Welcome to this special series of Bloom Consulting Conversations. Hosted by Clare Dewhurst, Director of City Nation Place, this series explores the world of Nation and City Branding, focusing on Bloom Consulting’s 14 key steps for building an effective Nation Brand strategy. Each episode highlights one crucial step.
In this episode, we’re focusing on Step Ten of Bloom Consulting’s 14 key steps for Nation Branding: Engaging Stakeholders. Joined by Felipe Roquette, Chief Innovation Officer at Bloom Consulting, and Noor Özkan Erbay, Head of the Nation Brand Office at the Directorate of Communications for the Turkish Presidency. Together, we’ll dive into why stakeholder engagement is absolutely essential to Nation Branding success—how to build trust, foster collaboration, and turn citizens, institutions, and even unexpected players into true brand ambassadors.
Clare: Welcome. Noor, lovely to meet you. Thanks for joining us.
Noor: Likewise. Clare, thank you.
Clare: Lovely to see you here today, Felipe.
Felipe: Thank you for being here as well.
Clare: This is such an important topic, and in all our conversations at City Nation Place, it’s the one that people seem to tear their hair out the most about. How to effectively engage with your stakeholders. And I noticed Filipe that on the Bloom Consulting website, where you talk about 14 steps to Nation Branding. You call this the Achilles heel of Place Branding. Can you share a little bit why you think that is and why it’s so important to get this right?
Felipe: Sure thing, Clare. It really is the dual challenge of Nation Branding. If you don’t approach it properly—if you don’t get stakeholders on board from day one—you’ll have a tough time constructing the Nation Brand, understanding it, and making it authentic and representative of the Nation itself. And then, if you don’t have those stakeholders involved in both development and implementation, nothing will get done. You might have the best strategy in the world, the best action plan, but you won’t be able to do it alone. It’s just not possible. You need everyone on board, helping and contributing to building the brand. Otherwise, if it’s a one-man show, it simply won’t happen. For us at Bloom Consulting, that’s key on both sides—when starting the Nation Brand and throughout the process.
Clare: Yeah, makes perfect sense. First of all, it’s about making sure you’re saying the right and authentic things—because everyone’s been part of that conversation. And secondly, it’s about ensuring everyone is aligned with what you’re trying to achieve. That makes sense.
So Noor, we were chatting before we started recording, and you mentioned that the Turkey Brand Office is quite new. This must have been a key part of your work so far. Perhaps you can share with us what you’ve been doing to engage stakeholders around Turkey’s Nation Brand?
Noor: Yes, and thank you, Clare. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today.
Turkey’s journey in stakeholder engagement is, I must say, deeply rooted in its thousand-year-old state culture. Although we are a very new office within the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, we already benefit from a strong background built on our rich history of diplomacy, trade, and especially cultural exchange. This legacy has laid a solid foundation for creating a strong Country Brand. Our strategic location and longstanding tradition of facilitating diverse interactions have always positioned us at the center of cultural and economic exchanges. That’s why our approach to stakeholder engagement is both comprehensive and authentic.
To create a Nation Brand that reflects Turkey’s unique identity, we must involve a wide range of interest groups who can contribute to our Country Brand. Nation Branding today is increasingly recognized as a powerful soft power instrument, and of course, stakeholder engagement is an indispensable part of it.
We held our first international Nation Branding forum in December 2022. It covered scientific, academic, sectoral, and socio-cultural dimensions through presentations, panels, and events delivered by experts from around the world—including Bloom Consulting’s President, José Filipe Torres. It was a significant day not only for us at the Turkey Nation Branding Office, but also for the Global Place Branding Community. We welcomed high-level representatives from various sectors, actors from Turkish mini-series, producers, chefs—people from around the world who are, in fact, brand builders of Turkey’s Nation Brand.
We also launched initiatives and strategies tied to our “Century of Turkey” campaign in 2023. This campaign was a key driver for stakeholder engagement and laid out a comprehensive roadmap for Turkey’s image in the second century following the founding of the Republic. Our project included many sub-concepts tailored to the different stakeholders we work with. We actively engaged academia—an essential stakeholder—alongside NGOs, local tourism offices, students studying abroad, and long-term expats living in Turkey.
In this context, I must say that Bloom Consulting’s 14 Steps to Nation Branding guide has been especially useful. It helps articulate principles and challenges that are often intuitive but unnamed. Sometimes we follow patterns or make decisions instinctively, without clearly identifying them or turning them into strategy. This guide highlights distinctions between different types of stakeholders and categorizes them by their roles and functions, making our job easier when building an effective Nation Branding strategy.
