DO From the “Portugal Brand Project” to “Portugal sou eu”: which public policies for Portugal Country Brand?

Abstract

Globalization generates homogenization and, simultaneously, a strong competition between countries, which creates a need for differentiation between them that governments seek to respond through country brand policies. Since the 1990’s, more and more countries have promoted brand policies to distinguish themselves from competitors and thus increase socio-economic progress. Portugal Brand arises in 1999 in the political agenda, characterized by the diffusion of political ideas of country brand. But the theme of the country brand still lacks a solid theorizing, emerging from in-depth case studies. With this article, we intend to contribute to fill this gap by analyzing the measures developed in the Portugal Brand until 2015, identifying the political ideas that underpinned them and explaining what resulted from this path.