Branding a Potential Energy Hub as National Interest in the Eastern Mediterranean

As the global energy demand has been growing, the balance of the international system seems to shudder. Energy issues have become pivotal for national strategy. For example, Russia is challenging US primacy by using its energy resources, the US is trying to become an oil and gas net exporter, and China is striving to ensure influence in rich natural resources territories to secure energy supplies for its development. The authors argue that energy issues have set up a new chessboard of power on which countries improve their status, no matter whether they are energy importers or exporters. Such countries as Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and Egypt are pursuing, without being major energy producers, to brand themselves as ideal regional “energy hubs” to serve national interest. Self-branding is not only a matter of declaration. It is primarily a matter of the energy major players recognizing this branding. It is this recognition that is the decisive moment that the countries concerned tip over the energy chess game by turning their aspirations into something more than an energy supply issue.

Is It Important for Healthcare Services to Place the Onus on Patient Satisfaction in Their Brand?

Due to the advent of computers, internet, and social media communication, the marketing of services has changed, and consequently, organizations of any kind need to specify a brand image strategy and position it successfully in customer minds without cultural limitations. A semiotic approach for examining the branding strategy was applied on the websites of some healthcare services organizations which were taken as representative case studies. This research study seeks to point out the significance of the signs, either in the linguistic level or the iconic level of analysis, in order to make easily understandable the main issues of a branding strategy. The quality of services, the high standard of scientific expertise, and the availability of clinical equipment are the dominant issues of the examining branding strategies, whereas patient satisfaction and their further quality of life are completely ignored. A suggested innovative branding approach is shown to help entrepreneurs, branding designers, and marketers of healthcare services recognize the value of patient satisfaction.

The Nation Brand Image:

The chapter proposes an analysis of the phenomenon of nation branding from the point of view of the attribution of an identity to places and the consequent development of a collective imagination related to them. The starting point for this analysis is a historical excursus concerning the formation of a collective imaginary of places. Nation branding is a recent phenomenon, which takes up the legacy of other historical phenomena to propose an imaginary linked to the identity aspects of a nation, synthesising it in a few graphic signs through a brand. The chapter describes this process of the construction of the identity of a place and its visual expression through a brand image. The analysis is limited to the nation recognizability as a tourism destination and does not take under consideration the nation products and economy. The considerations are supported by the analysis of some emblematic case studies of brand image classified according to their graphic characteristics.

Building National Branding Strategy in Medical Tourism and Production of Generic Medicines

National branding supports countries to improve their international reputation, to attract investment, to link their national name with comparative advantages of producing products or services, and to attract buyers and visitors. The globalization of markets has increased the competitiveness of states and political influence in markets, and national branding has become a vital tool. Healthcare within the environment of seamless information and easy patient movement from state to state has led states to strive to convince the public opinion of the medical specialized services their country provides to attract patients for treatment. This chapter sought to examine whether Greece can acquire national branding in medical tourism and in the production of generic medicines. This approach has shown that there is potential, but specific policies need to be pursued to achieve the goal. This chapter reveals that the combination medical tourism and production of generic medicines can be essential elements towards a concrete national branding strategy.

Education and Music

Music education as a systematic and complex process of transmitting knowledge and skills, as well as cultivating mental, intellectual, and artistic abilities, referred to a specific cultural result of an apprenticeship system. Music is also inextricably linked with the cultural and national identity of individuals as it offers a sense of self within a social context. It symbolizes and offers an experience of collective, social, and cultural identity. This study, through the analysis of the pertinent literature in a descriptive way, will try to prove that the position of music must be fundamental in education and therefore in the formation of human personality. The main conclusion of the chapter is the significant importance of the expression of children through music, the ability to express their musicality with the help of his body and voice, the perception of the concepts of music, as well as the development of a positive image and attitude towards music.

One Island, Two Nations

The aim of this chapter is to explain the effect of nation branding on destination marketing. The study is looking for an answer to this question, What if two nations live in a destination, how should the destination marketing be with the effect of nation branding? For this purpose, in the study, Gökçeada (Imbros) where Turkish and Greek people have lived together for many years, an island, will be an example to the whole world is included. In the literature research about nation branding, there is no study on the marketing of destinations where two or more nations live together. Therefore, this study will be the first study in this field in the world. It is also believed that this study will help other destinations similar to Gökçeada (Imbros) to determine their marketing strategies.

Online Place Branding

This chapter provides a new methodological analysis grid on the topic of the variations of identity characteristics that appear on the webpages of country brands, highlighting the theoretical perspectives, strategies, and ways in which brands are built in the socio-cultural environment by their stakeholders or their legal owners and the valences of the reconstruction or adaptation of brands in the online environment, from the perspective of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 dynamics, while shaping the core components and the dynamics of the nation brand identity. A corpus of 80 cases of official country brands were analyzed as primary data source by applying a quantitative-qualitative research method of studying and analyzing different forms of communication (the content analysis) on the official websites of place brands (countries) in order to determine a systematic and quantifiable way for measuring the identity characteristics of those brands.

Transforming Teacher Evaluation Into an External Goal-Setting Practice and Empowering Nation Branding

Undergoing education reform, the educational system of Cyprus seems to be seeking ways to shift teacher evaluation from a practice that stagnates teacher motivation to a practice that would raise, develop, and sustain teacher motivation towards teacher effectiveness. Teacher effectiveness may develop through formative teacher assessment, which can motivate teachers to generate outputs, namely student learning outcomes, and contribute to the improvement of the quality of the provided education. Being inspired by a conceptualization over the content of two qualitative research studies, which, in the context of secondary education of Cyprus, investigated teacher motivation and teacher evaluation respectively, this chapter recommends a goal setting, interactive teacher-teacher school-based evaluation practice of a formative type, which, being conversational and, therefore, motivational, may lead to teacher effectiveness.

The Political Economy of UAE Branding From Marketing to Economics and Power

The branding policy of the UAE has been in a phase of constant transformation and evolution in terms of its constructive elements. The aim of this chapter is to assess the UAE's evolution from a state whose branding was based upon soft power elements, namely the use of traditional economic tools and global marketing, towards hard power elements, including strengthening its geopolitical and international economic relations perspective through strategic-oriented initiatives. Making full use of its Sovereign Fund's capability and opportunity to invest on strategic economic sectors of third countries (e.g., the USA and the EU member states) as well as enhancing the perception of UAE as a global tourism, logistics, and transportation centre, UAE tends to move beyond the traditional marketing tools initially employed.

How Emotional Intelligence and Consciousness (Mindfulness) in Education Can Provide a New Character and Orientation to the Nation

Our nation and state today are going through a difficult period in their life and survival, because the moral principles and values, the principles of democracy, in particular the human principles of mutual respect, respect and empathy for each other, have been damaged. The causes are certainly deeper, and researching, one concludes that the great nursery of democracy is education lags behind in terms of adhering to the principles of education and functional efficiency. The change of orientation of our education towards the inner world of man, the upliftment of the spiritual struggle, and cultivating from the inside out with the skills of emotional intelligence and consciousness will help citizens to reorient themselves and realize that they are part of a nation but at the same time citizens of a global community with broader perceptions, goals, and obligations. The revision of education programs and the introduction in education of emotional intelligence and consciousness will lay the foundations for the creation of a new generation of sensitized and conscious citizens.