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Transcription of Episode 12 of the RIGSS Podcast with Mr. Koh Buck Song

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Introduction

When Simon Anholt first wrote about ‘nation brand’ in 1996, he simply observed that the reputations of countries behave like the brand images of companies and products, and they are equally critical to the progress, prosperity, and good management of those places. However, since then, the term has prominently evolved into ‘nation branding’ though with some differences in meaning and context. Countries today place huge importance on ‘nation branding’ and rightly so, as it has helped reap the targeted economic and social dividends. Today, one country that shines outright when it comes to successful nation branding is Singapore. The country, in its quest to become Asia’s leading global city, has consciously and painstakingly invested its time, money, talent and all the resources at its disposal to build ‘Brand Singapore’ to where it ranks today. Mr Koh Buck Song, the author of ‘Brand Singapore’ writes, “As a country, you can be paradise on earth, but it’s no good at all if no one knows. The message has to be delivered well and get through to the target audience.”

In order to further discuss the importance of ‘nation branding’, we would like to warmly welcome Mr. Koh to the RIGSS Podcast.

Q1. So, my first question is, if you could explain to us, what is nation branding in simple terms and what are its different attributes?

I think the first thing to consider is that the brand of a country can be considered and treated as if it were a commercial brand but there are big differences. And the biggest difference is that a country’s brand is much more holistic than a commercial brand, in a sense that almost anything can be relevant to a country’s brand and affected - any piece of news, any views that are expressed overseas. So, these would include anything that a tourist guide, for example, in Bhutan says to a visitor or any opinion about Bhutan expressed abroad by an influential voice. Now in Bhutan, you might have some control over the first, what the tourist guide says but the second opinions expressed by people overseas, it would be almost impossible to have any kind of direct influence over.

Another difference is that for commercial branding we could just be talking about one particular product and if there is some problem with it, with its brand, the company could just drop that product. But you can’t do the same with the country brand - you can’t fire your citizens. To take one example, which is in the news currently - in the United States, the issues with gun control have some influence surely on brand America but it’s not something that the country can change overnight. Change takes time; a lot of time.

And the third point I want to make on this is that because of its holistic, all-embracing nature of country branding, it means that every citizen has the potential to contribute. Hence, the importance of internal brand building - what a country does with its communication, with its own citizens to get as many people as possible to understand what is country branding, and then to see what contribution they could possibly make to enhancing the country brand.

Q2. Nations today are into this rat race to create a good brand for themselves. So, why has ‘nation branding’ become so important in this day and age?

I will address your question on the basis of where the world is currently. I think all nations are now at the stage of trying to see the best way forward in terms of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. In some places, places that are quite heavily dependent on tourism, for example, Easter Island, it is absolutely critical to work on enhancing the branding of that place in order to then bring in the tourism that would enable the whole economy and the whole society to recover. In other places, it is important to almost start afresh to draw new investments and to repair some of the economic connections that were already in place. And some of these could include the supply chain arrangements in terms of delivery of goods and services to those places. And to add another point which is connected to the state of the world, if you look at Ukraine and the war situation there, it is the country brand of Ukraine and the perceptions of Ukraine overseas that determine the kind of support and help that they are getting from the rest of the world in addressing this difficult situation that they are in. So, country branding is important in many ways.

Q3. Now coming to Singapore, from what we learnt from your book ‘Brand Singapore’, some of Singapore’s most admired brand attributes did not just come by accident. Therefore, it also can’t be denied that nation branding continues to play a critical role in the success of Singapore as one of the most successful nations in Asia and the world at large. So, if you could kindly enlighten our audiences on how Singapore continues to brand itself not only at home but also in the external world so admirably — so much so that Singapore is a role model for the developing countries around the world?

Well contrary to what some people might think, in Singapore, there is actually very little that is done at the overall level in terms of the mother brand; there isn’t one central office that directs everything. Instead, most of the buildings of brand Singapore are done at the sub-brand level and here it is done in terms of very strategic, well-planned direct marketing in four main areas— what I call the two Ts and two Is. The first two Ts are Trade and Tourism, and Isare Investment and Immigration. So, for trade, Singapore has, from the earliest days been very focused on expanding its trade network. For example, currently we have more than twenty free trade agreements with countries and regions around the world. And as an island nation that is so dependent on trade, that’s very important. For tourism we have the current ‘country brand’ centred around the key idea of ‘Passion Made Possible’. In summary we are trying to promote the idea that Singapore is the place where people who are passionate about various aspects of tourism can come here and build their businesses and thrive in the whole tourism sector. On investments, we have agencies like the Economic Development Board where I worked for five years in the early 2000s, which are focused on bringing in direct investments to Singapore from all around the world. And the last I is immigration and here too, it is a very targeted effort to connect with and to persuade a global talent to relocate to Singapore whether to study, work or even to take up citizenship eventually.

Now in addition to this direct marketing, there are also overall factors about Singapore that contribute to the strength of its ‘country brand’.  I will cite just two—one is the stability that comes from effective governance and also the management of security, including geopolitical security. And the second factor is the efficiency in terms of general administration of the country and also the management of its infrastructure. And this second point, efficiency of administration and infrastructure, was absolutely important in helping the country to get through the worst parts of the pandemic so far.

Q4. So, in Singapore’s case, the prominent actor in leading the country in its ‘nation branding’ effort is the state. Therefore, how can the government, the private sector and an individual work together to promote a vibrant and lasting nation brand?

