Nation Brand perception and attitude from Citizen and Non-citizen perspectives in Vietnam

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES AND PICTURES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

1.1 An overview on Vietnam
1.2 Research problems and questions
1.3 Objectives of the study
1.4 Relevance of the study
1.5 Research methodology
1.6 Scope and limitations
1.7 Structure of the study

Conclusion

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Nation Branding
2.2 Nation Brand
2.3 Internal vs External Nation image
2.4 Nation Brand Attitude
2.5 Anholt's Hexagon: a conceptual model of Nation Brand's Dimensions
2.6 Measurement of Nation Brand
Conclusion on literature review

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Proposed conceptual framework and hypothesis
3.2 Research methods:
3.3 Preliminary findings of qualitative phase
3.4 Questionnaire design
3.5 Sampling
3.6 Method of Data analysis
Summary of the chapter:

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.1. Characteristics of samples
4.2. Reliability analysis:
4.3 Nation Brand of Vietnam perception by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
4.4 Attitude towards Nation Brand
Summary of the chapter:

CHAPTER 4: MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1. Managerial implications:
5.2 Conclusions
5.3 Limitations of the research
5.4 Suggestions for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

ABSTRACT

This thesis aims to explore the perception and attitude on the Nation Brand of Vietnam from the perspectives of its people and outside residents (hereinafter referred to as Citizens and Non-citizens) based on the Anholt's Hexagon conceptual framework (a Nation Brand framework suggested by Simon Anholt). The study also examined the impact of the elements that make up Nation Brand on the attitude of its audiences.

An online survey approach was used to collect the data with a sample of 436 Vietnamese Citizens and 100 non-citizens. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Multiple Linear Regression then were employed to analyze the data with SPSS software.

Findings of this empirical research indicate that Vietnam is perceived by its Citizens through only Tourism, Political efforts of the government (Governance), People and Export dimensions while all six dimensions of Anholt's Hexagon (People, Tourism, Governance, Investment, Culture, Export) existed in the perception of non-citizens.

Implications also exist for policy makers and stakeholders about the importance of each elements of Nation brand on audiences ’ attitude.

Key words: Place branding , Nation Branding, Nation brand, Nation image, Competitive identity, Vietnam, Nation Brand Index, Anholt's Hexagon

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research thesis has been one of the hardest works in my life so far due to time constraint and its ambitious topic. It could not be done without the sincere support and guidance of many people. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my gratitude for their enthusiasm and kindness:

- Dr. Lan Huong BUI THI, professor at CFVG HCMC, who is more than a co-supervisor of mine. From my MBA learning period, her wisdom and knowledge had inspired me to follow this PhD program. During doing this thesis, she has provided me lots of valuable instructions and materials to help my thesis going in a right direction. Her strict requirements in conducting a research make me more improved both in knowledge and scientific skill.

- Professor Nathalie PRIME from ESCP Europe, who is my supervisor in PhD program. In spite of remote distance, her careful and strict guidance are forced me to complete the thesis at its best.

- All professors in CFVG's PhD program who have opened a new horizon for me in scientific research by their knowledge and patience.

- All experts and focus group participants who spent their valuable time joining my interview.

- All respondents who spent their time in answering my online survey questionnaire and shared it to others on social networks.

- My parents, my family, my colleagues and my PhD intake 5 classmates at

CFVG who have always encouraged and motivated me in hard times.

