1. Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Business Strategy
Bloom Consulting
Country
Brand
Ranking ©
Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting © Since 2003

2. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
An Introduction
The Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © is the only country or nation brand ranking
which classifies countries by the effectiveness of their country brand strategies
and its subsequent impact on the country’s GDP.
In order to do so, Bloom Consulting has taken into account variables that define the economic
performance of the countries as well as variables that characterize the strategies’ accuracy
and market acceptance.
Bloom Consulting has used hard facts, such as economic indicators and an analysis of the
official country brand strategies as well as soft data indicators, thereby measuring the economic
impact of each country’s trade brand strategy. Furthermore, this marks the first time that Online
Search Demand (OSD) has been incorporated into a ranking of this type.
The 2012 Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © Trade accounts for the most comprehen-
sive, objective research done in the field so far. In accordance with the Bloom Consulting 3T
Approach © (see page 3), Bloom Consulting creates separate Rankings for Trade and Tourism.
It includes 160 countries and all economic data comes from recognized sources such as the
World Bank, United Nations and the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies.
Bloom Consulting © Since 2003 countrybranding@bloom-consulting.com / +34 91 308 0286 (CET) Page 01

3. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
An introductory note from the CEO
Welcome
For the second consecutive year, I am proud to present to you withthe Bloom Consulting
Country Brand Ranking!
Over the last nine years, I have had the privilege of working with Bloom Consulting in country
branding strategies all over the world. From my experience, the most striking fact I found so far
is that most countries, regardless of their economic development, geographic location or even
size, have very similar issues when developing their own country brand strategy. These issues
are very much related with internal concerns, such as accountability or stakeholder management,
and also the tangible measurement of brand strategy investments.
Our objective when launching this ranking was precisely to tackle this issue: how much more
revenue can a country brand attract to its own national economy?
Let me just say how excited I am with the new feature in our algorithm - Online Search Demand
(OSD). For the first time in any country or nation brand ranking, we analyze how well posi-
tioned countries are in the biggest search engines and how searched they are by investors in
general.
To conclude, I encourage you to use this ranking internally and use it as an asset and a tool to
demonstrate the importance your country brand has on your economy. Although we would have
liked to go deeper and give a detailed description on each country’s performance, it’s impossible
to do so in this overview. However if you are interested to find out more information on your
country, please do not hesitate to contact us. I would be happy to send you all the information
you require.
Welcome to the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © 2012. We hope you appreciate the
great results and findings as much as we did!
José Filipe Torres - CEO Bloom Consulting
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4. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Introduction to Country Branding
The 3T approach ©
In creating a country brand strategy we focus on three main areas:
attraction of trade, tourism and talent.
The traditional approach when facing the challenge of attracting trade, tourism and talent
is to create, or simply improve, perceptions under one umbrella strategy. Ultimately this
will fail, as we see over and over again around the world. It is impossible to communicate
entertainment to investors and simultaneously communicate a qualified and hardworking
workforce to potential tourists. They messages repel each other, destroying the core
objective. Most of the time agencies attempt a compromise in order to better create
an overall strategy. As a result, they weaken their brand, as each factor is not branded
up to its potential.
In order to solve the problem of having a single multi-dimensional strategy,
Bloom Consulting has developed a 3T approach to country branding
that separates each T.
T1. Attraction of Trade
T2. Attraction of Tourism
T3. Attraction of Talent
Traditional “Umbrella” Strategy Bloom Consulting’s 3T Approach ©
T1 T2 T3 T2
GDP GDP
T1 T3
Impact Impact
This way, we’re able to calculate growth projections and calculations individually,
in order to better define the objectives of an overall strategy.
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5. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Understanding the Methodology
The Ranking Variables
The Bloom Consulting Algorithm, was developed to create and calculate the ranking, taking into
account both hard and soft data and includes groundbreaking processes to show the relationship
between a country’s economic performance and the projections of the country’s brand strategy.
The ranking is derived from four variables that take into account both hard and soft data. The
ranking does not use any survey or interview based data, meaning that it provides the most
objective, accurate results possible.
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking Algorithm variables
Historical Bloom Consulting
CBS Economic
Rating© Growth
Economic Country Brand
Performance Ranking ©
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6. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Understanding the Methodology
The Ranking Variables in more detail
Historical Economic Performance
Strategies and economic returns do not have an immediate cause and effect relationship, there-
fore Bloom Consulting looks at the country’s long term (five years*) historical economic
performance in foreign direct investment (FDI). This way, the Ranking reflects more consistent
trends rather than the volatile changes that might occur in the recovering economic climate.
