Greece Country Brand Running Low, Study Says

Days after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pledged to double spending on the promotion of Greece abroad, adding that the country brand is its “intangible asset”, a study by Canada’s Carleton University reveals that Greece’s brand name is no longer opening doors to business.

Addressing the SEVE (Greek International Business Association) Export Summit IV in Thessaloniki on Wednesday, Nicholas Papadopoulos, professor of marketing and international business at Carleton University, said that a country brand serves as “a boarding pass for products to international markets, but data reveals that Greece is at the end of the line”.

The survey, which was conducted by Dr Papadopoulos in collaboration with foreign universities, asked 4,627 consumers in 20 countries to assess the image of 18 countries.

Professor Papadopoulos said that according to the poll, Greece came 13th among 18 countries with regard to “overall image”, 14th on “How would you assess the country’s products” and 13th on “Would you buy”.

“The reputation of Greece abroad, which was a passport for Greek entrepreneurs during the Athens Olympic Games [in 2004], has today, some 10 years later, become a problem,” SEVE President Kyriakos Loufakis said.

Riots and protests, blocking railway lines and ports, ongoing strikes as well as the uncertainty of the ongoing debt crisis, have all exacerbated the negative image of Greece internationally, experts said.

In the words of Ioannis Capras, representative of Bosch Group Greece and CEO Robert Bosch SA for Greece, Cyprus, Albania and Malta: “If our brand was a person, they would have to posses the following traits: be able to offer solutions, pitch ideas, express commitment, be trusted and give answers”.