Branding post-communist Romania and its effects on country image

In recent years, more precisely from 1989 on, which was considered by a lot of experts the beginning of the second stage of globalization, nation branding campaigns have started to be launched in more and more countries in order to help developing nations image and reputation and to provide a competitive edge on economic, social and even political areas. Simon Anholt and Wally Olins are the two authors who studied the most nation branding phenomenon and came up with theories which were applied often by professionals when elaborating nation branding campaigns for different states. Nadia Kaneva, Keith Dinnie, Melissa Aronczyk, Luminita Nicolescu and Alina Dolea have also focused their researches on this theme and manage to contribute with new and interesting ideas to the field. This paper provides insight into the most important nation branding campaigns made by Romania starting from 1989 until present. Through a comparative analysis of those campaigns the paper tries to identify which was their impact on Romania’s image or reputation. How was Romania perceived (from the image perspective) before 1989 at international level? Did the image change after 1989? And what was the impact of the most important branding nation campaigns implemented after 1989 in the image of Romania and implicit in economy? These are the main questions this paper tries to answer. At the same time, the study also explores briefly the concept of globalization, nation branding, national image and national reputation. The conclusions of the paper will provide in the end a general background of all studied nation branding campaigns which will include the similarities and differences between them, but also both strong and weak points. Its aim is to contribute, among other existing papers, as a starting point for researchers or professionals who want to elaborate nation branding strategies for Romania or other countries.