Nation and place branding is an established professional discipline. So why don’t we apply principles like the establishment of vision, mission, values, behaviours, culture development and leadership development, all components vital for bringing brands to life from within, to the way we engage people with their national brands?

Perhaps there has never really been a “burning platform”? Well, the recent economic crisis that has rocked ideologies like consumerism and the widespread riots in England, for example, may well suggest that we have a constitutional crisis now. Yet we’re obsessing about punishing and policing instead.

Perhaps it’s the fact that we like to believe in self-determinism and so-called free-market thinking and that too much central involvement feels like “nanny state” or “social engineering”? Perhaps. Yet we still have politicians elected on the back of falling voter numbers organising and governing our institutions.

Or perhaps it’s simply that, as residents and citizens, we don’t have enough faith in the way the organisations we work for involve, consult and engage with us (as the plethora of negative data suggests), and consequently reject the same approaches within society? Perhaps, but there’s nothing wrong with those processes and principles, albeit plenty of room for improvement in terms of application.

Whatever the reasons, it’s a sad fact that there is clearly an engagement problem within national and business communities which is damaging some national brands. This is largely the result of an extremely worrying leadership gap:


- Bank leaders paying bonuses indirectly funded by pension shortfalls and public sector cuts.
- Mass MP expenses outrage
- Seemingly constant sex scandals within the religious establishment
- Immoral and ill-mannered millionaire sports stars
- Spin vs authentic communication and relationship management
- “Get famous at all costs”, trash tv
- Phone tapping journalists
- Lying CEOs
- Disingenuous marketing and selling techniques
- Telephone competition scandals within the TV networks
- Police corruption
- Barely justifiable wars in the Middle East wrapped in the veil of a de- stabilising “war on terror”
- The disease of negative journalism
- Spiraling energy costs to support shareholder profits
- Rampant consumerism despite warnings about the impact on our ecology
….the list goes on.


I happen to believe that one of the answers to bridging this gap lies in consultation, involvement and in re-vitalising values-based leadership development, whether for MDs or, in fact, MPs. I believe that if undertaken properly, this will lead to stakeholder engagement. If pursued with honesty, passion and conviction I believe that this will result in sustainable brand development. But most importantly, I believe that this engagement-based thinking applies as readily to brand Britain as it does to Britain’s brands.