Brand "Spain", a burden for Barcelona

**Comte Arnau** · 12-16-2011, 12:59 PM

Barcelona has an overall positive image in the world, linked to innovation and creativity, but the association of the city with Spain undermines that image. The brand 'Spain' is internationally associated with tourism, sun and beaches, and this is a burden for the efforts of the city to stand out in areas like culture, finances, technology and luxury.

This has been revealed by two studies about the position of Barcelona and Catalonia in the world presented in the Esade Brand Institute, based on more than 2,700 surveys to nine countries from around the world in a procedure recognized by the scientific community:

3 European: France, Germany, the UK.
3 American: the USA, Mexico, Brazil.
3 Asian: Japan, China and India.

According to professor Oroval, an association of Barcelona with Catalonia could fix that 'clash of brands'. The main obstacle is the little knowledge of tourists about Catalonia. Only 5.6% of tourists visiting Barcelona associated the city with Catalonia. Most had things like bullfights, siestas and sangria in their popular imagery. This association was only made by 3.2% of people who had not visited it. Only 2.2% of visitors associated the Catalan language with Barcelona (and only 1% of non-visitors). Many tourists believed Catalan to be a dialect of Spanish.

This poor knowledge about the brand 'Catalonia' make some disagree with this association of the city with Catalonia, as the latter could be considered a 'no-brand', while the brand 'Barcelona' stands among the best ones for a European city.