Narratives and Cultural Icons as Strategic Maneuvering in Text-Based Online Advertorials Employed in Branding the Nordics

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Narratives and Cultural Icons as Strategic Maneuvering in Text-Based Online

Advertorials Employed in Branding the Nordics

Laura Nikkinen 11314575 University of Amsterdam Communication and Information Studies: Discourse and Argumentation Studies 16 June 2017 Master’s thesis

Supervisor: Corina Andone Second Reader: Jean Wagemans

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Currently every trend-conscious world citizen knows the Finnish “sisu”, Danish “hygge”, the arctic climate and landscape of the Nordics, as well as the excellent education system and endless supply of great hockey players. It seems that currently all eyes are on the Nordic countries, which makes it fascinating to dive deeper into how the Nordic brand was created. The Nordic region indeed has been intentionally and actively branded since the late 1990s in order to promote and manage the reputation of the region for commercial and political goals (e.g. Kristoferssen, 2009). Judging by the constantly growing interest regarding the Nordics, the branding efforts of the region have been successful. The branding of the Nordics as a region rather than individual countries has been reinforced in particular by the Nordic Council, an organization that wishes to strengthen the “competitiveness and international influence” (press release, 28 October 2014, retrieved from http://norden.org) of the Nordics with careful place branding. The Nordic council consists of representatives from each of the five nations of the Nordic region: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. This branding project provides plenty of interesting information and insights when it comes to looking into place branding from an argumentative point of view.

This research is motivated by questions related to the prior knowledge of people, audience expectations and public discourse, and furthermore, how these help to create or reinforce cultural values and identities and brand a region. The questions aimed to answer in this thesis are: 1. What is the role of argumentation in branding a place? 2. How do institutional characteristics of commercial communication affect the use of argumentation in branding the Nordics? 3. How are narratives and cultural icons employed in maneuvering strategically in place branding, in particular in branding the Nordics, and what strategic results does the advertiser obtain in using them?

As digital communication is changing the way information and arguments are being produced and consumed, the advertorial material used as examples throughout the thesis are all retrieved from online sources, such as http://norden.org and the official tourism information sites of each

individual nation. Online advertorials can be read as argumentative texts, aiming to persuade the audience to visit and invest in the Nordics, which makes them excellent examples for exploring the use of narratives and cultural icons as a part of strategic maneuvering in a place branding process. Moreover, as a great variety of examples are retrievable from online sources, these are ideal for

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illustrating the use of narratives and cultural icons among other means of strategic maneuvering. These also function well while discussing and demonstrating the persuasiveness and the informative value, which are the two most important qualities of advertorial. For example, the following excerpt from an advertorial provided by the Iceland Promotion Board is not only informative, but also persuasive and it attracts the audience to engage and seek for more information: “Selfies can be dangerous when you’re focusing on your pout and not the volcanic hot spring about to cover you in boiling water. Let us help you get the perfect selfie, not a nasty injury” (retrieved 3 April 2017, from http:/visiticeland.com). This and other excerpts retrieved from online advertorials will be discussed and analyzed throughout the thesis in order to illustrate the theoretical approach applicable to place branding.

Narratives and cultural icons are aspects of strategic maneuvering chosen as the main

concepts of discussion in this thesis due to their unique ability to simultaneously function as stories and argumentation (Virtanen, 1992). Storytelling is an age-old tradition that gives the consumers a relatable story and at the same time engages and intrigues them to know more (e.g. Mattila, 2000), which makes it a powerful device in writing a promotional text and therefore for the nation

branding process. Narratives can be found in many different forms, such as text, videos and images in the efforts towards branding a nation. However, due to the excessive amount of material and previous research, the focus of this thesis is strictly on the textual rather than on the visual side of the advertorials. Furthermore, considering that the brand image is always constructed from a

number of fragments collected from a number of very different sources (Jensen, 2007), the focus of the thesis is on the intentional messages, the stories nations choose to tell. Furthermore, it will be discussed how nations employ cultural icons in these stories as a part of strategic maneuvering in branding the Nordics, and how and what strategic results can be obtained by using them.

In order to get a better understanding of the role of argumentation in branding the Nordics, the concept of place branding will first be introduced and explained in relation to the Nordic region and the branding efforts conducted by the Nordic countries. Following this, the relevant activity type will be defined before moving on to the role of argumentation in the branding process. Furthermore, examples of the advertorials the representatives of the Nordic countries have chosen to use for promoting the region will be introduced and their prototypical aspects discussed, as will also the institutional characteristics and constraints of commercial communication, and advertorials in branding in particular. After explaining these crucial concepts and ideas related to place branding and the role of argumentation, the focus of the thesis shifts to the importance and qualities of strategic maneuvering in a promotional context, and in particular to the narratives and cultural icons in a promotional context and how these are employed by the Nordics in their branding. Lastly, the

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more general features of the line of argumentation behind persuasive texts will be discussed, as well as how and what kind of results are obtainable through the successful employment of strategic maneuvering devices. Each concept discussed in this thesis is explained and illustrated with real-life examples retrieved from the official websites of the Nordic countries.

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As mentioned above, the Nordics is a region that has been actively promoted and branded since the late 1990’s, although some researches (e.g. Waever,1992; Browning, 2007; Petersen, 2011) argue that the efforts towards place branding of the region can be traced back to the Cold War, or even as far as the 12th_{century (Mordhorst, 2015).}

When it comes to branding a place, it is common that the brand idea and image are divided into multiple categories, such as tourism or investment, which all carry out commonly shared values and ideologies in slightly different ways, thus influencing the place’s brand image from their own starting points (Moilanen & Rainisto, 2009). Moreover, when looking into branding, it should be noted that brands are always created for specific audiences or goals in mind. A brand is defined as a set of tangible and intangible elements unique to a product or a place, and it includes all the

attributes coming to a consumer’s mind when he or she thinks of a certain brand (Kapferer, 1997). According to Moilanen & Rainisto (2009), there are three essential aspects to branding:identity, image and communication. For this thesis, the latter in particular is of interest.

