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Simon Anholt is a British government advisor specializing in the field of nation branding. Anholt has advised numerous governments and edits the journal Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. He is a member of the British government's Public Diplomacy Board and advises a number of other governments on their branding strategies, several of them developing countries in collaboration with the United Nations.

Anholt first used the phrase "nation branding" in an article in the Journal of Brand Management He then guest-edited a special issue on nation branding in the same journal and launched Place Branding and Public Diplomacy in 2004, which he currently edits (originally published by Henry Stewart and now by Palgrave Macmillan).

Anholt encourages governments to coordinate policy with trade, cultural relations and tourism to manage their image and reputation, which is important to furthering the aims of the government, industry and population in the era of globalization. Smaller, developing nations can increase investment, help their industries grow, and increase political influence by developing and communicating strong brand identities. For example, he recommended that Slovenia teach English, Italian, and German to pupils; 15 years later, those students could greet visitors in their native languages, who then would be more likely to leave Slovenia with a good impression of the country. The emphasis in Anholt's approach is on policy change and substance, as contrasted to marketing and communications.

Anholt cited the positive benefits that the movie Crocodile Dundee and its sequels had for Australia — filmgoers with no preconceived notions about Australia came away with the belief that Australians were funny, courageous, outdoorsy, and clever. Another example was the United States' attempts to re-brand itself in the Middle East. Anholt stated that the best results come when nations align their foreign and domestic policies with national images and sectoral promotion.

Anholt launched and currently edits the "Anholt Nation Brands Index," "Anholt State Brands Index" and "Anholt City Brands Index", three surveys which provide rankings by brand value of several cities and countries. The rankings are based on his Nation Branding Hexagon, a theoretical model which explains how places are branded and their brands managed.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Simon Anholt", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0