This chapter explores what triggers international millennials moods in relation to India and its cultural attributes. The theoretical undertaking related to nation branding and soft power study was used as a basis for this research. In the light of the discussion carried out in the chapter, key Indian cultural attributes were briefly discussed. The major cultural attributes extensively discussed during this research were related to Indian cinema, Indian cuisine, religion, spirituality, and yoga. Twenty-two international millennials belonging to four different cultural groups were selected for the focus group research. Their perceptions about India brought out interesting insights in understanding how to promote India among different cultures.
TopObjective
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To identify a range of soft cultural attributes that millennials from different cultural groups associate with the nation brand of India.
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To measure/evaluate the perceptual impact of soft cultural attributes that millennials from different cultural groups associate with the nation brand of India and rank these by their perceived significance.
TopLitrature Review
According to Fan (2010), a nation brand is the total sum of the perceptions in the minds of international stakeholders, which may comprise some of the following elements such as people, place, culture, language, history, food, fashion, famous faces (celebrities), global brands, and cinema. A nation brand is different from a national brand; a national brand refers to a specific product or service, which is distributed and available throughout the country as opposed to a local brand, which is available locally, or a global brand, which is available globally. Nation brand refers to the mental image of a country held by the international community.
According to Olin (1999), the concept of nation branding is to remold national identity. Anholt (2007) and Lee (2009) claim that it is to enhance nations’ competitiveness; while Jaffe and Nebenzahl (2001) believe that nation branding is required to embrace political, cultural, business and sports activities. Rendon (2003) states that nation branding promotes economic and political interests at home and abroad. Clearly, there are diverse opinions within academia about the focus and purpose of nation branding. According to Fan (2010), identity, image, and reputation are separate constructs, which refer to mental associations created by past knowledge. Nation branding is defined as the image and reputation acquired by people living outside the country. He also states that stereotyping media coverage and personal experience influences the perception of the international audience. Fan (2010, p. 6) gives another definition; that Nation branding is a process by which a nation’s image can be created or altered, monitored, evaluated and proactively managed in order to enhance the country’s reputation among target international audience.