branding impose particu-
lar limits on the manner in which nations imagine themselves.
4. The limits of the branded national
imagination
I now turn my attention to the analysis of several examples from former
socialist countries in Eastern Europe. I use these examples to outline
three specific limits of the branded national imagination. First, I discuss
how nation-branding campaigns are limited by concerns about outside
observers' perceptions of the nation. Put differently, a central goal of
nation branding is to respond to and satisfy a foreign 'gaze'. Second, by
and large, nation-branding efforts rely on a network of global commer-
cial media to disseminate their messages. In light of this, I illustrate how
the political economy of global commercial media constrains the pro-
duction and circulation of branded messages. Third, I argue that nation-
branding campaigns produce narratives about the nation that are
significantly at odds with the lived experiences of national populations
and this leads to troubling and divisive social consequences. While the
examples in this section are derived from the post-socialist context,
similar trends can be observed across national contexts. Therefore, the
three limits I present here can be used to conduct comparative ana-
lyses of nation-branding programs in other parts of the world as well. At
the same time, these trends do not represent a comprehensive list of
+/
starting point for a critical assessment of the way branded nationhood is
being constructed.
4.1 Satisfying the foreign 'gaze'
In his book The Tourist Gaze, originally published in 1990, British
sociologist John Urry points out that global tourists choose places as
the focus of their attention "because there is anticipation, especially
through daydreaming and fantasy, of intense pleasures" (2002: 3).
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
125
Urry's observation is a reminder that the tourist gaze constructs places
in ways that aim to satisfy its own desire. In the contemporary context,
this desire finds shape primarily through a consumerist sensibility and
its anticipations are fuelled by signs circulated through globalised media
networks. Although the term 'nation branding' was not widely used
when Urry's book was first published, the practices of place branding
can be understood as deliberate efforts to anticipate and satisfy the
desires and fantasies of the tourist gaze. Indeed, place-branding initiat-
ives are routinely justified as necessary because of their alleged poten-
++':&
& Go 2009). The preoccupation of nation branders with anticipating the
desires of the foreign gaze and producing just the right images that
respond to and satisfy these desires results in particular kinds of narrat-
ives about the nation. These narratives routinely employ generic con-
ventions and formulas that extoll pristine nature, heritage sites, luxuri-
ous accommodations, youth and romance, regardless of the destina-
tion being promoted.
A typical example of this mode of imagining the nation is pre-
sented by a 30-second video commercial for Ukraine, which aired on
CNN in 2011. The commercial was part of a campaign developed by
Ukrainian strategic communications company, CFC Consulting, and was
aimed at polishing up the country's international image in anticipation of
the 2012 European Football Championship hosted jointly by Poland
and Ukraine. At the same time, the domestic rhetoric around the cam-
paign was very much linked to Ukraine's desire for a renewed sense of
national unity. In a 2006 article, published by a Ukrainian business maga-
zine, one CFC consultant argued that a concerted nation-branding
effort would "not only contribute to establishing an international image
for Ukraine, but will also work on establishing a national identity in
Ukraine, a sense of a general purpose and national pride" (cited in
Bolin & Ståhlberg 2015: 3072). Thus, the commercial video I discuss
here — which was one of several associated with this campaign —
was clearly addressed to both foreign and domestic audiences.
The commercial video strings together a rapid succession of
images associated with luxury and leisure. The first scene shows a couple
cut to images
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
126
young women dressed in traditional Ukrainian garb. Throughout the
fast-paced sequence, the focus remains on the viewer's desires and
fantasies, which are verbalised through a voiceover that accompanies
each brief scene with phrases such as: 'welcoming you', 'uplifting you',
'stylish you', 'friendly you', 'natural you', 'traditional you', 'entertaining you',
'inspired you'. In this commercial the experience of visiting Ukraine is
not really about getting to know Ukraine. Rather, it is about the oppor-
tunity for 'you', the visitor, to express and satisfy your own desires and
dreams of opulence. To reinforce this idea, the video ends with the tag-
line "Ukraine, all about U!" This tagline relies on a double entendre,
where the letter 'U' is a signifier for Ukraine as well as a reference to the
shortcut spelling of the word 'YOU' — in this case you, the viewer and
potential visitor to Ukraine (cf Ståhlberg & Bolin 2016).
