Georgia’s political brand in the European Union: building the political product and the political brand

We live in a world full of brands, where the names, symbols, and logos of big corporations, such as McDonald’s, Adidas, and Coca-Cola are extremely recognizable. Nowadays, in the era of globalization, the product development and marketing strategies that were the domain of private companies and corporations are being taken over by the public sector. This unusual exchange of roles causes the state to enter the branding space, and to create an offer that includes the goods and services of national businesses, government, and non-governmental organizations, and also to create a brand. The brand of a state consists of three equal components: a national brand, country brand, and political brand.
Georgia is a “model democratic state” in the South Caucasus, which cooperates consistently with the European Union. The multi-level specificity of this state and the implemented model of systemic transformation, directed the foreign policy and created the state brand towards the West.
The aim of the paper is to present the construction of one of the components of a state brand, the political brand, and to analyze the strategy of political branding in Georgia’s foreign policy created towards the European Union. The author will answer the question of how the political, and economic institutions of Georgia are building the political brand.

W niniejszym artykule analizuję polskie partie polityczne, wykorzystując podejście political branding, które pozwala opisywać i wyjaśniać różnego rodzaju wybory konsumenckie. Głównym elementem tego podejścia jest marka polityczna: zestaw doświadczeń, uczuć, obrazów, kwestii, symboli, które odzwierciedlają ogólny klimat towarzyszący poszczególnym partiom, wykorzystywany do oceniania i podejmowania decyzji, w tym decyzji wyborczej. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest pogłębienie wiedzy na temat marek polskich partii politycznych. Interesuje mnie, jak Polacy postrzegają polskie partie polityczne: jakie cechy i wartości im przypisują, jakie są ich silne i słabe strony, co wyróżnia poszczególne partie na tle innych ugrupowań? W tym celu, wykorzystując dane jakościowe, tworzę mentalne mapy skojarzeń, jakie Polacy przypisują poszczególnym partiom.

The Face of Solidarity and Reconciliation? Emotions and nonverbal communication in Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime addresses to the Polish audience

President V. Zelensky’s international popularity and sympathy resulted from his empathetic image as the nation’s speaker after the Russian aggression in February 2022. The novel application of technology helped him communicate with foreign audiences and receive international military, political, economic, and humanitarian support, strengthening the anti-Russian alliance. Poland was an essential partner in Zelensky’s strategy as Poles hosted millions of Ukrainian war refugees, marking the Polish society as a core target group of his communication. The paper presents the results of automated coding (FaceReader 9, general model, 30 fps) of the Ukrainian President’s facial expressions of emotions in three speeches addressed to the Polish audience after February 2022, comparing them with the results of a study on Zelensky’s 73 international addresses in the first year of the war. The study investigates differences in nonverbal targeting of Poles and other audiences, providing detailed profiles of analyzed speeches. The results suggest that the stage of the conflict primarily regulated his nonverbal communication, and then it was adapted to the targeted audience. (1) Zelensky increased emotional expressiveness in communication with the Poles, signaling all three dominant emotions (sadness, anger, and disgust). (2) The intensity of disgust had a reverse pattern than in the general sample, and it was reduced with time and replaced by more arousing anger. (3) The Ukrainian President significantly stronger displayed fear in his speeches to the Polish audience. The differences in nonverbal dynamics explain a reduced involvement of Polish society in helping Ukraine, as Zelensky’s initial empathetic image was replaced with a more aggressive style of wartime leadership.