What is the Nation Brands Index?
The NBI is a syndicated consumer quantitative research survey - a joint production between GfK Custom Research and Simon Anholt (a world renowned expert on nation branding).  Each quarter, a worldwide online panel of consumers is polled on their perceptions of the cultural, political, commercial and human assets, investment potential, and tourist appeal of a number of developed and developing countries.  This provides a clear index of national brand power, a unique barometer of global opinion.  In addition to understanding the UK as a nation brand, VisitBritain also add our own questions each year, to focus on tourism issues. 

About the Methodology
It is an online panel survey - using samples from GMI (one of the world's largest actively managed consumer panels).  The sample sizes in each market are usually 1000.  Respondents from 20 nations give their opinion on approximately 50 markets.  Panels are representative of the ONLINE population of each market (not the general population).  

Most participants have NOT visited UK so these opinions are based on PERCEPTIONS and imagined visits NOT experience.  They are not classic Britain "best prospects" but general representatives of their countries.

What makes up the Brand Hexagon?

The nation brand is the sum of people’s perceptions of a country across six areas of national competence.  Together, these areas make the Nation Brand Hexagon.  All questions are rated on a seven point scale (where 7 is positive).

Tourism  - Perceptions of a country related to aspiration to visit - if money were no object. As well as the perceptions of the natural beauty and built historical heritage.
Exports - Level of satisfaction with products + services produced in each country and perception of science and technology.
Governance  - Perceptions of how a country is governed (domestic policy) and ability to uphold international peace and security (foreign policy). As well as human rights and environmental issues.
Investment - Willingness to live and work in a country and perceptions of education.
Culture - Perceptions of both cultural heritage and popular culture. This includes a question on perception of sport.
People  - Perceptions of the people of a country in terms of how welcoming they are, how friendly they are and whether you would you hire them if you were a manager

2008 Reports (coming soon)

2007 Reports

Details of methodology before 2008 (coming soon)

Iconic Images of Britain (Nov 2007)

Britain brand (Depth, Heart, and Vitality) (Nov 2007)

Perceptions of Britain (July 2007)

Britain as a Nation Brand (July 2007)

Activities (Feb 2007)

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL OF THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE BY MARKET AND HAS BEEN INCORPORATED INTO THE COUNTRY & TRADE MARKET PROFILES. 

Project Lion Exec Summary

Work began on the Britain Brand in May 2002. The British tourism industry had been losing out to competitors for a considerable period of time. International tourism receipts into the UK had fallen from a 5.2% share in 1990 to 4.4% in 1999 and indeed numbers of international visitors had been static or declining since 1996. It was estimated that year on year the industry had lost some £2 billion in 2001 versus 2000. 

The reasons were identified as including the growth of new destinations, the high value of sterling, the BSE and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) crises and 9/11. A crisis management team had been set up by VisitBritain (then known as the British Tourist Authority) in response to FMD and tactical marketing communications effected.

VisitBritain felt however that in parallel to this activity stream, a longer-term re-appraisal of the Britain tourism brand was required. Simply put, the brief was to define the Britain positioning and create its identity: what should Britain stand for uniquely and concisely in people’s minds? And how should that manifest itself visually and verbally? Within this, the positioning had to address the need to maximise spend to the advantages of all the constituent parts (Wales, Scotland, London and the regions, as well as ‘Britain’) and to create a ‘whole’ that was both informed by and enriched the ‘parts’.