Domesticating Competitive Common Sense: Nation Branding Discourses, Policy-makers and Promotional Consultants in Korea

ABSTRACT

Why has the practice of nation branding and its competitive imaginary become common sense in Korea? This article retraces the domestication, in Korea, of nation branding into an unquestioned policy imperative and of a competitive common sense. It shows how, in Korea, nation branding emerged as a policy solution to four national urgencies in the post-democratisation political economic context. It was adopted in conjunction by the state and the chaebol to resolve obstacles to capital accumulation. Korean policy-makers hired promotional consultants to participate in agenda -making processes. However, these consultants were not hired by the Korean government to design Korea's branding policies. Their power was essentially cultural. Their discourses provided policy justification and functioned as a governing device to exhort citizens to accept global competition as an unquestionable social reality and the pro-capital reforms that are (supposedly) needed to cope with competition.

KEYWORDS:

• Consultants
• competitiveness
• nation branding
• South Korea
• discourse

Acknowledgements

I thank Justin Robertson for his constant support of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 I refer to promotional consultants to acknowledge the broader promotional expertise of these consultants, who very often do not limit themselves to nation branding but also work for private corporations and were trained in Public Relations or Marketing.

2 Large family-owned conglomerates, which have been the backbone of Korea’s economic development.

3 The total population of Korea was about 50,617,040 people in 2015 (World Bank 2015), approximated to 50,000,000. It is legally allowed to answer a survey from 14 years old in Korea. 14% of Korean citizens were younger than 14 in 201534, or 7,000,000 inhabitants, and were excluded from my calculations. I also excluded people over 65, as they are unlikely to reply to an online survey since this implies owning a computer and spending a significant portion on time online. This population was of 9,500,000 in 2015 (ECOSOC 2015). Therefore, the overall studied population was estimated at 30,000,000 people. I identified a margin of error of 5%, which is reasonable for a research survey, and a confidence level of 95%. According to the following equation, I therefore needed 385 respondents to have a representative sample of the 30,000,000 individuals under study. I approximated 385 respondents to 400 respondents. The survey was conducted online through Panel Marketing Company, a market research Korean company, which uses Tillion database, the largest market research database in Korea. I received research funding to cover the costs of Panel Marketing Company Services and access a large database of respondents.

4 Often times, I must confess, with delight, as these policies were also geared towards promoting Korea’s cultural heritage.

5 Although Park was assassinated in 1979, the Yusin military regime he had installed was in place until 1987.

6 BBC World Service, World Opinion Poll 2010. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/160410bbcwspoll.pdf (accessed January 12, 2014)

7 This has drastically changed over the span of a few years and is much less the case as of 2020 than it was in 2014 when I conducted the following interview.

8 Interview with government official in charge of Korea’s cultural diplomacy, London, February 2014.

9 Interview with Korean journalist, Seoul, November 2015.

10 Interview with former high official of the PCNB, Seoul, November 2015.

11 Interview with former high official of the PCNB, Seoul, November 2015.

12 By comparison, Singapore’s nation branding budget only amounted to 33 million USD (Jacobsen, 2009), and the GREAT Britain campaign launched by the British government in 2012 has an annual budget of 30million GDP (https://quarterly.blog.gov.uk/2014/01/30/britain-is-great/, accessed August 27, 2018).

13 Interview with former high official of the PCNB, Seoul, November 2015.

14 Group interview with foreign promotional consultants, Seoul, November 2015.

15 Interview with foreign advisor to the PCNB, Seoul, November 2015.

16 Retrieved from http://www.insightcomms.com/ (accessed February 1, 2017)

17 Group interview with foreign promotional consultants, Seoul, November 2015.

18 Group interview with foreign promotional consultants, Seoul, November 2015.

19 Interview with foreign promotional consultant, Seoul, November 2015.

20 Group interview with foreign promotional consultants, Seoul, November 2015.

21 Group interview with foreign promotional consultants, Seoul, November 2015.

22 Interview with Korean journalist, Seoul, November 2015.

23 Interview with former senior Korean diplomat in charge of cultural diplomacy, Seoul, November 2015.

24 Interview with former senior Korean diplomat in charge of cultural diplomacy, Seoul, November 2015.

25 Interview with former senior Korean diplomat in charge of cultural diplomacy, Seoul, November 2015.

26 Interview with former high official of the PCNB, Seoul, November 2015.

27 Interview with former senior Korean diplomat in charge of cultural diplomacy, Seoul, November 2015.

28 Interview with government official in charge of Korea’s cultural diplomacy, London, February 2014.

29 Place Matters, Simon Anholt, Bloom Consulting, The Nation Consultancy, INSTID, Future Brand, East/West Communication, Edge Communications, Image.com International, Brash Brands, Saffron, Interbrand, Landor, Brand Finance, Richard Attias Associates (WPP Associates). They were selected for their leading role in the nation branding industry (based on the number of institutional clients).

30 Simon Anholt is based in Norfolk, UK, but is included in this percentage.

31 Group interview with foreign promotional consultants, Seoul, November 2015.

32 Interview with foreign promotional consultant, Seoul, November 2015.

33 Korean Presidents often deconstruct their predecessors’ institutional innovations for electoral reasons.

34 Interview with Korean journalist, Seoul, November 2015.

35 Interview with former high official of the PCNB, Seoul, November 2015.

36 Interview with government official in charge of Korea’s cultural diplomacy, London, February 2014.

Additional information

Funding

The field research presented here was supported by the Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies, City University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee.

Notes on contributors

Juliette Schwak

Juliette Schwak is Assistant Professor in International Relations and Political Science at Franklin University Switzerland. Her work focuses on the politics of competitiveness and nation branding in South Korea. She has also published research on Korean development assistance policies.