Toward Brand Serbia Slobodan Pesic American Public University boban@pesic

1. Toward Brand Serbia • Slobodan Pesic • American Public University • boban@pesic.com The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010 Toronto, Canada, March 20, 2010 Panel: Breaking Through the Success Barrier: Media, Art, and Sport andthe Image of Serbia in the Global Context

2. Axioms Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada “It is not just sufficient to be a good neighbor, one must also be a good ancestor” Simon Anholt Thomas Theorem: “If people define situations as real, they (situations) are real in their consequences” Robert K. Merton National Culture System Balance (Slobodan Pesic) • Necessary condition for stable identity • Requires positive Value Transplant Ratio (VTR) between national culture’s Value Exports and Value Imports

3. Global Interactions Key Concepts and variables • Uncertainty • Hierarchies: Power projections, power distribution, power sharing • Nation-state(s)/Strategic Culture/Security Dilemma • Bargaining • Balancing • Communication including Signal/Noise management and C3ISovereignty/Governance • Education/Knowledge-Sharing • (Competitive) Identity/Nation Branding • Lack of Wisdom Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

4. Strategic Culture • The persisting (though not eternal) socially transmitted ideas, attitudes, traditions, habits of mind, and preferred methods of operation • Specific to a particularly geographically based security community that has had a necessarily unique historical experience • Dimensions of a strategic culture include the geopolitical setting, military history, international relationships, political culture and ideology, the nature of civil-military relations and military technology (Lord, 2000) • Strategic culture and national style that failed to meet objective tests of adequacy imposed by external security environments (polities) would lead inevitably to the political, if not always physical, demise of the nation Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

5. Strategic Culture: Key Components • Foundational elements • Formative phases in the development of a given strategic culture • Comprise basic beliefs regarding the use of force • Beliefs are semi-permanent • Contribute to the construction of a national identity • Highly resilient to change • Security policy standpoints • Core values promotion through policy channels • Set preferences for policy choices • Regulatory practices • Apply the substance of the foundational elements to the external environment • Provide channels of meaning and application • Less resilient to change Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

6. Serbia’s Strategic Culture • Who or what defines Serbia’s culture? • What are Serbia’s core values? • Have Serbia’s existing institutions been the optimal framework for Serbia strategic culture and Serbia’s nation-branding? • How does Serbia (1) develop hypotheses to test historical propositions (“consequentiality of history”); (2) predict future, and social-experiment, to arrive at the predicted future; (3) without threatening others? • How should Serbia manage “Kosovo”? How should Serbia manage Republika Srpska? • What is Serbia’s Competitive Identity? • Can Serbia restore its strategic culture’s Value System Balance? Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

7. Nation Branding & Brand-Informed Policy Branding • A process of designing, planning and communicating the name and the identity, in order to build or manage the reputation • Core aspects of the brand are (1) brand identity (core meaning), (2) brand image (reputation = broadcast of trust), (3) brand purpose (the power of the shared goals) and (4) brand equity (asset value of reputation) (Anholt, 2007) • Distillation • Art of extracting the concentrated essence of something complex, so that its complexity can always be extracted back out of the distillate, but it remains portable and easily memorable • The distillate is the common thread, the genetic constant, which underlies the basic commonality between the different part of the brand (Anholt, 2005) • Nation Branding bridges advanced brand theory and statecraft Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

8. Nation Branding & Public Diplomacy Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada • Nation Branding - synthesis of public and private sector theory and practice • Public diplomacy - modern state management of its reputation abroad • Public diplomacy - useless unless it has some power to affect the background reputation of the country whose policies it attempts to represent (Anholt) • Since background reputation can only be altered by policies, not by communication, the critical success for public diplomacy is whether its connection to policy making is one-way or two-way (“market feedback”) (Anholt)

9. Country-of-Origin National Identity Academic discipline: Political geography; international relations; political science; cultural anthropology; social psychology; political philosophy; international law; sociology; history Academic discipline: Marketing Consumer behaviour; Advertising and promotional management; Brand management; Export marketing Globalization: homogenization of markets and increasing sense of national identity Lowering of trade barriers between nations Emergence of nation branding as countries turn to brand management techniques in order to compete effectively on the world stage Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