HCMC, 10th June 2016

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Nation Branding definitions

Table 2.2 Nation Brand definitions

Table 2.3 A comparison of a Nation Brand, Product Brand and Corporate brand

Table 2.4.1 Dimensions related attributes of CBI

Table 2.4.2 Attributes of Anholt - GfK Roper Nation Brands Index

Table 2.4.3 Measurement item scales of Nation Brand

Table 3.1. Scales of Vietnam Nation Brand

Table 3.2. Scales of Brand Attitude toward Vietnam

Table 4.1.2 Personal characteristics of participants (CITIZEN)

Table 4.1.3 Personal characteristics of participants (Non-CITIZEN)

Table 4.2 Reliability analysis results for dimensions of the study

Table 4.3.1 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) results for Nation Brand of Vietnam in citizens' perception

Table 4.3.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) results for Brand attitude of Citizens

Table 4.4 Revised research model of nation brand (citizens' perception)

Table 4.5.1 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) results for Nation Brand of Vietnam in Non-Citizens' perception

Table 4.5.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis results for Brand attitude of Non-Citizens

Table 4.6.1 Multiple Linear Regression between Dimensions of Nation Brand and Brand Attitude (Citizen)

Table 4.6.2 Multiple Linear Regression between Dimensions of Nation Brand and Brand Attitude (Non-citizens)

LIST OF FIGURES AND PICTURES

Figure 1.1 Vietnam Yearly GDP Growth

Figure 1.2 Int'l tourist arrivals growth rate

Figure 1.3 FDI in Vietnam

Figure 1.4 Vietnam export growth rate

Figure 2.1. Evolution of Branding theories

Figure 2.3 The Anholt's Nation Brand Hexagon

Figure 3.1. Conceptual framework of the study

Figure 5.1 Nation Brand of Vietnam in the perception of its audiences

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CBI: Country Branding Index

DMO: Destination Marketing Organization EFA: Exploratory Factor Analysis FDI: Foreign Direct Investment GDP: Gross National Product KMO: Kaiser - Mayer - Olkin NBI: Nation Branding Index Sig: Observed significance level

SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

INTRODUCTION

Nation (or Country) branding is an important concept in today’s world which obtained the concern of many governments in the world. Due to the globalization, countries have to compete each other to attract investment inwards, tourists, talents as well as to boost their exports (Dinnie, 2004). Nation branding through practices of many countries such as Korea, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand... has been proved as an efficient tool for a successful competition in the world market.

Anholt (2003) the father of "Nation branding" concept, in his book "Brand New Justice: the upside of global branding" asserted that Nation Branding is a survival tool for developing countries creating new development dynamics.

Nation Branding, theorefore, has got lots of attentions of academics in the world. (Kaneva, 2011) found 186 articles on nation branding were published between 1997 and August 2009. However, due to the complexity and diversity of nation branding in real world, Dinnie (2004) concluded that this topic currently is a controversial phenomenon with too much practices but little theories.

It is required that more academic and empirical studies to be conducted to create more knowledge over the topic, especially on the cases of developing and transitional countries. In this respect, this thesis hopes to contribute more to the research field of Nation Branding with findings from the reality of Vietnam.

1.1 An overview on Vietnam

30 years after “Doi Moi” (i.e. Renovation), Vietnam basically transited into the market economy from the old system of centrally planned economy which strongly associated with communism doctrine. The country is also known as one of the most dynamic emerging economies in East Asia region. Viet Nam is also deeper integrating into the global economy, especially via comprehensive free trade agreements as WTO, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Those will bring various opportunities and challenges for the country in a more competitive environment.

However, Vietnam economy has been facing with many challenges on the path of development. As we can see in the figure 1.1, in the first 20 years of Doi Moi, the country witnessed the high growth rate but from 2006 until now (2015), under the bad effect of world crisis and inside reasons, the country could not maintain the high growth.

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Figure 1.1 Vietnam Yearly GDP Growth

Source: Vietnam General Statistics Office

In recent years, statistical figures on many main aspects of the economy: number of international tourist arrivals, FDI attraction, Export values… have shown a declined tendency.

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Figure 1.2 Int'l tourist arrivals growth rate

Source: Author's own elaboration from data source of Ministry of Culture, Sport & Tourism of Vietnam

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Figure 1.3 FDI in Vietnam

The above figured shows that in 2014-2015 the FDI attraction is not only decrease in newly registered capital and number of projects but also in the amount of additionally financed projects.

