Masso Group

Korea is expected to reach ninth place in terms of global export volume this year, surpassing Britain for the first time. The world's 15th largest economy by GDP, however, suffers from comparatively low brand awareness. The country ranked 19th among 50 countries in a survey of national brand value conducted by the Presidential Council on Nation Branding and the Samsung Economic Research Institute, whose results were released earlier this month. Although that is much better than the country's 27th ranking in the International Institute for Management Development survey or 33rd on the "Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index,"

announced in June and last year respectively, branding is clearly a weakness for Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Prof. Choi Jung-wha of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' Graduate School of Interpretation & Translation, who serves as president for the Corea Image Communication Institute, pointed out that economic growth alone is not likely to be the full solution to the discrepancy.

Choi, who is also a member of the Presidential Council on National Branding, used one of her recent experiences overseas as an example. "Some of Asia's key business figures told me they were deeply impressed to see thousands of young Vietnamese people go wild for the Korean pop group Girl's Generation, when they visited Vietnam as part of President Lee Myung-bak's three-nation tour of Southeast Asia in October," she said.

Founded in 2003, the CICI has been working to improve Korea's national image. Each year the institute gives Korea image awards to individuals or organizations with a recognizable contribution to promoting the image of Korea.

This year's Korea Image Stepping Stone Award - the main award - will go to the organizing committee of the Pusan International Film Festival. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will be given the Korea Image Together in Harmony Award. The award ceremony is slated to take place at Grand InterContinental Hotel in southern Seoul on Jan. 13.

Among the former recipients of the image awards are U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, conductor Chung Myung-whun and pop star and actor Rain. Until now, Samsung Electronics has been the only business recipient of the awards, as the world's top memory chip maker won the Korea Image Cornerstone Award last year.

"More Japanese people started to learn the Korean language when Korean television drama and pop music found favor in Japan - it wasn't that they had finally recognized how scientific the Korean language is. This is an example of what happens when a country's overall brand image has been improved," the professor said.

Admitting that culture - both pop and high - has been and will be a major driving force to create a higher level of brand awareness, Choi said that Korea still lacks the culture of coexistence and respect that she believes is the long-term, solution to improving its brand value.

"If we cannot educate our children to respect each other for their differences, how can we expect to win favor of people from other countries?"

Choi continued to deplore the overly narrow usage of the term "multiculturalism" in Korea. "True multiculturalism should be based on equality-based diversity, yet local media tend to focus too much on the gloomy side of foreigners living in Korea."

In tackling such negative factors and further promoting the national image, the role of English-language media with global readership/viewership such as The Korea Herald is important, Choi said.

"We have innovative, cutting edge technologies and unique culture, but the access to such facts from outside the country is very limited," she said.

(Source: Korea Herald)