• demonstrate understanding of the socio-political and market-related context of the selected problem
• demonstrate ability to analyse a selected problem within one of the main thematic areas of the course
• demonstrate ability to base the assignment on relevant sources
• demonstrate ability to choose and apply relevant concepts and methods to the selected problem
• demonstrate ability to present the problem in a logical and organised manner in accordance with the academic genre and language

Seemingly everything needs to be branded these days and what does not have a competitive identity does not have a future! This course will take a closer look at the phenomenon of place branding, i.e. how notions of branding and image management are applied to nations, regions and cities and even to supranational entities as e.g. Scandinavia. These places all compete for tourists, trade, investments and talent, and for that purpose they rely on having an attractive brand to be competitive in a globalized world. A lot of resources are spent on branding efforts - from tourist campaigns to public diplomacy efforts of governments - and indexes and rankings are produced; but are the resources well-spent and are the rankings reliable? The course will have a double focus on case studies of different countries, cities and regions including a number of guest lectures from specialists on the one hand, and on more theoretically focused sessions on the other, where we will critically consider if and how place branding is possible, whether (nation) brands can be measured and whether branding campaigns are likely to be good value for money. We will also consider how mega-events such as the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup or Tour de France may be used in a place branding context. There will be a possibility to hand in and have comments on up to four written assignments during the course.

Aharoni, Ido and Grinstein, Amir (2017). How to (re)position a country? A case study of the power of micro-marketing Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 13(4), 293-307.

Anholt, Simon (2005). Anholt Nation Brands Index: How Does the World See America? Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 45(3), 296-304.

Anholt, Simon (2010). Places: Identity, Image and Reputation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Online CBS Library).

Aronczyk, Melissa (2013) Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity. Oxford University Press. (Online CBS Library).

Cassinger, Cecilia, Merkelsen, Henrik, Eksell, Jörgen & Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard (2016). Translating public diplomacy and nation branding in Scandinavia: An institutional approach to the cartoon crises. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 172-186.

Chalip, Laurence and Costa, Carla A. (2005) Sport Event Tourism and the Destination Brand: Towards a General Theory, Sport in Society, 8(2), 218-237.

Clerc, Louis, Glover, Nikolas & Jordan, Paul (eds.), Histories of Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding in the Nordic and Baltic Countries: Representing the Periphery. Leiden and Boston: Brill Nijhoff (Online CBS Library).

Cull, Nicholas J. (2010). Public diplomacy: Seven lessons for its future from its past. Place Branding and public diplomacy, vol. 6(1), 11-17.

Dinnie, Keith (2008). Nation Branding: Concepts,Issues, Practice. London and New York: Routledge. (Online CBS Library).

Dinnie, Keith (ed.) (2011). City Branding: Theory and Cases. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Online CBS Library).

Falkheimer, Jesper (2016). Place branding in the Øresund region: From a transnational region to a bi-national city-region. Place branding and public diplomacy 2016.

Fan, Ying (2006). Branding the nation: What is being branded? Journal of Vacation Marketing, vol. 12(1), 5-14.

Gilmore, Fiona (2002). A country – can it be repositioned? Spain – the success story of country branding. Brand Management, vol. 9(4-5), 281-293.

Grix, Jonathan (ed.)(2014). Leveraging Legacies from Sports Mega-Events: Concepts and Cases. Basingstoke, GB: Palgrave Macmillan (Online CBS Library).

Kaneva, Nadia (2011). Nation branding: Toward an Agenda for Critical Research. International Journal of Communication, 5, 117-141.

Kavaratzis, Mihalis; Warnaby, Gary; and Ashworth, Gregory J. (eds.) (2015). Rethinking Place Branding: Comprehensive Brand Development for Cities and Regions. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Knott, Brendon; Fyall, Alan and Jones, Ian (2016). Leveraging nation branding opportunities through sport mega-events. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 10(1), 105-118.

Leonard, Mark (1997). Britain TM: Renewing our identity. London: Demos. Available at: http:/​/​www.demos.co.uk/​files/​britaintm.pdf

MacRury, Iain & Poynter, Gavin (2010). ‘Team GB’ and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities. The International Journal of the History of sport, vol. 27(16-18), 2958-2975.

Magnus, Johannes (2016). International branding of the Nordic region. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 195-200.

Melissen, Jan (ed.), The New Public Diplomacy: Soft power in International Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (Online CBS Library).

Nordic Council of Ministers (2015). Strategy for International Branding of the Nordic Region 2015-2016: The Nordic Perspective. http:/​/​norden.diva-portal.org/​smash/​get/​diva2:783406/​FULLTEXT01.pdf

Noya, Javier (2007). From Sun to Crescent: Spain’s Current Image in the Unites States, Turkey and the European Union. Working Paper. Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano.

Pamment, James (2014). The 2012 Olympics and Its Legacies: State, Citizen, and the Corporate Mobilizations of the Olympic Spirit. International Journal of Communication, vol. 8, 2578-2596.

Pamment, James (2015). ‘Putting the GREAT Back into Britain’: National Identity, Public-Private Collaboration & Transfers of Brand Equity in 2012’s Global Promotional Campaign. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, vol. 17(2), 260-283.

Pamment, James (2016). Introduction: Why the Nordic region? Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 91-98.

Poynter, Gavin & MacRury, Iain (eds.) (2009). Olympic Cities: 2012 and the Remaking of London. Farnham: Ashgate.

Ren, Carina & Szilvia Gyimóth (2013). Transforming and contesting nation branding strategies: Denmark at the Expo 2010. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 9(1), 17-29.

Rius, Joaquim & Mariano Martín (2015). Spain’s nation branding project Marca España and its cultural policy: the economic and political instrumentalization of a homogeneous and simplified cultural image. International Journal of Cultural Policy, vol. 21(1), 20-40.

Saunders, Robert A. (2017). Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm. London and New York: Routledge.

Stubbs, Julian (2016). Stockholm the capital of Scandinavia. Ten years on.  Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, vol. 12(2-3), 187-194.

Tomlinson, Alan and Young, Christopher (eds.): National Identity and Global Sports Events – Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup, New York: State University of New York Press.

van Ham, Peter (2001). The Rise of the Brand State: The Postmodern Politics of Image and Reputation. Foreign Affairs, vol. 80(5), 2-6.

Werther (2011). Rebranding Britain: Cool Britannia, the Millenium Dome and the 2012 Olympics. Moderna Språk, vol. 105(1), 1-14.