I think, from the perspective of the state, ‘nation branding’ is something that has to be led from the top. The state can facilitate and provide overall vision and framework. For example, in Bhutan in terms of environmental stewardship, managing the forests and all the other environmental resources that you have, that’s something only the state can organise overall. But of course, what is also crucially required is the participation and collaboration of the private sector and individual. The private sector can do a lot in terms of the products and services. If you take an example of South Korea in terms of how the private sector has been effective in shaping international perceptions about Korea’s country brand, much of this has happened in the arena of pop culture, for example, in music and on Netflix. And, of course, this can also be demonstrated and promoted through commercial products - the products and exports of a country, which I know is also one of the newer priority areas in Bhutan. And lastly, I think individuals should recognise that they also have a lot of scope to contribute to their country brand, and today, with the internet all of us are equipped to do so, through contributions to various forms of media whether mainstream or on platforms like YouTube. I mean anyone of us could create a YouTube video that could go viral, that could then have possibly some major impacts on our ‘country brand’.

Q5. Now coming to Bhutan, as someone who somehow understands our limitations and potentials at the same time, what are the key areas that Bhutan’s nation branding effort could focus on from your perspective?

Let me just talk about a couple of aspects. One is tourism, which of course is very important to Bhutan. I think one thing that could be done is to see how you can take your tourism branding to the next level. I think that Bhutan is already right up there in terms of country brand, in terms of the brand awareness. If you ask most people around the world they would immediately think of the concept of happiness and connect that with Bhutan. So, you are already in a very good place but the key is to see how to take it to the next level, especially in this post-pandemic environment where there are some significant changes in terms of behaviors, regulations and so on. And of course, you would want to attract new travelers while at the same time also seeing how to draw on repeat customers, and one place to look at could be in terms of branding the districts of Bhutan. Thus far, most of the tourists have been to places like Thimphu and Paro but there are many other parts of Bhutan which are less well known, which have a lot more potential for tourism as well.

Now, in terms of investments, there are two key areas. One is to highlight the value proposition. For example, I think for Bhutan connecting your brand attributes with the value of sustainability is something that you are very well placed to do. And the other thing is to see how to align your sub-branding with the mother brand— the whole concept of happiness.

Q6. In your book ‘Brand Singapore’ you wrote, “In the standard of branding word association tests many people think of Lee Kaun Yew the moment Singapore is mentioned.” So, what role does leadership play in ‘nation branding’?

I think in this case, we are talking about political leadership, which is absolutely vital. In Bhutan, your King demonstrated admirable leadership in leading the country through the pandemic. So, I think there are many great stories to tell that are centred around the leadership of your King and all that He represents. Again, citing Ukraine, its current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has grabbed the attention of the world in terms of his demonstrative courage and the way he has been able to communicate both to his own people and to international audiences. He just spoke at an international conference on regional security in Singapore and this is of course critical to the country. And I think on the question of leadership, there is also a pandemic factor that has become even more prominent in the last two years, which reinforces this point about how important leadership is to nation brand building, and the fact that the role of the state has become much more crucial. On the domestic front, everything that has to be done in terms of enhancing public health, and internationally in terms of border control, just these two factors alone have reiterated the key role of the state in steering a nation forward and this, of course, reinforces the point of how important leadership is to nation brand building. So those are the three aspects— the state, the private sector and the individual—and these should all work together.

Q7. In your book, you stated that “In the global nation branding game, there is no such thing as job done but only an ending effort of branding, brand management, and rebranding”. So, can a nation or a company rebrand itself after a major downfall and still come out stronger? So how does branding work in such a situation because you also said that a brand keloid cannot be so easily excised or removed?

Yes, for sure. A country, just like a company, can certainly recover from the negative impact on the brand.  For countries, I think two prominent examples would be Japan and Germany after World War II, the extent to which they have been able to not only recover but flourish. Today, the country brands of Japan and Germany are two of the strongest in the world, through the various aspects of what their brand represents, which people have come to recognise and appreciate. In the case of Japan, in the earlier decades, it was the quality of their products, especially, the household products like refrigerators and also cars but that has gone into a bit of period of decline). But another aspect which has continued to grow from strength to strength is the refinement of its culture, various aspects of its art, food, design, entertainment and so on. And for Germany, we have seen the leadership of Chancellor Merkel in the earlier decades, and their influence across Europe. And, of course, again like Japan, German brands in cars and other products have continued to lead the market in many areas.

Now you mentioned the concept of ‘brand keloid’ which I coined in my book ‘Brand Singapore’. The analogy is of comparing a negative aspect of a brand to a physical keloid, like a scar on your body, which would be quite difficult to remove and quite painful if you try to address it directly. So, the thing to do is not to spend too much time or be hung up on trying to address it directly or to get rid of it quickly because in some cases it’s practically impossible to do that. Instead, the attention, energy, and effort should be focused on just building the positive aspects. So, if we apply that to what we were just talking about, Japan and Germany, that’s what they have done. They focused on the positive aspects of what they can offer to the world in terms of products and services, even ideas and values and that’s what has brought them where they are in the world today as leading ‘country brands’.

Thank you very much Mr. Koh.

About Mr. Koh Buck Song:

Mr. Koh Buck Song has been actively involved in the nation branding of Singapore for almost three decades, and led a team to create the global entrepolis brand concept for Singapore. The book ‘Brand Singapore’, now in its third edition (2021), is one of nearly 40 books by Mr. Koh as an author and editor.

Transcribed by Choden, RIGSS