Australia has slipped three places to fifth in the overall rankings of FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index.
Canada come out on top in the latest global survey of 113 countries.
The survey, which assesses 26 image attributes and six measures of brand strength, saw the UK fall out of the top 10 for the first time since the CBI’s founding in 2005 despite major brand building events such as the Royal Wedding.
FutureBrand said the most important factors that truly differentiate a nation brand are its associations and attributes – the qualities that people think of when they hear a place name, or look at a photograph or plan a trip.
Canada maintained the No 1 spot it held last year while Switzerland moved up three places to second, followed by New Zealand, Japan (up two places on 2010) and Australia (down three).
Other top ten placings were United States (6th, down two places), Sweden (7th, up 3), Finland (8th, no change), France (9th, down 2) and Italy (10th, up 2)
Japan was No 1 country brand for tourism, followed by Italy and Spain. Australia came in at No 8, one place below Thailand and one place above New Zealand.
CBI noted, “Perhaps paradoxically, Japan leapt to number one in the tourism dimension and moved up five places in Quality of Life.
“Japan has always been a strong country brand and enjoys enormous popularity as a destination for business and leisure.
“While visitor figures dropped significantly between March and August 2011, decline is slowing against numbers for 2010 as we approach the end of the year.
“Both of these cases – like the Chilean miners’ rescue and the Iceland volcanic eruption in 2010 – hint at the positive effect that global news exposure can have on perceptions of a place, regardless of the nature of the news itself.”
Top 10 Country Brands for Quality of Life
1. Sweden
2. Switzerland
3. Norway
4. Finland
5. Denmark
6. Canada
7. Japan
8. Australia
9. Germany
10. Austria
Top 10 Country Brands Good for Business
1. Switzerland
2. Sweden
3. Germany
4. Japan
5. Finland
6. Denmark
7. United States
8. Singapore
9. Norway
10. Canada
Top 10 Country Brands for Tourism
1. Japan
2. Italy
3. Spain
4. United States
5. France
6. Switzerland
7. Thailand
8. Australia
9. New Zealand
10. Maldives
Top 10 for Country Brands for Heritage and Culture
1. Italy
2. France
3. Israel
4. Peru
5. Greece
6. Japan
7. Spain
8. Egypt
9. Austria
10. India