Place branding already in itself is an extremely complex phenomenon, as Keith Dinnie argues in Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practise (2008). There is not only one definition of place branding. Instead, there is an ongoing debate on how to define and distinguish place branding. Currently, for some experts, place branding is just another form of country of origin marketing or place marketing (e.g. Kotler, 2002; Beverland, 2002), while for others it is its own independent concept (Morgan et al, 2002; Gold and Ward, 1994). However, it is generally accepted that the lack of tangibility is what makes nation branding so different from many other subtypes of branding, such as product branding or personal branding, for example. This lack of tangibility makes the success of the nation branding efforts extremely difficult to measure, define or describe (Anholt, 2005). Kaneva (2011) distinguishes three different approaches to place branding: branding focused on enhancing the marketability of a nation's image for purposes such as tourism and financial investment, branding focused on political perspectives addressing the role of national reputation in international relations, and branding practices focused on the definition of collective identities. This idea is also supported by Ying Fan, who states in his article “Branding the Nation: Towards a Better Understanding” (2010) that place branding may, in fact, be conducted so that it serves more than one purpose. A specific place brand may be intended to promote a nation as a country of origin, which sets the expectations related to the quality of the products. It can also be designed so that it maximally promotes the country specifically for tourists or for investment, for example. Besides these two goals, which are perhaps the most common reasons for branding a place, a branded nation may also have an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to political communication. Therefore,

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although this thesis focuses on place branding as a commercial activity type, in a different context it could also be studied from the point of view of, for example, diplomatic communication or

interpersonal communication. Furthermore, considering the many faces of place branding, place branding can be studied and analyzed from several different perspectives, it is very important to define the domain before moving forward with the analysis.

Branding a fairly large region such as the Nordics is an enormous project that includes and involves a number of experts from multiple fields, each with their own expertise and independent starting points. Therefore, this research is limited to examining only one aspect of the nation branding process: text-based online advertorials. Interestingly, among experts there is still some disagreement whether advertising in fact counts as argumentation (Ripley, 2008). However, in this thesis, the starting point is indeed that advertising and thus branding is argumentation, although perhaps not in its most traditional form. An advertisement can be seen as a dialogue between the advertisement (advertiser) and a consumer, and the dispute can be either settled or set aside (Ripley, 2008). From an argumentative point of view, the activity type under examination is an online advertorial, which falls under the genre of promotion and the domain of commercial

communication. Advertorial is an activity type that has been conventionalized to a degree, although it is not predetermined to the same extent as, for example, legal communication (van Eemeren, 2010). For promotional texts, and advertorials in particular, it is characteristic to highlight only the positive and most desirable aspects of a product – or in this case, a place – while hiding or ignoring the aspects that may be considered negative or less admirable by the intended audience. These characteristics and constraints of promotional texts will be further discussed in the following sections in order to shed some light into why and how this is done with the help of strategic maneuvering.

Writing any kind of a promotional or otherwise persuasive text involves strategic maneuvering. According to van Eemeren (2010), strategic maneuvering consists of three

inseparable aspects: topical selection, audience demand and presentational devices. Each of these contributes to the persuasive text in a slightly different way, with the common goal of finding the right topics and a way to communicate these to the audience in a manner that is maximally

persuasive yet still reasonable. Furthermore, the umbrella term of strategic maneuvering also covers a great number of more specific concepts such as narratives and cultural icons. These provide important nuances when it comes to convincing the audience of the idea of the place sold to them in advertorials employed in place and nation branding. Branding a place successfully requires both strong strategy and strong argumentation, and therefore, it is evident that aspects of strategic maneuvering are employed in the promotional argumentative texts. Therefore, in the following

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section, strategic maneuvering will be further discussed in relation to place branding with the help of some prototypical examples created for promotional purposes by the promotion boards of the Nordic countries.

2.1 Background for Narratives and Cultural Icons in Branding

Storytelling is an age-old human tradition that is still employed in many ways in the modern world. In branding, and moreover in marketing, narratives are an important tool when it comes to selling a product and creating a desired brand-image, as they are commonly used for creating an emotional connection between the brand and a consumer (Escalas, 2004). Stories are created and told in order to make sense of the world, explain unusual events, and to create order and gain perspective, as well as for making evaluations (Bruner, 1990). Several scholars have already provided evidence that humans naturally think in a story-like manner and that much of the information acquired in daily life is transmitted in narrative form, meaning that the information is thematically and temporally linked together (e.g. Adaval & Wyer, 1998; Bruner, 1986). Considering the important role of storytelling in our daily life, it seems inevitable that narratives are used also in branding. The short stories created by advertisers are likely to ascribe meaning to certain brands and products – if successful – and therefore they may become powerful devices in the branding of a product or a place as dealt within this text. Although the use of narratives in the field of commercial

communication, and in particular from an argumentative point of view, has not been studied until recent years, it has already been recognized as an area of interest. Narratives involve and employ numerous means of strategic maneuvering and are known to be an effective form of persuasion (e.g. Mattila, 2000).

When it comes to place branding, the importance of culture and cultural representations becomes extremely important in order to demonstrate to the audience the uniqueness of the place in question and explain what makes it more valuable or interesting than other places. Cultural icons are by definition artifacts or even people recognized by the members of a certain culture or sub-culture to be representatives of particular aspects of their cultural identity. These icons are authentic representations of the culture and the nation’s geographic location. They are familiar not only to the locals, but increasingly also for the international audience – in particular when it comes to very famous, unique icons such as the fjords of Norway or the Icelandic horses of Iceland. When it comes to the Nordics, there are cultural icons all the Nordic countries share and have in common. For example, snowy winters and the midnight sun are icons aspiring from the Nordic climate and

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the geographic location. These are commonly used in the branding and advertising by each of the Nordic countries separately, but also when advertising the Nordics as a region. Furthermore, when it comes to branding a place or a service, the key difference compared to branding a product is that the consumers wish to experience the stories the advertorials tell (Holt, 2004). When they imagine spending money on a service experience such as travel or eating in a restaurant, the consumers are also likely to focus on the experience of consuming rather than every possible feature of the experience (Mattila, 2000). Therefore, both a well-chosen narrative and strategically employed cultural icons become valuable aspects of branding a place such as the Nordics. This is simply due to the fact that the value of a place brand lies in the cultural expression which is part of the myth that attracts the audience (Holt, 2004).

To demonstrate the use of narratives and cultural icons in place branding, the example mentioned in the introduction can be examined further: “Selfies can be dangerous when you’re focusing on your pout and not the volcanic hot spring about to cover you in boiling water. Let us help you get the perfect selfie, not a nasty injury”. The example is retrieved from Visit Iceland, Iceland’s official tourism organization’s website. It is part of the massively successful “Inspired by Iceland” campaign, which has led to a more than 20 percent increase in the number of tourists visiting the country from 2010 to 2015 (Tourism in Iceland in Figures, May 2016, retrieved from http://www.ferdamalastofa.is). This excerpt is an excellent example of using both a narrative and a cultural icon in branding a place. The narrator of the excerpt is a helpful local, a tourist’s personal guide to the “stunningly beautiful but also quite brutal” Iceland (Retrieved from http://inspired.visiticeland.com, on 24 April 2017), warning about the dangers of the volcanic hot springs, cultural icons of Iceland. The tone of the advertorial is informal, friendly, helpful, and even playful, which is how Icelanders would like to be seen, and how they wish to brand themselves. It is contradicting the dated ideas of Iceland as a home for the blood-hungry Vikings, a small rural island in the middle of an ocean by using this new, warm and welcoming tone, and highlighting its belonging to the modern world. By introducing up-to-date, trendy concepts like selfies, Iceland is promoting itself in a completely new way – which, considering the increasing numbers of visitors and investment seems to be working.

