Country branding | flagging

I have been often asked what is that Latvia, my homeland, is special about. Cause there is the fintech haven Lithuania and the e-country Estonia nearby. What I first want to argue is that Latvia, too, has e-everything, and has even larger success stories in fintechs than Lithuania (except ICOs with hundreds of million EUR worth crypto money raised). But the thing is, it does not matter.

A country needs a flag.

I mean, apart of its official flag - one of a country's symbols, there should be another flag like "the e-country", "the open society country", "the cheap shared services center country", "the coffee country", etc. Not having it raises questions - so what is the country good at/for? Is the country any good?

So how do you brand a country, or choose its flag?

Option one. If you are a boss, choose a flag, place it, and tell everyone this is the flag. And repeat. And repeat. Until everyone starts believing. Any problem with this approach?

The country (= individuals, society, businesses, organizations) itself might not believe in the flag or even dislike it.

If you shoot in the sky, and shoot wrong, you can alienate its people, and flagging your brand (i.e. country) might get much harder. Any other ways of choosing your country's flag? As countries are competing between each other and both the demand and supply (offering) are heterogeneous, worth looking at branding, or flagging a country same way companies flag themselves. Strategic and marketing theories suggest such steps in choosing your strategy:

1. Formulating targets (what do you want to achieve with this flag)
2. Looking at the country's resources and capabilities and their use critically
3. Determining your target audience (territories, countries, markets, people, businesses, investment - type/size/nature of them)
4. Deciding on the best strategy, based on the target audience and markets research (cause markets, companies, people - themselves and their needs are heterogeneous)
5. Segmenting the audience
6. Deciding on the targeting approach

And then, when ideation and conceptualization around the position comes in, it is good to have your flag.

The flag, or brand: what is that seemingly best about your country, perceived of a high importance to your target audience, or that you can make to be perceived of a high importance to your audience?

Now, let's break this into main parts:

Seemingly best about your country.

What does that even mean? And how do you clarify that? It means not what is necessarily 100% best about your country, but what PEOPLE think might be the best about it. Say, 6 qualities to begin. How to find them? Ask PEOPLE. To whom? The country's people which know what the country's target audience need. Or just the people making the country - politicians, educators, entrepreneurs, analysts, servants, parents, and hosts. Preferably those familiar with the target audience itself, having some experience with it.

Perceived of a high importance

What your target audience thinks is important to them. How to find that out? Ask your target audience.

Make to be perceived

If the country is very strong at something and you really want to have this flag, think if you can make your target audience change what they think is important to them. How? A while ago, I had pleasure presenting my take on how Latvia could be positioned in its target markets within selected audiences. I spoke in detail about how different segments perceive the country right now (I asked representatives of the segments), and in which scenarios Latvia has to adapt the package (a part of the design) and when - to change what the segments think about the country, it's strengths and weaknesses. The challenges are so different. If yours is a small and somewhat modest country, there are audience segments which do not have any image of your country, and then there are those having a historical, non-existent perception of the country. In one scenario, you start from scratch, in another - you take care of the main wrong perceptions, IF THEY ARE of a HIGH IMPORTANCE to your TARGET AUDIENCE.