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Figure 1.4 Vietnam export growth rate

Apart from the situation of declined tendency in export, Vietnam’s export is also facing a problem of heavily focusing on low price, small-scale, poor quality markets with non-brand name products. As a results, the export volume is higher year by year but the export value decreased correspondingly because of reduced selling price.

The trust of foreign markets on Vietnam products, labors…also goes down due to bad manner of Vietnamese exporters and workers... All those facts, in the author's subjective view, are making up a negative image of Vietnam as a whole and will result in the decline of Vietnam competitiveness in the global market in the future.

Nation Branding can be a useful tool for Vietnam to increase the competitiveness as recommended by experts. However, in Vietnam, the concept of "Nation Branding” is still an unfamiliar concept. Empirical researches and publications in this research area are very limited. In reviewing documents and materials concerning this topic available in Vietnam, the author found that Nation Branding is not paid appropriate attention as its importance by Vietnamese researchers and policy makers.

In practice, while Nation branding is defined by Fan (2006) as a an comprehensive task with the aim of creating reputational capital (soft power) via economic, political and social interest promotion efforts both inside and out of the country but it has been misunderstood and carried out as a promotional communication campaign for national tourism only by Vietnamese Government. And even in such communication campaign, there no clear and coherent images are projected to the public. Vietnam has branded its tourism as ‘Hidden Charm’ then "Timeless Charm" with no empirical evidence that encapsulates Vietnam’s nation brand image.

Another issue in the reality of Vietnam Nation Branding is: people and organizations has tried to promote their products, services and country's images as best they can but not a coordinated way:

- The Tourism Administration of Vietnam promotes the country to foreign tour operators and travelers
- The Trade and Investment Promotion Administration of Vietnam promotes the country to foreign enterprises and investors
- the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presents its policies to overseas publics and sometimes attempts to manage the national reputation as a whole.
- Vietnam's exporters promote their products and services abroad.
- Vietnam' citizens share on social networks everything about the country.

With the above manners, Vietnam could send unclear, incoherent and contradictory image of itself to the outside world.

1.2 Research problems and questions

The topic of nation branding have too little academic theories in comparison with practices happened in the real world (Dinnie, 2008). Findings in the previous researches in the world shown that the phenomenon of Nation Brand changes their characteristics subject to the context of each country. That is the reason why there is no a robust theory of place branding (un umbrella term for city, region, nation branding) has been developed. (Tiwari & Bose, 2013)

In term of methodology, Tiwari and Bose (2013) also claimed that most of the previous works on Place Branding (including Nation Branding) applied qualitative approach which seems be sermonizing. Most studies on Nation Branding are written in the form of business- style as case studies on nations’ campaign efforts which are less of academic evidence (Kaneva, 2011)

Therefore, there is a strong requirement for quantitative analysis in developing quantifiable models, identifying the dimensions and their attributes.

Thus, with above problems, to get deeper understanding this phenomenon in the context of Vietnam this study will apply both qualitative and quantitative methods to find answers for those central research questions:

1. What are key dimensions and attributes that make up the Nation Brand of Vietnam in the perception of its audiences: citizens and non-citizens?
2. What are the difference in the perception of two group of audiences?
3. What are the relevant components of Nation Brand of Vietnam that impact the audiences' attitude?

1.3 Objectives of the study

This study is also made with the following objectives:

to test the validity of Anholt's Hexagon conceptual framework in the case of Vietnam. to explore the main factors and attributes of the Nation Brand of Vietnam in the perception of its audiences: citizens and non-citizens

to examine the impact of the perception of Nation Brand towards audiences’ attitude To find evidence to develop the theoretical framework for further research in future.

1.4 Relevance of the study

This research will help to expand the understanding of Nation Branding and Place Branding which is "practitioner-led" with more academic evidences. Especially, as a transitional country as well as an emerging economy, the study of this topic on Vietnam will also contribute new implications for the research area.

