Branded Public Diplomacy: A Comparison of Brand Equity of Western Cultural-Oriented and Aid-Oriented Public Diplomacy Organizations in Egypt

• In Event: So Far, So Good, Part 1: Organizational Communication Research Escalator

Abstract

While the goal of public diplomacy is to promote mutual understanding (Cummings 2003), a recent poll indicates that only 5 percent of Egyptians view the United States favorably (Strasser, 2011). This study examines the brand equity of two western public diplomacy actors in Egypt, one is aid-oriented while the other is culture-oriented. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted to understand (a) the differences between the consumer-based brand equity of the British Council and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Egypt (b) the main sources of such brand equity and (c) the brand associations that each of these two different types of organizations generate. The country-of-origin effect (COO) served as the framework for understanding the main sources of brand equity of the two actors. The results indicate that the British Council has a better brand equity than USAID.

Author

• Amal Bakry, University of Florida