IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/pbapdi/v13y2017i4d10.1057_s41254-017-0055-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to (re)position a country? A case study of the power of micro-marketing

Author

Listed:
  • Ido Aharoni

    (New York University)

  • Amir Grinstein

    (VU Amsterdam)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of country branding – and its core guiding principle of positioning – triggers interest among politicians, policy-makers, businesses, and consumers. Increasing understanding of the most effective country positioning (or re-positioning) practices can be especially valuable for countries with long-lasting sub-optimal images. This article contributes to the country branding literature in multiple ways. Unlike prior research that often studies countries that suffer a reputational crisis following a one-time negative event, we focus on the study of a country with a prolonged negative image. Unlike most existing work that focuses on the study of communication tactics to improve a country’s reputation, we focus on a strategic, systematic, and long-term re-positioning process. Further, we propose an alternative country (re)positioning approach to traditional practices that are guided by two outdated principles, as many of them follow “an advocacy model,” which is at the heart of classic and public diplomacy, or apply a “broadcasting”-based communication approach. Specifically, the article introduces a country (re)positioning practice that is based on a marketing/“narrowcasting” approach, labeled “micro-marketing.” It then presents a case in point: the micro-marketing re-positioning of Israel – a strategic and systematic decade-long process that began in 2004. This case is of interest because Israel is a relatively young and very small country, which faces extreme geo-political challenges, and has been the subject of prolonged negative international media coverage. The article concludes with reporting positive changes in Israel’s brand/overall positioning performance and perception over time (2007–2015), as well as other country-level and niche-market-level indicators that demonstrate the effectiveness of the re-positioning approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Ido Aharoni & Amir Grinstein, 2017. "How to (re)position a country? A case study of the power of micro-marketing," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(4), pages 293-307, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:13:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1057_s41254-017-0055-9
    DOI: 10.1057/s41254-017-0055-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41254-017-0055-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41254-017-0055-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sivadas, Eugene & Grewal, Rajdeep & Kellaris, James, 1998. "The Internet as a Micro Marketing Tool: Targeting Consumers through Preferences Revealed in Music Newsgroup Usage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 179-186, March.
    2. Ruxandra-Irina POPESCU & Razvan-Andrei CORBOS, 2011. "The Strategic Analysis of Singapore`s Brand and Rebrand Campaigns," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 12(2), pages 332-349, May.
    3. Graham Hankinson, 2015. "Rethinking the Place Branding Construct," Springer Books, in: Mihalis Kavaratzis & Gary Warnaby & Gregory J. Ashworth (ed.), Rethinking Place Branding, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 13-31, Springer.
    4. Eli Avraham & Eran Ketter, 2016. "Tourism Marketing for Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-34215-7, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriela ZAI, 2018. "The Country Brand- An Objective That Is Difficult To Accomplish," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 12(1), pages 889-894, November.
    2. Tal Samuel-Azran & Betti Ilovici & Israel Zari & Orly Geduild, 2019. "Practicing citizen diplomacy 2.0: “The Hot Dudes and Hummus—Israel’s Yummiest” campaign for Israel’s branding," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(1), pages 38-49, March.
    3. Yoav Dubinsky, 2022. "Sport-tech diplomacy: exploring the intersections between the sport-tech ecosystem, innovation, and diplomacy in Israel," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(2), pages 169-180, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bianco, Federica & Michelino, Francesca, 2010. "The role of content management systems in publishing firms," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 117-124.
    2. Ozer, Muammer, 2007. "Reducing the demand uncertainties at the fuzzy-front-end of developing new online services," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 1372-1387, November.
    3. Alexander, Andrew & Teller, Christoph & Wood, Steve, 2020. "Augmenting the urban place brand – On the relationship between markets and town and city centres," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 642-654.
    4. Giovana Goretti Feijó de Almeida & Lucília Cardoso, 2022. "Discussions between Place Branding and Territorial Brand in Regional Development—A Classification Model Proposal for a Territorial Brand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-24, May.
    5. Robert Govers & Florian Kaefer & Natàlia Ferrer-Roca, 2017. "The state of academic place branding research according to practitioners," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-3, February.
    6. Ewa Glińska & Oleg Gorbaniuk, 2016. "Restrictions on the use of the Aaker model in the measurement of city brand personality: The sender’s perspective," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 46-58, February.
    7. Kurtulmuşoğlu, Feride Bahar & Can, Gülin Feryal & Tolon, Metehan, 2016. "A voice in the skies: Listening to airline passenger preferences," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 130-137.
    8. Petersen, Bent & Pedersen, Torben & Sharma, Deo, 2001. "The Role of Knowledge in Firms’ internationalization Process: Wherefrom and Whereto," Working Papers 17-2001, Copenhagen Business School, Department of International Economics and Management.
    9. Page, Kelly L. & Uncles, Mark D., 2014. "The complexity of surveying web participation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2356-2367.
    10. Nikolaos TZIORAS, 2018. "The Role of Environmental Management in Tourism Marketing Development as a Means of Destination Promotion," Expert Journal of Marketing, Sprint Investify, vol. 6(2), pages 65-73.
    11. Knight, Gary A. & Liesch, Peter W., 2002. "Information internalisation in internationalising the firm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(12), pages 981-995, December.
    12. Pires, Guilherme D. & Stanton, John & Stanton, Patricia, 2011. "Revisiting the substantiality criterion: From ethnic marketing to market segmentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 988-996, September.
    13. Desa Karamehmedovic, 2018. "Push-Pull Analysis Towards Creating Holistic Marketing Of The Cultural Heritage Tourism Destination: The Case Study Of Dubrovnik," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 27(1), pages 29-51, june.
    14. Amelia Green & Debra Grace & Helen Perkins, 2016. "City branding research and practice: An integrative review," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(3), pages 252-272, May.
    15. Petersen, Bent & Welch, Lawrence S. & Liesch, Peter, 2002. "The Internet And Foreign Market Expansion By Firms," Working Papers 7-2002, Copenhagen Business School, Department of International Economics and Management.
    16. George Rossolatos, 2018. "Post-place branding as nomadic experiencing," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(4), pages 285-304, November.
    17. Rehmat Karim & Normah Abdul Latip & Azizan Marzuki & Sajjad Haider & Memoona Nelofar & Faqeer Muhammad, 2021. "The Impact of 4Ps Marketing Mix in Tourism Development in the Mountain Areas: A Case Study," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 231-245.
    18. Chad Milewicz & Kai-Michael Griese & Aliosha Alexandrov, 2017. "An international examination of private sector perspectives on city brand architectures," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(3), pages 205-222, August.
    19. WeiChung Huang & LiChung Jen, 2020. "Color Place Marketing—The Role of Atmospheric Colors on Place Product Association and Consumer Choices in Luoyang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-20, November.
    20. Andrew Leyshon, 2001. "Time–Space (and Digital) Compression: Software Formats, Musical Networks, and the Reorganisation of the Music Industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(1), pages 49-77, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:13:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1057_s41254-017-0055-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.