As explained and illustrated with the help of the example above, at its core branding a place is a mixture of selective storytelling, efforts to make the consumers see a city or a country in a certain light and even completely re-imagining the place (Jensen, 2007; Selby, 2004). The following section will further develop the discussion regarding the role of argumentation in the complex process of branding a place.

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Traditionally, the origins of branding are in marketing and business, but scholars across fields of study have admitted it to be a field that requires cross-disciplinary research (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013). From an argumentative point of view, not much research regarding branding has been conducted yet (Lischinsky, 2016). However, as branding can be associated with promoting, under which advertorials fall, branding is by definition argumentation – it intends to influence the audience with substantiated assertions (Deighton, 1985; Slade, 2002).

In relation to marketing, the emphasis has long ago shifted from the material product itself to what the product represents (Williams, 1960). This applies also to the intangible goods and

products, such as travel, and in this case in particular, places. Cities and places are branded in order for people to see the place in a certain, desired light, and in order for them to associate certain adjectives, values and ideas to those places (e.g. Selby, 20014; Koller, 2008). The challenge in branding – no matter what type – is that in the end the consumers are in charge of how they interpret the messages they receive. No brand advertiser or marketer can achieve a hegemonic control over its audience and their interpretations of the meaning of the brand. Moreover, what ties a narrative so closely to branding is the fact that any brand image stems from a number of

narratives, and from a number of heterogeneous sources (Jensen, 2007). Interestingly, in 2016 Sweden launched a campaign embracing this fact, by creating “The Swedish Number”

(www.theswedishnumber.com), a phone number to “Get connected to a random Swede and talk about anything” (retrieved from http://theswedishnumber.com on 2 April 2017). The aim of the campaign was to promote Sweden as an innovative country, “The first country in the world with its own phone number” (retrievedfrom http://theswedishnumber.com on 2 April 2017), and to engage and attract potential visitors, as well as gain international media attention. Each of the random Swedes picking up the phone became a narrative voice on behalf of Sweden, contributing to the brand of the nation. This was a successful campaign when looking into the statistics of the campaign: there were a total of 197678 incoming calls from 190 countries within 79 days

(information retrieved from http://theswedishnumber.com on 2 April 2017). Indeed an innovative way to “present the country of Sweden through the mix of skills, experiences and opinions it actually consists of” (retrieved from http://curatorsofsweden.com on 2 April 2017), as the Curators of Sweden explain the campaign. As demonstrated with this example, in order to obtain the

intended goals, branding must be planned and conducted extremely carefully, and the

argumentation together with all the other strategic choices must be both reasonable and effective in painting the brand image. In the previous example, the idea behind the campaign had been

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people answering the phone were expected to be promoting the nation without receiving any training or ready arguments to provide for the callers. This, of course, could have also gone terribly wrong. There are a number of uncontrollable variables from a bad day at work to a parking ticket or a new pet that could have affected the mood and attitudes of the person picking up the phone, thus contributing either negatively or positively to the brand image of Sweden in the eyes of the callers. Of course, as stated previously, brand image is always a combination put together from countless of small fragments of information from a number of sources, and therefore it is unlikely that one phone call would completely undermine one’s idea of a whole nation. This, however, was certainly a thoroughly considered risk and a factor when planning such campaign.

Measuring the success of intangible goods and services, however, is difficult. This is also the case when it comes to determining the success of branding a place (Fetscherin, 2010). In general, it can be said that a place brand is created when the consumer considers a certain city or a country has added value in comparison to other comparable locations. For the scholars studying branding, semiotics has provided a useful framework, as it helps to understand the connection between the signifier (in this case, a message) and the signified (in this case, a place) (Mick, 1986). However, it must be acknowledged that branding and the signifying relation between a place and brand is constantly happening, and it the image is constructed from small fragments of information and ideas collected from numerous sources. It does not matter whether the branding is intentional or not, it still constantly happens (Anholt, 2007).

Branding shares generic patterns with argumentation. A narrative as a text type in an

advertorial successfully carries on two important tasks: telling a story and providing an argument. As stated before, branding consists of a number of layers, and in order to see through them, being able to evaluate the arguments becomes extremely important (Lischinsky, 2017). In order to understand how arguments are used in marketing, one must understand both the content of the advertisement and the role of utterances as premises (Slade, 2002). Most commonly texts and visuals functioning as advertisements tend to appeal to emotion. Advertisers are known to spend a remarkable amount of time and effort to carefully plan the messages provided, as well as the use of visuals and a variety of rhetorical devices used in order to effectively get the message through and achieve the desired goal. To a great extent advertisements are also intertextual and understandable for a large audience. According to van Eemeren, argumentation is social and dialectical activity. Therefore, by using linguistic principles and Grice’s (1975) Speech Act Theory, it is possible to reconstruct advertisements in argumentative discourse. For example, when looking into an

advertisement that does not meet Grice’s maxim of quantity, it is reasonable to assume an implicit argument is present. Considering the complexity of advertisements used for branding and other

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purposes, it is arguably always worth deconstructing these advertisements in order to fully understand the arguments used.

In the following section, some of the advertisements and advertorials used by the Nordic countries in their branding process will be introduced and further discussed, followed by an analysis on what can be seen in and read from these texts and what the role of strategic maneuvering in branding a place is.

2.3 Introduction of the Advertorials Used by the Nordics

The focus of this thesis is on a general brand of the Nordics, which refers to “the unique multi-dimensional blend of elements that provide the nation with culturally grounded differentiation and relevance for all its target audience” (p. 15) as defined by Dinnie (2008). Alongside the general brand, a number of sub-brands that draw from the greater general brand exist, but as they indeed label themselves under the general brand, i.e. labeling themselves as Nordic, this is also where the interests of this research lies.

