Branding for the Public Sector: Creating, Building and Managing Brands People Will Value

Chapter 2 Public Sector Brand Categories

The previous chapter introduced the concept of branding in the public sector, looked at the overall trend in this area, and examined some of the benefits that can be gained as a direct result of brand development and management. Now it is time to look in more depth at the types of public sector brands that exist and why the interest in branding is increasing.

Main categories of public sector brands

There are several categories of public sector brands including the following:

• multi-nation or multi-country groups
• countries or nations
• industries or sectors
• public service and civil service
• ministry and government department brands
• government-linked corporations (GLCs)
• places, destinations and cities
• non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-profit organizations
• personalities and leaders

Multi-national or multi-country brands

Over the past few decades there has been a trend towards countries grouping together under an “umbrella” identity or name mainly for economic purposes, and this has resulted in megabrands that include several individual country brands – brands within brands. A good example here is the European Union (EU). The EU has 28 member states or countries, but it acts as one block with respect to many legal and trade matters. When it started out as the European Economic Community (EEC) following the Treaty of Rome in the 1960s, the idea was to create a common market for the economic benefit of all European countries. ...