The human and culture factor in nation branding: A study on foreign academicians working in Turkey

The increasing importance of nation branding suggests a new understanding that appreciates national human and cultural values and their usage in international communication. The assessment of hidden potentials, deficiencies included, can prove an asset in the differentiation and branding of nations. However, human and cultural values appear closely related with cultural infrastructure variables of nation building like education quality and media use. The first section of three sections of the study deals with the theoretical background of the concept of culture with its various dimensions, while the second section reviews the literature on the concept of nation branding and its relations with public diplomacy. The third section evaluates the findings of in-depth interviews around the branding capabilities of nations in general and Turkey's potential for branding in particular, in relation to the effects of human and culture factors. The in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 foreign academicians working in six universities in Turkey (Karadeniz Teknik, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen, Atatürk, Trabzon, Avrasya and Gümüşhane Universities). The evaluation of the findings proved that the branding of nations could be feasible and that Turkey could indeed establish herself as a brand nation if she could seize on the opportunities and utilize the required processes properly.