Creating the Cool: Exploring the concept of national branding

The branding of places and nations has emerged in recent years as a 'hot topic' for strategic marketers and policy-makers alike. Not only is the branding of countries and regions important to tourism, but it can have a significant impact on inward investment, migration and even value-added in manufactured goods. Yet it appears that the emerging sub-discipline of strategic place marketing has borrowed extensively - and almost exclusively - from the canon of business-to-consumer branding. This study, based on a detailed content analysis of the apparent 're-positioning' of Wales in 1990-2000, suggests that a narrow focusing on branding theory can be both limiting and misleading in the context of place marketing. Other fields, in particular thinking around corporate identity, have much to offer both scholars and practitioners involved in national and place marketing.