We, as an advisory board and coordinating unit, see ourselves as brand architects. The stakeholders, whom we call brand builders, are responsible for realizing the strategy. It is crucial to make these roles and responsibilities crystal clear—this clarity makes our work more structured and impactful.
Every institution or individual stakeholder contributes to the success of our Nation Branding efforts. Their opinions and emotions must be taken seriously, and whenever possible, they must see that their input is valued and reflected in our work. After all, a brand is an abstract concept—we deal with many intangible elements. But when we engage with stakeholders, we give the brand form. The impressions we leave also shape how the brand is perceived. That’s a principle we consistently follow in all our meetings and events, and it has proven to be a trustworthy one. We hope that everyone we interact with walks away with a positive perception of Turkey’s Brand.
To summarize briefly, stakeholder engagement is essential, yet it comes with key challenges. Among them: the ability to coordinate and persuade each stakeholder or brand builder; the risks of over-strategizing; the effective management of resources; and most importantly, the unity of narrative.
According to Bloom’s 14 Steps to Nation Branding guide, any Nation Branding strategy is likely to fail if it lacks functional and effective stakeholder engagement. As the coordinating unit, we work to ensure everyone is aligned with our Nation Branding efforts.
Perhaps the most important reason for stakeholder engagement is the need for a unified narrative, which lies at the heart of Nation Branding. If different interest groups—whether governmental or from the private sector—promote mixed or contradictory messages, it weakens the overall impact of the Nation Brand. This is a basic principle of both political and brand communication.
A powerful, unified message is essential for building a strong Country Brand. And that consistent, compelling narrative requires a well-established Nation Branding strategy. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation—one cannot exist without the other. To reach this goal, all stakeholders must be in tune, both in their actions and messaging.
Effective resource management is another critical point, closely tied to the idea of maintaining narrative unity among government and private sector stakeholders. It’s a delicate process. We must always keep in mind that no matter how much we strategize, what truly matters is whether the brand builders share a clear and reasonable vision of the Country Brand. That’s a crucial point—because ultimately, you are never in complete control of your brand.
Clare: Can I just come back just to dig a little deeper? Am I right in saying that the Nation Branding forum you organized took place quite early on in the development of your strategy? And was part of the purpose to ensure that all of your stakeholders—those who would be using and amplifying the brand—actually understood what we mean when we talk about a Place Brand? Because, as you said, it’s quite a nebulous concept—it’s a hard thing to pin down. So was that the primary purpose of the first forum? To explain the concept and make sure people were aligned with your thinking?
Noor: Yes, our aim there was to show that we’re putting a lot of attention and effort into the field of Nation Branding. So it wasn’t just about showing the Turkish audience or the international audience that we’re doing this work—it was also about bringing all the stakeholders together to send a clear message: we can succeed in this process with you, with all of you. We’re on the same ship, and the Turkey Brand’s message and the entire holistic strategy can only succeed through each and every one of you.
Clare: Felipe, do you see other places you know having success with that kind of kickoff—an “we’re all in this together” moment?
Felipe: Yeah, of course we do, but we also see a lot of failure, as you know, when it comes to getting everyone on board. And Noor said something really, really important—it’s not just about showing what we’re doing as a brand, but going even further back, as you were saying too, Clare: What is a Nation Brand? Why does it matter to me? What’s in it for me? Why should I use the brand? Why should I be involved?
Sometimes those are really basic questions, but they’re absolutely essential. That capacity building, that training—so people understand why they’re participating—is critical. And when that doesn’t happen, as we said earlier, it doesn’t matter how great the strategy is, or how amazing the brand and the initiatives are—it just won’t flourish. It won’t work. Because if people don’t use it, you’ll end up speaking in one voice, but not in unison—and then things fall apart.
So what Turkey is doing with the forum we’re talking about is amazing. Because it’s not just about showing the work and the results—it’s also about educating people, helping them understand what a Nation Brand is, and why it matters.
Clare: That word “transparency” is key, isn’t it? And also, Noor, you mentioned that one of the purposes—because the government is investing in this—is to address the fact that people always question where public money is going. From all the conversations we’ve had, we know that justifying spending on a Nation Brand is one of the major challenges.
Can I ask you a question as well, Noor, about the structure? You described your team as the coordinating office, and I know that’s the role most Nation Brand, Country Brand, City, or Region Brand teams take. You also mentioned an advisory group—so is this quite a formal structure? Do you have regular meetings with all the government departments that have a stake in the Nation Brand? Is that how it works?
