During the coming weeks, we will present a selection of our favourite pages from the Next Nature book. This week, after nation branding, the brand nation.
Entering the store or restaurant of a multinational corporation is like entering a country. The locals all wear a national uniform, greet you in the same language, and serve you an ethnic meal. Any nods to local culture – the McArabia, the Croque McDo, the McRice – are insignificant compared to the consistency of the brand experience. Any McDonald’s, be it in Manila or Moscow, is a sovereign embassy from the same corporate homeland. They exist in the ‘brand space,’ a place as much a state of mind as a physical location. Travelers often visit a corporate outpost to feel ‘at home,’ though they are homesick for the brand, not for their own country. One day, a Starbucks employee may come up to you and ask for your visa while you plug in your laptop and wait to buy a latte.
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Featured here are pages 426-427 from the book Next Nature: Nature Changes Along with Us. More information about the book can be found here.
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