CANADA, COUNTRY WITH BEST REPUTATION IN THE WORLD

Canada has been named the country with the best reputation in Reputation Institute’s 2011 Country RepTrak global ranking. The annual study measures the public perceptions of 50 countries around the world. This is just as Nigeria occupied number 47 on the table having 50 countries. Sweden followed Canada as Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Austria and The Netherlands were in number three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine and ten respectively.

The study specifically measures the overall Trust, Esteem, Admiration and Good feelings the public holds towards these attributes, including a good quality of life, a safe place to live and a strong attention to their environment. Results from over 42,000 respondents worldwide showed that the North American country scored well in all the outlined criteria.

“The study shows that a strong country reputation requires a solid performance across three different areas: having an advanced economy, an appealing environment and an effective government,” says Nicolas Georges Trad, Executive Partner of Reputation Institute, a global consulting firm specializing in reputation management.

The first five countries showed stability in their high scores in the three years of the study. Their strong reputations are attributed to their steady democracies, high GDP per capita, focus on active lifestyles, well developed political systems and perceived neutrality to international political upheaval. The lowest ranked countries in the 50-country study were Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, while the United States and China were ranked in the middle and lower tiers.

One of the most interesting findings of this year’s study was the significant decline in the average score of all countries measured, indicating a growing disenchantment of people towards countries, perhaps because of recent developments in world economies and growing loss of confidence in politics globally. The effect of economics and politics on countries’ reputation also showed in some of the big movements from 2009 and 2011: Spain, Ireland and Greece dropped by five, six and seven places respectively, while Germany move five spots to number 11.

The result in Greece was even conspicuously rater internally; the study found that, when rated by Greeks, the country scored almost 16 points lower than by people outside the country.

Trad says, “This suggests that in addition to managing their reputations externally, countries should also invest in building domestic pride to drive positive perceptions both inside and outside the country – especially following a trust crisis like we see it in this case”.

The institute also checked the impact that people’s perceptions on the 16 attributes had on the countries’ overall reputation. It was found that being perceived as a safe country and a country with friendly people are the most important attributes that drive a country’s reputation. This could explain Mexico’s plunge from 24th place in 2009 to 35th place this year, as it continually struggles with an image of violent, lawless country.

One may note that the most important finding in this year’s study is that reputation means money. The institute found a very strong nexus between a country’s reputation and people’s willingness to visit there, buy its exported products and services, invest there, study there or even live and work there.

According to the Executive Partner of the Institute, Kasper Nielsen, the institute’s approach provides a strategic tool that enables countries to make informed decisions about how to spend their brand and reputation building budgets.

He adds, “When you consider that a 10 percent increase in your country’s reputation leads to an 11 percent in your tourism receipts, and a 2 percent in your FDI – this is something both countries and companies might want to take note of.”

THINGS TO NOTE

About Reputation Institute: Reputation Institute is the world’s leading corporate reputation consulting firm. Founded in 1997, with a presence in 30 countries, it is a pioneer in reputation management.

Survey Sampling International: Survey Sampling International is a premier global provider of sampling solutions for survey research. With offices in 15 countries, SSI provides data collection services to more than 1,800 clients, including 48 of the top 50 research organization.

2011 Country RepTrak Global Ranking

Rank	Country	Score
1	Canada	74.8
2	Sweden	74.4
3	Australia	74.3
4	Switzerland	74.2
5	New Zealand	73.1
6	Norway	73.1
7	Denmark	71.9
8	Finland	70.5
9	Austria	69.4
10	Netherlands	68.7
11	Germany	68.3
12	Japan	67.2
13	Belgium	65.6
14	Italy	64.6
15	UK	64.2
16	Spain	63.7
17	Ireland	63.6
18	France	62.1
19	Portugal	58.1
20	Singapore	58.0
21	Greece	55.8
22	Brazil	54.6
23	USA	52.9
24	Argentina	52.0
25	Taiwan	51.3
26	Poland	50.9
27	India	50.3
28	Peru	50.2
29	UAE	50.0
30	Thailand	49.9
31	Chile	49.7
32	Puerto Rico	47.4
33	South Africa	46.7
34	South Korea	46.6
35	Mexico	46.0
36	Turkey	46.0
37	Egypt	45.9
38	Venezuela	45.4
39	Bolivia	42.4
40	Ukraine	42.2
41	Israel	41.9
42	Haiti	41.8
43	China	40.7
44	Saudi Arabia	38.8
45	Russia	38.6
46	Colombia	37.1
47	Nigeria	30.9
48	Pakistan	27.2
49	Iran	22.7
50	Iraq	21.8

EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT

RANK	COUNTRY
1	Switzerland
2	Sweden
3	Norway
4	Canada
5	Denmark
6	Australia
7	Germany
8	Finland
9	Netherland
10	New Zealand

ADVANCED ECONOMY

RANK	COUNTRY
1	Japan
2	Germany
3	Sweden
4	Switzerland
5	Norway
6	Canada
7	US
8	Denmark
9	Finland
10	Australia

APPEALING ENVIRONMENT

RANK	COUNTRY
1	Australia
2	Switzerland
3	Sweden
4	Canada
5	Italy
6	New Zealand
7	Norway
8	Spain
9	Austria
10	Denmark

Source: Punch Newspaper; 30:9:2011, Feature 3

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