Who shapes the Image of the Netherlands?

The paper addresses the question who shapes the image of a country and how does this process take place, especially in regard to the creative industries. The case study that has been conducted shows that the image is by and large the unintended consequence of actions of individuals within the market. Not only is nation branding policy in the Netherlands scattered, also the group of stakeholders who unintentionally shape the image of the country is much larger than the group who deliberately aims to shape it. The general viewpoint on nation branding is that the concept is rather similar to branding any other product. Nevertheless it depends what point of departure is taken, i.e., the marketing approach to nation branding or the public diplomacy stand, to what extent branding theory holds when branding countries. The marketing approach to nation branding takes general branding theory as point of departure. Although the public diplomacy viewpoint builds on existing literature on nation branding, there are some subtle, yet fundamental differences between these schools of thought. In short, whereas the marketing approach believes that an image of a country can and should be perpetuated or altered by means of policy, the public diplomacy viewpoint is rather skeptical about the extent a country’s image can be deliberately influenced. Nation branding has in common with product branding that there are many stakeholders involved. Yet the complexity of nation branding is much higher. In regard to the stakeholders that are directly or indirectly involved with a country’s image, a distinction can be made between internal and external stakeholders. Another categorization can be made of parties who intentionally or unintentionally affect a country’s image. Interestingly, although nation branding is an explicit goal and there are many government agencies involved in this process, it hardly takes place in a coordinated way. It seems that nation branding in the Netherlands is like a patchwork, at which many parties (i.e., departments, sub-departments, cities and regions, but also individuals and companies) perform intentionally or unintentionally activities that can be regarded as nation branding. In theory nation branding consists of a coherent strategy, but I would say policy on nation branding in the Netherlands is all but clear. In practice it turns out that (policy on) nation branding in the Netherlands is more scattered than one would think on a first glance. The concept consists of a vague model that involves a wide variety of topics. The only common ground between all these topics is the fact that they communicate directly or indirectly the image of the Netherlands. In regard to the cultural industries in the Netherlands, Dutch citizens, firms, artists, and cultural organizations unintentionally affect the way the country is perceived abroad by means of ordinary economic transactions on the market. All these different stakeholders have equally diverse objectives, which do not necessarily comply with each other.