Nation Branding as Strategic Narrative

Abstract

The fundamental goal of nation branding is to achieve differentiation and resonance in the field of national representations. Despite the time, effort, and money invested in the national pavilions at the World Expo, the vast majority of them may be “described as credible, even noteworthy, but few were genuinely memorable,” as one World Expo veteran has put it.¹ In this project, we examined the representational choices the national pavilions made at the Shanghai Expo. We explored the extent to which the pavilions (and by extension their nations) were effectively distinguished in the minds of the Chinese visitors, and whether such differentiation appealed to and resonated with them. Although we only scratched the surface of the dynamic interactions on the fairgrounds between the pavilions and the visitors, the four case studies through the eight pavilion examples revealed several notable patterns of the pavilions’ nation-branding approaches and performances. The basic premise of the project is that the national pavilions are representations and purveyors of nation brands and that (Chinese) visitors’ perceptions of other nations are both persistent and malleable. The first two case studies were “supplier-side” of the story. We looked at the broader contexts the national pavilions operated in and their strategic selections in positioning a nation brand and communicating it to a Chinese audience. The next two cases provided glimpses into Chinese visitors’ responses and reactions to their pavilion experiences.