Brand South Africa The Nation Brand Masterclass · The Nation Brand Masterclass ... as a full day training programme aimed at marketers, communicators, corporates, civil-society organisations

Brand South Africa Research Note – May 2016

The Nation Brand Masterclass

– an Overview

By: Dr Petrus de Kock, Ms Sithembile Ntombela & Ms Leigh-Gail Petersen

Brand South Africa

Research Note


Contents

Brand South Africa & the Nation Brand Masterclass

Purpose of the Masterclass

Who will benefit from the Nation Brand Masterclass?

How is the Masterclass structured?

o Session 1 – Understanding Brand South Africa

o Session 2 – Fundamentals of building strong brands

o Session 3 – What is a Nation Brand?

Nation Brand Performance Research

o Session 4 - Performance & Action – What can I do to become a Nation Brand

Advocate?

Concluding thought


BRAND SOUTH AFRICA & THE NATION BRAND MASTERCLASS

Brand South Africa, originally established in 2002 as the International Marketing Council, is

the official marketing agency of South Africa. Established as a trust, with the board of

trustees appointed by the President, the organisation works both in the domestic and

international environments to market and profile the hard and soft attributes of the

Nation Brand.

Due to the fact that the organisation interfaces with a range of business, government, and

civil-society stakeholders, Brand SA embarked on the process of creating a Nation Brand

Masterclass. The Masterclass was developed as a flexible tool through which Brand SA can

train, educate, inform, empower and engage with a range of stakeholders.

As Brand SA’s training and stakeholder engagements developed, we received several

requests from the private sector, academic institutions, and other domestic stakeholders

who are active internationally, but who would like to incorporate more country specific

information, marketing material, and messaging into their own unique programmes. To

this end Brand SA, in collaboration with the Marketing Association of South Africa, set out

to design a Masterclass that can provide a training/orientation platform through which

stakeholders can be empowered to become Nation Brand advocates in their respective

spheres of activity.

The full Masterclass is structured in such a way as to allow it to be delivered as a two-hour

intensive orientation for executives, or, as a full day training programme aimed at

marketers, communicators, corporates, civil-society organisations and a host of other

stakeholders. While the structure of the Masterclass remains the same, the actual timing

and mode of delivery of the programme depends on the needs of stakeholders. The

masterclass is therefore designed as a flexible tool that can be adapted to different

audiences, and different levels of management.

This Research Note introduces you to the basic background of the Nation Brand

Masterclass, as well as a brief overview of the content of each section covered by the

programme.

To what end? The crux and the essence of this class is to get South Africans to rally behind

the brand. It is to get South Africans inspired to be the best in what they do, based on an

understanding of the country’s brand dynamics. Ultimately we will live in a country

which we have remade (2030 NDP caption).


PURPOSE OF THE MASTERCLASS

The Masterclass provides an introduction to what the Nation Brand is, and what it stands

for. Additionally, it provides contextual information regarding the strengths and unique

features/attributes of the South African Nation Brand.

This Masterclass has the purpose of informing, orienting, and

empowering stakeholders to become Nation Brand advocates.

Whether you are a South African company conducting international business, an academic

doing research and require more insight into the range of strengths and attributes of the

Nation Brand, or a government communicator designing a campaign for a department’s

international engagements – the Masterclass can offer you a thorough foundation for what

the Nation Brand is, its identity, and essential performance attributes. As indicated in the

image below, the purpose of the Masterclass is to create informed advocacy.


WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THE NATION BRAND MASTERCLASS?

You are a communicator/company conducting international business/hosting

international guests and you want to provide stakeholders with an overview or

broad introduction of the country’s capabilities;

You are from a government institution, or state owned enterprise active

internationally, and want to align to the nation brand corporate identity and

messaging when engaging with international stakeholders;

You want to empower officials in a specific department on the role of a

government employee to carry the nation brand message (e.g. Brand SA training

of Department of Home Affairs officials; training of SA diplomats through DIRCO; or

engagements with City, Metro and Provincial agencies);

You want to learn more about research insights into the performance of the

country and domestically and internationally;

You would like to access specific research indicators on South Africa’s global

reputation, competitiveness, and per market indicators on SA reputation,

competitiveness;

You are a South African corporate doing business internationally and would like to

learn more about the link between country of origin effect, and its impact on

corporate profile;

You are a civil-society organisation that would like to empower stakeholders and

your organisation with relevant up to date information on the nation brand;

Or, you are a citizen who would like to be empowered to become an informed

nation brand advocate.