Economic Growth
The growth in FDI inflows of each country is also an important indicator when measuring
the country’s country brand strategy performance, therefore Bloom Consulting computes
the compound annual growth rate for the FDI performance. This way, it is possible to garner
how much the industry grew or decreased and the impact it had on the revenue. Again, data
spanning five years was used to reflect consistent trends rather than brief volatile changes.
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Strategy (CBS) Rating ©
Bloom Consulting also rates the impact of each country’s branding strategy. The CBS Rating ©
takes into account the uniqueness of each country’s current brand strategy (Brand Tags) and the
accuracy of the Online Search Demand. A brand strategy that is more unique and more aligned
with investor searches will receive a better Rating.
* Data was taken from the World Bank covering the years 2006-2010.
Bloom Consulting © Since 2003 countrybranding@bloom-consulting.com / +34 91 308 0286 (CET) Page 05

7. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Measuring Country Brand Strategy Accuracy
The CBS Rating ©
CBS Rating © is calculated using brand strategy economic performance analysis and analysis of
Online Search Demand. The country brand strategy is measured through brand tags, the key
words that reflect the brand strategy of each country. For the first time in any country or nation
brand ranking, Bloom’s Online Search Demand (OSD) is able to show if a country supplies what
investors are seeking, and how well the country is matching this demand.
Brand tags function as the ‘supply’ side of the investor-destination equation. Thousands of brand
tags were collected from each country’s official investment agency and then classified into 50
different clusters that relate to workforce, social welfare, strong and stable economy, favorable
fiscal benefits, or stable political environment. Each cluster is assigned an economic value in
order to rate the relative returns gained from each brand tag.
Domestic and international investor searches for the brand tags and related words were then
analyzed, country by country, in the most used search engines, to show the country’s accuracy
match and quantify Online Search Demand. By considering the OSD, Bloom Consulting is able
to show if a country offers what investors are seeking, and how well the country is matching this
demand. This identifies the gap between supply and demand. The more accurate a country is, the
better the CBS Rating ©.
Just as international rating agencies rank countries’ credit risk, Bloom Consulting
uses the CBS Rating © Classification System
Score Description
AAA Very Strong
AA Strong
A Slightly Strong
BBB Very Good
BB Good
B Slightly Good
CCC Slightly Weak
CC Weak
C Very Weak
D Poor
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8. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
2012 TRADE EDITION - WORLD Ranking
Rank CBS Rating ©
1. United States of America BBB
2. Luxembourg AA
3. China BBB
4. United Kingdom A
5. France AAA
6. Belgium BB
7. Germany BBB
8. Canada BBB
9. Hong Kong B
10. Russian Federation CCC
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9. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
11. Brazil BBB
12. Australia BBB
13. Spain B
14. Turkey AAA
15. India BB
16. Saudi Arabia BBB
17. Sweden AA
18. Netherlands BBB
19. Kazakhstan AA
20. United Arab Emirates AAA
21. Singapore B
22. Italy BBB
23. Austria AA
24. Poland BB
25. Mexico CCC
26. Switzerland B
27. Norway BB
28. Hungary B
29. Ireland B
30. Japan BBB
31. Israel BB
32. Thailand B
33. Chile CC
34. Romania BB
35. Colombia CC
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10. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
36. Malaysia BB
37. Indonesia CCC
38. Viet Nam CCC
39. Nigeria B
40. Ukraine CCC
41. Bulgaria CCC
42. Sudan AAA
43. Qatar BBB
44. Cyprus AA
45. Argentina B
46. Peru B
47. Czech Republic CC
48. Algeria AAA
49. Finland BBB
50. South Africa BBB
51. Uruguay AAA
52. Pakistan BB
53. Malta AAA
54. Estonia AA
55. Lebanon CCC
56. Jordan BBB
57. Iceland BB
58. Denmark BBB
59. Portugal CCC
60. Zambia AA
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11. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
61. Serbia BBB
62. Bosnia and Herzegovina AAA
63. Iraq BBB
64. Ghana BB
65. Panama BBB
