Working with Brand Sweden – Swedish Chambers APAC Webinar 9 December

Summary and recording

Sweden, a small country in northern Europe with only 0.13% of the world’s population, is one of the first nations in the world to have implemented an official nation branding strategy. As a result, Sweden benefits from a positive brand image abroad. Four profile areas have been identified to define the idea of a Brand Sweden strategy: Innovation, Creativity, Society and Sustainability. These are areas where Sweden is strong and positioned among leading nations in various global indexes of economic performance, social commitments, capacity for innovation, governance and sustainable commitments.

  • How can a positive view of Sweden as a brand benefit Swedish companies, especially when operating in markets far from Sweden and headquarters?
  • How can Sweden and Swedish companies join forces in co-branding?
  • How can nations and companies reflect each other’s assets and strengthen their positions?

For this SwedCham APAC event, we were delighted to have the following prominent guests with us:

Mr Simon Anholt is an independent policy advisor, author and expert in nation branding who for the past 21 years has worked with the Heads of State and Heads of Government of 63 nations to help them improve their economic, political and cultural engagements with the international community, and by raising their profiles enhance trade, tourism, diplomatic and cultural relations, major events, talent and investment attraction.

Ms Madeleine Sjöstedt,​ Director-General Swedish Institute​​, a public agency that promotes interest and trust in Sweden worldwide. The institute works in the fields of culture, education, science and business to strengthen international relations and development.

Ms Leonie Hoskin,  IKEA ​Retail Manager (Thailand, Vietnam) for Ikano Retail. IKEA is well-known globally for using brand Sweden actively and strategically by communicating Swedish cultural concepts, symbols, and values and exporting them worldwide.

The session was be moderated by Christian Ihre, Co-Founder of the Swedish management consultancy Lynxeye.

Link to recording

Photo: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se

About the speakers:

Simon Anholt
Professor Simon Anholt is the world’s leading thinker, author, researcher and practitioner on national image. He devised the concept of nation brand in 1998, now a multi-billion-dollar global industry, and is the founder and publisher of the annual Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index and City Brands Index, two major surveys that use a panel of 60,000 people in 20 countries to monitor global perceptions of 60 countries and 50 cities. Professor Anholt was Vice-Chair of the UK Foreign Office’s Public Diplomacy Board between 2000 and 2009, and has worked with institutions including numerous agencies of the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, NATO, the European Union, the World Trade Organisation, the International Olympic Committee, the UK House of Lords, the Commonwealth of Nations, the International Security Assistance Force and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Professor Anholt holds an MA (Oxford University). International Relations and Security Studies (Royal College of Defence Studies, London). He is an honorary Professor, Political Science (University of East Anglia).
Books:
Another One Bites The Grass: Making Sense of International Advertising, 2001 (John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA).
Brand New Justice: The Upside of Global Branding, 1st Edition, 2003 (Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, UK).
Brand New Justice: How Branding Places and Products can Help the Developing World, Revised Edition, 2005 (Elsevier, Oxford, UK).
Brand America: The Mother of All Brands, 2006 (Cyan, London, UK). Revised edition in 2010.
Competitive Identity: The New Brand Management for Nations, Regions and Cities, 2007 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK).
Places: Identity, Image, Reputation, 2010 (Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK).
The Good Country Equation, 2020 (Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, CA).