The incidental influence that the United States exerts simply through people around the world observing its behavior is consistently underestimated, just as the influence the United States can exert intentionally by exercising its economic, military, or other instruments of hard power tends to be overestimated.

The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs was established in May 2006. So far, this Division has reached out more to countries where the Indian diaspora is concentrated and has sought to attract them to come to India and study through the “Know India Program”.

The timing probably couldn’t have been much worse. Almost a year to the day until the 2012 Olympics Games begin in London, the world was treated to images of rioters smashing storefronts and setting buildings ablaze in the capital and beyond.

Since the East West Nation Brand Perception Index was first published in 2008, Burma has steadfastly remained in the bottom fifth, and in the second quarter of this year dropped to 176, two places below that of North Korea.

The steepest decline in American prestige took place during the Bush years, and President Obama doesn't look like he has the wherewithal to reverse the trend. Overleveraging of credit led to a housing bubble in the US and then to a full-blown financial crisis that enveloped the world in 2008.

Nations, too, come branded, sometimes willfully and sometimes by accident. A nation gets a brand identity based on its strength of delivering a quality product consistently over time (Eg: Switzerland for tourism and banking, USA for freedom, Italy for food and fashion, etc.)

Sun explained that a country’s political image, geographical location and international interaction all contribute to the way consumers buy products. He cited an example in which an American wants to buy a car but contemplates the decision because he or she feels reluctant to buy a car from a communist country.

These efforts, the current and those before it, border on what is known as country marketing or its sub domain, place branding. In this piece, I will first analyse the first part of the question, ‘Marketing Ghana with what’? The second and third parts, ‘to who and by who’ shall feature in subsequent publications.