上海大学 2018-2019 学年秋季学期研究生课程考试评分标准 课程名称:Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility 论文题目:Global Brands as the conductors of Soft Power Strategy 学生姓名: 学号: 18760037 Albina Haidarzhi 论文主要结构及其满分占比与完成情况: Abstract (10%) ___________ Introduction (5%) ___________ Literature review (20%) ___________ Topic-centered discussion (20%) Methodology, result, strategy (20%) Conclusion (20%) Reference (5%) 成绩: 评语: 教师: 评阅日期: ___________ ___________ __________ __________ __________ 2 GLOBAL BRANDS AS THE CONDUCTORS OF SOFT POWER STRATEGY Abstract. This article was written in order to provide analyses regarding the connection between two congruent, yet different concepts: global brand and soft power strategy. In this paper, the author aimed to highlight the characteristics of the approached concepts; define the role of global brands in the implementation of SPS and study the dependence between the level of corporation performance and the level of country’s growth; a brief literature overview and possible way of conducting research on this issue is presented. Key words: soft power, global brand, country image, international business. 1. INTRODUCTION In the conditions of intensification of economic competition between the participants of the world economy, latent forms and methods of protection of national interests and the strengthening of countries' competitiveness thus become more and more active. Due to the high level of interdependence between the countries, the increase in the international status of an individual state is achieved not because of its military strength and the possession of nuclear weapons, but due to the sustainable economic success, ideological persuasiveness and cultural attractiveness identified by the experts as "soft power". Therefore, the strategy of "soft power", as a complex of intangible resources, culture, beliefs and political ideals for influencing the population of foreign countries without involving more traditional elements of force, including military, is one of the most important sources of foreign economic policy of the modern state. Nowadays government is not the only engine for soft power development and growth. The governmental and non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations and others now are among the main representatives of respective countries in the international relations. Non-governmental players, for instance, business corporations and global enterprises can be considered as power which pushes the boundaries between the countries by spreading goods regionally and globally. Modern approach makes it available for businesses to achieve success abroad and across cultures using the soft power tools which governments have used to implement as the method of realization of national interests for about hundreds of years. Hence global enterprises and relatively global brands are believed to be a system that provides all the necessary opportunities for getting acquainted with the culture, habits, history, religious and spiritual values of the respective state and its people, yet it is increasingly considered as a soft power tool. 3 Such scientists as J. Nye, Keighan, R. Kohohin, A. Cohen, F. Fukuyama, J. Mettern, I. Parmar, S. Walt, M. Fraser, Josef Joffe, Robert Kagan, Ken Waltz, Giulio Gallarotti ,Janice Bially Mattern, Jacques Hymans, Alexander Vuving, Jan Mellisen made a significant contribution to the study of soft power strategy issues. Despite significant research, in-depth analysis is important for the matter of evaluating the influence of businesses on the modern strategies of foreign expansion of countries, in particular the strategies of soft power. The purpose of the study is to systematize theoretical approaches and methodical tools for implementing the soft power policies of the states and assess the practice of their application and effectiveness in the field of international business through analyzing the performance of global brands. The following main tasks are defined for realization of the set goal: - reveal the evolution of theoretical approaches and factors of the request for a strategy of "soft power"; - define the role of corporations in the implementation of SPS as an instrument for improving the international competitiveness of countries; - analyze the status and trends of the development of the international business taking into account its geospatial structure; to identify the competitive situation in the global market; - determine the connection between corporate social responsibility strategy and methods of soft power; - study the dependence between the level of corporation performance and country’s growth. The object of research is the competitive relationship in the field of international business. The subject of the study is the theoretical foundations and methodical tools for the country's implementation of the strategies of the "SP" in the international business. