Country Branding : Strategies and Experiences in South America

Strategies and Experiences in the Construction of Nation Brand in South America. The construction of country brands in South America is in the introductory stage. These countries have created territory brands with budgetary restrictions with the objective to project an integrative and positive image in the international markets. The development of a country brand to increase the export incomes, attract investors and encourage tourism is a very far strategy for South American countries. Many countries made qualified efforts to improve their reputation. Reputation originated by not planned positioning, interests and opinions of opinion leaders, political and economic stability or instability and productive transformations. This paper intends to show the results of an exploratory and casuistic study of the experiences and perceptions of brand countries in South America. The hypothesis of the study is that the brand country construction of South American countries is in the introductory stage and that there is no consistency between the results and their growing strategies for the development of their nation brands. From this study is possible to conclude that the design of a nation brand strategy in South America is linked to the touristic promotion of a country and it is not enough assertive to capitalize its reputation in the international markets