Noor: Yeah, actually, before we were established, there was the High Council of Public Diplomacy, where the entire government and non-governmental institutions came together to discuss Turkey’s public diplomacy and Nation Branding efforts. So it’s been evolving—it’s becoming more established and more institutionalized each day, especially since we officially kicked off our Nation Branding work.
This is a holistic field that requires a holistic approach. Success won’t come automatically. Our Nation Branding efforts will only be effective if we can inspire individuals who feel a sense of belonging—who are emotionally and intellectually connected to Turkey—to be part of the story. That’s how we make our narrative meaningful and impactful.
I was trying to give a very current example of that. In a field as vibrant and spontaneous as Nation Branding, there’s no point in relying strictly on rigid planning. One day, you might just be sitting at home watching the Olympics, and out of nowhere, someone unexpected—someone outside any formal program—can become a brand builder, boosting your country’s image on the global stage.
I’m talking about our athlete Yusuf Dikeç, who became a global sensation during the Olympics in the 10-meter air pistol team event. You’ve probably seen his performance circulating on social media. He wasn’t part of Turkey’s formal Nation Branding program, but his contribution to our Country’s Brand was immense—just one individual, one sportsman.
We can extend this idea to all levels of society: from the diaspora, to expats, to foreigners living in the country, and across various sectors. These are all success stories in their own right.
And that basically shows us something very important from Bloom Consulting’s 14 Steps guide: over-strategizing—hyper-strategizing—the whole process isn’t always useful. In a space like Nation Branding, sometimes it’s the organic, unexpected moments that make the most lasting impact.
Clare: If you know what the authentic story is, and you’ve done the groundwork, then you can adapt and be responsive when a positive situation arises—like with your athlete in the Olympics. Or, if there’s a negative story, Turkey’s response to it—if it aligns with your brand positioning—can still work in your favor.
Would you agree, Felipe, that if you have a core identity, a solid understanding of who you are as a place, it helps you respond more effectively to both the good and the bad things that happen around you?
Felipe: Sure, completely. Everyone should know your Central Idea—your concept of identity. And that brings us back to stakeholder engagement. That’s the key. Whatever happens, everyone should know how to respond—whether it’s a negative situation or a positive one, like at the Olympics. You have to be on brand.
It’s not just about being famous or getting visibility—that doesn’t automatically help the brand. You have to represent the brand’s principles. So, if the athlete in question understands what the brand stands for, it can do amazing things for the Nation Brand. But if they don’t, they might behave in a way that’s off-brand—and even if they become a global celebrity, it might not reflect well.
That’s why bringing stakeholders close to the brand—making sure they understand it and know how to act in line with it—is so important. And the same goes for handling negative events: if you respond in a way that’s not aligned with the brand, it can do harm. It’s fundamental that people see us the way we want to be seen.
Clare: I like your phrase—that you can’t hyper-strategize. And I guess when it comes to engaging stakeholders, the simple approach is probably the most effective, isn’t it? I mean, nobody wants to read a 500-page brand book. They’re not going to absorb that, and they won’t be able to act on it or stay on brand.
The simpler and clearer you can be in summing up and expressing your brand objectives, the more likely your stakeholders are to engage and carry it forward with you. Is that what you’ve found in Turkey?
Noor: Yes, definitely. It all starts with awareness—delivering your message and making all stakeholders believe that they are part of the story. That’s the simple, but also crucial, core point of Nation Branding that every country is trying to follow.
And as you mentioned again, Clare, hyper-strategizing or relying on a 500-page Nation Branding manual isn’t helpful. Your stakeholders could be anyone—even an ordinary citizen or a teenager going on Erasmus in Europe or elsewhere in the world, just a regular Turkish citizen.
What I’m trying to say is that this process begins at the citizen level. So first things first: you need to make sure all stakeholders are aware that we’re doing this with you. Each of you is a part—a very important part—of this.
Only after that comes drawing up the strategies and designing sophisticated ways to make your Nation Brand stronger, more resilient, and so on.
Clare: Yes, that makes sense. So, Felipe, would you agree that if your stakeholders are engaged, your brand is going to be more resilient?
Felipe: Sure—and you have to make your Central Idea as meaningful as possible, so people feel truly proud of what they represent and what they’re part of. It’s not just about being part of the Nation Brand—it’s about seeing yourself in it, and understanding that it reflects your identity and the pride you have in your Nation. You want to talk about it. You want to bring others in, in the same way that the Nation Brand does—and that’s amazing.
