The US is a particularly nebulous challenge for branding, paradoxical in its ability to appeal and divide at the same time. For many, America stands for opportunity and the good life, even while US foreign policy continues to frustrate and confound. Peter Lagerquist, a journalist based in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, stressed how most in the region readily distinguish "between cultural and political perceptions of the US among both businesspeople and layfolk." And a brand is not built simply by disseminating information. In any case, the lack of awareness and information is hardly America's problem. "Many middle-class families in the Middle East are well acquainted with US commercial and cultural products and often have direct experience of the US through relatives," said Lagerquist. Indeed, American brands, from fast food to shoes, continue to thrive.

The challenge for Beers, therefore, is the extent to which her work can impact the issues of real relevance to her target audience. Every brand consultant knows that a brand needs to be credible. It needs to be supported by a product that delivers. In no sector is this more true than in foreign relations, and the markets Beers's team were targeting have a particularly savvy audience. The broad majority of citizens in Asia and the Middle East are engaged consumers aware of American foreign policy, at least to the extent that it impacts their daily lives. Brand America, therefore, will be judged according to its actions and policies, not by the gloss of its spin.

Those who scoff at the idea of employing an industry professional to do the job of polishing America's image would do well to remember that this is hardly new. Washington is awash with lobbyists and PR experts who work to win favor for their government clients. Remember Hill and Knowlton's campaign to sell the (first) Gulf War to the American public? Or the two PR firms (Jefferson Waterman International and Bain & Associates) that advised a name change for Myanmar's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to the less threatening State Peace and Development Council? Or the Saudi efforts to assert its alliance with America after September 11 through television advertisements featuring photographs of Saudi leaders with eight US presidents, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt and ending with George W. Bush? Those advertisements were produced by yet another American firm, Qorvis Communications.

Patricia Tan recently contributed a chapter to Interbrand's latest book on branding in the pharmaceutical industry Brand Medicine (2001).