Nation Branding: An Analysis of Serbia’s Brand Identity
Brendiranje nacije: Analiza brend identiteta Srbije
Abstract
In less than a century, Serbia has changed its name several times and was part of a number of states. As a result of turbulent political and social past, the newly formed Republic of Serbia and its nation began the process of finding the nation’s identity. Like other former Yugoslav countries, Serbia was faced with challenges of nation positioning, and a need to improve its image and reputation. In addition to the significantly deteriorated image, Serbia encountered perhaps a bigger problem internally – a vague, inconsistent and somewhat confused perception of Serbia’s identity seen through the eyes of its nation. The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the current position of Serbia, since it has a chance for rebirth as well as separation from the legacy of the past times through the implementation of the nation branding concept. This paper deals with the understanding and analysis of nation brand identity as the starting point for Serbia brand development. Internal and external online research was conducted to determine the current perception of nation brand identity. The external survey examined the attitudes and opinions of the most important external stakeholders of Serbia, members of the business class in Italy, Austria and Slovenia. On the other hand, the internal part of the study focused on responses from members of the Serbian nation. The research was conducted over a period of three and a half years, in four countries with a total of 4,656 responses collected. By means of descriptive statistics the perception of the following brand identity elements was examined: brand personality, character, symbols, name, slogan and culture. The results indicated the existence of peculiarities in the perception of brand identity elements which can be seen in three aspects: perception discrepancy, matching perception and lack of knowledge. The greatest contribution of the paper is reflected in the fact that an insight into organized knowledge of brand in the minds of the most important internal and external stakeholders Serbia is gained for the first time.
Apstrakt
Za nepun vek, Srbija je promenila ime nekoliko puta i bila deo više državnih tvorevina. Kao posledica turbuletne političke i društvene prošlosti, novoformirana Republika Srbija i njena nacija otpočele su proces pronalaženja svog identiteta. Slično kao i pred ostalim državama bivše Jugoslavije, pred Srbijom su se našli izazovi pozicioniranja nacije, unapređenja imidža i reputacije. Pored značajno narušenog imidža, Srbija se suočila i sa možda većim problemom interno – nejasnom, nekonzistentnom i pomalo zbunjujućom precepcijom identiteta Srbije od strane pripadnika nacije. Cilj ovog rada je sticanje uvida u trenutnu poziciju Srbije, koja svoju šansu za preporod kao i odvajanje od nasleđa prošlog vremena može da pronađe u primeni koncepta brendiranja nacije. Predmet ovog rada odnosi se na razumevanje i analizu brend identiteta nacije kao polazne osnove za razvoj brenda Srbije. U svrhu utvrđivanja trenutne percepcije brend identiteta, sprovedeno je interno i eksterno onlajn istraživanje. Eksternim istraživanjem ispitivani su stavovi i mišljenja najznačajnijih eksternih stejkholdera Srbije, pripadnika poslovne klase u Italiji, Austriji i Sloveniji, dok je u istraživanju interne percepcije fokus bio na odgovorima pripadnika srpske nacije. Istraživanje je sprovedeno u periodu od tri i po godine, u četiri države i ukupno je prikupljeno 4.656 odgovora. Upotrebom deskriptivne statistike analizirana je percepcija elemenata brend identiteta: ličnost, karakter, simboli, ime, slogan i kultura brenda. Dobijeni rezultati uputili su na postojanje osobenosti u percepciji elemenata brend identiteta koje se mogu sagledati kroz tri aspekta: nepodudaranje percepcija, podudaranje percepcija i neposedovanje znanja. Najveći doprinos rada ogleda se u činjenici da je po prvi put stečen uvid u organizovano znanje o brendu u svesti internih i najvažnijih eksternih stejkholdera Srbije.
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