German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

Steffen Wippel

Branding the Middle East: Communication Strategies and Image Building from Qom to Casablanca

Studies on Modern Orient | De Gruyter Open Ltd. | 2023

Abstract

The new edited volume “Branding the Middle East” investigates place, product, and personal branding in the Middle East and North Africa, including some studies from adjacent regions and the wider Islamicate world. While branding in the Western world and many emerging economies has been meticulously analysed, the book fills an important gap in the research on MENA countries. The diversity of contributors from different regional and disciplinary backgrounds allows for a variety of research questions, perspectives, and approaches to the complex and, over the last two decades, regionally soaring branding phenomenon. Going beyond the mere presentation of logos and slogans, the chapters critically analyse processes of strategic communication and image-building under the general conditions of globalisation, neoliberalisation, and postmodernisation and, in a regional perspective, of lasting authoritarian rule and increasing endeavours for “worlding.” In particular, the authors look at the multiple actors involved in branding activities, their interests and motives, and examine the tools, channels, and forms of branding. There is a strong interest in the entanglement of different spatial scales and the (in)consistencies of communication measures. Attention is paid to the reconfiguration of certain images over time, to the positioning of objects of branding in time and space, and to related geopolitical contexts. Historical case studies supplement the focus on contemporary branding efforts.

Regionalinstitute

GIGA Institut für Nahost-Studien

Forschungsschwerpunkte

Politische Verantwortlichkeit und Partizipation

Edition

Edition Klaus Schwarz

Reihe

Studies on Modern Orient

Reihenband

Seitenumfang

660

Verlag

De Gruyter Open Ltd.

Jahrgang/Band

Link

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110741100/html

ISBN

978-3-11-074062-2

978-3-11-074110-0

978-3-11-074115-5

Erscheinungsort

Berlin

Link

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110741100/pdf

Dr. Steffen Wippel

Research Fellow

[email protected]

Studies on Modern Orient | 10.2023

Branding the Middle East: A Review of Regional Manifestations of a Global Phenomenon

This chapter gives an overview of empirical developments, from product and personal branding to a tour d’horizon of place branding, in the MENA region, starting from its hotspot along the Arab side of the Gulf, through West Asia and the Maghreb, to the region’s peripheries.

Dr. Steffen Wippel

Research Fellow

Studies on Modern Orient | 10.2023

Branding as a Global Phenomenon: From Theory to Practice and Vice Versa

This chapter explores general theoretical and conceptual approaches to branding, which serve as the broader framework for the edited volume. It includes a passage through the global, mostly Western, history of branding, a clarification of terminology, and the global macro-contexts in which contemporary branding takes place.

Dr. Steffen Wippel

Research Fellow

Studies on Modern Orient | 10.2023

The Multilevel Branding of Tangier at Temporal and Spatial Interfaces

This chapter points to the multi-scalar aspects of place making. It is interested in how a wide range of actors at different levels contribute to the construction of brands for Tangier and specific places in it. Special attention is directed to how strategic communication positions the city in space and time.