About NationBrandResearch

Dr. Samer ElHajjar is an international advisor and thought leader in destination marketing, nation branding, and soft power strategy, helping governments and tourism authorities compete for global attention, investment, talent, and cultural influence.

As a Senior Lecturer of Marketing at the National University of Singapore (NUS Business School), he blends academic depth with practical strategy, supporting ministries, tourism boards, sovereign entities, and multinational companies across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. His consulting work focuses on designing brand positioning strategies, reshaping destination narratives, evaluating national competitiveness, and guiding countries through digital-era reputation challenges.

He is the creator of the National Brand Radar, a groundbreaking framework that evaluates a country's perceptual and performance-based brand maturity. He is deeply active in executive education, designing and delivering both customized and open-enrollment programs in strategic management, marketing strategy, digital marketing, and business planning. He has trained senior leaders and teams from Microsoft, Google, Sony, Samsung, Accenture, Singapore Airlines, and other global organizations.

Beyond academia, he is a board member, advisor, and angel investor, with start-up engagements in Singapore and the U.K. He has led and contributed to consulting projects for organizations such as UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)—supporting missions in national branding, destination strategy, digital transformation, and strategic communications.

A sought-after keynote speaker and public voice, Dr. ElHajjar has been invited to speak at platforms including Microsoft, the University of Oxford, the University of Pennsylvania, ESCP Business School, and Columbia University. As a frequent media commentator, his insights have appeared in leading outlets including CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC, Fortune, The Straits Times, South China Morning Post, CNA, Insider, and Today, positioning him as one of the region's most visible experts at the intersection of marketing, national identity, AI disruption, and global competitiveness.

Professor Niraj Dawar is a leading expert on consumer and market-based sources of competitive advantage. His research explores how firms' competitive advantage is anchored in consumer behavior. Currently, he focuses on the impact of technology on brands, and consumers' interactions with business.

He is the author of the best-selling book TILT: Shifting Your Strategy From Products to Customers, published by the Harvard Business Review Press, winner of the Strategy & Business Business Book of the Year Award. Professor Dawar's seminal Harvard Business Review articles flesh out the strategic implications of marketing actions such as Marketing Strategy, Competitive Strategy, Brand Positioning and AI-based Customer Interactions.

His research publications have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Harvard Business Review, M.I.T. Sloan Management Review, and many others, and won several awards, including the Long Term Impact Award presented by the European Marketing Academy.

Prof. Dawar has served on the faculty at INSEAD in France and Singapore, Ivey in Canada, and as a Visiting Scholar and Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as the William Davidson Visiting Research Professor at the University of Michigan, and as Visiting Professor at IMD in Switzerland, the Vlerick School in Belgium and the Melbourne Business School in Australia.

He works as a strategy advisor and facilitator for senior management teams in multinationals and startups around the world, with extensive experience across Europe, North America and Asia. He has worked extensively with companies including Algorithmics, BMW, Cadbury-Schweppes, HSBC, Microsoft, Manulife Financial, McCain Foods, TCS, L'Oreal, and many others. Currently, he is principal at the Brand Strategy Group and GeoStrategix.