Branding Japan: Cool is not enough

Capturing the essence of a nation is the challenge for governments aiming to market their countries' strengths.

Branding Japan: Cool is not enough

Christopher GravesOgilvy Public Relations Worldwide

Capturing the essence of a nation is the challenge for governments aiming to market their countries' strengths. Christopher Graves argues that Japan's effort to brand itself as 'cool' is shallow and faddy and misses the deeper and more spiritual aspect of Japanese culture summed up as 'devotion to mastery'.

In 1856, Felix Bracquemond, a Parisian engraver, print maker and ceramicist, received a package of ceramics from Japan. Bracquemond was immediately stirred, legend has it, by the flat, bold style of the images on the paper used to protect...

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