COUNTRY POSITIONING WITH ICT -A CASE STUDY OF “E-STONIA”1

Arpad Papp-Vary; Dragan Ilic

Authors

Arpad Papp-Vary Tourism and Business Faculty, Head of the Marketing Institute, Budapest Metropolitan University, Budapest, Hungary
Dragan Ilic Faculty of Economics and Engineering Management in Novi Sad, University Business Academy, Serbia

Keywords:

country branding, marketing, positioning, ICT, Estonia, case study

Abstract

Several country branding organizations have been established over the last few years, and such organizations have been created in almost all countries. Although a lot of countries have started to brand themselves around the world, only a few of them have achieved breakthrough success. The essence of branding is distinction, but only a few countries have managed to actually position themselves, and present the features that distinguish them from others. However, there are some good examples. One of these countries is Estonia which in the early 2000s decided to become an “e-country”, i.e. a digital society. The leaders of the country even considered changing the name to E-stonia. Although the official name of the country remained the same, and the hyphen was not included in the English name, that ”E” has become a dominant factor in people’s life: essentially all communication and developments are connected with electronics and information technology. As surprising as it may seem, there is also a chance that the concept will enable the country to increase the number of its residents to 10 million within a decade (compared to the current population of 1.3 million).

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