As practical contribution, study through its literature review part, will also provide an overall deeper understanding about the topic and its evolution over time. As stated in the overview part, Nation Branding will be a useful tool for Vietnam for solve its current problems. Finding of this study will provide evidence and background for a comprehensive and coherent Nation Branding Strategy to create a “soft power” and increase the competitiveness for the country in the world market.

1.5 Research methodology

This study was conducted with two phases as following:

(1) Qualitative phase: Expert In-depth interview, focus groups were conducted to explore specific issues and attributes on Nation Brand in Vietnam context. Those interviews have been used to set preliminary and general conclusions. Then, a structured questionnaire for a quantitative phase was constructed relying on those conclusions and suggestions in previous literature.

(2) Quantitative phase: The questionnaire is made in two languages (Vietnamese for Citizen audiences and English for non-citizen ones). Convenience sampling is used to distribute questionnaires online via Google Docs. Data is analyzed by SPSS.20 software on Macintosh OS.

1.6 Scope and limitations

This study is an empirical research focusing mainly on "Nation Brand perception", the most important concept in Nation Branding with the approach "Nation as brand".

However, due to the time constraint scope of research focus on exploring and examine key factors that make up the perception of audiences on the Nation Brand of Vietnam. Other factors that can impact the shaping the perceptions temporarily not be considered.

The examination of the impact of Brand perception on Brand Attitude is only at exploration purposes. Sample size of non-citizen audiences is limited at 100.

Those preliminary findings will be used for further more complex conceptualized

frameworks in my future PhD dissertation within an estimated time 2016 - 2018.

1.7 Structure of the study

The research includes Introduction and 4 chapters. Introduction provides business background, statement of problems, the objectives of the study, the research questions, scope and limitations of the research. Chapter 1 presents a preliminary Literature Review, which provides us background theories and points of view concerning the research area of Nation Brand. Chapter 2 describes the research methods that will be used to explore the issues in Nation Branding in perception of citizen and non-citizen audiences and it is explained how these methods were executed. Chapter 3 reveals Data analysis findings by Exploratory Factor Analysis and Multivariable Regression method and their implications. Chapter 4 ends the research by laying out Managerial implications for Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) and Policy makers of Vietnam and recommendations for further studies.

Conclusion

In this chapter, the author has described clearly objectives of thesis which is an exploratory study to understand the nation branding and its relevant key concepts which was conceptualized through a review of the literature. The author also shared the statement of the problems in Nation branding which leads to 3 research questions that shall be solved via this thesis.

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review here focuses on Nation branding which is an evolution from traditional branding. The different definitions will be described and explained to clarify the essence of various concepts including nation brand, nation brand identity, nation brand image and its dimensions. The main purpose of reviewing previous researches is to helps conceptualize an appropriate research framework for the context of Vietnam.

2.1 Nation Branding

During the past two decades, under pressure of globalization, a competition among corporates to win customers' pockets had amplified to a larger scale. Countries had to compete each other for FDI, international tourist, export markets and high quality human resources. Those countries consciously applied Brand management into nation image promotion. Dinnie (2008) pointed out that Nation Branding emerged as nations used Brand Management to effectively compete in the world market.

Before discussing about Nation Branding and Nation Brand, we should understand key concepts of traditional branding which was very familiar in modern marketing. Aaker (1996) defined that a brand is a multidimensional construct consisting of functional, emotional, relational and strategic elements which jointly generate a unique set of associations in the customers' mind. Easier to understanding is the definition of Kotler and Armstrong (2010) that brands are impressions and feelings of consumers about a product or service. Brand is the trust, the quality commitment to customers about the products and services that they buy (Kotler). According to Anholt (2003) “brand help saving consumers time, effort and worry” because the trust of the brand name provides a form of guarantee for quality, the reputation of a company. Accordingly, branding means to create positive images and associations about a brand (Jaffe & Nebenzahl, 2001). Authors generally agree on the fact that branding is an effective tool for differentiation and this differentiation is necessary in a competitive market environment (Keller & Sood, 2003), (Philip Kotler & Armstrong, 2010; P Kotler & Haider, 1997).

