Sail or not to sail? : How to use a ship as an event marketing tool to promote a country

Abstract: Today’s globalization has led to a much higher degree of competition between countries to obtain attention, trust and respect from investors, tourists and consumers as well as media. A powerful and positive brand is therefore an important advantage in the competition. Countries need to make themselves heard in order to stand out from the competition, and by using event marketing a country can be able to meet the public in a different way. One unique way is by using a ship as an event marketing tool to promote a country. The main problem of this study is therefore how a ship as an event can work as a marketing tool in terms of branding/promoting a country. Methodologically, a qualitative, single case study approach was used and interviews have been undertaken with professionals in the field of nation branding or/and that have a relation to The Swedish Ship Götheborg and its expedition to China, which has been our case of focus. The findings indicate that there is a need for clear and realistic objectives which are congruent in every part of the event marketing organization in order to promote a country. Using a ship is also a unique way of performing event marketing and therefore it is a good way of differentiate and expose a country, as well as it has an extended possibility to place market a country abroad and not just at home. This is due to that a ship has the ability to move all around the world. Our conclusions of how a ship as an event can work as a marketing tool in terms of branding/promoting a country resulted in a model which we created for nation branding organizations to consider in order for the event marketing to turn out successful. Due to the increasing competition among countries to obtain attention, the need for an extraordinary way of standing out is crucial. We believe that not only a ship, but all means of transport can be used as a form of event marketing with the purpose of promoting a country, since it is an unusual approach and has the mobile ability to reach a bigger audience all around the world. Consequently, we felt the need for a new term to be coined, namely Mobile Event Marketing. Our recommendations are therefore aimed at nation branding organizations that want to use a mobile event to market their country.