(Re)Building A Nation Brand: General Issues About Promoting Romania'S Image And Identity

The purpose of the present paper is to provide an overview of the challenges posed by the multiple possibilities of promoting Romania's image and identity, both internally and externally-; at the same time, the present paper answers to some questions about building Romania as a brand, revealing to readers by whom this process should be initiated, to whom should it be oriented and why is it necessary. This topic was chosen because, in the present context, the country suffers from an image deficit and the current process of nation branding requires a real incentive in order to achieve its objectives. However, internal branding seems to be overlooked by those involved in the process of branding the country. In order to write this paper, the author reviewed the literature in the field, she's contributions consisting in finding answers that could bring Romania as a brand in the right direction in terms of nation branding: Why branding process is important, who should it be addressed to, which are the differences between communication and promoting the image of the country. Also, the author tried to highlight the conceptual differences existing between terms like nation branding and country branding, branding and rebranding process or "communication" and "promotion" in the context of these processes. At the same time, the author tried to provide information regarding the perception and identification of Romania as a brand and also to emphasize the relevant elements used for identifying the nation brand.