Why Nokia, Lego and Bang & Olufsen boost Sweden's reputation.

• Sweden 10th ‘most admired country globally’
• Swedish brands climb in global ranking

Sweden is one of the most admired places in the world, according to a new nation branding survey. But the ranking is not only the result of Swedish attributes.

“Sweden’s image is so good, that anything good or remarkable that anybody does in Denmark or Finland or Norway or Iceland automatically accrues to Sweden's benefit: it's a sort of feudal reputation tax”, policy advisor and nation branding expert Simon Anholt told The Swedish Wire.

Sweden is famous for a number of multinational brands, such as Ikea, H&M and Volvo. But the country also obtains image value from a number of other Nordic brands; actually more than the real countries of origin, according to his research.

Danish Bang & Olufsen, Lego and Carlsberg and Finland’s Nokia all add 10 cents of image value to their real countries of origin – and 90 cents to Sweden.

“Sweden is certainly one of the most admired countries on the planet: it's the only Nordic country that nobody confuses with any of the others, and it ranks well above the others”, Simon Anholt said.

Sweden came in at number ten in an annual nation brand ranking published Monday, conducted by public affairs agency GfK Roper and Simon Anholt.