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The risks of nation branding as crisis response: A case study of how the Danish government turned the Cartoon Crisis into a struggle with Globalization

Rasmussen, Rasmus K. and Merkelsen, Henrik LU (2014) In Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 10. p.230-248
Abstract
In this article, we investigate the limitations of organization-centric

models for crisis communication in handling place crises. Two distinct types of place crisis are identified as what we respectively term the ‘sudden’ and the ‘ongoing’ type. We point out that place branding traditionally has been used to handle the latter type. We then demonstrate how the inspiration from corporate communication in place branding has led to a fixation on reputation, which becomes salient when place branding is used as crisis communication in sudden crisis. Here the corporate inspiration tends to rule out alternative strategies for handling crises based on ‘societal models’. Through a case study of Denmark’s so-called Cartoon Crisis we... (More)
In this article, we investigate the limitations of organization-centric

models for crisis communication in handling place crises. Two distinct types of place crisis are identified as what we respectively term the ‘sudden’ and the ‘ongoing’ type. We point out that place branding traditionally has been used to handle the latter type. We then demonstrate how the inspiration from corporate communication in place branding has led to a fixation on reputation, which becomes salient when place branding is used as crisis communication in sudden crisis. Here the corporate inspiration tends to rule out alternative strategies for handling crises based on ‘societal models’. Through a case study of Denmark’s so-called Cartoon Crisis we demonstrate how crisis communication falls short of coping aptly with the complexity of the crisis due to the branding-inspired translation from ‘sudden’ to ‘ongoing’ crisis. We thus argue that the Danish government’s solution in nation branding aimed at the reputational implications failed to address the immediate consequences of the crisis vis-à-vis national security and exports. And that this solution in turn created the reputation as additional risk. We conclude that a broader societal perspective on crises therefore is needed in the emerging academic literature on place crisis communication. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy
volume
10
pages
230 - 248
publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
external identifiers
  • scopus:84906252327
ISSN
1751-8040
DOI
10.1057/pb.2014.13
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a1323398-1b61-4ec8-9bc5-65b3b2fb57f1 (old id 5336192)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:44:18
date last changed
2022-01-26 02:04:01
@article{a1323398-1b61-4ec8-9bc5-65b3b2fb57f1,
  abstract     = {{In this article, we investigate the limitations of organization-centric<br/><br>
models for crisis communication in handling place crises. Two distinct types of place crisis are identified as what we respectively term the ‘sudden’ and the ‘ongoing’ type. We point out that place branding traditionally has been used to handle the latter type. We then demonstrate how the inspiration from corporate communication in place branding has led to a fixation on reputation, which becomes salient when place branding is used as crisis communication in sudden crisis. Here the corporate inspiration tends to rule out alternative strategies for handling crises based on ‘societal models’. Through a case study of Denmark’s so-called Cartoon Crisis we demonstrate how crisis communication falls short of coping aptly with the complexity of the crisis due to the branding-inspired translation from ‘sudden’ to ‘ongoing’ crisis. We thus argue that the Danish government’s solution in nation branding aimed at the reputational implications failed to address the immediate consequences of the crisis vis-à-vis national security and exports. And that this solution in turn created the reputation as additional risk. We conclude that a broader societal perspective on crises therefore is needed in the emerging academic literature on place crisis communication.}},
  author       = {{Rasmussen, Rasmus K. and Merkelsen, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{1751-8040}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{230--248}},
  publisher    = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
  series       = {{Place Branding and Public Diplomacy}},
  title        = {{The risks of nation branding as crisis response: A case study of how the Danish government turned the Cartoon Crisis into a struggle with Globalization}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/pb.2014.13}},
  doi          = {{10.1057/pb.2014.13}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}