Chicken or the Egg of Nation Branding and Economic Development

The term ‗nation branding‘ and the application of its numerous techniques for the promotion and development of a nation is a new yet rapidly growing phenomenon, yet this practice is nothing revolutionary as nations have historically in one way or another promoted their interest to achieve political, economic and cultural goals (Dinnie, 2008). The only difference now is that unlike before where the numerous national policies worked in isolation, nations today faced with immense global competition both on international and domestic fronts purposely make directed and synchronized efforts to reach out to target groups in the hope of boosting investment, tourism, exports and attracting talent while at same time wishing to improve quality of life for its citizens through economic development. This paper examines the reason/s behind the rapid growth of the top performing nation brand for 2013-2014, Qatar based on the ‗Nation Branding Hexagon Model‘ (Anholt, 2002) and the relation with economic development in the hope to address which follows whic