Developing Culinary Nation Branding Strategy for Vietnam

This research aims to learn the Vietnamese cuisine brand abroad and to find the nation branding strategy for a country/nation based on its prominent national characteristics, in which cuisine is proposed to become one of the nation brands of Vietnam. The country selected in this paper is Vietnam and the “culinary nation brand” is the brand-oriented for Vietnam due to its culinary advantages. The paper also provides the benefits of culinary nation branding to tourism. The research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, conducting online surveys to determine the level of cuisine brand identity, studying the available factors affecting the branding such as restaurants, festivals, promoting activities for national cuisine. The qualitative analysis includes Descriptive Statistics and Linear Regression by SPSS software. The models in marketing, branding strategy and nation brand model are applied in the research process. The key findings indicate that the “culinary nation brand” is profitable for the purpose of Vietnam's nation branding, in which the government plays a vital role as the strategic planner, policymaker and requires the participation of other sectors of society in implementing. Target audience is foreign publics abroad and the proposed strategy is using public diplomacy, gastro diplomacy. The main contributions of the research include theoretical implication - outlining the elements of a culinary nation brand and culinary nation branding model; and practical implication - proposing strategies of developing culinary nation brand for Vietnam authorities, indicate the benefits of culinary nation brand and the responsibilities of stakeholders, especially private sectors such as restaurant business, food product exporters, service and tourism. Keywords: Nation branding, Cuisine, Gastro diplomacy, Tourism, Vietnam