Over the past decade, media, crowd-sourcing, and the public sphere have gained an

increasingly important foothold in communication and shaping representations, together with the audience taking a more and more active role. They are not passive, faceless recipients anymore, but an active audience that wishes to engage and participate. This is why all the examples used in this thesis are collected from online sources, such as http://norden.org and the country-specific websites and social media channels. Considering the advertising and argumentation within branding can take any form from videos and advertorials to radio campaigns and competitions, the focus of this thesis is strictly on the written arguments rather than the visual or the audio. As stated previously, the audience receives brand messages in a number of ways from various sources. In order to narrow down the research topic and make it more manageable, the focus of this thesis is on planned messages in particular, such as advertorials and printed advertisements. Naturally, this is only one of the many forms of branding, but it is also one of the few that a marketer can in fact influence. In the end, the audience always formulates an image of a brand from a number of fragments from a variety of different sources. Therefore, it is impossible to have hegemonic control over the image the audience will eventually have constructed. Especially when it comes to such an enormous brand such as the Nordics, it is worth remembering that everything from exported products to sports events and from design to presidential pets influence the countries’ brand image. These are all

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aspects the receiver may or may not connect to the country of origin, and each of these individual sources of information influences the brand of a nation or a place – either positively or negatively.

The Nordics is a region consisting of five fairly similar yet somewhat different nations: Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. They have cultural icons such as the Northern Lights, the Vikings and simplicity that tend to bind these nations together, which has led them to combine forces and create a brand for the geographical area commonly known as the Nordics. These cultural icons are promoted and actively used by each of the five countries. This has proven to be an efficient strategy, as it is beneficial for each of the individual countries, but also for the region as whole (e.g. Browning, 2007; Jansson 2006). For example, Iceland promotes itself as “the land of light and darkness, where long summer days with near 24-hours of sunlight are offset by short winter days” (retrieved on 4 April 2017 from http://inspired.iceland.com), while Sweden makes the same point by stating: “summer in the northernmost Sweden means 56 days of daylight around the clock – winter, on the other hand, means 32 days of pure darkness” (retrieved on 4 April 2017 from http://sweden.se) and Finland points out that“although the full Midnight Sun only shines above the Arctic Circle, nights are white all over the country. Late at night, the sun briefly dips beyond the horizon before rising again, blurring the boundaries between fading night and dawning day” (retrieved on 4 April 2017 from http://toolbox.finland.fi). As seen by comparing these three promotional examples, each of the countries has chosen a cultural icon, a “nightless” night, as a promotional aspect to attract visitors. In this case, the cultural icon chosen is an exotic attraction for each country on their own, but the fact that one can experience the same magical event in any of the Nordic countries makes the region as a whole even more attractive.

The countries tend to highlight specific aspects and special features of the region, but also choose similar narratives in their online advertorials. Comparing the same countries again, Iceland argues that “shaped by the unrelenting forces of nature, Iceland's harsh natural environment has bred a resilient nation that has learned to exist under extreme conditions, and harness the natural resources for its own prosperity” (retrieved from http://inspired.iceland.com), while Finland chooses to make the same point by claiming that “the Arctic climate gave us guts – or ‘sisu’ as we call it. We always look for a practical solution – turning setbacks into steps forward. We’re

pragmatic and focused on functionality – making sure that things work and keep on working. Our unique relationship with nature means sustainable thinking comes naturally to us. The only thing we have a lot of is trees and water” (retrieved from http://toolbox.finland.com). By looking at these examples, both which are excerpts from longer advertorials promoting the nation, it is clear that the two countries share values, and use the harsh nature to create a causal relation between the

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while the Promote Iceland team is painting a picture of small, strong and sustainable nation, the Finland Promotion Board has taken a step closer to the reader by choosing to use the first person pronoun “we” as a narrator. Interestingly, while looking at other advertorial material available, and the organizations behind visitdenmark.com, visitnorway.com and Promote Iceland tend to prefer the first person narrator talking to “you” in order to get closer and more personal with the reader. This also highlights the Nordic values of equality and simplicity, although neither is explicitly stated.

To conclude this presentation of the common features of the advertisements and advertorials created by the Nordic countries to promote their own nations and the Nordic region, it is worth pointing at the most employed features. First of all, as explained above, the cultural icons of each country and the region are used remarkably often when promoting a place. They are also commonly used when drawing causal relations and offering causal arguments related to the nation and its inhabitants. In many cases, comparing two or more Nordic countries, these relations and arguments are fairly similar, although expressed differently. Similarly, as the region shares not only similar geographical features but also values and ideologies, these are also regularly present in the advertorial material. They may not always be explicitly presented, but they are implied in the propositions provided in the argumentation. Naturally, however, in order to gain a better understanding of the arguments and argument schemes employed, it is necessary to further

reconstruct the advertorials and other available material. However, the interests of this research lies more with the topic of strategic maneuvering and how it is used in the branding efforts of the Nordic countries. The next section will focus on explaining this connection in more detail by discussing the institutional characteristics and constraints of commercial communication.

2.4 Institutional Characteristics and Constraints of Commercial Communication

Although commercial communication is not institutionalized in a formal sense or to the same extent as some other areas of communication; it still has recurrent patterns and characteristics, as well as certain constraints that restrict the advertisers and marketers from doing absolutely anything. There are a number of unwritten rules, those having to do with ethics, for example. Many constraints and characteristics are also specific to certain types of commercial communication. An airline’s

commercial on television is generally very different from an online advertorial promoting a nation as a destination, for example. However, being aware of the most important institutional

characteristics and constraints is beneficial for every party involved, as it leads to more empirically adequate and critical examination of argumentative exchanges. This has the potential to improve the

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argumentative practice in question, as it highlights the relationship of critical reasonableness and the institutional effectiveness (Mohammed, 2008).

First of all, according to International Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Policy Statement, the term “commercial communication” refers to any public activity intended as a part of a marketing process for goods or services. The main activities associated with commercial communication are advertising, public relations, sales promotions, events marketing and commercial sponsorship. More broadly, “advertising” can be defined as commercial messages carried by television, press, phone, mail, internet and digital media (including social media and other forms of interactive and

electronic media), cinema, radio, outdoor (posters, sports stadia, buses, taxis, trains, commercial vehicles) and other “ambient media”, covering anything from backs of bus tickets to skywriting. According to them, the mere appearance of a brand or product, however, does not necessarily constitute a marketing communication (ICC, 2015). Furthermore, considering online advertorials are discussed throughout the thesis, a more specific definition of an advertorial is in order.

Advertorials are generally accepted to be hybrid text type, a blend between an advertisement and an editorial. As the name already indicates, they tend to function as advertisement, but in a more subtle manner, which may be confusing for an audience not familiar with journalism, advertising and argumentation (Zhou, 2012).