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Today mankind lives in a complex, multidimensional and interdependent world. The use of coercion through military force against other countries is virtually impossible or at least complicated by the review of institutional, financial, economic, environmental, etc. restrictions. "Hard power," which we identify as "military coercion", can no longer affect the will of individual states to achieve their goals in the struggle for strategic resources and products. Instead, the ability to encourage, cooperate and build effective networks of relations between states turns into a new currency in the context of global relations (Public Diplomacy, 2017). 4 In analyzing the historical dynamics of the ratio of resources of "soft" and "hard power" in modern literature it is accepted to emphasize such a trend as reducing the importance in international communications of "hard force" and increasing the importance of "soft power". This is due to the fact that after the Second World War, a system of regulation of international relations - the UN, whose main purpose - the deprivation of future generations from the scourge of war. Since then, the priority of the state's development has been increasing its own competitiveness with the use of mostly non-military methods. Growing value of soft power, according to D.M. Gallarotti is also determined by circumstances such as: globalization (characterized by the interdependence of states, the enormous speed of the transfer of information); democratization and the spread of liberal principles (not only they themselves are committed to "soft principles", but also limit leaders to use force, bribery); huge costs when using nuclear weapons; the attraction to the prosperity and stability of modern Western societies; increasing the role of international organizations, the priority of multilateralism towards a one-way approach (Rusakova, 2013). In the late 1980s, American political scientist Joseph Nye introduced the term soft power as the ability of a country to persuade others to do what they do not want without force or coercion (Nye, 2004). Today in the scientific literature there is no clarity about the meaning of "soft power". According to Nye's concept, "soft power" can be considered as a derivative of the three resources of the state: its culture, political ideology and foreign policy. One of the most up-to-date variants of definitions of soft power is the consideration of this concept as a complex multilevel system that allows the state to solve its tactical and strategic tasks in the international arena in an official and informal direction (Sobchenko, 2017). It is worthwhile to state that there are many variants of interpretation of "soft power" by representatives of the world expert community. Such large nations as the People's Republic of China, France and the United Kingdom claim that the main function of "soft power" is enshrined in their own historical development. The shortest definition of the term "soft power" sounds like "the ability to attract" - the ability to capture. In other words, the political use of force, based on cultural influence and deserves trust in proposals for interstate cooperation. Various ways of influencing consciousness, methods of non-violent realization of power have long been known: N. Machiavelli and French encyclopedists G. Toro and M. Gandhi, T. Leary and R. Wilson wrote about them at various times. The achievements of J. Nye is that he was able not only to concentrate on revealing the nature, the role and nature of "soft power," which played a role in the Cold War, but also to determine its truly unlimited opportunities in the 21st century. And this work continues: as is well known, J. Nye is currently developing 5 the order of "reasonable power" for the current administration of the White House, understanding it as "the ability to combine hard and soft power resources into successful strategies in different contexts in successful strategies" (Rusakova, 2013). The basis of the concept of "soft power" is the concept of "power". Attempts to explain the relationship between people from the standpoint of force existed, probably, from the time of the primitive order. Modern trends in world development contribute to the emergence of new parameters of force, which earlier researchers have not focused attention. Indeed, the modern theory and practice of international relations offers different approaches to the definition of "power", but for the most part, "force" means the ability to strengthen its will more weakly, thereby changing the nature of the relationship in its favor. Proponents of the concept of political realism (R. Gilpin, D. Singer, G. Kissinger, G. Morgenthau, A. Organsky, B. Russet, A. Wallfers, etc.) try to depict power as a certain amount that can be calculated. Critics of realism believe that such characteristics as culture, national morality, or the quality of diplomacy, in particular state leadership, cannot be taken into account reliably, and calculations will be based on subjective assessments, rather than on objective, mathematically grounded results (Nye 2004). Leading American political analysts J. Nye and R. Kohohin explore the essence of "force" already in the context of the structuralist approach and deduce it on the basis of ideas developed within the framework of the theory of interdependence. They believe that the power of the state cannot be equated to military power alone, because it constantly shifts from one sphere. Regardless of which strategy the state chooses to implement interstate interaction in the political space, any of them is based on the notion of "force". Looking closer to the concept of "soft power" and its essence, it is important to conclude that this tendency in policy-making at the level of international life is relevant today, and its use is explained by the fact that the state, caring for the realization of its own national interests and strengthening of competitiveness, always conducts a search for qualitatively new resources of influence on other participants in international economic relations. 