Nation branding in the era of commercial nationalism

This article applies recent critiques of branding and marketing to a case study of the nation branding trend. We argue that critical approaches to brand "co-creation"-a reliance upon consumers to build and disseminate brand identity-help illuminate the ways in which nation branding serves as a technique of governance in the era of global capitalism. The article first considers the recent development of nation branding as a global phenomenon and then explores the details of one such campaign in post-socialist Slovenia. The case study illustrates the ways in which nation branding enjoins the populace to "live" the national brand, and to promulgate it nationally and internationally in the name of taking responsibility for the homeland's economic development. The article concludes with a consideration of the way in which nation branding's framing of the state as an "enterprise" fits with the logic of emerging forms of so-called commercial nationalism.