HOW IS THE MASTERCLASS STRUCTURED?

The Masterclass consists of four sessions/sections focusing on:


The sections below will briefly unpack the main elements/issues covered in each of the

four sessions.

SESSION 1 – UNDERSTANDING BRAND SOUTH AFRICA


SESSION 2 – FUNDAMENTALS OF BUILDING STRONG BRANDS

Session 2 of the Masterclass aims to contextualise the unique features of the Nation Brand

concept with reference to principles and approaches in classical marketing and

communications. The most important distinctions drawn are between corparate brands

and nation brands, and how the differences between these types of brands also inform the

unique marketing, stakeholder management, communications, and research strategies

needed to bring a country/nation brand to life – and to keep it that way!

With reference to the six pillars of classical marketing, the following six pillars of the

nation brand are explored in some detail in this session.

Exports Tourism

Governance

Culture and Heritage

People Skills and openness

Investment Potential and attractiveness to outsiders

Commercial and cultural products and sporting prowess

Competency fair governance, human rights, international

contribution

Potential attractiveness and economical

contribution

Level of satisfaction with country’s products and services

Investment & immigration


SESSION 3 – WHAT IS A NATION BRAND?

While the first two sessions focused on the organisation, Brand SA, as well as the basic

elements of the Nation Brand in the context of marketing & communications, this session

answers the question as to what a Nation Brand is, from several perspectives.

In simple terms the nation brand is fundamentally different from corporate brands.

Although certain corporate brands may have multiple sub-brands, or a wide variety of

component parts that feed into and support the ‘mother brand’ – a nation brand

encompasses a dizzying array of attributes, as well as factors that impact on the

performance, reputation, and competitiveness of the brand.

This session sets out to illustrate what the Nation Brand is, from practical and theoretical

points of view. Brand SA approaches the nation brand as a composite construct that aims

to present a coherent brand identity/image and country message to domestic and

international audiences. This image and message is drawn from a vast pool of indicators,

attributes, and unique cultural and economic features of the nation.

The nation brand is therefore a composite construct due to the fact that typical research

studies devoted to identifying the reputational standings of nations, or nation brands,

usually measure the reputation of a nation on elements such as Investment, Governance,

People, Culture, Tourism, and Exports.

From the list of attributes tested through reputation studies one immediately learns that

the reputation of a nation, or nation brand, depends on much more than government

activity, policy, or leadership. A nation brand encompasses all the attributes, strengths,

and innovations a nation offer the world in all its spheres of activity (business, arts, music,

theatre, film, tourism, science & innovation, infrastructure, manufacturing, and

governance to name but a few).

This session furthermore explores data from Brand SA research that monitors and

evaluates the performance of the Nation Brand in the domestic, as well as international

environments. This information is structured in such a way as to empower stakeholders

with necessary information, and indicators that are utilised to either identify strengths, or

challenges the brand faces in a comparative perspective.



NATION BRAND PERFORMANCE RESEARCH

Brand SA research aims to develop insight and analysis into the performance of the

nation brand from a domestic and international perspective.

To this end Brand SA tracks a wide variety of competitiveness, reputation, and

related global studies and indices.

The goal is to monitor and evaluate over-all country performance in a highly

competitive and uncertain global economy.

In order to further deliver on research insights, Brand South Africa convenes

Research Reference Groups that reflect on, and provide Brand South Africa with

expert input and advice on key issues of concern at the time.

Brand SA also conducts an extensive Domestic Perceptions Research study, as well

as an International Investor Perceptions research study.