7)
This generic form of imagining the nation in branding campaigns
— especially in tourism campaigns — is commonly used. A body of
research by critical media and communication scholars offers ample
examples of the ways in which nation-branding campaigns are driven
by concerns about the perceptions of a given nation by external audi-
+'=8)%ID888E
Ståhlberg & Bolin 2016). Nation-branding programs routinely begin with
research exercises that aim to capture the existing perceptions of a
particular nation among key stakeholders, be they tourists or investors.
The second phase of campaigns entails the articulation and imple-
mentation of a messaging strategy that aims to address outsiders' per-
ceptions in ways that reinforce or challenge them (Aronczyk 2013). As
Delia Popescu and I have written elsewhere, this approach produces a
type of narrative that "constrains national identity within an ahistorical,
decontextualized, depoliticized frame" whereby a nation's cultural mark-
ers are "reduced to 'assets' that may appeal to Western consumers —
wine, nature, beaches, etc" (Kaneva & Popescu 2011: 201). This kind
of imagining the nation, which can be thought of as a form of "national
identity lite" (Kaneva & Popescu 2011: 201), is motivated predominantly
by outward-directed concerns and it has little to do with the daily realit-
ies of life as a citizen of a given nation. In short, generic commercial
formulas, which aim to satisfy the consumerist desires of Western
travellers, limit the types of stories of and about the nation that can be
imagined and put forth as part of a nation-branding campaign.
Although tourism campaigns offer the most obvious and, per-
haps, most familiar illustrations of this limiting effect of nation branding,
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
127
similar patterns can be observed in campaigns that are designed to
attract foreign investment, aid, or to generate international goodwill (for
+68";I'88%ID
2014). The particular conventions of messaging in those types of cam-
paigns may be different — rather than nature, heritage, and leisure, in-
vestment campaigns tout such 'assets' as cheap and plentiful labour, low
taxation rates, ease of doing business, and other incentives for capital.
In this case, the foreign gaze belongs to the global businessperson or
corporate leader whose needs and desires are paramount. Neverthe-
less, the outward-directed focus of such efforts also limits the scope of
the narratives of and about the nation, obscuring material realities, such
as poverty or inequality, which are disguised by macroeconomic indic-
ators (Kaneva 2015).
4.2 The political economy of global commercial
media
A second important limitation of the branded national imagination stems
from its reliance on commercial media networks to circulate campaign
messages. Much of the literature on nation branding to date has treated
the media as neutral carriers of nations' brand messages. Critics of
nation branding point to enterprising brand consultants as the chief
beneficiaries of branding exercises because they collect sizeable fees
for their services and, in the process, syphon off scarce public funds
'=8)K 88*><
is certainly important, the profit motives of media corporations, who also
generate significant revenues from nation-branding campaigns, should
not be overlooked. More recently, scholars have begun to address this
gap in the critical literature, documenting the self-interested actions of
media corporations as participants in, and in some cases initiators of,
nation-branding exercises (Bolin & Stå8$%8$*>
8)
Ukraine's 2011 campaign, which was introduced in the previous
section, offers an apt illustration of these dynamics. Bolin and Ståhlberg
(2015) describe the negotiations that led to the production of a series of
promotional videos as part of the "All about U!" campaign. As these
authors document, the campaign resulted from collaboration between
the Ukrainian brand consultancy CFC and the CNN network, which
produced the commercial spots that it later aired on its channels. Bolin
and Ståhlberg also discuss the subsequent involvement of the BBC
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
128
whose sales team, after seeing the CNN commercials, approached CFC
with a proposal to produce a similar campaign for Ukraine. To sweeten
the offer, "the BBC offered to broadcast its commercials [of Ukraine]
during a period when BBC News had a special focus on Ukraine, with
about 80 hours of programming on the country" (2015: 3075). Ulti-
mately, this resulted in four additional promotional videos for Ukraine,
produced and aired by the BBC. As Bolin and Ståhlberg explain, "this is
a common strategy of the broadcaster, and one that gives it a competit-
ive advantage" (Bolin & Ståhlberg 2015: 3075) as it seeks to capture
the advertising dollars of nations eager to attract positive attention.