Simon Anholt (1998) who initiated the concept of Nation Branding concept, stressed that brand can make to create intangible value. This value lies under the quality and reliability as a guarantee about the reputation of products and services in consumer's perception. For Anholt, Nation Branding is an extension of Place Branding which is tool to help countries, states, regions or cites to build a stronger and better image/reputation in the perception of their stakeholders (inhabitants, local entrepreneurs, investors, tourists, visitors, public administration, political parties, national and international NGO’s).

In fact, before the term Nation Branding become familiar, Kotler and Levy (1969) in the article entitled "Broadening the Concept of Marketing” had introduced the concept of "Place Marketing". Kotler (1993) developed his of "Place Marketing" concept which includes the ’place branding’. In this approach, "place" refers to a nation, a region or a state, a place with cultural connections, cities with big population, market with special attributes, or relations among people. Its stakeholders are towns, countries or tourist destinations and its customers are tourists, visitors and/or investors.

In place branding literature, authors asserted that products/corporates branding disciplines are applicable for cities, states and nations. Keller (2003) suggested the possibility of branding countries in his book, noting “geographic location also can be branded, and increased mobility of both people and businesses and growth in the tourism industry have contributed to the rise of place marketing. “any nation can be viewed as a brand, as it can be viewed as a compound of contemporary and historical associations that have relevance for marketing” (O’Shaughnessy, 2000).

According to Fan (2010), the origin of Nation Branding can be traced from four streams: Country of origin (Heslop & Papadoplous, 2002); place/destination branding (Gertner & Kotler, 2002), public diplomacy (Fan, 2008 & Melissen, 2005) and national identity (Bond, et al. 2001).

For Fan (2006), Countries of Origin focuses its attentions in the impact of country's product images on the behavior of customers; place/destination branding is broadening their concerns on more economics goals (export, tourism and investment attractions). Nation branding is the highest evolution of branding theories which concern a nation's whole image in the international stage covering economic, politic and cultural dimensions (Fan, 2010; Anholt, 2008; Dinnie, 2008). Dinnie (2007) pointed out five objectives of nation branding: promoting tourism, boosting export, attracting investment inward, increasing internationally political influence and managing negative stereotypes.

With this approach, we can say that, Nation Branding is the highest evolution stage of Branding theories so far, as depicted in the figure 2.1 below:

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Figure 2.1. Evolution of Branding theories

Source: (Dinnie, 2008)

It is commonly agreed that nation can be branded. However, the definition on nation branding is still controversial issue with different interpretations as shown in the table 2.1 below:

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Table 2.1 Nation Branding definitions

Source: Compiled by author

2.2 Nation Brand

Although there is divergence in the understanding of nation branding, a common point in the above definitions show that the central task of of nation branding is to build/promote/change the 'nation image/reputation' by marketing and branding technique. This imply that nation brand mean nation image in the perception of its stakeholder.

About this point, Fan (2010) argued that every nation itself is a brand with or without any conscious efforts. However, that brand image in its international audience's perception may be strong or weak, clear or faint (Fan, 2006). Anholt (2005) also shared a similar opinion that every country has a unique name and images in the mind of people both inside and outside the country, so a nation does have brands.

Florek (2005) argued that nation brand is a symbolic-oriented perspective such as a name or visual system, which is based on the American Marketing Association (AMA)’s definition but encompassing a nation’s reality and stakeholders’ perceptions. We can refer to more definitions in the table 2.2 below:

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Table 2.2 Nation Brand definitions

Source: Compiled by author

From the above definition we see that, similar to products or corporate brand, Nation brand actually are the sum of perception of people about elements of a nation. However, a nation is a complicated and multi-stakeholder product. Many elements in nation brand are out of the control of branding management and it is not easy to change them in short term.