3. GLOBAL COROPRATIONS IN THE REALIZATION OF SOFT POWER STRATEGY A country’s soft power can be anything which is internationally recognized by wide range of people on global scale. The most notable examples are tourist sites or sights that reflect the values and culture of a particular country. Paris is famous for its romantic 6 atmosphere, fashion and Eiffel Tower. America has Hollywood as well London speaks about Shakespeare. But recently, the term soft power has also taken its place in the business world. Rapid development of technology industry changed the consumer mindset. Nowadays customers can easily get necessary information about any products and make comparison due to the power of the Internet. Customer’s evaluation cycle has modified a lot; any potential buyer is able to make his decision for minutes or seconds. Lately ecommerce is growing fast, user penetration in 2018 hits 54.9% 2018 and is expected to reach 60.9% by 2022. Revenue in the ecommerce market amounts to 1,785,733 million dollars in 2018 (US$636,087m in 2018 is generated in China), when average revenue per user currently amounts to US$633.69 (The Statistical Portal, 2018). If your product is not attractive for the customer right now, it means you have lost your potential client forever. Retailers and brands realize that customer satisfaction is a short-term benefit when customer loyalty is the core value of company’s success that matters. That is why only soft power knows how to cope with that problem. Transparency, empathy, trust, loyalty, service, value for money and care & concern for one’s community are one of the main points which make a consumer be loyal to any brand. Branded products require a certain level of customer loyalty, expressed in the fact that consumers are more likely refuse to buy or postpone it, than agree to purchase unbranded counterpart. A brand is a trademark, but not every trademark is a brand, since only that brand becomes the brand and that trademark a sign that are highlighted by the public consciousness and secured in it. Some companies demonstrate their empathy, social intelligence and care a bit more than others and there are companies that appear to use force, deception and terror as business strategies. These days, as consumers become increasingly socially mindful of the products they buy, companies with less socially empathic reputations are being forced to re-evaluate the very basis of their business operations (Hall G, 2015). Customers love companies who show they care. In 2017 company «CustomerThermometr» conveyed research about the main reasons why customers choose to stay connected with their favorite brands. All of the top 5 reasons customers gave for feeling a connection with a brand are to do with caring. Caring about me, caring about the world, understanding me, being like me, being made to feel special. Brands are crucial in keeping connection and establish communication with their consumers. As we can see, soft power mostly concerns the emotional constituent of a brand (like personality, identity), as opposed to its functional part. Enlarging and developing connection with customers for brands is equally as important as developing the product or service proposed to them. With help of soft power tools, it’s far 7 cheaper, faster and simpler to do. A company can only develop this “soft power” by creating and strengthening two-way communication with them by consumers. Through this communication, it will be able to take into account individual requests of each. Thus, a modern organization there is a need to create information and communication structure, which turns into one of the links of the business process. The latest communication technologies facilitate and accelerate the process of interaction between people and increase labor productivity, create additional socio-economic effects. Speaking about communication, the core element of reaching any of target audiences is using broadcasting which is the highlight of competitive advantages of respective brands. It is trust that is the “soft power” that encourages and create confidence in it consumers to make a choice in favor of a product known reputable company. We see that soft power can create a favorable image for company which is serious about its performance and operates according to established communication with its clients when meeting their need and wants. What about role of global brands on a global scale? With huge soft power in the form of global brands, multinational corporations can make an enormous contribution to promoting a nation’s image. For example, a single company can often speak of its country: Japan is Sony, Germany is Mercedes, Sweden is IKEA, Finland