9)
This example clearly illustrates the aggressive tactics used by
global media corporations whose focus is firmly on their own bottom
line. The BBC and CNN are not the only media organisations that en-
gage in such activities. In fact, nation-branding campaigns frequently
rely on a handful of transnational media outlets, which can deliver the
elite audience of business and political leaders, and affluent Western
travellers. Publications, such as The Economist, The Financial Times,
The New York Times, and news networks, such as CNN, BBC, Bloom-
berg, and Euronews, are among the key beneficiaries of promotional
spending by nations. Their advertising departments routinely approach
and court government officials, offering to produce special advertising
features for their countries. In that regard, transnational commercial
media are not mere channels of dissemination for branded messages,
but direct beneficiaries from nation-branding campaigns. Ironically, when
countries like Ukraine appear in the news coverage produced by the
same media organisations, the focus of news coverage tends to be on
crisis and conflict. In other words, negative news coverage contributes
to the very unfavourable perceptions that nation-branding campaigns
are supposed to contest.
There is another dimension of the political economy of transna-
tional media, which further curbs the branded national imagination.
Namely, most branded messages appear in the media as paid place-
ments and, therefore, a nation's ability to share its branded vision is
limited by its spending power. Larger and more affluent countries can,
and often do, outspend smaller and poorer ones when they seek to
project their brand messages via transnational commercial media. For
instance, when Germany ran a nation-branding campaign in relation to
its hosting of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, it committed approximately
US$30 million to the effort (Hülsse 2009). By contrast, when South
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
129
Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010, its nation-branding budget
was only US$12 million (Brand SA, personal correspondence 2016).
Examples of disparities in spending power abound, illustrating that the
playing field of commercial media is far from even for nations-turned-
advertisers. Countries with greater financial resources have a clear ad-
vantage in being able to get their branded narratives to be heard and
seen by foreign media audiences. When nations and media corpora-
tions enter into transactional relationships as part of nation-branding
campaigns, the market logic of these transactions places limitations on
the manner in which nations are imagined. In short, within the current
system of transnational commercial media, nation branding reproduces
long-standing inequalities among nations in the international system
and privileges the more affluent nations (Kaneva 2015).
4.3 Branded subjectivities vs lived experience
Finally, let us consider the tensions that emerge when branded national
imaginations, which take shape in response to a foreign gaze, confront
the lived experiences of the national communities they purportedly
represent. This relates most directly to the alleged potential of nation
branding to serve as a tool of nation building. I focus on the young nation
of Kosovo, which emerged after a prolonged conflict between ethnic
Albanians and Serbs that culminated in a bloody war in 1999. When
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, it faced three main challenges:
it needed political recognition by other nation-
=
after a war that had left its infrastructure and its economy in ruins.
Notably, from the very first day of its existence as an independent state,
Kosovo employed nation branding to tackle these challenges and, in
that regard, its nation-building and nation-branding efforts are closely
intertwined.
Historian Isabel Ströhle has analysed the struggles of post-war
Kosovo to re-imagine itself as a national community while also redress-
ing negative foreign perceptions associated with violent conflict in the
Balkans. She identifies two symbolic projects in post-independence
Kosovo as central to these efforts: the NEWBORN monument and the
'Young Europeans' campaign (Ströhle 2012: 228). These projects, both
of which originated as nation-branding exercises, provide the basis for
my analysis in this section as well. Both were designed to take max-
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
130
imum advantage of global media and to appeal to the foreign gaze. At
the same time, both had an explicit inward-focused agenda that sought
to unite the citizens of Kosovo within a shared national narrative and
create a sense of shared destiny and future (Strö8<LI
Xharra 2010).
