Promotion of Serbian national image in the light of EU accession

The main objective of this chapter is to affirm the importance of the branding process and creating a positive image of Serbia which, for many years, was faced with negative image. As a result of this fact, Serbia occupied a low position on the world map of country brand values, as presented by the leading research agencies dealing with the topics of country branding area. As a candidate for EU membership, Serbia has got potential access to the market of more than 370 million consumers, where the positive image can be a significant competitive advantage in ruthless unfair market competition. Improvement of the national image is primarily dependent on an effective promotional campaign designed to influence adequately on the attitudes of the target market. Hence, the emphasis in this work has been placed on several crucial areas, such as: development of effective communication of the national image of Serbia, the use of marketing communications mix to promote the country image and the use of integrated marketing communications for the purpose of creating the country’s image