10. Key components: History Language Territory Political regime Architecture Sport Literature Art Religion Education system Icons Landscape Music Food & drink Folklore Nation-brand identity Branded exports Sporting achievements The diaspora Marketing communications Brand ambassadors Cultural artefacts Govt foreign policy Tourism experience Prominent personalities Communicators of nation-brand identity Audiences: Domestic consumers External consumers Domestic firms External firms Inward investors Governments Media Nation-brand image Conceptual model of nation-brand identity and image Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

11. Image-formation factors Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

12. Serbia: challenges and problems • Government has unsustainable bureaucracy (26 Ministries) • Policies are election-driven and externally conditioned • Absorbed and distracted with its own “nationalism” • Addressing and managing global stereotypes about Serbia • Presence of political corruption and other types of corruption • Elite power struggles (fractured, destructive and disruptive politics) • Lack of strategic vision on the part of the country’s ruling elites • How to brand a diverse nation? • Serbia's social and institutional capacity Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

13. A problem manifestation with the brand Serbia: Serbia in 2009 East-West Nation Branding Perception Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

14. Restoring the value balance: prerequisites and tools Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada • Understand causes and consequences of Serbia’s Value System Imbalance • Reconstruct/Repair Serbian Identity • Harmonize/synchronize “old” (Serbia) and/with “new” Serbia • Harmonize and synchronize “East” and “West” within Serbia • Develop a different context for interaction between (strategic) culture and government • Change the nature and type of transactions between branches of government (legislative, executive, judicial) • Develop and experiment with models and policies for restoring Serbia’s Value System Imbalance

15. A New Constitutional Nation Branding-Enabled Model (Pesic, 2005, 2007) Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

16. Head of State/ GovernmentNation Brand Manager Public sector organizations Private sector organizations Citizens Tourism board Inward investment agencydevelopment agency Trade associations Chambers of commerce Diaspora Not-for-profit organizations Nation branding-“friendly” (FIST ) Fully Inclusive Stakeholder approach Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

17. Umbrella brand Endorsed brands Nation-brand Standalone brands Tourism Exports Inward investment Talent attraction Sports Regions Cities Landmarks Products Services Sector-specific Skilled workers University students National teams Clubs Cultural and political figures The nation-brand architecture model (Dnnie 2008) Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

18. Internal nation brand analysis • Internal analysis needs continually to be conducted on a sectoral basis in order to: • Identify existing capabilities • Evaluate the strength of these capabilities • Derive appropriate action points based on the nation-brand capability analysis Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

19. Nation-brand internal analysis – Talent attraction(Adapted from Dinnie 2008) Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

20. Nation-brand internal analysis – Export promotion Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

21. Nation-brand internal analysis – Foreign Direct Investment Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

22. Nation-brand internal analysis - Tourism Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

23. Restoring Serbia’s balance: toward Serbia’s “smart-power” and the Brand Serbia • Establish constitutional and/or legally mandated nation-branding coordinating body (“interface”) • “Nation-Brand Manager/Director” • Appointed by the President and confirmed by the legislature • Broad authority and scope (a widely respected expert, scientific, art, or sport figure • Identify nation-brand values • Develop nation branding literacy program at all educational levels • Develop Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) • Establish and coordinate nation-brand touchpoints Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

24. Restoring Serbia’s balance: toward Serbia’s “smart-power” and the Brand Serbia • Establish, educate and train “nation brand ambassadors” • Establish Nation days and global locations for nation days • Develop sonic nation branding • Promote “emphatic civilization” (Rifkin, 2009) though sustainable development, ethical consumerism and eco-tourism • Include everyone • Narrow Serbia’s identity-image gap Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada

25. Questions? Comments? Thank you! Slobodan Pesic American Public University boban@pesic.com Slobodan Pesic, "Toward Brand Serbia," The International Diaspora Youth Leadership Conference 2010, March 20, 2010, Toronto, Canada