Newspaper editors love the unveiling of new slogans, particularly when public money has been spent on them. Such occasions offer an easy way for journalists to fill a few columns with spluttering derision regarding the new slogan. It lends itself to readable, populist copy. Very often such negativity may be justified.

However, sometimes the criticism is misplaced. Earlier this week, for example, the media reported how the Scottish Government replaced the previous slogan ‘Scotland – the best small country in the world’ with a new slogan, simply ‘Welcome to Scotland’. Media reaction to this development was muted and underwhelmed, with headlines such as ‘Scotland reveals stunningly dull new slogan’. But such judgements are a tad harsh. The ‘Welcome to Scotland’ slogan is a perfectly good greeting to have for visitors arriving at Scottish airports, which is where the slogan will be placed. It is certainly less provocative than the previous ‘Best small country in the world’ slogan. Some commentators criticise the new slogan for lack of creativity, but that is missing the point. When most travellers arrive somewhere, what they look for is a simple, genuine greeting, not a figment of an ad agency creative’s fevered mind.

The ‘Welcome to Scotland’ slogan at Scottish airports is a step in the right direction. What remains to be seen, however, is whether the Scottish Government are going to develop a comprehensive nation branding strategy, beyond just a few billboards at certain airports. For the past few years there have been numerous very good nation branding-related initiatives and actions in Scotland, but I don’t see much sign of strategic coordination of the country’s overall nation branding. But then again, you could say that of almost every other country in the world. Lack of coordination between the different actors – across the sectors of inward investment, export promotion, tourism, and diplomacy – is inevitable unless the country’s political leadership inspires and supports it.

Went down to Manchester Business School (MBS) Nov 20th to give a guest presentation on nation branding. Thankfully my publishers Butterworth-Heinemann managed to publish the book right on time, for which I am very grateful, so I was able to pass round a copy of it to some of the people at MBS. The audience for my presentation consisted mainly of Masters students, supplemented by a handful of PhD students and faculty. Professor Gary Davies kindly introduced my talk and wrapped things up at the end.

It was a very enjoyable visit to MBS – the audience seemed genuinely interested in the topic and there were some stimulating comments and questions in the Q&A session. One of the Chinese students in the audience raised the point that the western media may be producing a distorted picture of what is going on in China these days, and that judging another country by your own country’s values is a highly subjective thing to do. Another student, this time from Pakistan, observed that the media coverage of Pakistan highlights only the negative events without presenting the full reality of the country, much of which is more positive and inspiring than the image that currently predominates.

The points made by both these students illustrate what I believe is one of the most fundamental justifications for the practice of nation branding, namely, if you as a nation do not brand yourself then somebody else will. That ‘somebody else’ could be foreign media, politicians, Hollywood films, etc. And it’s unlikely that the externally imposed ‘brand’ will be either positive or realistic.

Many thanks to Professor Davies and to PhD student Shalini Vohra for arranging my visit to MBS and for the hospitality on the day.