What do people think about Germany?

Dear reader,

As we know, there are many country rankings - the one by WPP, Wharton and US News is one of the more serious ones, as a look at the methodology shows. Selected target groups around the world are asked for their assessment of almost 100 countries. As in 2023, Germany came in 7th place, which is not entirely bad, as they say in Swabian. Despite all the naysayers, Germany is still a strong country brand. And this can be built on - by looking at the weaknesses. Almost as expected, we fall quite low in the areas of "agility", "open for business" and "movers", in short: the globally generated sample considers us to be lame, bureaucratic and, well, lazy. Is it all just a question of perception? Wharton professor David Reibstein is right: "If the perceptions are wrong, it's just a communications issue. But more often than not, the perceptions are not wrong." Accordingly, it is good to know where to start. Take Saudi Arabia, for example, one of the rising stars in the ranking: in the "Social Purpose" category, the desert state scores quite poorly, and rightly so - just think of religious freedom. But no one can deny that the situation for women has improved massively, and this is also reflected in the perception. However, it is also clear that marketing and branding are absolutely relevant for the evaluation of countries. Proof: Qatar is in the top 25 for the first time. That's right, the World Cup, watched by 5 billion people. So: what should we do to make the German brand stronger?

Here is the link: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/what-are-the-best-countries-of-2024/