The institutional characteristics and constraints are most thoroughly studied among the experts of genre theory (e.g. Bhatia, 2004), although some of these features may also be noticed by other argumentation theorists and even laymen. However, thus far a systematic analysis of

advertorials has not been carried out (Zhou, 2012). As stated previously, prior to looking into the institutionalized features of argumentative practices, the activity type in question must be defined. As mentioned earlier in the discussion, when it comes to branding and online advertorials, the activity type is advertorial, which falls under the broader genre of promotion and the domain of commercial communication, according to the definition above. After a definition of an activity type has been made, it follows to examine the institutionalized characteristics and constraints, as these provide useful guidance and insights related to reconstructing argumentative texts in terms of a critical discussion. Each argumentative practice can be characterized based on the initial situation, starting points, argumentative means and the outcome, in parallel to the confrontation, opening, argumentation and concluding stages of a critical discussion respectively (van Eemeren and

Houtlosser, 2005). Most often, when branding a place, an advertorial is a monologue to promote the location in question, where the difference of opinion might not be overt and most often the audience does not forward counterarguments, and the dispute can be either settled or set aside (Ripley, 2008).

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However, when it comes to advertorials, it is most often not quite that simple to reconstruct and analyze the advertorials.

What is characteristic to both promotion and advertorials is that they tend to heavily focus on the positive and desired aspects of the good or service being promoted, while ignoring or even intentionally hiding all the less desired aspects. This is known as one-sided argumentation (O’Keefe, 2009). Furthermore, advertising tends to be a marketer-led, audience-shaped and audience-evaluated speech event, in that it is created by an advertiser or a marker, but the interpretation and evaluation of the promotional text is always done by the audience. Another special feature of advertorials is their hybrid nature: they need to be both informative and appealing for the audience, like editorials, and at the same time persuasive like advertisements (Zhou, 2012). Furthermore, there are certain visual aspects such as a layout, a font type and size and the use of imagery, which commonly appear in advertorials and can therefore be considered characteristic. Also certain linguistic patterns occur frequently in advertorials, and although both the visual and linguistic aspects have a significant role in promotional materials, they are far too broad and specific to be discussed in this thesis. Instead, the focus stays on the argumentative features of the text type.

The abovementioned activity type related institutionalized characteristics and constraints should be kept in mind when evaluating and reconstructing a promotional, argumentative text such as an advertorial. The next step in looking into the role of argumentation in place branding is to focus on strategic maneuvering, to see how the different aspects of strategic maneuvering are applied in promotional texts, which is the theme of the following chapter.

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3. Strategic Maneuvering in Branding the Nordics

Strategic maneuvering is a concept introduced as an addition to argumentation theory by van Eemeren and Houtlosser (1999) and later dealt with in detail by van Eemeren (2010). It refers to argumentative communication that is both reasonable and persuasive at the same time. Strategic maneuvering consists of three main aspects: topical selection, audience demand, and presentational devices. These three aspects are interwoven together to such an extent that they may be very difficult, if not impossible, to separate from one another.

Branding a place or a region, such as the Nordics, successfully requires both strong marketing strategy and strong argumentation, and therefore, it is evident that aspects of strategic maneuvering are employed also in promotional argumentative texts, such as advertorials. Therefore, this section will discuss the three aspects of strategic maneuvering in relation to place branding with the help of examples collected from the online sources mentioned before.The aim of this discussion is to shed some light into the strategic maneuvering choices made by the promotion teams in order to

effectively persuade foreigners to visit and invest in the Nordics.

3.1 Topical Selection in Promotional Texts in Branding the Nordics

The first aspect of strategic maneuvering is topical selection, which refers to the repertoire of all the available material and options from which an arguer chooses the most suitable ones to support his or her argumentation (van Eemeren, 2010). When it comes to branding a place such as the Nordics, this means choosing the most desirable, admirable, or fascinating aspects of the region, and using those to promote the region for the intended audience.Over the recent years, all of the Nordic countries have been receiving increasing attention in the international media. It is hard to say whether this is due to successful branding efforts, or if there is another explanation, such as the current, incredible success and popularity of the Northerners of television shows such as the

Vikings and Game of Thrones series. Or perhaps it is a combination of both. Nevertheless, in a

different context this might be considered as an argumentum ad populum, but when discussing the topical potential in promotional context, riding on the trendiness and success of the others can, in fact, be an efficient strategic move.

Besides the Nordic heritage, topical potential also affects the choices made regarding

arguments. The author(s) have chosen to bring up the Nordic countries being at the “top of all kinds of country rankings” (retrieved from http://toolbox.finland.fi) rather than specifying the actual

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rankings or mentioning that the ranking of Nordic countries is actually currently lower in the rankings than ever before. Similarly, the “most educated workforce in the world” (retrieved from http://toolbox.finland.fi on 2 April 2017) is brought up when promoting Finland, but the highest unemployment rate in Europe is ignored. These are all choices made in the topical selection phase, according to the conventions and constraints of the activity type. As can be seen from the example above, carefully chosen topics offer great potential to both highlight and hide certain features, based on what the marketer considers to be most beneficial for the purpose. However, the topics chosen must also be relevant and realistic in order to obtain the maximal benefits from the topics chosen for a promotional purpose. Topical selection is closely linked to the second aspect of strategic

maneuvering; audience demand, as it improves the situation further to consider the desires and expectations of the intended audience. This aspect is introduced more carefully with the help of illustrative examples from the Promotion Boards of the Nordic countries in the following section.

3.2 Audience Demand in Promotional Texts in Branding the Nordics

The second aspect of strategic maneuvering, audience demand, refers to the choices that connect well with the views and preferences of the intended audience. Simply put, this means taking the intended audience into account when writing an argumentative text, and cataloguing their views and preferences that are relevant for arguing for (or against) a certain topic (van Eemeren, 2010). The theme of bringing up the Nordic heritage, as introduced earlier, connects also with audience

demand, as can be seen from the advertorials provided by the Nordic countries. The harsh yet exotic Nordic climate and landscape are brought up several times by each nation, presumably because these are expected to be highly valued by the tourists considering the Nordics as a travel

destination. Promote Iceland brings up the exotic nature several times in their promotional package by stating things such as: “Iceland is one of the most awe-inspiring places on earth. We’ll show you how to respect and be in harmony with Mother Nature. So you can feel at home.” (retrieved on 18 March 2017 from http://inspired.visiticeland.com) and “From the moss covered lava fields in the southwest, through the barren highlands in the centre, to the soaring fjords in the northwest, a drive around Iceland will attest to the great diversity of landscape, which changes with every turn in the road, and of course with every changing season, each with its own charm” (retrieved on 18 March 2017 from http://inspired.visiticeland.com). Similarly, the Swedish promotion board takes a step further and offers the reader a more elaborate description of the landscape: “The Swedish

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Starting up north, villages are few and small, nature fills in. The landscape is very dramatic, and rolling hills rise into mountains. On the way south, you’ll pass by endless numbers of lakes,

streams, and pine and birch trees” (retrieved on 18 March 2017 from http://sweden.se). These are all arguments that are appealing to anyone interested in the wild, fresh and clean nature the Nordics have to offer. Furthermore, as mentioned before, certain characteristics considered positive are presented to have a causal relation with this exotic nature used in convincing people to visit. The Finland Promotion Board, for example, writes that “Our unique relationship with nature means sustainable thinking comes naturally to us” (retrieved on 4 January 2017 from

http://toolbox.finland.fi), which is likely to sound exotic and admirable to foreigners growing up in a different environment. Similarly, the Nordic values of appreciating the nature, being sustainable, humble and reliable are highlighted throughout the texts, although not always explicitly.