The NEWBORN monument is a typographic sculpture, located
on Pristina's main square, which was originally painted in a bright
yellow colour. The sculpture was unveiled during the official ceremony
of Kosovo's declaration of independence on 17 February 2008. The
structure's meaning was further elaborated in outdoor posters, using
blue and yellow to reflect the colours of the new Kosovo national flag,
which displayed the following slogans: "NEW life is BORN", "NEW hope
is BORN", "NEW future is BORN" and "NEW country is BORN" (New
% 7 2öhle 2012). The monument was conceived
only days before the ceremony by advertising agency Ogilvy Karrota,
the local subsidiary of global advertising giant Ogilvy and Mather. Led
by Creative Director, Fisnik Ismaili, the agency pitched its idea to
Kosovo's government, which decided to fund the execution of the
project. Importantly, unlike most nation-branding projects, which are
designed and implemented by foreign brand consultants, NEWBORN
was a home-grown idea and was rooted in the desire of young Kosovo
professionals, like Ismaili and his team, to leverage the attention of
international media in an effort to re-brand post-war Kosovo in a new
and positive light.
10)
In a media interview, Ismaili explains the iconography of NEW-
BORN in the following way:
NEWBORN, intentionally in English, was the single word that could
describe that special day: A birth of a new country, and the connota-
tions of this word imply only positive things (birth, innocence, sin-
cerity, love...). We were aware that all the foreign media will be (sic.)
present on the day, so we wanted to give them an image that could
be understood and mark that day. […] The yellow colour was inten-
tionally used in combination with blue banners and supporting
slogans to represent both [the] new Kosovo flag's colours as well as
EU colours (New Kosova Report 2008).
Ismaili's statement demonstrates that the creative concept behind
NEWBORN was very much informed by a desire to produce a symbol
that would be legible and understandable for English-speaking, foreign
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
131
audiences and to present this symbol in a media-friendly format. In
other words, the monument was designed to deliver a mediated sign
that would meet the expectations of a Western 'gaze'. At the same time,
the monument captured the hopes and aspirations of Kosovars, as the
nation stepped out as an independent state, and articulated a new
utopian vision for Kosovo.
This utopian vision — one rooted in youth, innocence, and hope
— was extended even further through a comprehensive, multi-media
nation-branding campaign under the slogan "Kosovo — the Young Euro-
peans", which began in 2009. Kosovo's government commissioned the
campaign only months after the declaration of independence. The
contract was awarded to BBR Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv — an Israeli
branch of the global advertising agency. As the government's call for
proposals stipulated, the goal of the campaign was two-fold: to place
Kosovo on the map of nations and to build internal national cohesion
and pride (Wählisch & Xharra 2010).
The strategic insight of the 'Young Europeans' campaign was
that Kosovo's youth — as a nation and in terms of its population's aver-
age age, which was only 27 — was an asset that the country could
build upon. In that sense, the 'Young Europeans' campaign expanded
upon the NEWBORN metaphor and extended it through multiple media
channels and executions. All campaign materials featured cool, hip,
Kosovo youth who were portrayed as the future of the nation and its
new face to the world. Importantly, the 'Young Europeans' campaign
was not only disseminated to foreign audiences. Kosovo's citizens were
also repeatedly exposed to its messages which aired on national tele-
vision channels, featured prominently in outdoor billboards, and cir-
culated through various online and social media platforms (Wählisch &
Xharra 2010).
The central messaging strategy of the 'Young Europeans' cam-
paign rested on projecting a particular type of neoliberal subjectivity that
Kosovo's youth were supposed to embrace. The youth who were
portrayed in the campaign materials were aspiring actors, musicians,
graphic designers, or sports stars — that is, individuals in pursuit of in-
dependent, information-economy careers similar to the desires of many
Western young people. In that regard, the campaign once again offered
a narrative that would be legible to a Western 'gaze'. However, these
portrayals were greatly at odds with the actual opportunities available to
young people in Kosovo, the majority of whom are unemployed or
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
132
working in low-paying, precarious jobs. In 2016, unemployment among
15- to 24-year-olds, the age group featured in the campaign, was re-
ported to be 57.7 per cent (UNDP, undated). Furthermore, Kosovo
-
gle since independence, and the country's citizens are isolated due to
severe travel restrictions. As a result, many Kosovars have begun to
leave the country in droves, seeking asylum in Western European
countries and adding to the numbers of economic migrants and refu-
gees in Europe (Hehir 2016).
