Brand Finance, the world’s leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy headquartered in London, issued its annual report on the world’s most valuable nation brands last month. You can read the full report here.
As stated by the CEO of Brand Finance in his foreword: “In a global marketplace, a nation brand is one of the most important assets of any state, encouraging inward investment, adding value to exports and attracting tourists.”
The Executive Summary of the report on Brand Value opens with the following: “The US remains the world’s most valuable nation brand. The USA is undoubtedly a powerful brand with an inviting business climate. However its values comes in large part from the country’s sheer economic scale. Not only is there a large, wealthy market predisposed to ‘buy American’ but also an unrivalled group of established companies and organisations exporting worldwide whose American heritage forms (to a lesser or greater extent) part of the appeal.”
Then in the executive summary of Brand Strength, distinct from Brand Value, came the statement:
“Singapore is the world’s strongest nation brand in 2015. Nation Brand value is reliant upon GDP, i.e. revenues associated with the brand. Singapore’s small size means it will never be able to challenge for the top spot in brand value terms, because its brand simply cannot be applied extensively enough to generate the same economic uplift as ‘brand USA’ for example. However in terms of its underlying nation brand strength, Singapore comes out on top.
[As a matter of interest, Singapore scored 88.0 points out of 100, leading Switzerland and United Arab Emirates tied at 85.9, Finland at 85.7, and New Zealand at 85.6.]
“As the city-state celebrates its 50th anniversary its citizens can be rightly proud of the nation they have created. … The chief architect was of course Lee Kuan Yew.The vision, pragmatism, longevity, intolerance of corruption and relative benevolence of the country’s first prime minister and elder statesman are widely seen as the key reasons for its success.
“Unfortunately for nations looking to replicate Singapore’s success, finding the next Lee Kuan Yew is no easy task and may be a foolhardy one. Long-term leaders are often correctly regarded as more concerned about their own power than the interests of the nation, with Lee Kuan Yew being the exception that proves the rule. … Singapore’s international reputation has spread by word of mouth as much as it has by active promotion.
“Though the passing of Lee Kuan Yew in March this year is a sad loss, he leaves a legacy that few can hope to better. Singapore is now seen as modern, innovative, industrious, welcoming to outsiders and increasingly culturally rich, and has left its neighbours (including Malaysia) far behind it.”
These are sobering words, which carry lessons on leadership and humility, and highlights the responsibility of all Singaporeans to honour the legacy established by our founding fathers by honouring our word and being trustworthy.
Photo credit: http://brandfinance.com/knowledge-centre/reports/brand-finance-nation-brands-2015/