Another, certainly strategic, choice commonly made regarding audience demand is bringing up a trendy, unique word in the language of the destination. This is an excellent move in order to attract those travelers wishing to be ahead of all the “main stream” tourists still visiting overly crowded paradise islands in the other more Southern areas. In the previous example, the Finnish “sisu” already made an appearance. In a very similar manner, the Danish “hygge” and Swedish “fika” and “lagom” have earned articles dedicated to them on the official tourism websites of the Nordic countries, as well as on the international media channels.

These are all aspects of the Nordics that the authors expect to have in common with the audience, and aspects they expect to be attractive and appealing for the audience, which is why they have been chosen to be employed in the advertorial.

3.3 Presentational Devices in Promotional Texts in Branding the Nordics

Lastly, the third key aspect of strategic maneuvering is presentational devices, which relates to all the presentational choices in an argumentative text. These choices include aspects such as linguistic repertoire, framing the argument and the stylistic choices made. Furthermore, the presentational devices also refer to the visual and oral presentations, as well as to the manner and channel of presenting. When it comes to the presentational devices used in the examples from the advertorials by the Nordic countries, the first attribute worth noticing is the language. The advertorials and smaller articles and listings are most frequently written in English rather than in Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Icelandic. Already the choice of language is an important presentational device, as it points to the direction that the language of presentation is chosen according to the

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audience demand and the goal of the promotional text. Indeed, these texts and advertisements are intended to convince foreigners to visit and invest in the Nordics, and only a very limited number of foreigners speak any of the Nordic languages. It is a well-documented fact that English is the most frequently used language in advertising (e.g. Piller, 2000; Gerritsen et al., 2007). It is considered the

lingua franca, and over the years the status of English as a standard language of communication has

been rooted in people’s minds. Furthermore, although there is not much research available on the language preferences of the audiences, there is some evidence that the majority of people in fact prefer English over a local language when it comes to advertising (Hornixk et al., 2010).

Besides the obvious, the language, also the stylistic choices such as the tone and semantic choices are important for the presentation of the arguments. The tone of these texts is generally light and even playful, yet the grammar is still correct. For example, in an advertorial on

http://toolbox.finland.fi, expressions such as “We say what we do and do what we say” are used for highlighting stereotypically Finnish characteristics such as “being a bit quirky” or being modest, even when it comes to bragging “– if Finns did such thing”. Although presentational devices become even more important and obvious in some other forms of speech acts, numerous presentational devices can be detected also from promotional online advertorials and other promotional materials. In the following section the focus shifts from presentational devices to a more general features common to advertorials and other promotional texts, as the reasoning behind these texts is examined.

3.4 Line of Argumentation in Promotional Texts

When it comes to the line of argumentation in a promotional context, it is worth reminding that branding advertorials fall under the activity type of advertising and the genre of commercial communication. Therefore, it is quite safe to assume that the language used in these texts is

persuasive, considering that the mere purpose of the text is to convince the audience about the value of a product, or in this case, a place. Here, the appropriate definition of persuasive could be the following: the linguistic choices which aim to change or affect the consumer’s behaviour or strengthen the existing beliefs and behaviours of those who already agree. Furthermore, according to the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation theory, this definition could even be expanded to cover “the whole range of discourse that aims at persuasion and conviction, whatever the

audience addressed, and whatever the subject matter” (p. 5), according to Perelman’s (1982) definition.

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When it comes to analyzing advertorials, the terms ethos, pathos, and logos, familiar from classical rhetoric, appear fairly often. This happens due to the nature of advertisements, where appealing to the emotions of the audience has been found to be extremely efficient. The advertisers wish to appeal to the ethical, emotional and rational side of a consumer, and the choices of words and structures along with visuals and potentially even audio are typically chosen accordingly. This is the case also when it comes to place branding and promoting a region as a destination or an investment. As demonstrated previously, the advertorials promoting the Nordic countries do not explicitly suggest visiting the region, but rather they present the idea through a narrative. For example, Iceland Promotion Board is happy to inform that “Iceland remains largely uninhabited, with more than half of its 320.000 inhabitants living in the capital city. In fact, a mere twenty minute drive from Reykjavik center takes you out of the hubbub of city life and into the seclution [sic] of Iceland's spectacular landscapes, which inspire adventures from its shores to its mountain tops. But the landscape is not just for gaping at; Iceland's rivers are perfect for rafting, fishing, diving and snorkeling; its mountains, volcanoes and glaciers are good for hiking, climbing, dog-sledding, and snowmobiling; its snowy hills for skiing and snowboarding; its waves for surfing; its caves for exploring; and its barren highlands for jeep safaris” (retrieved 15 May 2017 from

http://visiticeland.com). Through this excerpt, the advertisers aim to inform the potential customer about the product or a place, and at the same time stimulate ideas, engage the audience and develop their curiosity by creating new meaning for the advertised commodity (Salim, Ibrahim & Hassan, 2012). Clearly, this text is meant to attract adventurers and promote Iceland as a destination for those looking for excitement and new, unique experiences. Just like in this example, the explicit message of an advertisement or a promotional text is rarely the explanation why to buy a product or visit a place. Instead, the implicit message is the one intended to persuade the audience to act according to the goals of the advertisers (Slade, 2002). Here it would be to visit Iceland and

contribute to their economy by buying services and experiences like the ones advertised in the text. Another example to look at when discussing the reasoning behind the arguments is the official tourism site of each of the Nordic countries – more specifically, the title and name of their websites. Each of the Nordic countries has chosen a command, “Visit

Finland/Iceland/Norway/Sweden/Denmark”, as the name and headline of their official website. The information whether this is commonly agreed or not is not publicly available, but there is a reason to question whether this is done in order to highlight the belonging to the region. Nevertheless, the title command of the promotional website can be reconstructed as follows:

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1. You should visit [Nordic Country X]

(1’ If you Visit [Nordic Country X], then you get to experience all these amazing things we are telling you about)

As seen in this example, even the simplest promotional text is likely to have an implicit meaning, which only comes clear once it has been reconstructed and the person reading it is familiar with the persuasive techniques commonly used in promotional texts. Longer advertorials require some more time and effort to reconstruct, as they are likely to consist of several layers, all of which might not open up right away to those not familiar with the techniques and intertextual narratives. Also the institutional and prototypical aspects typical for the activity type should be kept in mind, while carefully reading and reconstructing the arguments of an advertorial.