If all of that comes together—if people truly believe in it and see themselves as helping to build it—then you have an incredible brand. Everyone will speak with the same voice, share the same narrative, and communicate the same message about your brand. And that, for sure, is a win—and a real success.
Clare: Yeah. So from your experience, Noor—if you had one piece of advice for another Place Brand team on how to engage their stakeholders, based on everything you’ve learned—what would be your top takeaway, do you think?
Noor: Sure, and I’d like to point out some of the challenges we’ve faced—because while our journey has been very rewarding, it’s also come with its share of obstacles. These challenges have provided us with valuable lessons. I’d say the main challenge in our stakeholder engagement efforts has been structural. Nation Branding reflects the fast-paced dynamism of the digital age—but, as the saying goes, the wheels of bureaucracy tend to turn slowly. Coordinating many different interest groups—the very foundation of Nation Branding—has absolutely been one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced.
As the supervising entity in charge of the overall Turkey Brand, keeping up with everything is difficult. But we’ve managed to overcome this with a holistic approach—delivering our message clearly and building strategies designed to appeal to all stakeholders: across society, government, the private sector, and NGOs.
Looking ahead, we’re constantly trying to find new ways to innovate stakeholder engagement. Digitalization, while making it harder to secure a consistent message, has also opened the door to include more diverse and nontraditional stakeholders—such as expats living thousands of kilometers away, the diaspora, digital nomads, influencers, and even the cats of Turkey! All of them contribute to engagement and communication. Digital platforms now offer new opportunities for interaction, giving stakeholders more personalized and meaningful experiences.
So if I may wrap up—our experience in stakeholder engagement offers valuable insights into both the complexity and the rewards of building a Nation Brand. We’ve managed, at the very least, to create a brand that is cohesive and dynamic, resonating both domestically and internationally.
This is a long-term effort that requires immense collaboration from many parties. We often compare it to a national sports team: reaching peak performance isn’t something achieved by one person, one institution, or even just the government. It takes the full team—every player—with dynamism, flexibility, and solid planning.
At this point, unity of narrative, efficient use of resources, and avoiding hyper-strategizing or over-complication are all crucial. If messaging becomes too abstract, ordinary citizens and many stakeholders simply won’t understand what we’re trying to achieve. That’s why the ability to coordinate and persuade all stakeholders is so important. You simply cannot create a successful Nation Brand without engaging all the relevant and strategic parties.
And ultimately, the real challenge—and the real art—is identifying those who genuinely want to participate. Those who are willing to be part of your Nation Brand journey as volunteers, as champions, as brand builders.
Clare: What I’m hearing is: keep it simple, keep it real. I know how small Place Brand teams are—and how under-resourced so many of them feel. So it’s really about focusing on what you can do when it comes to stakeholder engagement. And that magic bullet? It’s finding the people who are enthusiastic, the ones who will become your ambassadors.
Felipe, do you have a closing piece of advice for anyone thinking about their approach to stakeholder engagement?
Felipe: If I had to shorten it a lot, I’d say—you can’t do it alone. You just can’t. It’s impossible. Without collaboration, you won’t have a Nation Brand. So I think it’s really important—from day one until, well, the end of time—to embrace and engage with everyone who can help and work with you in building the brand. From the brand architects—those who lead the project—all the way to the brand audience. You have to work with all of them, support them, engage them, and bring them together so they can help you out.
As you said, Clare, the brand isn’t yours. It’s the Nation’s Brand. So everyone should be part of it. And the further you go with this inclusive approach, the bigger your brand will become—and the better the results will be for the Nation.
Clare: I think my final point would be something we asked in the first year of City Nation Place—and this is now our 10th year—which was: Do you think that, as a person responsible for a Place Brand, it’s more important to be creative or more important to be diplomatic? And the response was always, “Oh, well, that’s not an either/or.” You have to be both creative and diplomatic to pull this off.
But thank you so much. I think our time is up. Noor, thank you so much for everything you’ve shared—it’s so valuable for people to be able to tune in and hear the inside story of the work Turkey has been doing. Thank you for joining us. And thank you, Felipe, for offering that extra layer of advice, especially given all the different places you work with around the world. It’s been delightful to chat with you both today. Thank you!
Noor: Thank you, Clare, for having me and for this opportunity.
Felipe: And thank you, Noor, for bringing your great example to the conversation. And thank you again, Clare.
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Published on 23.04.2025.
