The determinants and measurement of a country brand: the country brand strength index

Purpose - A strong country brand can stimulate exports, attract tourism, investments, and immigration. The purpose of this paper is to construct and present a country brand strength index (CBSI) which assesses the strength of a country brand based on objective secondary data. Design/methodology/approach - By applying a company-based brand equity approach, we present a standardized CBSI. Findings - The results show that the countries with the strongest country brand are smaller, developed countries in Europe. The proposed index leads to results similar to the widely-used Anholt GfK Roper nation brand index (NBI), which measures perceptions of a country brand based on subjective survey data. Countries that are perceived positively (based on NBI) have a stronger country brand (CBSI) and countries perceived negatively (based on the NBI) have a weak country brand (CBSI). The two indexes are highly and significantly correlated, indicating they measure the same phenomena, although they use different approaches, methodologies, and data, suggesting that the indexes are complementary and inter-dependent. Practical implications - To stay competitive in the global economy, countries need to understand how to assess their country brand in order to manage it. With the proposed index, a country can identify its position compared to others. This can assist public and private organizations to develop a more powerful country brand strategy. Originality/value - The proposed index is original in operationalizing the strength of a country brand based on objective secondary data. The proposed index represents an alternative measurement to the existing subjective survey-based measurement indexes.