South Korea Ranks Ninth Out of 11 Nations In Brand Value Survey

The brand value of South Korea is among the lowest, ranking ninth out of 11 global exporters.

The British Anholt-GMI Nation Brands, the analytical ranking institute of the world`s nation brands, recently studied brand values of 11 nations, including South Korea, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, India, Japan, Turkey, and Russia. The result showed that South Korea lagged behind other Asian nations such as China and India, and was only followed by the two nations, Russia and Turkey. Sweden was the overall winner, followed by the U.K. (second), and Italy (third). The U.S. came in fourth together with Germany.

It conducted a survey of 10,000 consumers worldwide on their perceptions of six categories: cultural, political, commercial and human assets, investment potential and tourist appeal of countries. South Korea got low grades especially in the tourism, culture, and human assets categories.

South Korea got the lowest grade in the tourism category not only because it lacks tourist resources, but also because foreigners tend to view a trip there as “risky.”

This is because North and South Koreas are not clearly differentiated in their mindsets, and that is why somewhat similar results are shown for the political appeal (by ranking eighth) as those polled said South Korea was “dangerous,” and “sinister.” The report called this confusion “the most surprising result.”

For more details on the results, please visit, www.nationbrandindex.com.

pisong@donga.com