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Table 2.3 A comparison of a Nation Brand, Product Brand and Corporate brand

Source: Fan (2010)

From the above comparison, we can realize nation branding is achallenging task because nation brand is a multifaceted and complex construct with many uncontrolled variables. Establishing or changing a nation brand need a great amount of time and great efforts (Lebedenko 2004). For Anholt (2008), nation brand cannot be built easily through communications, and it cannot be changed through communications. Anholt later has renamed the concept "Nation Brand" as "Competitive identity” which can be understood as a framework for boosting competitiveness of the country by using both public diplomacy and brand management due to this reason.

However, nation branding is not a myth. Successful practices in many countries shown that nation brand can be changed through diligent management despite of challenges (Fan, 2006). Lately, Fan (2010) also suggested to use “Nation image management” instead of Nation Branding.

2.3 Internal vs External Nation image

Simon Anholt (2007) recommended that the first step to create Nation Brand (or 'Competitive Identity' as lately used by Anholt), we need to understand how people’s perceptions of the country are formed in four perspectives:

- What and how things have been done in the country.
- What and how things are made in the country
- How people in the country thinks of itself
- How people in other countries thinks of the country.

Numerous works in the literature focused on the way the citizens of a country see themselves which is mentioned as 'internal nation image'. Vice versa, 'external nation image' is what people think of another country. (Szeles, 1996; Barát, 1997; Piskóti et.al., 1997; Kozma, 2000; Georgescu - Botescu, 2004).

For Anholt (2007), the citizens’ own perception of their nation brand (internal image) is a powerful driver of the external image. For this reason, it is very important to examine how the citizens of a country ranks its own nation brand, and to see whether there are any links between this and the way in which other countries rank it. The comparison of perceptions from two different perspectives is one of the compulsory tasks in Nation Branding practices.

Ursache (2003) noted that national branding is aimed improving one nation’s image in the eyes of foreigners but it is equally important to do same thing with nation’s own people because in long-term, a nation image is perceived by foreigners also through its citizens.

For Fan (2006), the internal image is even more important than external image because it reflect more truly about the essence of a nation brand. Based on the internal image, the policy makers will choose which image can be used as Nation brand identity to project to outside world. For him, there are always a gap between the internal and external image. One of the task of Nation Brand Management is to fill this gap.

2.4 Nation Brand Attitude

In psychology, attitude is the most abstract and the highest level-type of association. According to Keller and Lehmann (2006), brand attitude is formed and influenced by any direct or indirect contact that a consumer has with a brand. Brand attitude can be also defined as consumers' overall evaluation of a brand whether it is good or bad (Olson & Mitchell, 1975). There is a link between brand image and people' attitudes. Tse and Gorn (1993) stated that people tend to perceive and respond to the brand images which shape their attitudes and behaviors.

Nation brand attitude is an extended concept from brand management. With the same approach that a nation can be branded, attitudes toward product brands can be applied to attitudes toward a country. Although a nation consists of much complicated elements than normal products but such an attitudinal approach is appropriate to explore marketing implications of a nation brand (Jun, 2007). With this approach, Nation brand attitude can be defined as the overall evaluation of citizens and international people of nation brand whether it is good or bad. Studies about attitudes towards a nation indicate that a positive brand perception is likely to result in positive attitude (T. Passow, Fehlmann, & Grahlow, 2005). It impacts the decision to stay and continued commitment (Wong, 2004). Bramwell and Rawding (1996) and Knight and Calantone (2000) argued that Place image is one of the main factors affecting public's attitudes about a place.