is Nokia, and so on. IKEA's colors, yellow and blue, are the colors of the Swedish flag. Humorous ads feature Swedes, and almost every advertisement includes a reindeer as a reminder of the origin of the campaign. IKEA stores serve Swedish meatballs and sell books about Sweden. Stores incorporate Swedish culture and traditions. In this case corporate brand is considered to be a brand of the nation, it’s believed that any powerful brand is the ambassador for a country’s image in the world, hence a country’s soft power tool (Candace, 2012). In the book «Trading Identities» by Wally Olins was mentioned that firms should act like companies, whereas global companies, companies that function in foreign markets, represent a state within a state, so they have to take on different responsibilities. Company’s brands also have their obligations, if they produce goods or provide services which create a negative image of its country, this will also reflect in the perception of the brands originating from there, irrespective of their true quality. There is a so-called feedback, when a brand is associated with a country that enjoys a positive image, it will gain acceptance more easily. A quality cultural product and a number of powerful multinational brands are decisive in generating a long lasting effect in nation branding. Soft power and nation branding are two tightly related conceptions .Well-known international brands can have a huge impact on the consciousness and culture of consumers. Google, Apple, McDonald’s, Microsoft, clothes of different famous fashion brands become both 8 representatives of their countries of origin and create history by their own definitions of company missions and corporate culture. Quality products are the material embodiment of spiritual potential of country of its origin. Compared with Nye’s notion of soft power through public diplomacy, nation branding provides a more focused, culturally unbiased and more useful approach to creating international influence in the world. 4. METHODOLOGY By research methodology used for writing the article, it can be said that the it is mainly based on summing up all suitable methods and techniques used for collecting and processing empirical data and information, respectively to comparing, observing, sorting, and analyzing data. Based on the fact that both of examined concepts are hard to be judged due to the lack of exact statistic information, it is worthy saying that it is extremely difficult to evaluate both the effectiveness of "soft power" and brand influence. However this does not reduce the importance of studying this issue. In virtue of their nature, the phenomenon of the brand and soft power respectively is investigated in different ways. In this work, we use our own approach based on the following research methods used: observation and inference, combination of logical and historical, analysis and synthesis, comparative analyses etc. In the center of the documentary research addressed in the present article lie general elements belonging to global branding and country soft power strategy. Informational base of the present paper is represented by the research results, by the performed studies and by other editorial sources exhibited in periodicals. 4.1 SOFT POWER To assess the prospects of SPS implementation in order to increase the international competitiveness of countries from prospect of global branding concept, we will first analyze the results of international ratings of the respective direction. It is advisable to appeal to The Soft Power methodological tool developed by the Portland Strategic Advisory Service, which cooperates with governments, foundations and non-governmental organizations to effectively communicate with them in the global audience. "Soft Power" now combines over 75 indicators, including objective data and international surveys. If J. Nye defines culture, political ideals and politics as the three pillows of the soft power of the country, Portland's representatives, based on Nye's assumption, in addition to these three main areas, include more diversified statistics (Public Diplomacy, 2018). Objective data of soft power research consists of a number of different sources and is divided into the following: government, culture, global engagement, education, digital 9 technologies and entrepreneurship. Taking into account the information, we emphasize that among these indexes the achievements and the volume of global brands has its own importance for building soft power. The indexes as Enterprise sub-index and Digital subindex are believed to be most related to the influence of global brands on the image of the country in general. According to the methodology, this sub-indexes aim to capture the relative attractiveness of a country’s economic model in terms of its competitiveness, capacity for innovation, and ability to foster enterprise and commerce. Economic might is more associated with hard power, but a country’s economic attributes can make a significant contribution to its soft power as well. Core elements of a nation’s economy like ease of doing business, corruption levels, and start up costs for a new business all play a role in how a country is seen from outside. The Digital sub-index brings