Cataloged from PDF version of article.Negative public opinion on Turkey’s EU accession in many member-states might
become a major obstacle during the next 10 years of negotiation despite supportive
diplomatic strategies. In consumer research, images/attitudes are expected to provide
deeper insights into preference formation and (consumption/voting) decisions than
opinion statements. Application of marketing image research methodology should
therefore facilitate new perspectives for political phenomena.
Within this scenario, two evolving concepts meet: political marketing and nation
branding. Both are closely investigated for this problem. The main theoretical approach
consists of an emerging framework for a nation brand image in a political
context. Central challenges are the definition of the brand image construct and testing
the applicability of commercial brand theory for political brands.
Practical application of this framework is the case of Turkey accessing the EU. In a
contextualized approach the image content, explaining factors/antecedents and consequences/outcomes
of Turkey’s image within the political framework are analyzed
and measured.
The conduct of the research consists of two parts: literature research reconciling different
interdisciplinary backgrounds and a qualitative exploration with in-depth expert
interviews from a sample of prototypical EU member-states.
First results indicate a wide spectrum of different images across EU, depending
mainly on knowledge conditions, contact points with Turkish people and general
perspectives of EU development. Religion or history, often mentioned in public discourses,
seem not to play a prominent role. Emerging public diplomacy approaches
in Turkey will face the challenge to integrate most heterogeneous messages and
stakeholders of Turkey’s nation brand.Kemming, Jan DirkM.S
