How to Brand an International Organization: NATO Case Study

Branding products and companies has always been associated with private enterprises and less, if ever, with international intergovernmental organizations. International organizations now have a long history behind them, a history often marked by contradictory events. In the last decade the international organizations developed their own public relations department in an attempt to communicate promptly and transmit the general audience their version of reality. Having this in mind we will try to briefly present in the current work the main reasons why we believe that the international organizations, NATO in particular, have started to see themselves as brand and to create a so called “commercial identity” by becoming a brand. By applying the conceptual and analytical framework used in analyzing the marketing strategies of the private companies we will try to see whether NATO is about to become a brand. Our starting point will be a 2008 statement of Francois Bureau, deputy general sec...