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a public event

Comparative Country Branding: The Small Nation Problem Solution

Business Conference co-sponsored by CEES, CIBER - Anderson School of Management, and Southern California Consortium for International Studies

Friday, May 05, 2006
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
UCLA
Faculty Center
California Room
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Globalization has created a special inter-dependence between private sector and public sector interests. Today it is less an “Us vs Them” relationship than a “We vs Global Competition” situation.  Nations seem to have but two strategic choices in facing global competition: use reactive political and institutional protectionism (as in the “national champions” argument) to defend national business economic interests, or develop proactive offensive strategy of promoting national interests via promoting opportunities in trade and investments at home and abroad. The former is easy but ineffective in a global world. The latter works but requires more work!..

Globalization shows that size matters. Small is a disadvantage for both the nation and the firm. Both have to deal with the giants whether they be Walmart, Dannon and Braun or Germany, France and the emerging BRIC nations. This makes  national promotional strategies for developing national brand reputation a mandatory fact of life for the smaller nations. Nowhere is this challenge more apparent than in Central Europe at this time.

This founding Comparative Country Branding Conference will look at issues related to what we are calling the “Small Nation Problem”: How to overcome  national comparative disadvantages of size and location (e.g. smaller markets, lower levels and mixes of resources, distance from markets) and create a national competitive advantage via proactive branding of nation and its products.  Smaller nations like Korea, Chile, Japan (at an earlier time) and  now Ireland have all chosen strategies  of  facilitating growth and development by essentially developing an international branding strategy for their nations as “great places to do business”! This is the same challenge that now faces the majority of Central European countries. During the conference we will have opportunities to hear from experts on branding and the use of media for developing brand. We will hear from both private and public sector speakers on their experience with global branding strategies and how the public sector and private sector parties can and do interact effectively  (and ineffectively) to create such national (and even regional) brands. There will be ample time for both champions and skeptics to air their differences in multiple Q&A sessions.

Program:

Moderator: Dr. Robert S. Spich, Director, Center of International Research and Business (CIBER), Anderson School of Managment, UCLA

Branding As the Strategy, Media As the Means

Dr. Robert S. Spich, Director, Center of International Research and Business (CIBER), Anderson School of Managment, UCLA

Dr. Martin Roll (on video), CEO, VentureRepublic Pte Ltd

Dr. Maggie Daleo, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Ireland

Dr. Carisa Bianchi, President, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles

Panel Discussion on Country Branding

Dr. Odon Kiraly, Hungarian Consulate     (Hungary)

Mr. Thomas Grabner, Kastner & Partners in Los Angeles     (Austria)

Dr. Antti Hautamaki, Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley     (Finland)

Applied Branding

Preston Keat, Research Director, Eurasia Group

Keynote Address

Mr. Angelos Pangratis, Deputy Head of EU Delegation

Sponsor(s): Center for European and Eurasian Studies, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Southern California Consortium for International Studies