an important new component to the measure of soft power. The ways that technology has transformed everyday life over the last two decades is hard to over-exaggerate. Media, commerce, government, politics, and our daily social interaction have all changed with technology. The inclusion of a Digital sub-index aims to capture the extent to which countries have embraced technology, how well they are connected to the digital world, and their use of digital diplomacy through social media platforms (Public Diplomacy, 2018). Except objective data, there is subjective data which is measured. The polling provides data on international perceptions based on the most common "touch points" through which people interface with foreign countries. The survey consists of a series of questions translated into the main language of each country by native speakers, using numeric answering scale (0 to 10). Among the list of questions, two of them have direct connection with the performance of global brands: 1) perceptions of technology products of foreign countries; 2) perceptions of luxury goods produced by foreign countries. As we mentioned before, the global brands have power to form the consumer’s mind, so that they will transfer its attributes to the brands emerging from that specific territory. Soft Power Ranking calculates the level of favorability of foreign countries and we assume that the global brands have their own contribution to the final results. We will analyze the results of international ratings of the respective direction. 10 Figure 1. Year by year comparison of Soft Power Strategy by top 30 countries UP W A RD M O VE R DO W N W A R D M O V E R NO MO V E R NEW E NT RY R E- E N T R Y Note. Reprinted from «The Soft Power 30», 2018, A global ranking of Soft Power 2018, retrieved from: https://softpower30.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/The-Soft-Power-30-Report2018.pdf As we can see the top 5 list of countries with most successful Soft Power Strategy in 2018 consists of UK, France, Germany, USA and Japan respectively. The leading positions of UK, France and Germany is mostly explained by Engagement, Culture, Education l subindices, in particular spreading f their influence and cultivating soft power, through cultural and educational engagement. Independent from the government art, film, music, fashion, and sport continue to flourish in highly competitive global markets. Importantly, the UK had a major soft power event in 2018 the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle. Nearly two billion people around the world tuned in to watch the wedding, a testament to the royal family’s enduring appeal and international reach. France continues to find its greatest soft power strength in global engagement, due to its vast diplomatic network and Germany is the main player and maintaining power for European Union. 11 Speaking about the performance of USA in this ranking, we must admit that America is a home to some of the largest tech companies in the world, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, as well as numerous start-ups in Silicon Valley and tech hubs across the country. The US also saw an improved performance in the Enterprise subindex, a testament to its innovative culture. With the emergence of newer players such as Netflix, who have leveraged the intersection between media and tech, we are likely to see US culture, innovation, and technology continue to thrive for years to come. The household names such as Toyota and Sony, continue to serve as daily reminders of Japan’s pervasive influence worldwide. This is very much reflected in the polling results, where Japan performs consistently well across all categories (Public Diplomacy, 2018). Some of the countries listed above have bigger dependence on the role of global brands in their soft power strategy than others due to the possession of different resources which can make their soft power thrive. The biggest influence is observed by the brands which present technology industry or innovative sectors. 4.2 GLOBAL BRANDING In order to analyze global brands in terms of global influence, we turn to the Forbes rating for 2018. Forbes is one of the most influential and respected modern magazines, which publishes an objective assessment of the business environment and various ratings, including the rating of global brands that are popular throughout the world. This rating is based on the financial performance of each brand and highlights the information of a brand by country, industry, gains. Forbes rating also contains important information in terms of the financial costs of maintaining the “soft power” of brands, namely digital data on advertising budgets. Top - 100 Global Brands Ranking by Forbes, 2018 Table 1. № Brand Name Brand Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Apple Google Microsoft Facebook Amazon Coca-Cola Samsung Disney Toyota AT&T McDonald's GE Mercedes-Benz Intel Louis Vuitton Cisco IBM $182.8 B $132.1 B $104.9 B $94.8 B $70.9 B $57.3 B $47.6 B $47.5 B $44.7 B $41.9 B $41.4 B $37.2 B $34.4 B $34.1 B $33.6 B $32.4 B $32.1 B Brand Revenue $228.6 B $97.2 B $98.4 B $35.7 B $169.3 B $23.4 B $203.4 B $30.4 B $176.4 B $160.5 B $90.9 B $104.9 B $116.9 B $62.8 B $12.9 B $48.1 B $79.1 B Company Advertising $5.1 B $1.5 B $324 M $6.3 B $4 B $4.5 B $2.6 $3.8 B $3.8 B $533 M $1.4 B $5.4 B $209 M $1.4 B Countries Industry USA USA USA USA USA USA South Korea USA Japan USA USA USA Germany USA France USA USA Technology Technology Technology Technology Technology Beverages Technology Leisure Automotive Telecom Restaurants Diversified Automotive Technology Luxury Technology Technology 12 Table 1 (continued). 