By Tuba Sahin and Dilara Zengin

ANKARA

If Turkey develops a branding strategy and deploys its sources effectively, it could further improve its national brand value even though its GDP remains stable, the managing director of Brand Finance Turkey said Wednesday.

Turkey became the 24th most valuable nation brand in the world in 2017, up from 26 last year, according to an annual report published recently by Brand Finance, a leading independent valuation and strategy consultancy.

Turkey's brand value grew 20 percent on 2016, reaching $570 billion, the Nation Brands 2017 report said.

Brand Finance Turkey's Muhterem Ilguner told Anadolu Agency that the ranking aimed to raise countries' awareness of branding as well as encouraging them to enhance their reputation and prosperity through contributing to their brand value with various goods and services.

Ilguner said that a country's nation brand strength was determined by its performance across three key categories including goods and services, investment and society, and graded over 100.

"Considering this study, we should hope Turkey to reach or even exceed the average of OECD countries through enhancing its indicators. And thus Turkey can move further up the list," he said.

"Turkey has the opportunity to be a more valuable brand with the help of its strong economic growth performance," he added.

The annual report said that Turkey’s national quality mark program TURQUALITY® was aiming to reach a $500 billion export volume by 2023, referring to Turkey's vision for the centennial anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.

The country has set specific goals and targets for the year 2023 that include major improvements in the economy, energy, health care, and transportation.

"The Turkish government has been investing in R&D, innovation, design, and branding to improve global competitiveness and to boost exports to reach the target," the report said.

U.S continues to dominate list

The United States remained the most valuable nation brand in the world with a value of $21.1 trillion, according to Nation Brands 2017.

The report added, however, that "the meagre growth of 2 percent year-on-year is putting its dominance at risk in the long run".

U.S. was followed by China and Germany, with a national brand value of $10.2 trillion and $7.1 trillion, respectively.

China was the fastest growing nation brand of the year in absolute terms, with a rise of over $3.1 trillion compared to last year, the report said.

"This figure is equal to the entire nation brand value of the United Kingdom, which illustrates just by how much China is outpacing other countries."

The report said that Iceland was the best performing country with its brand value soaring 83 percent over last year. It noted that the country’s "booming" tourism industry was expanding its share of GDP at the expense of the traditionally dominant fishing sector.

"Thanks to the hit television show, Game of Thrones, which films most of its winter scenes in Iceland, the country has seen a record 1.8 million foreign visitors in 2016, up 40 percent from 2015," it said.

The report revealed that although the Greek Cypriot administration was the second best performing nation brand of the year, with an annual rise of 57 percent, it came last on the list of 100 most valuable nation brands.