Country reputation management :identifying the drivers of South Africa's reputation in German media

[摘要] Although reputation management has historically been restricted to companies orother organisational entities, countries are also increasingly concerned with theirreputation relative to other countries and have started to actively measure andmanage that reputation1.Over the past years, the Republic of South Africa has begun to professionallystreamline its own reputation management activities, specifically by establishing theInternational Marketing Committee (IMC) in August 2000. South African Tourism, themedia division of the South African diplomatic sector and even South African Airwaysare other reputation management vehicles that have been working toward emanatinga comprehensive marketing and communication message from South Africa to othercountries.The basis of good reputation management is to first measure such reputation2. It isalso important to know what aspects are the main drivers of such reputation. Usingthe content of specific German newspapers as data body, this study determines thedrivers of South Africa's media reputation in Germany.In order to accurately set the scene for an analysis of South Africa's reputation, athorough situation analysis on the country is conducted. This situation analysis formsthe backbone for the methodology used further on to investigate the drivers of SouthAfrica's reputation in specific German media.To this end, a large part of the situation analysis looks at South Africa in terms ofGermany and a study is conducted on the relationship between Germany and SouthAfrica as well as the potential stakeholders of South Africa's media reputation inGermany. It is also important to know what current efforts in terms of reputationmanagement are. After studying the history of South Africa's reputation management activities,members of today's reputation management vehicles are interviewed and anoverview of South African reputation management efforts currently active in Germanyis provided. The reputation management activities of other countries are brieflyexplored and specifically the lessons from other countries' efforts are highlighted.Subsequently, the reputational dimensions that positively or negatively drive SouthAfrica's reputation in specific German media are determined. To this end, a contentanalysis is conducted on the seven German national daily newspapers, Börsen-Zeitung, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, FinancialTimes Deutschland, Handelsblatt and Süddeutsche Zeitung3 over a period of 20months. The findings made culminate in suggestions for South Africa's futurereputation management activities in Germany.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University