Nation Branding Indexes and Reports

NATION BRANDING INDEXES

1. What do the nation branding indexes measure?
   They measure the perception of countries and territories in leading media around the world.
2. How do the indexes measure perceptions?
   The indexes are based on determining the tonality, positive and negative, of mentions of countries and territories in news articles, over a given period (quarterly and annually). The tone, of coverage is determined by an algorithm that detects grammatical associations (not just proximity) of terms with the names of the places being analyzed, based on a lexicon of over 16,000 words and phrases.
3. What media do you use for your research?
   The indexes are based on a selection of several dozen leading news sources from around the world, including major international and regional publications.
4. Are your indexes qualitative or quantitative measurements?
   Both. Our indexes rank countries based on the tone and frequency of mentions in the media. The volume ranking lists countries by the number or mentions they received in a given period. Volume of mentions reflects the strength of the brand, but not necessarily the quality.
5. What is the difference between your annual and quarterly indexes?
   Our annual indexes provide long-term measurement of international perceptions of nations' brands, and hence reflect brand value fundamentals. Our quarterly indexes reflect short-term changes in perceptions that may or may not affect long-term value but nevertheless indicate the impact of policies and events on international perceptions of nations' brands.
6. Why do index results vary from quarter to quarter?
   Major events, or even specific policy changes by governments, can have an impact on the tone of coverage in international media. For example, in the third quarter of 2008, China's hosting of the Olympic Games in Beijing improved its rank dramatically, whereas Russia's invasion of Georgia caused a sharp drop in its rank, and the financial crisis in America had a similarly negative impact on the US ranking.
7. Are the indexes protected from possible conflicts of interest with your clients?
   Yes. East West Communications has contracted Perception Metrics to analyze all data and prepare the indexes for the public and the reports for our clients. Perception Metrics is a leader in media analysis, and uses its proprietary technology (and human analyst review) to conduct the research.
   

NATION BRANDING REPORTS

8. Why is analyzing brand perceptions important?
   Perceptions drive decision-making. By knowing how others view your brand you can address your weaknesses and build on your strengths, to increase your success as a nation. East West Nation Branding Reports provide the detailed analysis that can be helpful to governments. For details on our reports, see: http://eastwestcoms.com/reports_sample.htm.
9. Do media reports reflect brand value accurately?
   Not necessarily in the short term, but over time media perceptions of countries tend to reflect overall brand value. A cross-section of media will cover a cross-section of a nation, from its people and culture to its economy, business environment and tourism. The composite identity will register over time through repetition in media coverage. This is why it is useful for governments to manage their brands by shaping images and messages that they want to project to target audiences around the world.
10. How are your indexes and reports useful for governments??
    The data we provide can be used directly in shaping policies, initiating promotions and creating effective messaging. Countries have long wanted to know how they are viewed by the rest of the world. This has never been easy to determine. To some extent, embassies can serve as the 'eyes and ears' of a country by monitoring public opinion or government policies towards their country in other countries, but at best this is a subjective process. Another option is clipping services, but here again it is difficult to absorb more than a relatively small selection of global coverage. In today's media universe, with tens of thousands of outlets and diverse distribution channels, analyzing clippings can never be a very complete or comprehensive process. With our perception indexes and related reports, the analysis is comprehensive. Mass media multiply perceptions insofar as they communicate information and views (including bias) to wide audiences. Millions of media mentions reach hundreds of millions of media consumers.
11. How are your reports customized?
    Each client has specific needs and we are able to customize our reports to meet most of those needs. We can prepare perception reports for countries, states, regions, cities, sectors, industries and personalities. We can also compare these with competitors. We can report on perceptions globally, or in specific countries or regions, such as Europe, or sub-regions, such as West Europe or Southeast Europe.
12. Who can make use of nation branding reports?
    Among those who can make the best use of nation branding reports are national governments, state and city governments, embassies and tourism, investment and trade promotion boards, and institutions or companies serving such bodies or organizations, including branding, communications, advertising and public relations companies.
    

COSTS

13. What do you charge for your reports?
    Our Nation Branding Snapshots and Reports are priced based on the customizations requested by clients. Contact us to get a quote.