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 NIKE Verizon BMW Oracle Marlboro SAP Honda Budweiser Walmart Visa American Express Pepsi L'Oréal Nescafé Gillette The Home Depot Starbucks Hermes Paris Gucci Audi Accenture ESPN IKEA Frito-Lay Ford Wells Fargo UPS CVS Pharmacy ZARA H&M Siemens MasterCard HP J.P. Morgan HSBC Nestlé Fox Broadcasting Company Netflix Chevrolet Pampers Porsche Cartier Bank of America Red Bull eBay Sony Chase Citigroup Colgate Danone Adidas Lexus Nissan Rolex T-Mobile Kraft Corona Hyundai Santander BASF Lowe's Huawei Adobe FedEx Heineken Goldman Sachs Kellogg's Boeing Costco $32 B $31.4 B $31.4 B $30.8 B $26.6 B $26.2 B $25.5 B $25.5 B $24.9 B $24.5 B $23.1 B $18.4 B $17.2 B $17.1 B $17.1 B $16.4 B $16.2 B $15.3 B $14.9 B $14.8 B $14.8 B $14.6 B $14.5 B $14.4 B $14.1 B $13.5 B $13.3 B $13.2 B $13 B $13 B $12.8 B $12.4 B $12.4 B $11.9 B $11.9 B $11.7 B $11.7 B $11.5 B $11.5 B $11.4 B $11B $10.6 B $10.4 B $10.4 B $10.3 B $10.2 B $10.2 B $10.1 B $10 B $10 B $9.5 B $9.5 B $9.4 B $9.3 B $9 B $8.8 B $8.8 B $8.7 B $8.7 B $8.6 B $8.5 B $8.4 B $8.3 B $8.3 B $8.2 B $8.2 B $8.2 B $8.1 B $8 B $33.3 B $126 B $86.8 B $39.5 B $25.4 B $120.4 B $11.6 B $335.5 B $18.4 B $35.6 B $9.7 B $10.1 B $9.1 B $6.6 B $100.9 B $21.9 B $6 B $6.7 B $59.1 B 39.1 B $11.4 B $39.3 B $11.4 B $149.3 B $97.7 B $65.9 B $184.8 B $18.9 B $22.5 B $90 B $12.5 B $80.9 B $47.4 B $76.6 B $8.6 B $16.3 B $11.7 B $81 B $8.5 B $25.5 B $6.3 B $81.7 B $6.8 B $8.6 B $62.8 B $55.1 B $88 B $5.3 B $10.6 B $20.6 B $20.7 B $95.2 B $4.6 B $38.7 B $6.5 B $5.7 B $81.8 B $49.5 B $69.9 B $68.6 B $85.9 B $7.3 B $63.9 B $5.6 B $42.3 B $5.8 B $93.4 B $136 B $3.3 B $2.6 B $95 M $859 M $3.1 B $3.2 B $2.4 B $8 B $7.1 B $797 M $283 M $298 M $80 M $2.6 B $2.4 B $4.1 B $614 M $230 M $898 M $544 M $2.9 B $2.2 B $1.1 B $4.3 B $7.1 B $1.7 B $1.3 B $3.1 B $2.9 B $1.6 B $1.6 B $2.3 B $3.8 B $2.6 B $1.8 B $629 M $2.1 B $820 M $968 M $142 M $458 M $731 M - USA USA Germany USA USA Germany Japan USA USA USA USA USA France Switzerland USA USA USA France Italy Germany USA USA Sweden USA USA USA USA Spain Sweden Sweden Germany Usa Usa Usa UK Switzerland USA USA USA USA Germany France USA Austria USA Japan Japan USA USA France Germany Japan Japan Switzerland Germany USA Belgium South Korea Spain Germany USA China USA USA Netherlands USA USA USA USA Apparel Telecom Automotive Technology Tobacco Technology Automotive Alcohol Retail Financial Services Financial Services Beverages Consumer Packaged Goods Beverages Consumer Packaged Goods Retail Restaurants Luxury Luxury Automotive Business Services Media Retail Consumer Packaged Goods Automotive Financial Services Transportation Retail Retail Retail Diversified Financial Services Technology Financial Services Financial Services Consumer Packaged Goods Media Technology Automotive Consumer Packaged Goods Automotive Luxury Financial Services Beverages Technology Technology Financial Services Financial Services Consumer Packaged Goods Consumer Packaged Goods Apparel Automotive Automotive Luxury Telecom Consumer Packaged Goods Alcohol Automotive Financial Services Diversified Retail Technology Technology Transportation Alcohol Financial Services Consumer Packaged Goods Aerospace Retail 13 Table 1 (continued). 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Chanel Lancome Nivea Volkswagen LEGO Panasonic Philips RBC Allianz Uniqlo Walgreens PayPal Dell KFC Cumulative value $8 B $8 B $7.9 B $7.9 B $7.8 B $7.8 B $7.7 B $7.7 B $7.6 B $7.5 B $7.5 B $7.5 B $7.5 B $7.4 B $2.15 TN $5.6 B $5.3 B $4.7 B $99.6 B $5.1 B $68.4 B $26.8 B $37.4 B $37.4 B $13 B $84.7 B $13.1 B $76.8 B $24.5 B $5.6 TN $8 B $1.6 B $1 B $608 M $571 M $438 M $245 M $142,9 B* France France Germany Germany Denmark Japan Netherlands Canada Germany Japan USA USA USA USA Luxury Consumer Packaged Goods Consumer Packaged Goods Automotive Leisure Technology Diversified Financial Services Financial Services Apparel Retail Technology Technology Restaurants Note. Retrieved from: https://www.roberthalf.com.au/blog/employers/3-awesome-csr-initiativestop-tech-companies Figure 2. The geographical structure of global brands leaders in 2018 3 2 2 1 3 7 54 8 12 USA Germany Japan France Switzerland Sweden Korea Netherlands Spain UK Denmark Austria Belgium China Canada Italy The total advertising costs of 63 global brands are about 142,9 billion dollars. The actual costs are a few times higher, as some companies do not disclose the information about the amount of money used for advertising purpose. The total value of the global brands of the Forbes rating for 2018, according to the publication, reaches 2,15 trillion dollars, and the profit generated by them is 5.6 trillion dollars. The costs listed above prove that brands put efforts to maintain their globality, success and "soft power". The 100 most expensive brands cover 16 countries of origin, divided into 20 sectors of the economy: consumer goods, beverages, alcohol, tobacco, restaurants, diversified business, automotive, heavy engineering, oil and gas sector, aerospace, luxury goods, entertainment, retail, clothing, technology, communications, media, financial services, transportation services, business services. 