Svenskhet inom livsmedelsexport
Hur svenska livsmedelsföretag använder sig av sitt svenska ursprung vid marknadsföring internationellt
Aim: Nation Branding has become an important phenomenon during the last couple of years. The concept talks about how to promote a product by using the features of a nation to gain profit. Among the years many countries has established a strong Nation Brand abroad. In the long run many companies have chosen to use these benefits in an efficient way by promoting their own country brand, especially in their internationalization process. The aim of this study is to see what factors that influence companies in the Swedish food industry while using the fact that they are Swedish when they enter foreign markets. Method: Data was collected through interviews with export managers and sales managers at 6 Swedish companies exporting products within the food industry. The study was also based on secondary data with the purpose to give a complete image how Sweden is represented abroad. The chosen literature is based on a couple of the biggest researchers among the fields of Nation Branding and cultural dimensions. Result & Conclusions: One result that was obtained after our study was that brands or products with characteristics consistent with the image that the consumers had about the country before, can gain its value by highlighting its origin. Further, it was being proved that a company?s use of Nation Branding in some way could be affected by the countries cultural distance, or in what stage of the internationalization process the company is. Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of this thesis is to give more knowledge about which qualities a country like Sweden can generate with its products. A country being perceived with its values like reliability, trustworthiness, uniqueness and quality can create an image and a successful strategy to establish on new markets and to gain profit from that.