Week 3 Nancy Bui

France has undergone a lot to rebrand itself to what we know as it is today. Today, France is acknowledged as high fashion, exquisite food, beautiful sights, and a tourist must see. But there was multiple components that deeply influenced these ideals. During the reign Louis XIV, they made decisions that would set the foundation of these ideals and images for the next hundreds of years. As denoted by the author, “the nation’s image is the product of the shared socio psychological makeup of a people.” The first decision came this a strict decision to “set new standards for food, fashion, interior decoration, and standards.” As these standards were highly set, differing slogans came to accompany it and build its repertoire, such as “travel to Paris was guaranteed to add a touch of magic to every life” denoted by respected literary. This introduction of slogans lead into their game changing strategy, marketing. Marketing became most effective when discussion the explosion of selling and promoting high selling fashion. France was able to birth the notion of “fashion season” which is still used today. Continuing in the process, was the perfecting of aesthetic appeal. Focusing on the image itself is vital in the process of re branding, and Louis XIV took huge measures and allotted a majority of his time to ensure it was aesthetically pleasing and appealing. The last major factor was this notion of being “less dependent on imports.” This decision marked the categorization of France as a producer nation rather than a consumer nation.  With this decision, France focused entirely on exporting as much as possible whilst keeping imports low as possible. This allowed for a richer economy whilst out competing other countries at the time such as Holland. In the Colbert article, different initiatives such as the general industrial program and authoritarian ideal worked on strengthening the foundation and less attention of possibilities. It focused on investing in it’s own people, which eventually added to the idea of “less dependency on imports.” France’s re branding was possible through marketing, strategic allocation of resources, and investment in its’ people.  

These strategies could definitely be proven effectively when thinking of my country/nation of choice because they have been proven to work in multiple countries that have re branded successfully such as Japan and South Korea. Through the integration of active participation from the government and it's people, successful re branding is possible.