66. Greece B
67. Morocco BB
68. Tunisia BB
69. Madagascar BB
70. Croatia CCC
71. Dominican Republic B
72. Congo CCC
73. Macao CCC
74. Slovakia BB
75. Belarus B
76. Oman CCC
77. Bahrain BBB
78. Democratic Republic of Congo CCC
79. Republic of Korea BB
80. New Zealand B
81. Turkmenistan CC
82. Philippines CCC
83. Lithuania B
84. Costa Rica CCC
85. Bangladesh BBB
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12. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
86. Trinidad and Tobago CCC
87. Georgia CCC
88. Latvia CCC
89. Bahamas BB
90. Uganda BB
91. Syrian Arab Republic D
92. Equatorial Guinea AA
93. Mongolia BB
94. Yemen AAA
95. Albania C
96. Slovenia CCC
97. Guatemala BBB
98. Mozambique BBB
99. Jamaica CC
100. United Republic of Tanzania AA
101. Botswana BBB
102. Honduras D
103. Macedonia AA
104. Uzbekistan CCC
105. Sri Lanka BBB
106. Kenya AAA
107. Chad AA
108. Liberia AA
109. Senegal AA
110. Armenia C
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13. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
111. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines AAA
112. Lao People’s Democratic Republic BBB
113. Antigua and Barbuda AAA
114. Namibia CCC
115. Nicaragua CCC
116. Burkina Faso AAA
117. Kuwait BBB
118. Mali BB
119. Mauritius B
120. Brunei Darussalam B
121. Côte D’Ivoire CCC
122. Mauritania AAA
123. Djibouti AA
124. Afghanistan BBB
125. The Republic of Moldova CCC
126. Myanmar D
127. Seychelles CCC
128. Paraguay CCC
129. Ethiopia B
130. Solomon Islands B
131 Gabon B
132. Papua New Guinea B
133. Malawi BB
134. Saint Lucia B
135. Guinea CCC
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14. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Rank CBS Rating ©
136. Barbados CCC
137. Guyana CCC
138. Cape Verde B
139. Tajikistan CCC
140. Gambia AA
141. Maldives CCC
142. Swaziland BBB
143. Grenada B
144. Rwanda BB
145. Zimbabwe BB
146. Lesotho CCC
147. Fiji D
148. Belize C
149. Haiti CC
150. El Salvador C
151. Sierra Leon C
152. Burundi BBB
153. Dominica CCC
154. Vanuatu CCC
155. Togo CC
156. Federated States of Micronesia CCC
157. Tonga B
158. Samoa CCC
159. Guinea-Bissau D
160. Azerbaijan B
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15. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
Comments
The top countries of 2012’s ranking finished on top again, with the US first, Luxembourg second
and China third thanks to all around FDI increases and strong CBS Rating ©. The US’ outstand-
ing FDI flows pushed it into first place. Its BBB rating indicates that the US trade brand is quite
accurate when considering investor demand, but is still not capturing all opportunities. Astonish-
ingly the top six in 2012 repeated exactly, indicating that the economic strength of these coun-
tries combined with strong trade brand strategies is difficult to beat. The first change comes at
place 7, where Germany edged Canada out.
Despite 13 out of the top 25 coming from Europe,
the 2012 Consulting Country Brand Ranking © Trade
markedly showed strong growth distributed among
all continents. Four other noticeable improvements were
Brazil (11), Australia (12), India (15) and Kazakhstan (19).
All countries’ strong FDI numbers significantly helped their
rise, and Kazakhstan was strongly aided by its AA rating.
Turkey (14) also turned in a wonderful improvement from
last year with an AAA rating.
Latin America had two countries in the top 25: Brazil (11) and Mexico (25). Brazil’s BBB rating
contributed slightly to their two spot jump, but Mexico suffered from a CCC rating. Both coun-
tries’ FDI increases were rendered less powerful than if they had stronger CBS Ratings ©.
Several other top 50 finishers including Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Peru indicate the
increasing economic potential of the continent.
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16. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking ©
Comments, Continued
Asia was well represented due to strong FDI flows, but the CBS Ratings © indicate that though
Asia is rapidly becoming more economically powerful, creating a globally effective trade brand
strategy is still challenging. Though China (3) received a respectable BBB, Hong Kong (9) and
Singapore (23) were weakened with only B ratings.
The Middle East’s highest finishers were Saudi Arabia (16) and the United Arab Emirates (20).