The harsh contrast between the branded subjectivities, con-
structed via Kosovo's nation-branding programs, and the lived experi-
ences of young Kosovars has provoked an alternative kind of national
imagination to reassert itself in Kosovo. This counter-branding imagina-
tion is rooted in ethnic Albanian nationalism and it has found political
expressions in the activist movement Vetëvendosje [Albanian for 'self-
determination']. The movement has solidified into a political party, which
won some seats in parliament in 2010 and, in 2014, notably won the
mayoral race in the national capital Pristina. Martin Wählisch and Behar
Xharra (2010) have documented that, for the activists of Vetëvendosje,
the 'Young Europeans' campaign provided a direct symbolic target
against which they could articulate their own messages and grievances.
Recently, Fisnik Ismaili, the creator of the NEWBORN monument who
is now a Member of Parliament from Vetëvendosje, conducted another
symbolic action. In 2016, on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of
Kosovo's independence, he organised the repainting of the NEWBORN
sculpture and its new appearance was striking: Its letters were coloured
as a blue sky with white clouds but wrapped in barbed wire. The barbed
wire represented Kosovo's isolation in Europe and the inability of its
citizens to travel freely outside the country.
11)
What is particularly interesting in the emergence and evolution of
the Vetëvendosje movement is that — even as its activists adamantly
rejected the utopian vision of the national brand endorsed by the
government — they continued to engage symbolically with that brand.
Indeed, Ismaili, the original 'brander' of Kosovo, has deployed his brand-
ing expertise repeatedly in his new role as a member of the political
opposition. In that sense, the national imagination of Kosovo's political
opposition is also 'branded' and, therefore, similarly limited. What may
be lost in the exchange of branded imaginings of the nation is a more
nuanced, policy-oriented debate about the social challenges Kosovo
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
133
faces and the ways to resolve them. In short, the case of Kosovo illus-
trates the paradoxical effects of the branded national imagination. It ap-
pears that, although its limits serve to depoliticise national (re)definition,
the branded national imagination simultaneously works to reinvigorate
an ethnically based version of nationalism.
5. Beyond the brand and back to the nation
What, then, can we learn about the limits of the branded national
imagination by looking at the struggles of post-socialist, newly indepen-
dent nations? To start with, the examples I have presented here show
that — contrary to the technocratic claims of marketing and branding
consultants — nation branding is a political project that reflects national
anxieties and aspirations. At the same time, and perhaps paradoxically,
the branded national imagination has a depoliticising effect because it
reduces struggles over alternative visions of the nation to an exchange
of media-centric, brand symbols. This is a reality that governing elites
cannot ignore, especially in an age of transnational commercial media,
where brand images that may be intended for foreign audiences circle
back to domestic populations. This observation suggests two questions
for further reflection and empirical investigation. First, what kinds of
politics inform the decisions of state institutions and actors as they de-
ploy various branding programmes? And, second, who stands to benefit
the most from the implementation of such programmes?
Another lesson that emerges from the examples I have presented
here is that nation-branding programmes cannot succeed without genu-
ine citizen engagement and support. More importantly, the imaginings
of branding campaigns fail to produce a sense of shared destiny and
community if they are not accompanied by policies that lead to real
development opportunities and a sense of genuine progress among
national citizens. Unlike the utopian visions of the grand ideological
narratives of the past century, which were particularly powerful in the
former Eastern Bloc, branded national utopias appear to have a much
shorter shelf life, especially when they are visibly at odds with the lived
experiences of national citizens. This may also explain why govern-
ments feel pressure to keep launching new branding campaigns all the
time. At the same time, the ability of ethnic nationalism to appropriate
the discursive technologies of branding suggests that we may not yet
understand fully the ideological potential of branding as a technology of
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
134
governance. I would argue that to gain a better understanding of this
ideological potential we need to develop a deeper, historical account of
the role of the media and promotional industries in the making and
remaking of the nation-state at different times and in different socio-
political contexts.