There are less number of previous studies focusing measurement of attitude towards nation brand instead most researchers paid their attention on the attitude towards 'country of origin' (Jun, 2007) which connecting to the product purchasing behaviors. Sparks and Pan (2009) in measuring the attitude towards a destination, suggested to use direct statement "What is your attitude towards tourism of China?" with answering choices: unenjoyable/enjoyable, bad/good, foolish/fun, unpleasant/pleasant, Nguyen et al., (2013), Passow et al., 2005, suggested a country can evaluate the attitude of its people with measures scales with terms ‘like/dislike’, "good for", "favorable for": I like [Country].

I respect [Country]. I trust [Country].

Have a good feeling about [Country]

2.5 Anholt's Hexagon: a conceptual model of Nation Brand's Dimensions

As mentioned in many literatures, Nation Branding domain is in need urgently more conceptual and theories development Fan (2010). In 1996, Simon Anholt introduced a model where the six factors on a hexagon which he believed affecting a Nation Brand. It can be considered as the first and the only conceptual model on Nation Brand which until now is commonly accepted by most of practitioners and academics.

For Anholt (2007), most countries communicate with the rest of the world, and so deliberately or accidentally create their reputation through six natural channels:

1. Tourism promotion, as well as people’s first-hand experience of visiting the country as tourists or business travelers. This is often the loudest voice in “branding” the nation, as the tourist board usually has the biggest budgets and the most competent marketers.

2. Export brands, which act as powerful ambassadors of each country’s image abroad,

but only where their country of origin is explicit: if nobody knows where a product comes from, then it can’t affect their feelings about that country, but when its provenance is strongly branded, such as Mercedes (Made in Germany) or Sony (Made in Japan) or Red Stripe (Made in Jamaica), it can speak just as loudly as tourism campaigns.

3. The policy decisions of the country’s government, whether it is foreign policy that

directly affects overseas populations, or domestic policy that gets reported in the international media.

4. For business audiences, the way the country solicits inward investment, recruitment of foreign talent and students, and expansion into the country by foreign companies. 5. Through cultural exchange and cultural activities: a world tour by a sports team, the recordings of a famous musician, the works of poets and authors and film-makers. Even a cultural product as lightweight as Crocodile Dundee or Madagascar can play a role in building the reputation of a nation, whether for better or worse. 6. The people of the country: governmental leaders and media and sports stars, as well as all the citizens; The image of People is shown in the way people behave when abroad and treat visitors to their countries.

Nation Brand can therefore be analyzed as along these six factors: (1) tourism, (2) export brands, (3) government policies, (4) foreign investment development, (5) cultural activity (6) behavior of its people which visually depicted in the figure 2.2:

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Figure 2.2 The Anholt's Nation Brand Hexagon

Source: Anholt (2005)

in which:

This conceptual framework later has been used for Anholt-GfK Nation Brand Index (NBI) to measure the global perception of a country. In 2006, Anholt launched his Nation Brands

Index (NBI) where the nation’s brand is measured world-wide. The NBI is an analytical ranking system rated by 25,000 people worldwide who are asked to answer qurestion about their perceptions 50 developed and developing countries concerning the people characterisics, tourism, culture, political effort of goverment, export brands and investment potential of thoese coutries. It is an index of national brand power, a barometer of global opinion. The NBI essentially measures the perception individually in each of these categories. This yearly NBI report gives us some critcal findings (Anholt, 2009):

- The countries with the highest NBI scores are rich countries: the top 15 countries in the list each have a GDP of at least $23,000 per capita.
- Tourism is one of the most important elements of Nation Brand as tourism is often the most visible and most often exhibited aspect of a country.
- There is strong statistical impact of positive experience of visiting a country on the feelings about products, government, culture and people of that country.
- People rank their own "people" elements as the best
- People of a country are strongly interested in People of other countries.

2.6 Measurement of Nation Brand

In previous literature, academic studies with the measurement of Nation Brand are very limited in number. The two most polular tools which measure a Nation brand both come from practical approach rather than the academic literature: the Anholt GfK Roper Nation Brand Index (NBI) and the FutureBrand's Country Brand Index (CBI).