Having explained the most crucial aspects of strategic maneuvering in this section, in the following section the focus of discussion will shift to the role of narratives and cultural icons as aspects of strategic maneuvering in branding a nation.

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4 Employing Narratives and Cultural Icons as Strategic Maneuvering in Branding the Nordics

Although there are three distinct aspects of strategic maneuvering, as introduced above, there are also a number of other concepts and specific tools related to these, and employed as a part of strategic maneuvering. Both narratives and cultural icons are cross-disciplinary concepts that draw from literature and the age-old tradition of telling stories. Considering these are concepts that occur so often in our daily lives, they easily go undetected even when they are intentionally employed in a text with the purpose of persuading the audience and creating meaningful messages and stories. The power of these two as a part of strategic maneuvering in the commercial and promotional genre can be remarkable, which is why they are worth further attention in the field of branding from an argumentative perspective.

Narratives are known to be powerful means of persuasion, as the reader’s phenomenological experience of a narrative plays a mediating role in the persuasive effects (de Graaf et al., 2012). It has been presented that consumers try to map the incoming information to their own existing memories, especially when the information is received in story form (e.g. Escalas, 2004; Mattila 2000). The majority of one’s memories involve oneself, and therefore, when a consumer hears a story, he or she is likely to relate the story to his or herself. Moreover, as stories tend to focus on goals, actions and outcome, the consumers are likely to try to create a link between themselves and the brand – especially if the brand supports the consumers’ self-related goals. Due to narratives being very effective in conveying an experience, there is evidence for story-based appeals being particularly effective in communicating the value experiential services, such as travels (Padgett & Allen, 1997), and moreover, in advertising these services (Mattila, 2000). Furthermore, this leads to a situation where a brand image and what it means to a consumer is at least partly based on the narratives which the consumer has constructed. Marketers spend a remarkable amount of time, effort and money in order to manage the consumer narrative through advertising. Many

advertisements are intentionally told in a story form: they are meant to engage and entertain the consumer while communicating their brand image and creating meanings and associations through the visuals, sound or text chosen. Therefore, it is worth examining how certain aspects of

storytelling, namely narratives and cultural icons, in this case, are used as a part of strategic maneuvering when it comes to the branding of the Nordic countries.

Storytelling and argumentation, anecdotes and short stories have been mentioned already in the texts of classical rhetoric authors, and they have been recognized as stylistic devices for decades (Andeweg & Jong, 2006). The classical authors acknowledged that there is space for short stories in

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the narration, the argumentation and in the digression. Each of these three parts of a speech could contain a short story, although in a slightly different manner. The narration, the account of events, could be told in a story form, in a light that is most favourable for the speaker. In the argumentation part, the speaker could use an enthymeme, a body of proof, or paradeigma, a pattern or a historical story, to accept or refuse an argument. Finally, in the digression, the speaker could use a story to appeal to the audience’s emotions right at the end of the speech. As seen here, little stories have a number of places in a speech (Andeweg & Jong, 2006). Furthermore, it must be noted that these short stories and anecdotes are not used in speeches only, but the same rules apply to a number of different text types. Studies have already provided evidence on narratives being likely to produce positive evaluations when used in marketing and advertising (Adaval & Wyer, 1998).

The role of narratives and their special features has been discussed quite extensively not only from a literary point of view, but also from the point of view of discourse. Although a narrative is often distinguished as its own text-type, a number of scholars have argued that a narrative can in fact be two different types of texts at once (Scheineder & Barron, 2014). According to Virtanen (1992), narrative can be used indirectly or secondarily to serve other discourse types and complete a task of a different text-type while at the same time carrying on the story. Importantly for this thesis, narratives are known to be commonly used as a tool to persuade and give an argument (Virtanen, 1992), which is why it is so important to study narratives also from an argumentative point of view. The interest in the impact and persuasive potential of narratives has been steadily increasing over the past decade (de Graaf et al., 2009), and many of the effects of narratives have already been studied in the 2000’s. Furthermore, it should be noticed that there are also a number of other types of stories besides the traditional verbal storytelling. Narratives and their effects can also be applied to texts, advertising, and branding, among countless other contexts. The role of narratives in branding will be demonstrated in the following paragraphs, where the roles of narratives and cultural icons as utilized in strategic maneuvering will be discussed by using examples that have appeared in digital, text-based advertorials produced by the Nordic countries.

4.1 Narratives in Branding the Nordics

The interest towards the powerful impact and persuasive potential of narratives has been steadily increasing over the past decade (de Graaf et al., 2009). It has already been shown that narratives may influence beliefs (e.g. Appel and Richter, 2007), attitudes (e.g.Lee and Leets, 2004) and even behaviour and intentions (e.g.Slater, Rouner and Long, 2006). Many people recognize the feeling

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of getting carried away or living in the story when reading a good book, for example, but

interestingly, it is still unclear what exactly makes the narrative experience so strong. Nevertheless, considering the incredible power of narratives, it has been eagerly adopted by marketers in

particular when advertising services and other experience based products. Previous studies have suggested that narratives are likely to produce more positive evaluations, due to the structural similarity of narratives to real life and the use of holistic information processing (e.g. Adaval & Wyer, 1998). Furthermore, based on these studies some experts argue that story-based advertising helps consumers to imagine the consumption situation, and thus also contribute to the consumption experience (Mattila, 2000). Therefore, it is no surprise that narratives have been chosen as the style for many place branding advertorials. However, as de Graaf et al. (2009) point out, the challenge with understanding the narrative reading experience is that it has proven to be difficult to

manipulate, and despite several experts attempting to study the phenomenon, the why and how still remains rather unclear.

The Nordic countries and their advertising boards are actively employing narratives as a part of their online branding efforts. A great number of examples of branding efforts provided in story form can be found from each of the countries’ official websites. As stated previously, the narration is an excellent opportunity to use a story to persuade the audience, as a story may function as argumentation or entertainment, and it offers an opportunity to be amusing, serious, appealing and interesting at the same time. The following example is retrieved from Sweden.se: “You’re

surrounded by pine trees. The sun is unable to fully break through the layers of branches above you. It is dead quiet save for the occasional buzzing mosquito. If you sit still for long enough you might hear a branch break against the damp moss undergrowth” (retrieved 12 April 2017 from

Sweden.se). Here, the narrator of the excerpt is directly addressing the reader, placing him/her at the setting of the story. The story paints a picture of a clean, untouched, wild and beautiful nature of Sweden by using rich and detailed description. Here, the storytelling is likely to be appealing to anyone who has ever been to the wilderness, and who enjoys the quietness and beauty of untouched nature. Those people, the target audience, can relate this story to their own, already existing

memories, and even start associating these experiences with a desire to go and experience Swedish nature as described on the tourism website, and by extension, Sweden itself.