One possible direction within this line of inquiry would be to situ-
ate nation branding in relation to the study of international propaganda
with a particular focus on the ways in which propaganda serves nation-
alist projects. Within the post-socialist context, this type of inquiry would
be unavoidably linked to the complex legacies of the Cold War. I would
argue, however, that these legacies transcend the geographic bound-
aries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The post-socialist
experience is interlinked with and reflected in post-colonial struggles for
national (re)definition as well. To date, there is only limited research on
the intersections of post-socialism and post-colonialism and this is an
important gap to fill.
Finally, critical analyses of nation branding need to continue to
problematise the relationships between the nation-state and the market
as they co-evolve and influence each other. One specific direction to
explore here would involve historicising the relationships between the
nation-state and the corporation. Existing accounts of nation branding
generally assume that marketing and branding techniques evolved ind-
ependently in the private sector and were then applied to promote the
nation-state. However, history shows that the private and public sectors
+ . 8)4-
mas 1989). The structural and ideological arrangements that obtain
between the state and the market also influence the types of national
subjects that are produced at different points in time. We have yet to
understand fully how the interpellation of national subjects as 'citizens',
as 'comrades', as 'consumers', as 'brand ambassadors' or in any other
way changes their ideological and material bonds to the nation. We
need to ask what has allowed the national form to persist and repro-
duce itself despite, or in line with, such changes in modes of subjectiv-
ity. We also need to remember that without maintaining those bonds,
the national community cannot be imagined and sustained through
time. And, after all, without the nation, there would be nothing there to
brand.
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
135
Endnotes
1. This article is based on a keynote address of the same title delivered at the
Inaugural University Dialogue on the Nation Brand, jointly organized by
Brand South Africa and the University of Pretoria. The Dialogue took place on
5 October 2016 at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
2. In the same paragraph, Anholt notes in parentheses: "If badly done, [a
national branding campaign] can prove exceedingly divisive" (2003: 139). I
would argue that this is simply an example of caveat emptor — a disclaimer
that allows consultants like himself to blame the divisive consequences of
nation branding on improper execution, rather than on the limitations of
branding as a tool for nation building.
3. Some of the examples I use to illustrate my points in this article are also dis-
cussed in my previous work, as will be acknowledged throughout the text.
However, here I attempt a synthesis of insights and arguments, which de-
parts from previous publications while drawing on some of the same em-
pirical material.
4. For more on aid conditionality and its relationship to nation branding, see
Pamment (2016).
5. I had the opportunity to interview Wally Olins in 2005 and was greatly sur-
prised when, without warning, he opened our meeting by asking me point-
edly why he had not received any calls from Bulgarian officials interested in
retaining his company's services. Apparently, having learned that I was Bul-
garian, he could not pass up the chance to make inroads into another un-
exploited market.
6. A prominent example of centralised nation branding is the GREAT Campaign
in the UK, although it functions quite differently from Brand South Africa (see
Pamment 2015). For more on nation branding in African nations, see Papa-
dopoulos and Hamzaoui-Essoussi (2015).
7. The video can be viewed on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Pigu8RijfXk (last accessed on March 12, 2017).
8. Simon Anholt (2010) also points out the economic self-interest of media
organisations that profit from nation-branding campaigns.
9. The commercials on CNN and BBC were funded by the Ukraine Economic
Reform Fund, a private foundation representing Ukrainian business (Bolin &
Ståhlberg 2015: 3075). However, the campaign was backed by the Ukrainian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was seen as part of a larger nation-branding
strategy for Ukraine (Ukraine Watch 2011). Nation-branding media cam-
paigns are often funded from state budgets or other public sources, including
European Union structural funds for development. For examples of different
6I2N8$*%-
8$*%ID8E*>
Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 39, No 1 Nadia Kaneva
136
10. From a promotional point of view, NEWBORN was an unqualified success.
Photographic images of the monument were featured in major international
news outlets, including The New York Times, the BBC, CNN, and others. In
addition, the brand concept has won numerous advertising industry awards
(Karrota 2008).
11. I want to thank Bujar Aruqaj for his help in confirming this information through
Albanian-language sources.
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