"From Chocolate to High-Tech, uncovering the Swiss brand experience at the Fletcher School"
"From Chocolate to High-Tech, uncovering the Swiss brand experience at the Fletcher School"
by Bernard Simonin, Professor of Marketing and International Business, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Thanks to the initiative and concerted efforts of Pierre Dosaz and Pascal Marmier (Swissnex), Hadi Barkat (entrepreneur extraordinaire, CEO and founder of RedCut, and Bernard Simonin (professor of marketing and international business at the Fletcher School), over 40 graduate students learn about the intricacies of nation branding earlier this month.
The image a nation projects can be simple; at the same time, its underlying architecture and management can be complex. The image can be centered on general perceptions and reduced to a simple gestalt-like set of attitudes that can trigger positive as well as negative reactions. In reinforcing ways or as a substitute, stereotypes provide an articulation of simple judgments and mental associations. From its most primitive to most elaborate form, a nation image is the end result of a complex convergence of forces and impressions. How sticky is such an image? Can it be unbundled? To what extent can it be re-engineered and managed successfully? To address these questions Pierre, Pascal, and Hadi come together with an integrated session that looks at the case of Switzerland in a detailed way. We have learned a lot, thank you for this eye-opening experience.
Bernard Simonin
