Country Brand Identity. Communication of the “Brazil Brand” in the United States of America

      Аннотация: The country brand is the image and perception of the brand associations of a nation as seen by foreigners. This book was developed in order to analyse the Brazil Brand Identity based on the convergence of communication strategies for the tourism sector with those effectively used by travel agencies and/or tour operators in the United States of America. This study was qualitative and exploratory, based on the literature review and in-depth interviews with three sample groups: Embratur (the Brazilian Federal Institute of Tourism), twenty travel agencies in the United States of America and a group of experts. The conclusion is that Brazil has incomplete brand associations and conceptual differences with the theory, whose concepts state that brand identity should be settled on the strategic vision of the brand. Embratur understands a theoretically-distorted version, which was not reflected in the respondents' answers. Therefore, the central identity of the Brazil Brand, which should be the personality of the brand, corresponds only partially to the image desired by Embratur, featuring only the diversity attribute.

Ключевые слова: Country brand; brand identity; Brazil brand; destination image; communication strategies; international tourism.