Abstract:

Human and cultural values for nation branding appear closely related with all other infrastructure variables of nation building which have to be dealt with properly, before and during communication as an integrated process. The study explores the branding capabilities of nations in general and Turkey’s potential for branding in particular, in relation to the effects of human and culture factors. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 foreign academicians who were working in six universities in Turkey and who were chosen for their specific regionality of their origin, namely Near East and North Africa. The findings were evaluated with the help of a quantitative analysis software and suggested that according to the participants, nation branding is indeed a feasible concept and that Turkey has the fundaments to build herself as a brand nation if she could build upon the opportunities and pursue the required developmental concepts properly. Another important finding suggests that country images can grow very different in relation to specific regional public targets and eras, in different regions and nations worldwide. Thus, nation images and reputations and the public diplomacy strategies built upon these have to be evaluated also in their relation to target publics.

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