Canadian 'brand' rated one of the best in world

......according to a London-based adviser on issues of national brand perceptions.

Canada is surpassed only by the United Kingdom, with ranked first, and Switzerland, which ranked second, on a list of 35 nations. The United States ranked 10th on the list, although its brand was the most valuable at $17.9 trillion.

Simon Anholt, creator of the Anholt Nation Brand Index, said that the result means that Canada is "a much admired country."

"What it says is that everybody rates [Canada] very highly," Anholt said in an interview. "It scores particularly strongly for things like governance and for tourism."

Anholt added that part of the reason Canada seems to do well on his survey is that it is perceived to be the opposite of the United States. Where the U.S. might be perceived to be intolerant, for example, Canada is seen as being more fair, democratic and tolerant.

Anholt created the index a year ago to fill what he saw as a lack of data on how people around the world perceive other countries in terms of their "brand" image.

Anholt said "brand" might seem like a shallow way of analysing a country, but it is still important because people make decisions on where they will travel or what countries they invest in based more on their perceptions of those countries than their actual experience or knowledge.

Anholt added that it is no different than the thought process consumers use to choose Nike running shoes over Reebok, though the Nike brand may be more expensive.

"There is something about the brand, the reputation of the company [or] the kind of feel you get from the brand that says 'this is me,'" Anholt said. "Countries work in exactly the same way."

Anholt added that violent demonstrations against Denmark in the Middle East over contentious cartoons published in a Danish newspaper are ample example of how a country's "brand" can be damaged.

The firm Global Market Insite Inc., which has its technical headquarters in Vancouver, gathers the data for Anholt's survey by distributing the questionnaire to 28,500 respondents in the 35 countries on his list.

The survey is conducted quarterly and Anholt said some 20 different governments, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and one Canadian federal agency, subscribe to his full report.

Marketing professor Darren Dahl at the University of B.C.'s Sauder School of Business said national image is important.

"There is a value in that, absolutely, specifically for various national interests," Dahl said. "Whether it's trade, investment, tourism. These types of things tend to have a correlation to a national brand."

(prepared by Derrick Penner/Vancouver Sun)

BRAND NEWS:

To put the value of Canada's $1.1 trillion estimated brand value in perspective, samples of the most recent rankings done by Interbrand Corp. for BusinessWeek of globally recognized brand names may be handy. A rough measure of brand values for publicly traded companies would be 60-70 per cent of market capitalization, eg., perennial top brand Coca-Cola's market cap is about $97 billion US while its 2005 brand value is estimated at $68 billion US.

Coca-Cola* $68 billion

Disney $26 billion

McDonald's $26 billion

Toyota $25 billion

BMW $17 billion

Harley-Davidson $7 billion

Starbucks $2.6 billion

* All in US funds

Source: BusinessWeek's Global Brand Scoreboard 2005

VALUE OF TOP NATIONAL BRANDS, IN U.S. DOLLARS

United States $17.9 trillion

Japan $6.2 trillion

Germany $4.6 trillion

United Kingdom $3.5 trillion

France $2.9 trillion

Italy $2.8 trillion

Spain $1.8 trillion

Canada $1.1 trillion

Australia $821 billion

Holland $792 billion

Source: GMI Anholt Nations Brand Index, Vancouver Sun