The Nation Brand Performance research focuses on Assessing Nation Brand Performance

in several realms of governance, being:

Global governance

Political governance

Corporate & economic governance

Ease of Doing Business

Competitiveness indicators

SA inbound & outbound investment profile

SA footprint globally and on the African continent

Human & social development indicators

Domestic perceptions


International perceptions

Brand Reputation

Nation Brand Index

City Brand Index

Brand SA fieldwork research – The SA Inc Series

o Brand South Africa conducts research in peer African states, to engage with

various stakeholders from business, civil society, media, government, think

tanks and academic professionals which allows for quality in-depth holistic

analysis of South Africa’s interaction with, and exposure to those markets.

o Perceptions shape a version of the truth in the minds of individuals',

communities and nations which is often deemed as reality. Thus the

purpose of this research is to develop a deeper understanding of the

perceptions peer African markets have of South Africa. Additionally the

research aims to develop a profile of the South African footprint, and

reputation in those markets.

Brand SA - Domestic Perceptions Research

Brand SA – International Investor Perceptions Research

As noted above, the performance indicators

shared with specific groups of stakeholders

depends on sector, level of

education/management, and stakeholder

interest. The Nation Brand Performance

section of the Masterclass can therefore be

tailored to the needs of your

organisation/sector.


Select indices Brand SA tracks and analyses from a Nation Brand Performance point of

view:

Competitiveness

World Economic Forum – Global Competitiveness Report

Institute for Management Development – Competitiveness Report

World Economic Forum – World Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report

Governance, Economic & Business Environment Related

Ibrahim Index of African Governance

Transparency International – Corruption Perception Index

World Bank – Ease of Doing Business

Economic Freedom Indicators

OECD Country Reports

Good country index

Human Development

United Nations Development Programme – Human Development Index

Reputation

Nation Brand Index

City Brand Index


SESSION 4 – PERFORMANCE AND ACTION

The role of citizens, business, government and civil society in promoting the Nation

Brand

The final session of the programme will share more information about Brand SA’s domestic

and international programmes. For example, the Play Your Part programme, one of Brand

SA’s key domestic programmes that promotes Active Citizenship; the Global South Africans

programme aimed at working with South African expats, and other initiatives are

showcased to present examples of how individuals, organisations, institutions, and

businesses can play their part to profile, market, and hence become a positive advocate of

this nation brand and what it offers the world.

CONCLUDING THOUGHT

If there is still any confusion as to what the Nation Brand is, and what it stands for, then

the Nation Brand Masterclass is an immersive session that will empower you with the

necessary information, and background, to become an advocate of this exciting country

called South Africa. The Nation Brand identity and positioning Brand South Africa works to

create is directly linked to actual realities in the country. For this reason we wrap up with

an invitation to engage with us, and to remember that a nation as young as ours is

constantly evolving and developing. This means we want to leave you with some food for

thought, being words from Homi K Bhabha from his book Nation and Narration:

“A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things,

which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or

spiritual principle. One lies in the past, one in the

present. One is the possession in common of a rich

legacy of memories; the other is present-day consent,

the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the

value of the heritage that one has received in an

undivided form.”


Brand South Africa’s Research Notes and Research Reports communicate findings from Brand South Africa research and

related panel discussions. The Research Notes and Reports are intended to elicit comments, contribute to debate, and inform

stakeholders about trends and issues that impact on South Africa’s reputation and overall competitiveness.

Views expressed in Research Notes are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of Brand South Africa, or

the Government of the Republic of South Africa. Every precaution is taken to ensure the accuracy of information. However,

Brand South Africa shall not be liable to any person for inaccurate information or opinions contained herein.

For More Information:

Dr Petrus de Kock – General Manager, Research

[email protected]

MS Sithembile Ntombela – General Manager, Marketing

[email protected]

MS Leigh-Gail Petersen – Researcher

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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Brand South Africa The Nation Brand Masterclass · The Nation Brand Masterclass ... as a full day training programme aimed at marketers, communicators, corporates, civil-society organisations