The FutureBrand's Country Brand Index (CBI) 2014-2015, got data from 2,530 opinions of frequent international business or leisure travellers in 17 countries by asking their perception on 118 countries across six dimensions and their related attributes:

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Table 2.4.1 Dimensions related attributes of CBI

Source: FutureBrand's Country Brand Index (CBI) 2014-2015

In the results of CBI, Vietnam was ranked at 69/118 in 2012-2013 and 64/118 in 2014-2015. However, the author was not able to access to full descriptions.

The Anholt - GfK Roper Nation Brands Index : the Nation Brand Index score is an average of the scores from six dimensions of Anholt's hexagon. Each dimension consists of between 3 and 5 questions resulting in a total 23 attributes. Ratings are made from 1 to 7; 5 is the middle position which is neither positive nor negative. A word choice question which help the respondents show their perception on nation brand in words is included in each dimension. Regretly, NBI did not included Vietnam in the list. The 23 attributes were used under 6 dimensions of NBI are shown in the table 2.4

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Table 2.4.2 Attributes of Anholt - GfK Roper Nation Brands Index

Source: GfK Roper Nation Brands Index (2014)

In author's opinion, although these indexes are widely used by many countries but they are limited for academic implications due to their non-academic methodology with subjective questions applied equally for all country. Their results can only used as a secondary data sources for academic research.

In academic literatures, the measurement of Nation Image mainly focused in image of tourism or nation image as whole but for tourism marketing purposes (Fetscherin, Dinnie, &

Melewar, 2010), (Jenes, 2012). Following technique in Destination Branding, most of nation brand/image analyses different attributes subject to the context of each nation and the research purposes. Specific attributes of each nation are found via explorative method such as focus groups or in depth interview. Then a structured questionnaire with found attributes is asked to answer to rate these dimensions in standardized scales of semantic differential scales or Likert scales (5 or 7). By this way, the result will reflect objectively the context of each country. The table 2.4 shows full list of attributes summarized and categorized into Anholt's Hexagon dimensions by the author based on sources from Che Ha (2016):

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Table 2.4.3 Measurement item scales of Nation Brand

Conclusion on literature review

In this chapter, through the evolution of Brand concepts, I have introduced the concept of Nation branding, Nation Brand. Especially, with the Anholt's Hexagon conceptual model, dimensions of Nation Brand and its attributes also presented. The author also looks into the literature about how to measure a Nation Brand. Its explained that the Nation Brand is an important but sophisticated object to study and subjects to changes of the reality of study nations. It is also necessary to explore the perception and attitude toward a Nation Brand on two different perspectives of citizens and non-citizens. The perception of citizens is very importance because it will be a key factor to "Live the brand" to non-citizens.

The author also realized that, Vietnam is a transitional country with different conditions and characteristics. Therefore, the Nation Brand will have different dimensions and attributes. The Anholt's hexagon possibly shall be modified to meet the real conditions. A qualitative method should be applied to find specific differences out of the previous literature before conducting further quantitative research.

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter is one of the most important parts of the thesis. It describes the research methods that will be used to explore the underlying issues of Nation Brand in Vietnam and it is explained how these methods were executed. This chapter highlights how the research problem was examined, how the data were selected from the participants and how the procedure was implemented. The chapter concludes with the statistical techniques utilized for the data analysis.

3.1 Proposed conceptual framework and hypothesis

Based on conclusion the Literature Review, I proposed to apply the Anholt's Hexagon as the theoretical framework for this empirical research which show in the figure 3.1 below:

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Figure 3.1. Conceptual framework of the study

Based on the above model and findings of previous literature, we will examine the relation of Nation Brand elements with its audiences' attitude by proposing the research hypothesis for the case of Vietnam as follows:

H1: People dimension is positively related to citizens/non-citizens' attitude H2: Culture dimension is positively related to citizens/non-citizens' attitude.

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