Building the EU's Identity: A Brand Management Approach.

One of the most crucial topics among the promoters of EU integration at present is that of the definition of the EU's identity. Communicators from EU institutions are striving to reach out to EU citizens and to gain their support. Politicians have also realized that promoting Europe both internally among its citizens and outside its boundaries is a critical issue that needs special management. Communication which does not appropriately reach its target audience causes severe problems in the projection of communication messages and results in an incoherent EU image. The Lisbon Treaty has further strengthened the EU as a unique internal and external entity and provides a basis for a solid definition of its identity. This paper deals with the issue of identity in a special and as yet barely explored way, i.e. the building of identity through the use of a brand management approach. It presents theoretical research into existing branding techniques and models for building identity and provides an integrative analysis resulting in the author's proposal that there is an urgent need to employ such techniques in building the EU identity. The success of destination branding has provided reliable evidence that such an approach can lead to a successful branding of the EU, starting with identity building. By building an identity for the EU and treating the EU as a unique brand entity, valuable ground will be established for the preparation of targeted, successful and widely accepted communication strategies for EU institutions. These in turn will help in the creation of a desirable image for the EU, one reflecting its rich and unique identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]