In the game of global branding, good ol' 'Merica is #8.
Formally speaking, branding is a marketing term used to
discuss the trademarking process by which a product, institution or company is
recognized. The stronger the brand, the more easily a product, institution or
company is recognized. Think Apple, Starbucks, or Nike. Go almost anywhere in the world and these
logos will be recognized by the masses.
What makes a brand particularly strong is not just the
design, colors, or graphics but the idea behind them. What they represent. A
horrible product with the best branding possible will still only be an easily
recognizable, and still horrible, product. Ford and Chevrolet have strong
branding, but to loyal owners of either, the opposing brand represents anything
but reliability. Walmart might be your personal Disney World of shopping
utopia, or it might the antichrist incarnate. Same brand, but a vastly different
relationship with the company behind it.
And so it is a particularly interesting idea to find that
entire countries spanning the globe also desire to work on their brand image as
well. Enter FutureBrand, a company dedicated to helping companies, products,
institutions, people and yes, even entire countries, work on their self-image.
This year in the 2012-2013
Country Brand Index, ‘Merica took a
hit. Since 2009 the old Stars & Stripes brand has dropped from #1 all the
way to #8. You can scroll through some
of the data to discover what has caused the fall from grace, but suffice to say
that the creation of a newly approved Brand USA initiative signals that the U.S. government has most certainly
noticed.
But branding has another definition as well. It is the
process of an owner marking a possession. Think cattle. In this regard, the two
words have a strange relationship to one another because both convey something
of the fact that branding is
intimately associated with identity.
So when branding becomes an important pastime of countries, we all should stand
and take notice. Consider for a moment the
statement made by Robert Cevero, Professor in the Department of City and
Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley:
“The public
impression of a country is important as a source of national pride. Invariably,
people source part of their own identity from the image of their country.”
If that statement is true, then it begs the question, what does this mean for those that claim to
be followers of Christ? What are the implications for the millions globally
who are called “strangers, and aliens” in this present world (1 Peter 2:11),
people who consider themselves to be, first and foremost, citizens of heaven
rather than any particular country (Phil. 3:20)?
In his new book Gospel-Driven
Life Michael Horton writes, “God is not a ribbon-cutting deity who presides
over patriotic events symbolizing the proud heritage and military might of his
favored nation…(because) The gospel creates a genuine ‘cross-cultural’
community that gathers the generations, races, rich and poor around Christ and
his feast of grace.”
If that observation is correct (and I believe deeply that it
is) than are the citizens of Christ’s Kingdom allowing their identity to be
shaped by such truth? Is the ‘”age to come” to which we are called to
participate in as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven reflected in any actual way
in this present age? Are you defined more by a kingdom that places inherent value on your
race, age, economic status, ethnicity and country of origin, or the Kingdom
that is ferociously at work reconciling all things, all things, under the reign and rule of one King?
To what degree is your life promoting rightly the global
branding efforts of Jesus and his Kingdom. Do people know you more by your
citizenship in a country, or your citizenship in a Kingdom?