20% of the companies offered in this rating list operate in the technology industry, 15 out of 20 are represented by American brands. At least one American company is represented in each of the industry listed in the rating. 14 Brands from the USA form more than half of the list – 54 out of 100, then follow: Germany - 12, Japan – 8, France -7 , Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland - 3, South Korea, Netherlands, Spain - 2 global brands each; UK, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, China, Canada, Italy- 1 brand respectively. Thus one hundred of the most expensive and successful global brands belong only to 16 countries of the world, which means that these countries unique influence and additional sources of “soft” strategy to the rest of the world. 5. RESULTS In order to determine if there is any connection between the status of the brand in the world and the country it represents, it makes sense to combine the indicators of two ratings, namely the Forbes rating and the Soft Power rating for 2018. Since global brands are mainly represented by 16 countries from around the world, we decided to analyze their positions in the Soft Power 30 Rating. The countries from Forbes Ranking are listed in descending order based on the quantity of brands each country possesses when Soft Power General represents the place of each country in top 30. Table 2. The comparison table of lead countries ranking in Forbes and Soft Power 30 № in Forbes Forbes ranking Soft Power General Ranking 2018 № in Soft Power 30 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 USA Germany Japan France Switzerland Sweden Korea Netherlands Spain UK Denmark Austria Belgium China Canada Italy UK France Germany USA Japan Canada Switzerland Sweden Netherlands Denmark Italy Spain Belgium Austria Korea China 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 14 16 17 20 27 In particular, in table1it is indicated that all of the leading global brands distributed by country by Forbes were identified in Soft Power General Rating. Each representative, to be exact, 16 countries of 30, took the leading positions and entered top 30 in terms of the "Soft Power 2018" ranking. Relying on information we obtained, 100% of countries covered in brand value evaluation are considered to be the most powerful «soft» countries. In our opinion, this analysis is proof of the importance of the contribution of global brands to the 15 development of "soft power" as a strategy and in overall determining of the impact of countries through the usage "soft" tools. Hence we assume that global branding, along with others tools of soft power, creates opportunities for fair competition between countries for a place in the global arena. VIII. GLOBAL BRANDS, SOFT POWER AND CSR The 21st century makes its own changes in aspects of the development of the global economy, which is reflected in consumer behavior and the company's strategy as a whole. It is important to note that the buyer fulfills his requirements for the product offered by the seller with the pass of time. A recent Cone Communications survey found that 87% of consumers are apt to purchase a product if the company supports something it cares about. People began expecting companies to address social problems which are linked to what the produce and how they sell their product. Consumers are about engaging with brands which are able to make differences and answer the issues people concern about. Hence it has a tight connection with Corporate Strategy Responsibility or CSR. CSR is usually associated with big companies, not small businesses, as bigger ones have all the opportunities to make changes. Consumers don’t demand that local companies to cope with global warming, but they expect global giants like Google, Shell and others to contribute to the world sustainability. Corporate responsibility is a chance to show the world that a company cares about environmental and social problems while building loyalty among the consumers. Brand loyalty is directly connected with establishing of stable client base that purchase more often, make your business profitable and advocates for your brand. As customers, we understand that people make a particular purchase because they like the way that purchase makes them feel. The findings by Ching-Wei Ho showed that when consumers evaluate whether to patronize a retailer again, and pay a premium price for a CSR retailer, the path of CSR associations via C-R love play a more important role than other paths. Therefore, at the store level and the product level, managers should focus on developing their retailer’s CSR activities, with regard to the protection of the consumers’ society, and help customers who shop at their store recognize who they are as people, to satisfy self-definitional and selfexpressive needs, ultimately achieving re-patronage of the store and willingness to pay for premium priced products. A strategically developed CSR program is a way to increase brand’s authority among consumers and a possible way to establish an emotional connection between the customer and company (Ching-Wei Ho, 2017). Regarding to the CSR as a tool of creating attractiveness and making consumers voluntary contribute to a particular brand, we can also speak of Corporate Responsibility as an instrument of Soft Power Strategy whether it 16 is the power on the framework of country’s or company’s image. Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2018 Report mentions: “Organizations are no longer assessed based only on traditional metrics such as financial performance, or even the quality of their products or services. Rather, organizations today are increasingly judged on the basis of their relationships with their workers, their customers, and their communities, as well as their impact on society at large—transforming them from business enterprises into social enterprises.” According to Cone Global CSR Study 2015: “Global consumers consider a company’s CSR commitments when they look to which companies they want doing business in their communities (84%), where to seek employment (79%) and what investments to make (67%).” “52% of consumers assume a company is not acting responsibly until they see or hear evidence to prove otherwise. This only further demonstrates that companies should not take anything for granted. Organizations must put key CSR efforts front and center through communication, or else more than half of consumers globally will assume the worst. An example of successful CSR campaign is Google’s “doing good”. According to Forbes Ranking, Google is the second most valuable brand in the world in 2018. Google has CSR at the centre of their corporate principles, and they also have an active corporate philanthropy program to boot. From a business perspective, there’s Google Green and Google Energy, which have committed more than $1 billion towards renewable energy projects. The company also claims that it uses only 50 per cent of the energy of most other data centres. Except that, the company claims that it is able to deliver socially-beneficial technologies such as Google Person Finder, which helps reconnect people in the wake of major disasters. CSR has a bigger power if it’s directly connected to the corporate brand. Brands can be influential in prospects of making differences in understanding how to use products, what motivations and values impact this use. All of the three concepts, CSR, global brands and soft power, attempt to improve their relationship with the public using all the possible methods to create an attractive image. This is why they have the similar roots and purposes and this is what unites and complements three of them. CONCLUSION In the late 1980s, American political scientist Joseph Nye introduced the term soft power as the ability of a country to persuade others to do what they do not want without force or coercion. Lately this concept turned into the strategy and found its explanation in the development of global economical and social processes. As stated in this article, with such tools as a global brand, soft power acquires new forms of development, which plays a certain role in creating a country's reputation as of a 17 powerful and independent structure. Multinational companies can play a key role in promoting a nations image. Such powerful brands are the contributors to a country’s economic and politic stability as their impact isn’t anyhow limited and can reach the representatives of different cultures and nations. Each country uses the advantages of soft power differently, as each has diverse resources that can enable the increasing of its chances of gaining recognition from the world community. This article presented an approach that connects the concept of the existence of global brands and their possible impact on the implementation of the soft power strategy of a country. Soft power and global brands are two closely linked concepts, as all countries which are one of the most successful within the framework of using the advantages of the strategy of soft power, are leaders in the number of the most influential global brands in the world. Based on that fact, we also can assume that the strategy of soft power, as well as the concept of a global brand, can be maintained only by developed countries, since they have more resources and opportunities to support their image with help of such a method of competition as soft power. In closing, several important key areas for further research are identified which are not only suggested by the findings but also address limitations inherent in the research presented in the course of this thesis. Because of the unique nature of two concepts, global brands and soft power strategy, the findings should be treated with caution. As there is no precise statistical information according to this topic, the results we have are based on the assumption that there is a positive correlation between the success of the global brand as well as the positive image of the country. Further research should investigate various ways to proof the link between these ideas. 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