In another example by the Promotion Board of Norway: “More than anything the fjords and the surrounding areas evoke images of a Norway of the past: A time when people lived as farmers in impossibly steep and rocky surroundings (in certain places they still do). A time when you could harvest from the blossoming fruit trees, and a sheep’s head was considered a delicacy (it still is)” (retrieved 21 April 2017 from visitnorway.com), a narrative is employed in a slightly different

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manner than in the previous example, yet as demonstrated, an excellent choice of a narrative is efficiently employed in promoting Norway. This time, the narrative takes the readers back in time, attracting the curiosity, and engaging the reader in an adventure by tying the story to the iconic landscape of Norway.

Similarly, also Iceland has chosen to use narratives and cultural icons in the promotion, although they have taken a step further in comparison with the other Nordic countries, as they are providing their stories in forms of videos. Videos have proven to be one of the most efficient online marketing tools in the era of fast reading and scrolling through posts. They share many common features with promotional texts, but due to their different nature, these videos are not further

analyzed in this thesis. Nevertheless, they do make excellent examples of employing both narratives and cultural icons in advertorial material.

Besides the narratives being actively used in promotional texts by the Nordics, each of the examples presented in this section also touches on another important concept often used in branding a place. This concept is cultural icons, which tend to be incorporated in a story-like advertorials. Therefore, in the following section, the attention shifts towards the role of cultural icons in advertorials, and how and why they can be employed as a part of strategic maneuvering in the branding efforts of the Nordic countries.

4.2 Cultural Icons in Branding the Nordics

Every nation has images and ideas that represent intrinsic aspects of their respective national or even regional cultures (Smith, 1991). These are commonly known as cultural icons – icons that contain implicit cultural value, and are often seen as national symbols. Cultural icons remain the same for years and decades, as they are simplifications of culture, capable of creating a reproducible mental image every time one connects a place to a community or phenomenon. Cultural icons are distinct images that are equally important both in different cultures and within a community (Parker, 2012).

In linguistics, it is a well-established idea that language is symbol-based. Simply put, this refers to the idea that a person can create reproducible mental images triggered by specific words. According to Saussure, languages are simply lists of words, where each word corresponds to an image or an idea, and words and mental images become signs and signifiers. Naturally, this idea has received plenty of critique over the years, but indeed it resembles the process of how cultural icons are formulated and how people cluster words, images and nations together. Cultural icons, however,

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are far less studied concepts than narratives, which have been studied by scholars of

sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, anthropology and psychology, just to mention a few examples (de Fina and Georgakopolou, 2012). Therefore, it is no wonder that cultural icons often have a far less obvious role in persuasive texts. Cultural icons tend to be incorporated in the texts and

narratives in order to provide additional support for the arguments, and perhaps to help the reader identify with the story or the characters in the story (de Graaf, Hoeken, Sanders et al., 2012). Cultural icons are rarely overtly part of argumentation, as they are most often used as rhetoric tools: they aim to appeal to the emotions and ethical views of the audience. Through this connection, cultural icons are connected to argumentation and should be studied as argumentation in particular when it comes to texts that aim to promote a certain place and a culture, such as the Nordics.

As can be seen already from the examples provided earlier, in branding the Nordic region, cultural icons are incorporated in the storytelling, as a part of the setting of the story of an advertorial. They also occur frequently in the pictures and videos attached to these texts, making them more appealing and attractive to the reader. When it comes to a region as large as the Nordics, where the geography, climate and culture are somewhat similar, there are naturally a number of cultural icons these countries share and have in common. One of the most iconic shared cultural icons of the Nordic region must be the clean, wild, arctic nature. This is also something that is frequently promoted along with the extreme seasonal changes and the culture-historical aspects, locations and events. Each of the countries also has a number of country specific cultural icons, which are employed in the branding efforts in order to separate the nation from its neighbors with whom it shares many other cultural icons and common features with the nation in question.

For example, each of the previous examples refers to the exotic Nordic nature, but at the same time they also aim to highlight features that are country specific. When looking closer the excerpt borrowed from the Swedish tourist information site, it can be noticed that they have chosen to implement the lush forests of Sweden as the setting for the story. Similarly, in the example retrieved from the Norwegian tourist information site, the story takes place in the fjords, perhaps the most iconic of Norway’s own, country specific cultural icons. The same can also be seen in the videos and texts published by Iceland, where the stories are set at volcanic hot springs or lava fields, which have become cultural icons of Iceland.

The positive effect of cultural icons as a part of narration and thus argumentation has been noted in particular among scholars studying branding and marketing. The audiences can be

expected to create positive connections and associations when they are provided with cultural icons they recognize and are familiar with. Holt (2004) argues that branding always starts from

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that is done, these features should consistently be advertised in everything that can be linked back to the place. This, he states, is how cultural icons, and furthermore, iconic products are created. Holt’s idea of intentionally creating cultural icons and attaching meaning to them seems to be applicable to the branding of places. Each place needs to establish the cultural icons familiar to the locals as well as foreigners, and decide on which aspects and features to advertise and promote in their

campaigns. However, as already stated previously, place branding is to some extent more complicated than branding a product. There are a number of uncontrollable variables, and each place, encountered person, Instagram picture and social media review can affect the place’s brand image.

Another feature of cultural icons relevant to this discussion is their ability to change over time. Although one of the requirements of being iconic is consistency, it is likely that the images and ideas people relate to these icons change slightly over time (e.g. Parker, 2012). This is simply a result of a changing audience or sometimes a response to a completely new social context (Brooker, 2001). For example, the Vikings, a famous Nordic cultural icon, have gone through a radical yet a slow shift during the past centuries. They were once feared icons of the wild Nordics, while nowadays they are portrayed as fascinating explorers regularly encountered in the advertorials and tourist attraction material throughout the Nordic countries. This change is possible as the

generations pass and the audience changes, just like the world and social norms change. Countless other cultural icons around the world have gone through the same process of shifting mediums from one to another. The change is very often extremely slow, and sometimes even unnoticeable.

However, cultural icons tend to keep their status as cultural icons despite the possible changes and adjustments in the meaning.

Narratives and Cultural Icons as Strategic Maneuvering in Text-Based Online Advertorials Employed in Branding the Nordics

Narratives and Cultural Icons as Strategic Maneuvering in Text-Based Online

Advertorials Employed in Branding the Nordics

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