Both had strong ratings (BBB and AAA respectively), suggesting that the economic impact of
the recent unrest in the region could be weathered with a strong brand strategy.
Shockingly, South Africa (50) was edged out by
Nigeria (39) and Sudan (42) despite a BBB rating.
Though South Africa might be perceived as the economic
power in Africa, FDI inflows are being increasingly spread
out over the continent.
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17. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Classification, References and Sources
Additional information about the study
Bloom Consulting divided the world into eleven geographic sectors and the four economic
development stages in order to maintain the singularity of the region and compare countries
in a regional context.
Bloom Consulting Geographic Regions
1. Central and Southern Asia
2. Europe
3. Northern Africa
4. Oceania
5. Central and Middle Africa
6. Central America and Caribbean
7. South America
8. Middle East
9. Western and Southern Africa
10. Northern America
11. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia
The four World Bank Income levels
12. Low Income
13. Lower Middle Income
14. Upper Middle Income
15. High Income (Includes both OECD and non-OECD)
Further sources for countries income level classifications,
geographic regions, and IPAs listing
The World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/
The United Nations http://www.un.org/en/
The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies http://www2.waipa.org/cms/Waipa
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18. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking©
FAQs
1) Who is this Ranking meant for?
Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking © is for anyone interested in place branding
from every perspective, whether you’re in government, academia, industry, finance,
or just find it interesting.
2) Why did Bloom Consulting create a Ranking?
Bloom Consulting created the Ranking to evaluate the impact of a country’s brand strategy in
economic terms and, above all, to answer the ever relevant question of how countries can
become more attractive.
3) How does Bloom Consulting’s Ranking differ from other rankings?
Bloom Consulting’s Ranking uses variables and methodology to generate a ranking far ahead
of the field in terms of objectivity and innovation. Not only does Bloom Consulting base its
research on objective hard and soft facts, rather than using survey based data like other rankings,
it is also the first ranking to take investor demand into account.
4) What is new in the 2012 edition of the Ranking?
The 2012 edition of the Ranking features the inclusion of investor Online Search Demand
(OSD) in the Bloom Algorithm. By analysing consumer behaviour and the effectiveness of
country brand strategies, the newest Ranking raises the bar by giving a pioneering view of the
global trade industry from a supply and demand angle.
5) How can a state have a poor CBS Rating ©, but do well in the Ranking?
If a country has a negative CBS Rating ©, its brand strategy is not actively reflecting what the
country has to offer (in the eyes of investor-demand). Even though its economic performance
might still be strong, the trade strategy is not taking advantage of the country’s unique selling
propositions.
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19. Country
Brand
Development of Countries
Human Asset Management
Ranking ©
Business Strategy Trade
Edition 2012
Bloom Consulting
About
Bloom Consulting is a strategy consulting firm specialized in country branding.
José Filipe Torres founded Bloom Consulting in 2003 and is a regular spokesperson at confer-
ences and universities worldwide. Both The Economist and Forbes have interviewed Mr Torres,
where he was identified as one of the top 3 country branding experts in the world.
Currently Bloom Consulting has offices in São Paulo, Mumbai, Lisbon, Madrid (headquarters)
and Los Angeles, as well as research centres in Tokyo and London. Bloom Consulting works
closely with presidents, monarchs, ministers and institutions in order to define their strategy,
establish their vision, and implement it. Bloom’s clients include the Bulgarian, Latvian, Polish,
Portuguese and Spanish governments, and also regions such as Madrid, Castilla y Leon in Spain,
and center and the southwest regions of Portugal.
Bloom Consulting has developed the 3T approach © that separates Trade, Tourism, and Talent
strategies into three different Country Branding Strategies.
One fundamental point of all of Bloom Consulting’s projects is the CAMPRO methodology ©.
This methodology is a combination of academic and professional knowledge under Bloom
Consulting’s management and control, key to obtaining the most accurate recommendations
and insights for all clients.
Moreover Bloom Consulting has published the:
Bloom Consulting US State Brand Ranking © 2012
and is currently developing the:
Bloom Consulting India State Brand Ranking © 2013
Additional Information
While this report provides a general overview, the information presented here is but
a glimpse of the findings we have at your disposal. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you
would like a personalized and detailed version of the Bloom Consulting Country Branding
Ranking © Report for your country, region or city.
For more information, please visit:
www.bloom-consulting.com/en/country-brands-ranking
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